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A Foundation for Growth

The long-anticipated dormitory construction project at Saidi is finally taking shape! This new facility will, God willing, provide much-needed living space for Bible training, conferences, and visiting volunteers — strengthening the ministry’s capacity to enlighten, encourage and empower believers across Malawi.

Early Challenges and Unexpected Blessings

As the work began, it quickly became clear that extensive site levelling would be needed before any foundations could be dug.
In God’s providence, we were able to hire a back-hoe loader and tipper lorry — no small achievement in a country where such machinery is scarce and often out of service.

These machines saved weeks, maybe months, of manual work and allowed the team to prepare the site properly and safely for the building’s footprint.

Delays and Determination

Just as things were ready to move forward, Malawi faced a nationwide fuel shortage that delayed the delivery of 600 bags of cement.
When the long-awaited load finally arrived, the team offloaded every single bag by hand — a remarkable picture of perseverance and teamwork.

The foundations, marked carefully by hand and dug with shovels and pickaxes, began to take form soon after.
Our recently arrived petrol-powered cement mixer, sent from Canada earlier this year, has already proven invaluable in easing the heavy labour of mixing concrete under the tropical sun.

Progress so far

Progress and Hope

With most of the foundation trenches complete, the team is now preparing to pour the concrete floors — hopefully during Stephen’s upcoming visit later this month.
This milestone will mark the end of the groundwork phase and open the way for blockwork to begin.

More Than a Building

Each brick and beam represents faith in the Lord’s provision.
The dormitory will serve as a vital step toward expanding SALT’s capacity to train, host and equip Gospel workers who will take the message of Christ throughout Malawi and beyond.

We are profoundly grateful for every person who has prayed, given, or laboured toward this vision.

“Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.”
— Psalm 127 : 1

Please continue to pray for safety, steady progress, and provision as this exciting next phase unfolds. 🙏

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.

Although it was a great success on many levels, we felt our recent Conference did not reach its full potential. This was due to our inability to provide sleeping accommodation on-site for more than a handful of those attending.

We had to squeeze most of the 100 or so who came into a rest-house we had block-booked for the purpose. The standard wasn’t great, and they had to walk 2Km each way for meals and the meetings. Renting the rest-house was a further expense for us (in addition to the help given with travelling expenses). It was also a considerable inconvenience for those attending the conference.

Furthermore, we couldn’t use the evenings together as the brothers had to return to their lodgings before dark (around 6pm). Equally important, we could not invite their wives which is a severe long-term limitation to the development of the work.

Increased Priority

The Msasa is great for children’s work and various other activities, but not really suitable for this purpose. Nor is it particulary suitable for the assembly which has been planted since it was built. Accordingly, although we had been considering building a more suitable meeting place, the need for dormitory accommodation is now clearly the priority.

Therefore, as the Lord provides, over the next year, we would like to build 2 simple, 40 bed hostels. This will give us the capacity to accommodate about 80% of the people who attended this year’s conference. If we are able, we would like to double that capacity the following year. This is still less than half the number we would like to invite but will be pushing the Msasa to the limit of its capacity.

Modifications to the Msasa

In the meantime, we will still need to make some modifications to the Msasa. Presently it is completely open and gets cold and windy in the winter months. The openings have been covered with mpasa – grass bedding mats – to give some shade, and reduce the wind. However, recently it has also become noisy with the proliferation of motorcycle taxis on the adjacent road . When the Lord makes it possible for us to build a larger meeting place, then we will consider adding further dormitory accommodation.

Please pray for this important project. It will involve considerable outlay and a step of faith for us. Nevertheless, we see it as a real long-term investment in the work. If you would like to support this initiative financially, please feel free to contact us for further information.

View the project page here.

ENLIGHTEN | ENCOURAGE | EMPOWER

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