Yesterday we received 20,000 exercise books at SALT offices in Saidi, Thondwe. The books will be distributed to students in primary and secondary schools.
During the school visits, each student hears a short Gospel presentation and receives a gift of an exercise book. Exercise books are highly prized as schools are generally very poorly resourced.
Anna & Harold continue their regular, weekly school visits.
Each student hears a short Gospel presentation and receives a gift of a an Exercise Book. These are highly prized as schools are generally very poorly resourced. Many students sit on the bare floor as there are insufficient desks and chairs.
The exercise books have a simple Gospel Message based on Acts 16v31 printed on the cover, and over the past couple of months almost 10,000 students have received a copy, meaning almost 10,000 children have received a clear and simple presentation of the Gospel.
Brother Stephen has just returned from a most encouraging visit to Malawi – his first since February 2020. The main reasons for this trip were (1) to help Anna (Vallance) get settled into her new home and environment, (2) to “eyeball” the project site at Saidi for the first time (Bros. Harold & Goodson had been our eyes and ears through the entire process of buying the land), and (3) to meet and encourage many of SALT’s partners in the work in Malawi. With the gracious help of the Lord, Stephen was able to accomplish what he set out to do.
A couple of months back the authorities in Malawi gave the green light for schools to resume after several months of Coronavirus lockdown.
Although the pupils and staff at COOM academy welcomed this news, the extra conditions concerning social distancing necessary because of Covid-19 presented an impossible burden for them.
I feel a little like Jude – eager to write about one thing, but constrained by the Holy Spirit through circumstances to write about another. However, unlike Jude, it is a very happy matter which now takes precedence.
Initially my intention was just to write enclosing a copy of a recent letter that some of you will have received in the mail, in which we gave an update on our development plans in Malawi. Within the past couple of months we have purchased a 1.3 acre site at Thondwe, upon which we hope to start building facilities for the Literature, Children’s and other ministries we are engaged in. You can read / download the letter here.
At this time of year we would usually be making final preparations for Malawi Gospel Outreach (MGO). Although Coronavirus has brought many frustrating limitations, we want to share with you a recent major encouragement in the work in Malawi.
Like everyone else, the work of the Trust has been adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, but we are grateful to the Lord that none of the directors or local volunteers have so-far contracted the illness.
Jim & I were so grateful that the ongoing unrest in Malawi abated enough to enable us to make a brief visit to see the work of COOM which we have been privileged to support a little during the past few months.
(This is a true story, but the identity of the individuals involved has been deliberately obscured for their protection.)
We had a really moving experience at the refugee camp.
We were visiting a refugee orphanage run by a Christian couple within the camp. Wow! How the Lord is using the husband and wife in such awful circumstances. He was a government official in his previous country who couldn’t condone or carry out the killings by the President. An assassination on his life was attempted and he narrowly escaped death several times during his escape. He got separated from his wife for a while and sadly she got raped and beaten.
Gospel Literature production remains SALT’s primary focus.
We have just completed reformatting the next two Bible courses for use in Malawian prisons – there are now 6 courses available in the new format, complete with all the Bible references necessary to enable a prisoner to complete the study even if s/he has no access to a Bible.
