“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.
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.
We all continue to be moved by the needless loss of life and terrible humanitarian crisis occurring in Ukraine. We give thanks for faithful believers ministering to those in need.
However, we ought not to forget the untold millions of the world’s poor who are born into insufferable hardship. They live every day of their lives in hopeless despondency.
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.
Recently Stephen posted about Nthawi ya Baibulo, the Chichewa version of Bible Time. We were greatly encouraged to receive the first fully designed lessons! Though there remains a significant amount of work, we are excited about the potential of the curriculum.
Since translation and publishing work is a big part of what we do at SALT, I thought it might be helpful to give an idea of the steps that we have to take to get to the point of publishing translated material.
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.
Brother Harold and sister Anna caught up with brother Yamikani Issa from Liwonde, who has been distributing literature since 2015. Below is what he had to say about what motivates him to distribute gospel literature. (Note: the answers have been lightly edited to improve clarity.)
Without exaggerating, this could prove to be the most significant step forward in the 20 years I’ve been involved in Malawi.
Earlier this week, we received the very first Nthawi ya Baibulo (Chichewa Bible Time) lessons from the designer for final checking. I confess that I teared up when I saw them!
We love when our literature distributors tell us how they appreciate the materials we supply to them.
Anna just shared this letter of thanks which she received from a volunteer in Machinga. He who works to bring the Gospel to Muslim youth. We have edited it very slightly to make it a little more readable.
As “L” is at the heart of “SALT” so Gospel Literature Ministry is at the heart of what SALT does in Malawi.
By the grace of God, over the past 10 years we have been able to publish and distribute around 14 Million items of Gospel Literature across the length and breadth of the country.
