A project to produce all of the recent conference messages on video & mp3 audio is now complete. Please pray that the Lord will multiply the usefulness of these messages in this way as we distribute them to those who were unable to attend the conferences.
The work of revising and relaunching our Chichewa Emmaus Course offering is complete, and we are placing an initial order for 12,000 new booklets.
In future, we hope to keep costs down by printing most of these booklets in-house, however we simply don’t have the time and manpower to do that at present, so we are using a local printing company. Pray that they will complete the job in good time, and to a high standard.
There is a great appetite for these materials in Malawi. Please pray that the Lord will use them for the spiritual blessing of many.
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.
Please pray concerning the upcoming Presidential elections in Malawi, scheduled for 16 September.
Campaigning is now well underway, with opposing sides vying for attention with large, loud public gatherings happening across the country. Sadly this makes open-air outreach extremely difficult, and we felt we had no option but to cancel MGO this year.
Please pray for a peaceful campaign season – there have been incidents of intimidation and violence. Please also pray that the Lord would raise up leaders with the integrity and ability to lead the nation of Malawi out of the extreme crisis it finds itself in.
“Despite significant progress in reducing child mortality and fertility rates, hunger remains a critical concern due to successive weak harvests since 2022. This has hindered human capital development, with the rate of stunted children under five stagnant at 38% since 2015. Foreign exchange constraints have also limited imports to compensate for the food supply deficit.
“The number of people living in poverty is expected to increase in 2025 amidst this challenging economic environment and rising food insecurity, with an additional 417,000 people falling below the $2.15 per day threshold, bringing the total number of people living in poverty to 15.8 million.
The share of people failing to consume a minimum caloric intake of 2215 calories a day (or national poverty rate) is 51 percent, the same as in 2010. Inequality has decreased over the last decade (the Gini index changed from 45 percent in 2010 to 39 percent in 2019), mainly due to better-off households worsening their economic situation”
Source: World Bank
We’ve been one week levelling the site. More more than we anticipated, but the end is in sight.
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.
The problems with the Malawian economy continue to deepen. Inflation continues to soar, to the extent that the team are having to curtail travel for literature distribution and other outreach purposes.
Please pray for a resolution to this problem, and for wisdom in the meantime.
There are constant commodity shortages. Even goods produced in-country (E.g. Sugar, cooking oil and coffee) are now in short supply, as supplies are being diverted for export to generate foreign currency. This has a huge inflationary impact.
At present the black market rate for the Malawi Kwacha is 2.5 times the official rate. This means that the value of each £ or $ brought into the country using the regular banking system is reduced by that amount, hugely inflating operating costs.
The government needs to allow the local currency to float to a more realistic level, but doing so would instantly increase the wage bill for the huge public sector, so it’s unlikely to happen soon. Meanwhile black marketeers push the unofficial rate higher and higher, affecting the price of everything in the store.
Please pray for wisdom and guidance as we consider options to urgently replenish supplies of Nthawi ya Baibulo (Bibletime) which are already starting to run out.
We received around 60,000 booklets towards the end of last year, but the demand has been overwhelming as Anna has been carrying out leader training around the country. The quickest way to re-stock is by using a commercial printer in Malawi.
