Brother Goodson says: “There is a lot happening here at the site. Also, there is also the work with Anna and the Bible studies. We need to be praying for these things so that this work for the Lord will go well.”
Note: Brother Goodson is kept very busy supervising the ongoing building project as well as construction of a house for Anna nearby. He does this work faithfully and diligently while also managing to keep several Bible studies going on site.
We have much to thank the Lord for as we review progress of the building work at Saidi so far. Thanks to the hard work of the building team, and brother Goodson’s diligent oversight, a lot has been accomplished since we started less than two years ago.
Wati reminds us that many of the builders and other workers at Saidi regularly attend Goodson’s weekly adult bible study. This is really encouraging to see.
Most are unsaved, so please pray for their salvation, and for the growth of those who do know the Lord.
Although we recently had to make adjustments to our schedule for the Saidi Development Project, we are still encouraged by the progress made so far.
We are grateful for Brother Goodson’s diligence as he has supervised the work, and for the energy and skill of the building team who have done so much with limited resources, but much hard work and African improvisation.
I love Malawi. I’ll take every opportunity to visit Malawi. But I hope I never have to visit again in the circumstances that made this present trip necessary.
As regular readers know, sister Anna recently suffered a very traumatic burglary and assault at her home. The trustees agreed unanimously that Gail and I should travel to Malawi at the earliest opportunity to support her through this crisis. We also felt it appropriate to review and improve the security of our people and property in Malawi in light of what had happened.
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.
Brother Harold was stung by a large scorpion hiding in a timber pile at the home he is building. When Stephen called him on Saturday evening he was crying uncontrollably with unbearable pain. Scorpion stings can be fatal, so we praise God that he is recovering.
Wati & Goodson visited Harold at his home on Sunday and reported that he was feeling somewhat better, although he still has pain and numbness at the site of the sting.
Unbelievable. But true. 2022 marks the 20th anniversary of our first experience of life and work for the Lord in Malawi.
We were young and inexperienced, but Gail and I were both feeling the unmistakeable weight of a burden from the Lord. Not particularly for Malawi, at first, but each of us had a very definite sense that the Lord was calling us to dedicate ourselves more fully to him. For many months it seemed that every passage we read, every message we heard, was a voice from heaven straight to our hearts. (How I long for days like those again!)
I had the perfect opportunity to review progress at the Saidi Building Project during my recent 3-week visit to Malawi.
As you may recall, in January a lightning strike and fire seriously damaged the msasa we built for the children’s work at Saidi. This really discouraged us at the time as the msasa was still not completely finished. However, with the Lord’s help and the passage of time we have got over the disappointment. The cyclone that followed caused enormous damage across the Southern Region of Malawi. Thousands of people suffered loss of their homes and/or their crops. Many have no means to rebuild and are still sheltering from the tropical rains in makeshift shelters of plastic sheeting. This puts the msasa fire in perspective, especially as some of our neighbours at Saidi we affected.
After a final flurry of activity this week, MGO 2022 is now fully subscribed. It looks like we are going to have our biggest team ever, with 22 participants signed up, plus our local volunteers, Lord willing.
As in previous years, the team will have an international flavour, with participants from USA, Canada/Mexico, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland.
We expect that MGO may have a slightly different twist this year. For the first time we have our own property on which to run children’s day camps, and it looks like this will feature this August. It will be a great opportunity to bolster the children’s work which Goodson and Anna carry on at Saidi.
Please pray earnestly for the Lord’s blessing. With such a large group there will be much more organisation and logistics involved. So, we ask you to pray for wisdom at this planning stage.
