To all of our friends & family:

We send greetings from Lilongwe, Malawi Africa. Nora & I are both well and very happy to be here in Malawi, serving along side Pastor Tom Mambo of Calvary Chapel Lilongwe and working with many precious saints of the fellowship. We are seeing such wonderful growth within the fellowship in the knowledge of the Word of God and their acceptance of the Inductive Bible Study style of the” Azungu” (White) Pastor. I have been teaching on both Sunday morning in the Book of Ephesians & Wednesday night in the Book of Joshua and we are seeing the Body growing spiritually as well as numerically. The mid-week service on Wednesday night is also a Pot Luck night, where we get the opportunity to break bread or more accurately, Nsima, their national food staple. Pastor Tom has recently initiated an International Food series where other foods are introduced to the attendees. Last week. Nora and a group of women spent from 1PM to 6PM cooking Mexican food that Nora was teaching them how to prepare. Burritos, Pinto Beans, Guacamole and sopapillas for desert was the food fare of the night. I wish you could have seen the experience as they tasted food they have never tasted before and the expressions of their faces of delight! There was so much food prepared we thought we would have lots left over, but to our surprise, everything was eaten, and I mean everything! What a delightful evening of feeding on the Word of God, then experiencing a brand new style and taste of food by all except by Nora & I. This week, the Country of Choice is Italy, so pasta & sauce served over polenta (Italian nsima), cheese bread, and a salad with Italian dressing will be served. Desert will be Malawian sweet potato with hot tea. Based upon the response of last week where we had over 100 in attendance, we anticipate an equal or larger group again this week where we will be studying Joshua 6: 15-27, where we see the results of believing God and being obedient to His calling, even when we do not fully see the logic of doing as we have been instructed. This is what faith is all about!

There have been a number of things that have occurred since our last update report:

• A generous monetary contribution from a family in Monterey California that has allowed us to purchase about 300 Bibles to be distributed to the 29 church plants in villages around Lilongwe and in outlining areas.
• We have had a new DVD Projector donated along with the Jesus Video in Chichewa language which allows us to make evangelistic outreaches to outlining and remote villages.
• Miraculous conversion using the Jesus Video at the Lodge where we are staying. While Nora & I were conducting a meeting with a Christian brother, we set up our laptop computer with the Jesus video so his 22 year brother could be occupied while we met. Half way through the video, his brother called us over to explain he had never heard the gospel message truly shared before, and that his life would never be the same again! Hallelujah!!!!!!!
• We enjoyed entertaining a Christian couple from Idaho who accompanied us to visit Calvary Chapel Lilongwe and Faith Christian School, a Primary & Secondary school located and operated by CC Lilongwe. This family is related to a friend of ours who lives & works here in Lilongwe who wanted to see rural Malawi village life, where most of the population of Malawi lives instead just of all the tourist locations.
• Pastor Tom is in the process of selecting a new leadership team to help to lead the fellowship into a larger posture in the village of Mtsiliza, a village of over 30,000 people, and in the greater Lilongwe area. Training of these selected people will begin soon.
• Several evangelistic outreaches within the Mtsiliza area have gone very well with large participation from the Body of CCL and have resulted in a good number of new people attending Sunday morning services.
• Nora has begun a Bible Study series with the women of CCL and was the guest teacher this past Saturday at a group meeting of six different churches that meet together once a month. There were 65 women in attendance, Nora was very well received, and has been invited to speak to their group again next month.

There are several items of prayer needs:

• Finalization of obtaining our Work Permits by the Immigration Office. They have approved, but awaiting the installation of the new Director as the result of the National Elections of May 19th so he can sign off.
• That our Lord would resolve our vehicle situation so that legal action will not have to be decided by the courts.
• That we will be able to establish a working arrangement with a local Pharmacy to accommodate the medicine needs for the medical teams who come to serve here in Malawi.
• We have been invited to come to El Paso, Texas to be a part of the 50th Year High School Class Reunion celebration in September and we will be able to share about the Malawi Outreach Ministry. In addition to our sharing at the event, we hope to also sharing at churches in El Paso about the ministry here in Malawi. Please pray for wisdom in accepting this invitation as well as rearranging some of our scheduled activities to allow us to attend.
• Please pray for us as we have been invited to the American Ambassadors home/compound along with numerous other Americans living and working here in Lilongwe to celebrate the 4th of July. We want to represent the Lord well as we share about the work the Lord has us involved with here in Malawi. We are confident there will a number of unsaved people attending and we desire to be used of God as the Holy Spirit leads.

Since there are no real entertainment locations for us to make use of, so we have been renting movies to watch on our laptop back at our room at the Lodge. One of the movies we truly enjoyed and want to highly recommend to all of you is a National Geographic production of the plight and genocide of the Lost Boys of Sudan, entitled “God Grew Tired of Us”. This is a documentary of the genocide that has been going on for a number of years in the Sudan, concerning the goal and objective of the Moslem world of northern Sudan, attempting to eliminate the Christian population of the Southern Sudan. It is both heart wrenching, and at the same time heart warming to see what can be done when caring people are willing to get involved and help those who are being persecuted and murdered for their faith in Jesus Christ. Being here in Africa has allowed Nora & me to see first hand what poverty, prejudice, and tribal conflicts can produce without the opportunity to have a good understanding of the truth of the Bible and to share the whole counsel of God. The fields are white unto harvest, but the laborers are few!

We cannot possible thank you enough for all those who are praying for and supporting us in so many different ways! So, please accept this very inadequate attempt to express our sincere appreciation and to say to each one of you that we all share in this endeavor to be a blessing to the people of Malawi! We can only request that you continue to pray for us and the work here, for it is only through the faithful prayers of the saints that our Lord will respond to, so He may complete the work He desires to accomplish through the prayers of the saints!!!

God bless you all, and remember Jesus is coming back soon for His bride (us), so let us be about His work and agenda.

Love,

Steve & Nora