Malawi/Namibia Fall Ahead

 Warm Fall Greetings,

Those that still have Daylight Savings Time know about "Spring Ahead/Fall Behind". We want to flip the script and "Fall Ahead". We are trusting God for a great Fall Season whether we have Daylight Savings Time or not. God is empowering our precious Malawian and Namibian Brothers and Sisters to take great strides in His Kingdom.

Bible College. With our family having an extended furlow in Baltimore, we are so encouraged to see the churches in Malawi going forward in God's calling. The first Bible College class run solely by our Admin team had a great turn out of 70 people of registration. With other students coming day after day, we are believing God for a great year ahead.

Bible College Teachers Meeting.

Radio. Our church in Malawi has been on National radio for the past 7 years. 6 of those years were on the same station that was owned by the family of the previous president. Coming with the change in power to a new political party, the current party shut down our beloved Galaxy Radio. We loved the station especially because the studio was across the street from our house. We used have different people from our church coming into the studio to interview them. By the Grace of God, the closing of Galaxy Radio did not mean the end of Grace Moments Radio Program. We are now on a youth focussed station called Timveni Radio. The format is a little different since they do not have physical studios. We send in recordings of the Malawian pastor's messages and play them every week. The radio station broadcasts into the whole nation which gives everyone a chance to hear the Grace and Finished Work Message.

Christian School. We are still continuing our vision for a K-3 Christian School. We have made great progress in building and are about 2/3 of the way finished. We have raised the money for the digging of a well and $1000 toward completing the structure. Once it is finished, we will rent out the front half of the classrooms that face the main road to raise money for the church. Our aim is to make the church self-sustaining and that the shops and school would raise the rest of the money to build more classrooms up to 8th grade.

Before

 

Currently (You can see our church across the street in the top left corner. We have built a little more since this picture and finished the beam on top of the windows)

Prayer.

- The Current Bible College Semester - for Fervency of the Students and Anointing of all the Teachers.

- The Namibian work permits to be approved for Pr. Obrien, Thloki, Pr. Bernard, and Maggie.

- The Women's Conference in Zambia next month. For Traveling mercies and a great touch among our Ladies

- The Youth Conference in December

- The Annual Malawicon national conference April 12-14.

Thanks For Your Prayers!

The Arman Family

 A Great and Effectual Door – 1Corinthians 16:9:

The month of April always reminds us of God’s immense greatness especially for us here in Malawi; we recall the eternal work that Christ did for us on Easter regarding His Death, Burial, and Resurrection. Also it is the time in which we hold our regional conference and graduation. We were touched with great gratitude for all our brothers and sisters that sacrificed to visit us. We had guests from Congo, USA, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The conference was amazing, the graduation of 88 students brought great excitement, and the messages were foundational for our continued growth. One memorable message that hit home was how the pillars of the church like prayer, the Word, and evangelism can either be miserable or magnificent depending on whether or not God’s Agape Love is behind them. A church can be doing everything correctly and flourishing on the outside, yet it may lack God’s Love. This conference marked another great milestone, the whole thing was administered by the local team. The graduation, reception of guests, transportation of all church members, feeding of visitors, translation, and music was all administered by our local pastors and deacons. They did a wonderful job in providing an environment to hear God’s anointing while also overcoming challenges. It was amazing to see God bring out their gifts. 

April showers of blessings

At the 11th hour, all that we needed for our annual conference  to be a success, was provided by our merciful Saviour through you! Thank you for being a vessel through which prayers and help flowed. Our conference theme was “Recovering All” from 1 Samuel 30:8. We truly have recovered so much from the two years we seemed to have lost to COVID restrictions and missing our brethren.
 

We recovered:
- Our brothers and sisters from abroad. We had 12 Zambians, 10 Zimbabweans, 5 Americans, 2 Mozambicans, and 1 South African brave buses, airplanes, and COVID tests to be together. God commanded a blessing. We had a wonderful time of unity and fellowship. God spoke clearly through each man of God.


One amazing story was Pr Emile from DRC. Pr Emile was told his passport could not be available due to lack of passport books. God overcame that and he got his passport in time to travel. When arriving in Lusaka, he went to the Malawian embassy and was told he would have to wait 5 days for an e-visa. That would have stopped most people, not Pr Emil, he decided to take his chances at the border. Miraculously he crossed the border in the bush with a bicycle. This made it possible for him to attend the conference but would pose problems when he would return since he had no entry stamp. He believed God and we prayed for the gift of Elisha to blind the eyes of anyone checking his passport. He started off with the Zambians. They made it to the halfway point of the Malawi and Zambia border. The real test was the police checkpoint and immigration. The police saw their van was overloaded and scolded them for the minor offense. Then came the dreaded immigration official. He began checking everyone’s passport. Upon coming to P Emile, he was tired. In his frustration, he commanded the bus just to leave without any check. If they had found Pr Emile’s passport without a stamp, he could have been imprisoned or fined a steep fine. They all finally crossed without issue.

Our full Graduation. We finally were able to  have all our students graduate in the same ceremony. We also were in our new building for the first time. It was amazing to see the new church at capacity with 500+ students, guests, and family. We used the graduation as the transition to move Bible College classes to our new building.

A family. About 10 months ago we received Pr Moses with us in our church. He is originally from Uganda who had been ministering in Zimbabwe for the last 9 years. He had planted a church and gotten married with a child. Unfortunately, he was caught in a legal technicality and was deported awaiting a decision from Zimbabwean Immigration. Again things turned for the worse as the immigration gave him a 3 year blacklisting.  He was separated from his wife and daughter with discouragement. But God! After inquiring we found we could get him a missionary visa and have his wife move here. His vision is to plant a church in the Southern Malawian city of Zomba. We have a former church member and Bible College graduate living there. They are set to open the new church on Easter Sunday.

Prayer Requests:
- We are still finishing minor touches to the church building. Please pray for wisdom.
- the Church also owns the plot next door which we would like to put a Christian k-7 school on.
-Please pray for Missions trips to Lesotho and Namibia both in May. We are praying for direction for the future.
-Lastly, for wisdom about this summer, for the family to attend our summer conference.