Please pray for safety as calendar distribution trips begin.
Note: Our shipment of calendars from UK was delayed due to a mechanical problem with the press, so we ordered some to be printed locally as a stop-gap. We are still waiting for the main consignment, so please pray for their speedy arrival and clearance through customs.
Anna requests, “I will be starting to teach the younger kids’ class next Saturday, God willing, so prayers are appreciated – especially for the Chichewa bit.”
Brother Stephen will appreciate your prayers as he travels to USA tomorrow for ministry and reports of the work in Malawi. Please pray for journeying mercies and that the time with the Christians there will be a blessing to all. Pray that as the believers become better informed about the work that they will be better able to support it with their prayers.
Stephen also plans to return to Malawi in February, and will be grateful if you would remember the preparations for that trip too.
Pray for the families made homeless due to the current weather condition in Malawi. Although good rains are essential at this time of year for the success of the crop (around 80% of Malawians are subsistence farmers), they are often very destructive to the makeshift homes many people live in.
Wati asks that we pray about the cholera outbreak. Schools in Lilongwe and Blantyre didn’t open as planned after the Christmas break due to the increasing number of cases. The Government is providing an oral cholera vaccine to help with the situation.
Goodson requests that we pray for protection for the team at Saidi and the work there. During the wet season, the standing maize provides excellent cover for thieves, who also take advantage of the heavy rain storms to pursue their criminal activity. We had a couple of attacks during last raining season.
Give thanks for the improvement in Goodson’s son’s health. Many have enquired after we requested prayer when he was taken unwell with cerebral malaria. Goodson reports that he is doing very well, but the doctor has warned that his case was so serious that he should waste no time in seeking attention if he starts to feel unwell.
Goodson wishes to thank everyone for their prayers.
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.
Harold asks us to pray about the practicalities of the impending Calendar Distribution. We are printing 100,000 calendars in Malawi, and expecting 500,000 to arrive by container in the next couple of weeks, Lord willing.
As the annual rains are now at full strength, it is impossible to use our open-back 2-Ton truck to supply the regional distributors, and our other vehicles are of insufficient capacity for such large volumes. We are investigating some possible solutions, but all are less than ideal.
