Please pray as Bros Stephen and Mark travel to Malawi this week in anticipation of the Bible Teaching conference at Saidi, commencing on 29 April, God willing.
This will be the first conference to take place since before Covid, and we are earnestly seeking blessing as a result.
What is the biggest challenge you will face in the next six months?
I must admit, I really had to think when this question came up a few days ago. [Edit: And that was before Cyclone Freddy hit Malawi!!]
Brother Stephen will value your prayers as he begins to make plans for his next Malawi trip in February.
The fuel crisis seems to have abated for the time being, making a further visit viable. There are a lot of practical matters to take care of in connection with the ongoing development at Saidi, and plans to be made regarding our Bible Teaching Conference which we hope to resume in May, Lord willing.
God willing, Stephen hopes to be able to help with any Calendar distribution that remains outstanding, and have some Gospel meetings at Saidi.
We are very excited about the possibility in May (DV) of resuming our annual Bible Teaching Conference which have not taken place for 4 years now, most recently due to Covid, and for 2 years prior to that due to the Presidential election in May 2018 and re-run in 2019. In the past these have proved invaluable.
We plan to change the format slightly and to have a single 4 or 5 day conference at the new facility at Saidi, rather than two 2-day conferences at rented locations in Blantyre and Lilongwe as we did before. We hope the new format will allow us to get to know the attendees better, and to take more time to work through and discuss the topics under consideration.
For now, please pray about the practicalities of providing food and accommodation for those who come. As we don’t yet have any dormitory accommodation, we plan to try to finish the vehicle workshop currently under construction, for temporary use as a dormitory along with the block-making workshop built earlier this year.
We hope that with sufficient notice (almost 4 months) many of our literature distributors will be able to save the £8 / $10 or so they will need for public transport costs from neighbouring cities. As the Lord enables, we will try to assist those coming longer distances with the cost of their fare home if they can make it to Saidi.
On the morning after the fire, Brother Harold sent this message of encouragement. We searched out some photos and video from the conference he refers to.
It’s so encouraging to know that the Lord has been working in people’s lives.
