News

A Foundation for Growth

The long-anticipated dormitory construction project at Saidi is finally taking shape! This new facility will, God willing, provide much-needed living space for Bible training, conferences, and visiting volunteers — strengthening the ministry’s capacity to enlighten, encourage and empower believers across Malawi.

Early Challenges and Unexpected Blessings

As the work began, it quickly became clear that extensive site levelling would be needed before any foundations could be dug.
In God’s providence, we were able to hire a back-hoe loader and tipper lorry — no small achievement in a country where such machinery is scarce and often out of service.

These machines saved weeks, maybe months, of manual work and allowed the team to prepare the site properly and safely for the building’s footprint.

Delays and Determination

Just as things were ready to move forward, Malawi faced a nationwide fuel shortage that delayed the delivery of 600 bags of cement.
When the long-awaited load finally arrived, the team offloaded every single bag by hand — a remarkable picture of perseverance and teamwork.

The foundations, marked carefully by hand and dug with shovels and pickaxes, began to take form soon after.
Our recently arrived petrol-powered cement mixer, sent from Canada earlier this year, has already proven invaluable in easing the heavy labour of mixing concrete under the tropical sun.

Progress so far

Progress and Hope

With most of the foundation trenches complete, the team is now preparing to pour the concrete floors — hopefully during Stephen’s upcoming visit later this month.
This milestone will mark the end of the groundwork phase and open the way for blockwork to begin.

More Than a Building

Each brick and beam represents faith in the Lord’s provision.
The dormitory will serve as a vital step toward expanding SALT’s capacity to train, host and equip Gospel workers who will take the message of Christ throughout Malawi and beyond.

We are profoundly grateful for every person who has prayed, given, or laboured toward this vision.

“Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.”
— Psalm 127 : 1

Please continue to pray for safety, steady progress, and provision as this exciting next phase unfolds. 🙏

Pray

Please give thanks and pray as work re-starts on the dormitory construction project at Saidi. We had expected to be much further along at this stage, but an order of 30 Tons of cement was delayed by over a month due to the ongoing economic problems in Malawi. This meant the work of pouring foundations was delayed by several weeks.

Pray for the Lord’s hand in every detail of this project – not least that He will richly bless this step of faith to the spiritual upbuilding of many future Malawian evangelists, elders and Bible teachers.

Pray

Please pray for the project to construct a 80-bed dormitory at Saidi – now underway.

Site clearance and levelling was substantially completed during Stephen’s recent visit, and the architect and builders are marking out the site today (Monday) to begin digging the footings.

We are very enthusiastic as we take this step of faith, as the dormitory will greatly enhance our ability to hold larger and more frequent Bible teaching events.

Pray for Jackson (Architect) and Goodson, who has the burden of responsibility to oversee the construction team.

(You can read about the project here.)

Things really began to move at pace when the tipper arrived on Thursday morning. That was until the digger got a puncture at lunch time – 3 hours lost!

How do you move 2500 tons of earth? One bucket-load at a time.

It would be lovely to have the luxury for heavy earth-moving equipment. But we have to make do with what’s available locally. We are so thankful to have been able to source a CAT Loading shovel for hire. Otherwise we would have had no alternative but just build up an unsightly 1.5m foundation on one side.

Progress is slow. But it’s progress, and for that we praise the Lord!

Always expect the unexpected!

We didn’t expect the topographical info of the site to be inaccuracte – but it was. So, whereas I expected we would be pouring the footings for the Hostel Project by now, we are just starting to level the ground, having searched for quite a few days for an available digger at a reasonable price.

It’s exciting to start shifting earth – even if a fair amount of it was going up in the air. The ground is very dry and dusty, as you can see.

Thanks for your prayers and practical support.

We’re pleased to share continued progress across several ministry areas throughout May. Here’s a summary of recent developments from our team in Malawi.

Children’s Ministry

Encouraging momentum continues in the Children’s Work. Over 200 children attend weekly Saturday and Sunday classes. A new book has been introduced, and school packs are being used to reward regular attendance and outstanding work. Anna has resumed travelling to distribute and train others in using Nthawi ya Baibulo (NYB)—a Gospel-focused Bible study resource for young people, designed to help them understand and apply the message of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Saidi Assembly: Baptisms Ahead

Several believers have requested baptism—a heartening indication of growing faith and commitment among the local assembly. Please keep them in prayer as they prepare to take this public step of obedience.

Translation and Publications

Our translation and publication efforts continue steadily. Gibson, our principal translator, has completed one more additional Emmaus Bible course and is now working on two more. Anna is revising and formatting previously developed courses in preparation for print. New tracts are currently in the design phase, and we’ve secured a designer to create updated covers for the Emmaus series.

We are excited to share a preview of some of the new Chichewa Emmaus Booklets we are about to publish.

Building Progress

Work on the perimeter wall has been completed. Meanwhile, construction of the new warehouse building has moved into the plastering phase—a significant step toward completion. We are waiting on roller shutter doors arriving from the UK for this and the Garage / Workshop which is also nearly finished.

Looking ahead, we are beginning preparations for a major new project: the construction of dormitory accommodation. This facility will greatly enhance our ability to host participants during next year’s Bible teaching conference. Planning and groundwork will take place over the coming months, and we value your prayers for this important development.

Vehicles Update

The Mitsubishi Canter truck has been returned to the premises. However, the ministry still requires an additional vehicle—not only to support our growing outreach efforts, but also to assist with transporting materials for the ongoing building projects, including the upcoming dormitory construction.

Security Update

A new security system has been installed and is now fully operational. It is specifically designed to monitor the guards’ hourly patrols and ensure they remain active throughout the night—helping prevent lapses in vigilance such as sleeping during duty hours. Following training, the guards have become confident in using the system, and it is delivering the intended results.

Conclusion

We remain deeply grateful for the Lord’s provision and the continued support of those who stand with us. Your prayers and generosity empower SALT to Enlighten, Encourage, and Empower lives through Gospel-centred ministry in Malawi.

Although it was a great success on many levels, we felt our recent Conference did not reach its full potential. This was due to our inability to provide sleeping accommodation on-site for more than a handful of those attending.

We had to squeeze most of the 100 or so who came into a rest-house we had block-booked for the purpose. The standard wasn’t great, and they had to walk 2Km each way for meals and the meetings. Renting the rest-house was a further expense for us (in addition to the help given with travelling expenses). It was also a considerable inconvenience for those attending the conference.

Furthermore, we couldn’t use the evenings together as the brothers had to return to their lodgings before dark (around 6pm). Equally important, we could not invite their wives which is a severe long-term limitation to the development of the work.

Increased Priority

The Msasa is great for children’s work and various other activities, but not really suitable for this purpose. Nor is it particulary suitable for the assembly which has been planted since it was built. Accordingly, although we had been considering building a more suitable meeting place, the need for dormitory accommodation is now clearly the priority.

Therefore, as the Lord provides, over the next year, we would like to build 2 simple, 40 bed hostels. This will give us the capacity to accommodate about 80% of the people who attended this year’s conference. If we are able, we would like to double that capacity the following year. This is still less than half the number we would like to invite but will be pushing the Msasa to the limit of its capacity.

Modifications to the Msasa

In the meantime, we will still need to make some modifications to the Msasa. Presently it is completely open and gets cold and windy in the winter months. The openings have been covered with mpasa – grass bedding mats – to give some shade, and reduce the wind. However, recently it has also become noisy with the proliferation of motorcycle taxis on the adjacent road . When the Lord makes it possible for us to build a larger meeting place, then we will consider adding further dormitory accommodation.

Please pray for this important project. It will involve considerable outlay and a step of faith for us. Nevertheless, we see it as a real long-term investment in the work. If you would like to support this initiative financially, please feel free to contact us for further information.

View the project page here.

Goodson explains how the building works at Saidi have already been so helpful. He asks brothers and sister to pray about the future needs of the Building project

Recorded October 2023

Transcript

For all the buildings here it’s encouraged me because right now we have a printing room an office now we have our stores so you’ll see the container there and also we have the Msasa

So all these houses [are] help[ing] us

People they need to pray for us because we have so many works here we are looking for the gospel hall that we plan to start the building I’m not sure if we can start this year but we plan to start the gospel hall

So people they need to pray about this myself I cannot do anything myself so I believe in the fellowship If we can work together we can manage to do something

So everyone who have a chance to help and work of the Lord here in Malawi It is a good time to take part

And I pray for other brothers and sisters who was not here in Malawi even other countries remember Malawi sometimes when you are gathered together to pray

Read More

ENLIGHTEN | ENCOURAGE | EMPOWER

Our Mission OrDonate