Joyfully, we go.

 

Joyfully, we go.
by Julie Arman

The morning sunlight sends its glowing streak through our mosquito net, I can hear the loud birds outside our window. The fan is on and half on us. Still half conscious I feel like this must be another dream: I mean for over 10 year this was our morning wake up call at around 6am. This is my first morning back in Malawi after 2 years. We are both exhausted after 2 days of travel, there is no hot water coming from the shower and a smoke smell is coming from outside our window, welcome back to the warm heart of Africa! This doesn’t sound too appealing to some but this is part of the TIA (This Is Africa) moments! I was so so grateful and elated to be back that none of these even fazed me.

When we left and transitioned back to our home base I never imagined I would come back. It was a struggle to adapt to this chaotic American life. I felt like I had lost my joy. I, most of all, missed our life in Africa. I’m not sure I would have said that 15 years ago when we first left -but that’s a story for another day.
I miss the simplicity of this life and the slowness of it all. I miss going outside in our backyard. I miss the trees and the Southern African birds (yes even the annoying crows on our roof!)
I miss the colorful Chitenje Cloth and the unpaved crazy roads and potholes, it is almost the end of the rainy season after all.
Looking out the car window, the chaos is back, full of  passing over packed minibuses on our left trying to avoid bikes and pedestrians. Driving here isn’t for the faint of heart and it’s always an adventure. I didn’t get to drive this time around, not sure I could drive on the left side of the road ever again! And I always thought coming back to Malawi was easier to drive than on the right side in the states! Ha!
We are meeting our group of people at the post office for evangelism. My husband is preparing the sketch board and a group of people is forming around under the beating hot sun! Phew we are back in Malawi!

We were able to bring a young Bible College student with us. Kyle heard missionary stories about Malawi from last BC semester where my husband taught and he told him he wanted to come visit. He was able to come and experience the colorful spicy foods of Malawi! TIA!

 

P Matt and Lisa Sliva were able to travel with us as well as Pr Renaldo Brown which were all such a blessing to all of us.
Then came our annual conference, Malawicon and graduation. So a busy week overall of preparations, outreach, lake visit and conference sessions during our last weekend there. 

 

The day after the conference we travelled to Namibia with the Slivas and Pr Obrien and Tlhoki Britz who had travelled many days to Malawi to be with us. They were able to fly back which took only one day as opposed to a week of travel! This couple is our hero of the faith! We got to meet names and faces we had heard so much about! One of them is a lady named Janet. Her husband traveled by bus with the Britz to our conference! Our first Namibian at Malawicon. These new believers came from one woman who met the second summer harvest team that visited Namibia. Back in 2022, a summer harvest team led by Pr Renaldo Brown was doing outreach. Jesse and Kaylee Feyers witnessed to a woman who had been having a hard time in her job and family. The Holy Spirit led them to Patience who was ready to begin walking with the Lord. She came to the first Bible study, and any time anyone would visit, she would be there to meet them. This was until Pr Obrien and Thloki moved permanently to Namibia. Patience brought her friend Janet and everyone in her extended family. The majority of the 20 person church is from these two friends.

Jeremiah 17:7-8  “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

Fall Harvest

 Hello from the Warm Heart of Africa,

Last week I returned from visiting our sister churches in Malawi and Eastern Zambia. It was an amazing privilege to see the work of God and be able to bring my son Noah with me. We as a family have made a decision to use the support we are receiving to continue visiting the places we have ministered as well as the place we feel God is eventually calling us to. Thankfully with the airline miles we have accrued, I was able to bring my son on the most recent trip. We were able to encourage our church pastors and reconnect with the missionary community we had been so connected to in years past.It was an incredible refreshment on every side. We came back to see God's work flourishing with a renewed vision to continue penetrating into new areas with Churches and Bible Colleges. We also had a chance to meet with the homeschool group that we were a part of for most of the time we were in Malawi.

Evangelism and Staff Meeting

Home School Group

Swim Meet

Noah's Old Swim Team

Our Old House

The Amazing Misomali Family We Stayed With

We called a meeting of all the pastors in the country to fellowship and talk about the vision of our ministry. It was so heartwarming to see men and women of God working together to increase God's kingdom.

Pastors and their wives

Sunday Morning Church Service

The Dorm Reunion

Malawi's Staple Food and Noah's Favorite - Nsima with Cabbage

We made the journey to the bordering country of Zambia where the Ntalasha family have recently planted a new church. Our family and the Ntalasha family started the church in Malawi and our children have been very close all these years. It was such a blessing to do outreach with Pr Albert and for us to spend a few days with their family.

Zambia Malawi Border

The Ntalasha Family

Lastly, was a great missions story highlighting the open hearts of people. Given the limited time we had in Malawi. Noah and I visited 2 churches each of the midweek services that we were in the country for. The transportation we used is a common form of transportation called a Tuk-Tuk in Malawi or Rickshaw. The man driving offered a ride and agreed on a price. After telling him that we were visiting 2 different church services, he offered to shuttle us around both churches and then take us home. He ended up coming into service with us and listening to both messages. His name is Hopeson and he is a beautiful believer. One of the messages we preached was in his honor about joining the Chariot of the Ethiopian. He got such a kick out of the message that we compared his Rickshaw to the chariot in Acts 8.

Thank you for your prayers. 

Prayer Requests

- Please pray for the churches in Zambia, Malawi, and Namibia. We plan to visit again in January 2025.

- Pray for the completion of the GGCA Malawi Elementary School hopefully finished by April 2025.

Future Classrooms

- Regional Youth Conference in Zambia and the Christmas programs.

February 2024 News

 February 2024 News

February marks the longest our family has been in the US in the past 15 years. We are so grateful to you and the church in Baltimore for helping us for this season. God also has been incredibly gentle with us as we navigate being stateside. The churches in Malawi seem to be doing very well despite us not being there. We should not be surprised, even Christ said the same: “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” – John 12:14.

Mzuzu. Last week the Greater Grace Churches of Malawi sent a missionary to plant a church in the northern city of Mzuzu. This has been on our hearts for the last 5 years, it finally happened. The churches raised support and sent Pr. Liking Zungu. There are other members who used to live in Lilongwe that relocated to Mzuzu that he is gathering.

Pr. Zungu is in the middle.

GGCA Lilongwe. We are under construction to bring Greater Grace Christian Academy to fruition. The vision is to start with K-4 grade and add classrooms little by little. In addition to classrooms that face inside the property, we will have shops that face out toward the street to provide income for the church.

First Snow. This past February also was a first for half of our family. For Poema it was the first time she has seen snow since she was 6 months old. For Noah it was his first snow ever. Noah had been praying to see snow, and Baltimore got about 4 inches. He made a snowman and snow angel. God is so awesome.

Namibia. God has been moving in Namibia. Pr. Obrien and Thloki Britt have been living there holding meetings while they await our final meeting to approve our church constitution that will happen next month. Pr. Bernard Ntalasha, the uncle of our beloved Pr. Albert, has also been joining them from Southern Zambia as we all prepare to converge together. Please keep them in your prayers that God will give us favor with the Council of Churches for a quick approval of our church registration. Once the church is registered then we can apply for long term visas to stay in the country.

Pr. Obrien and his wife are wearing green and white, Pr Bernard is in Salmon color.

Malawicon ’24. We are planning the conference for this coming April 12-14. The theme is “Blessing of Unity”.