Anna writes:
I am thankful for a safe and positive trip to Dzaleka.
Please continue praying for the hope of Christ to shine in the hearts of these dear people, especially through the Bibletime curriculum (phase two to begin shortly).
Note: We introduced Swahili language Bible Time lessons at the Dzaleka Refugee Camp last year. This project has been very successful and has been a very useful pilot for the Chichewa work which is in advanced stages of development.
Brother Stephen is currently in Malawi and will appreciate your prayers. Particularly remember the following:
*Note: The economy in Malawi is really struggling. Increasing poverty is making the security situation worse. See this recent article in the Guardian newspaper.
The activities of the Trust continued to be seriously affected by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic for a significant portion of the year. Nevertheless, we are grateful that as travel restrictions began to ease, it was possible for Stephen to visit Malawi twice to review operations there, first in May and again in August.
Stephen’s visit in May was timed to coincide with the arrival in Malawi of Anna Vallance, who has been commended to the work by her assembly in Livonia, MI, USA. It has been a pleasure to welcome her. Her dedication to the work and devotion to the Lord will undoubtedly strengthen the team, particularly as she has joined the Board of the Malawi operation.
There’s a real buzz in the air today as we have just received the very first complete Nthawi ya Baibilo (Chichewa, Bible Time) series back from the designer.
This represents months of long, often tedious work by Anna, Wati and the whole translation team, and is another massive step forward in the work of the Lord in Malawi.
Our 2023 Calendar is in the final design stages. We thank Brian Chalmers Design for their help another year. We think Brian has done a very nice job, don’t you?
We’ve also just heard from Revival Movement (RM) that they have already printed 3 pallets of tracts for us, and are able to help further with our Calendar print this year. What an encouragement! We estimate the commercial value of their last shipment to be £80-90,000. We do not rely exclusively on RM for our printing needs, and always try to make a meaningful contribution towards their costs. Nevertheless, such generous support frees up tens of thousands of pounds for use elsewhere. We have considerable other costs in Malawi: printing, maintaining vehicles, hosting conferences, relief programs, and of course our ongoing building project, so we cannot overstate how big a blessing this help is.
“I keep moving forward”. So says Bro Harrison Saidi (coincidentally, the name of our village) who called by today. He came to collect Gospel Literature for meetings taking place at Mayaka, some 2-3 hours away by bicycle.
Please pray for our next major literature distribution which will take place shortly. As demand for Gospel Literature has grown, so the logistics of meeting the demand have become more complicated. This typically involves several thousand KM and a couple of weeks on the road.
“I’ll appreciate the saints’ prayers for paper work for the trailer.”
He also has an upcoming trip to Kasungu about the container and requests prayer for that.
Bro Harold is planning to travel to Lilongwe and on to Kasungu shortly to try to sort out a problem in our literature storage container there. It has an infestation of chiswe (white ants).
The container has subsided due to heavy rains, enabling the chiswe to enter. It needs to be raised and repositioned on concrete pillars to keep it off the ground. White ants are very destructive and could quickly destroy our literature stocks.
Kasungu is approximately 1000Km round-trip. Soaring costs of fuel mean that Harold is keen to accomplish as much as possible on this trip. He asks that we pray for travelling mercies and that he will not only be able to sort out the white ant problem, but that he will be able to make the trip profitable in other ways.
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.
