Following Stephen & Gail’s recent visit to Malawi, we have decided to adjust the building project schedule at Saidi.
The deteriorating economic situation in Malawi means that we must plan for the possibility of an upsurge in crime. Consequently we have decided that we need to prioritise improving security above additional building work.
I love Malawi. I’ll take every opportunity to visit Malawi. But I hope I never have to visit again in the circumstances that made this present trip necessary.
As regular readers know, sister Anna recently suffered a very traumatic burglary and assault at her home. The trustees agreed unanimously that Gail and I should travel to Malawi at the earliest opportunity to support her through this crisis. We also felt it appropriate to review and improve the security of our people and property in Malawi in light of what had happened.
I had the perfect opportunity to review progress at the Saidi Building Project during my recent 3-week visit to Malawi.
As you may recall, in January a lightning strike and fire seriously damaged the msasa we built for the children’s work at Saidi. This really discouraged us at the time as the msasa was still not completely finished. However, with the Lord’s help and the passage of time we have got over the disappointment. The cyclone that followed caused enormous damage across the Southern Region of Malawi. Thousands of people suffered loss of their homes and/or their crops. Many have no means to rebuild and are still sheltering from the tropical rains in makeshift shelters of plastic sheeting. This puts the msasa fire in perspective, especially as some of our neighbours at Saidi we affected.
Join us live as we consider what the Lord is doing in Malawi.
THE VIDEO DOES NOT AUTOPLAY – CLICK TO BEGIN!
Our first water borehole has proved to be a big disappointment, yielding only a few hundred litres per day.
Fortunately it was guaranteed for 1 year and the drillers are back today to have another go. Pray that it will be a success this time.
We’ll have a little bit of work to move the solar equipment etc, but hoping it will solve the water problem.
It’s so thrilling to see the new Msasa and the recently made benches being put to good use.
Pray that many of these children and adults will come to a real understanding of the Gospel and come to know the Lord as their Saviour.
Preparations are underway for the Open Day at Saidi on 20 November.
The builders have started to construct a kitchen and the carpenters have begun to make wooden benches for the guests to sit on.
It’s just impossible to keep up with the pace of progress at Saidi.
We just received these photographs of today’s work on the container office and finishing work on the roof.
Thanks again to everyone who has helped make this possible, either through your prayers or your sacrifice.
We had a great online meeting with the team in Malawi when we got first-hand accounts of the following areas of the work:
Goodson – Building project & local History outreach
Anna – Child-Headed Households & School visits
Work on roofing the container bay is so close to completion.
We expect to begin the conversion of the middle container next week. It will be fitted out for use as offices for translation work and Bible Time ministry.
Thanks again to everyone whose generosity has made this possible.
You can see a pictorial history of the project here.
