Report from Malawi

The dust cloud burst from the rear of our car as we drove along the dirt road having left the main road fifty kilometres behind. We were heading towards a distant village
to plant a new church in rural Malawi . In November 2009 we had provided a weeks training for twenty pastors and elders from the rural churches of the Gospel Harvest Church. The invitation had come from Maston who had personally planted all these churches despite having no church of his own in Lilongue and having to walk many kilometres in order to do so. On this trip we would conduct two weekend crusades as well as providing another weeks training based on the Foundation Stones for elders and pastors from the rural areas.

We came prepared with a large screen, projector, speakers and “The Jesus Film” in Chichewa as well as 20,000 “To you with Love tracts” recently translated into the local language.

On Saturday May we set up in the village around 5 pm and as the film started we were soon surrounded by a sea of excited faces. For many it was the first time they had seen film pictures. As the film progressed to where Jesus carried his cross to Golgotha, Maston rose to invite the over 500 audience to accept his sacrifice on the cross and to receive Him as their Saviour. After they prayed they were all invited to two meetings the next day.

On Sunday Simon preached the next day on the Holy Spirit, the Living Waters that Jesus promises to all who believe and invited all who wished to receive to come forwards. After a moments hesitation a young man strode to the front soon to be followed by many others. All bowed their heads and humbly prayed to receive the power of God in the Holy Spirit and we distributed to tracts to all. Many people commented that the “To You with Love,” tract was just what Malawians needed, a simple message of Gods love for the people. Isaac also preached in the afternoon and by the end of a wonderful afternoon there was a large group of new members of the Gospel harvest Church who would in time receive 12 Foundation Stones training. At the end there was an impromptu dance celebration by all to cap off a wonderful two day outreach.

The following day we returned to Lilongue to conduct a five day training course from the Foundation Stones. This being the second time we were teaching, we found the Spirit leading us to take the teachings deeper. The meetings visibly touched the lives of the attendees as we lived in the Lords presence during four classes each day. The attendees exercised their gifts of prophecy for the first time notably more than they had in our first course in November. As we taught these very receptive and simple people we found the Spirit moving, touching and changing us at the same time. Praise the Lord! We finished on Friday afternoon with a wonderful celebration, with spirit filled inspiration and gypsy dancing. (We had translated two songs, Jesus the Light and Love Your Brother into Chichewa.) The Spirit unified us together in a special way. Each attendee left with Bibles, many tracts and the Lord’s commission to go out and bring forth fruit, fruit that remains. John 15:16. As Maston emphasised, the mission is the heartbeat of the church and we reflected how as a Family this is an area we are also growing in.

We headed south that weekend for a further crusade near the town of Ncheu. We all commented that this seemed to be pretty “hard ground” as it was right by the main road and strewn with rubbish after a market the previous day. We set up to show the Jesus film and a fair crowd gathered and we held two meetings the following day. By the end many people had been saved, many tracts had been distributed and solid core of new church members had been identified. Praise the Lord!

On Tuesday Monday our last day in the area we visited a rural church over 100km into the bush. Three of its members had attended our seminar and one of them Charity had really touched our hearts by her faithful responses to the classes. We brought with us two bicycles; one for Mark, Charity’s husband, the pastor of the church and one for the new church we had pioneered the previous weekend. Many of the church members walk tens of miles to take the Gospel to new areas so these bicycles were a godsend for them.

Mark greeted us and was so grateful that his wife had had the opportunity to go through the course. He said that because of the impact on her life he felt that he too had attended. He mentioned his wife had been at the market the previous day passing out tracts and personal witnessing.

We had a little service during which we spoke, presented the bicycle to Mark and Charity and prayed for them with the congregation. What happened next was extremely humbling as members of the church each brought contributions forwards to us until we had a huge pile of food at our feet including rice, sugar and coffee which are expensive in these areas. We were speechless knowing how poor they were and felt very much that God had out given us on the whole trip. As the old quote goes, As we pour out. He pours in and we can never outpour Him!

We have each been deeply touched by working with these humble faithful rural Christians. We look forward to more crusades, more seminars and to working together to build a Bible school to service the whole of Malawi as well as neighbouring countries. We also look forward to translating more material into Chichewa including the Foundation Stones Bible Study Course and Activated Books. The future is as bright as the promises of God!