Hello from Malawi.
It has been a great start for our new year.
We began with a visit from Pastor Enock from Zambia and Anthony from the church
in South Africa for a week. We accompanied them part of the way as they went
back to Lusaka to Zambia’s 4th largest city, Chipata, on a mission
trip. Chipata is about 2 hours away from us and is a good target for the
future. We found a great openness among the people there with the continual
question, “When are you coming?” and our answer, “Soon.” We made some tracts putting
a Zambian phone number that we can use while in Malawi. One brother named Mbewe
was very interested in the church and Bible college and has been calling us
every week to ask us when we are coming again. People were so refreshed to hear
that God’s love is limitless.
This past week we enjoyed Matt Roberge from Baltimore. Matt
is an amazing musician, but an even better preacher. His messages were filled
with depth, content, and anointing. Matt was with us as we did our Bible
College Registration. We set up the room and waited to see how many new
students would enroll. The beginning started slow, but we were amazed to have
17 new students enroll with more calling us. The church was doubly blessed to
have him lead worship and then preach the main message (I told him we would put
him to work). The day before he left we had a free outdoor concert at the Post
Office where we do most of our evangelism. It was a day of fellowship and fun
as we did sketchboards and had Matt sing a plethora of music.
Lastly, This
month was a month of divine appointments. Many people would call them grand
coincidences, but we see the hand of God. The first was when bringing Pr Enock
and Antony to see Lake Malawi. We usually go a hotel restaurant that is right
on the lake shore to order something and then go swimming. As we were ordering,
I ran into a familiar face. It was Thomas, a Swedish business man that had been
a member of our church in Lusaka, Zambia. He was at the Lake with his family
for Christmas and new year and we were just there for a few hours.
The second
amazing encounter was with a young man from Malawi named George that had been a
student in Greater Grace International School in Budapest, Hungary in 2005. I
was given his details by my brother in law Joe Cerquitella, who was the
principal of GGIS during that time. Although I initially had problems
connecting with him, finally we met up and his story was an amazing one. He and
his brother had been having trouble in school in Malawi, so a friend of their
mother, who happened to be a Hungarian lady, offered to bring the boys to
Hungary for a year. Providentially they came to GGIS, were accepted as students
by, Mr. C (Joe Cerquitella), and eventually ended up moving in with one of the
teachers, Mr. Matt. Julie and I shook our heads with awe as we heard about
George’s gratefulness for the time God had given him in Budapest as a landmark
in his life. Now George is running a medical clinic in a rural, western Malawi.
“How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” Rom 11:33.
Prayer Requests
-
Continued interest in Julie’s English class for Ladies (one of
the great fishhooks of the church)
-
Health and Reconciliation of Marriages of families in the
Church.
-
The beginning of our 2nd year of Bible College
