There’s a real buzz in the air today as we have just received the very first complete Nthawi ya Baibilo (Chichewa, Bible Time) series back from the designer.
This represents months of long, often tedious work by Anna, Wati and the whole translation team, and is another massive step forward in the work of the Lord in Malawi.
Our 2023 Calendar is in the final design stages. We thank Brian Chalmers Design for their help another year. We think Brian has done a very nice job, don’t you?
We’ve also just heard from Revival Movement (RM) that they have already printed 3 pallets of tracts for us, and are able to help further with our Calendar print this year. What an encouragement! We estimate the commercial value of their last shipment to be £80-90,000. We do not rely exclusively on RM for our printing needs, and always try to make a meaningful contribution towards their costs. Nevertheless, such generous support frees up tens of thousands of pounds for use elsewhere. We have considerable other costs in Malawi: printing, maintaining vehicles, hosting conferences, relief programs, and of course our ongoing building project, so we cannot overstate how big a blessing this help is.
“I keep moving forward”. So says Bro Harrison Saidi (coincidentally, the name of our village) who called by today. He came to collect Gospel Literature for meetings taking place at Mayaka, some 2-3 hours away by bicycle.
Please pray for our next major literature distribution which will take place shortly. As demand for Gospel Literature has grown, so the logistics of meeting the demand have become more complicated. This typically involves several thousand KM and a couple of weeks on the road.
Bro Harold is planning to travel to Lilongwe and on to Kasungu shortly to try to sort out a problem in our literature storage container there. It has an infestation of chiswe (white ants).
The container has subsided due to heavy rains, enabling the chiswe to enter. It needs to be raised and repositioned on concrete pillars to keep it off the ground. White ants are very destructive and could quickly destroy our literature stocks.
Kasungu is approximately 1000Km round-trip. Soaring costs of fuel mean that Harold is keen to accomplish as much as possible on this trip. He asks that we pray for travelling mercies and that he will not only be able to sort out the white ant problem, but that he will be able to make the trip profitable in other ways.
You may remember that George Green is one of our volunteer literature distributors. Many felt moved by his story of travelling 5 hours on a borrowed bicycle to be supplied with Gospel literature.
In 2019, Brother George and his family were seriously affected by Cyclone Idai, losing their home and crops. SALT helped with their housing needs and some food relief.
Recently Stephen posted about Nthawi ya Baibulo, the Chichewa version of Bible Time. We were greatly encouraged to receive the first fully designed lessons! Though there remains a significant amount of work, we are excited about the potential of the curriculum.
Since translation and publishing work is a big part of what we do at SALT, I thought it might be helpful to give an idea of the steps that we have to take to get to the point of publishing translated material.
Brother Harold and sister Anna caught up with brother Yamikani Issa from Liwonde, who has been distributing literature since 2015. Below is what he had to say about what motivates him to distribute gospel literature. (Note: the answers have been lightly edited to improve clarity.)
Without exaggerating, this could prove to be the most significant step forward in the 20 years I’ve been involved in Malawi.
Earlier this week, we received the very first Nthawi ya Baibulo (Chichewa Bible Time) lessons from the designer for final checking. I confess that I teared up when I saw them!
We love when our literature distributors tell us how they appreciate the materials we supply to them.
Anna just shared this letter of thanks which she received from a volunteer in Machinga. He who works to bring the Gospel to Muslim youth. We have edited it very slightly to make it a little more readable.
