Exciting times in Malawi

Well, as usual, there is much to praise our Lord for as we have seen Him go before us time after time, as He leads, guides & directs our steps to fulfill His desires to bless the country of Malawi. We have been working fervently for over three years to obtain the final approval of the Malawian Congoma & NGO Boards. These agencies are the two official groups that any foreign entity who come to Malawi must be approved by in order to legally minister in this country. So, as of this moment, we are in possession of both Certificates from these agencies and we are now officially registered and are in full compliance with the Malaian Government! PTL !!!! In addition, we were able to obtain our required Malawi Revenue Agaency TPIN number (Tax I.D.#. Wow, trying to get these approvals is a lot different here than in the States!! But, to God be the glory!

During the month of March, we have been able to do an outreach to a village in the Ntchisi District, about 2 1/2 hours out in a remote area to do a review of what this village has done with those things we had previously shared with them. We were overjoyed at hearing the different praise reports from the men & women of the village as well as the Head Chief & other village leaders(See photos) That were truly excited to share with us the things they had learned & put into application. Marriages restored, people sharing about now attending church with their spouses which was not the case before we came & shared the Gospel with them. And one of the strongest praise reports was the reaction of all the people who were able to view the Jesus Film we had shown on our last visit! They expressed they had no idea how Jesus lived much like they do today, walking everywhere, seeing cooking being done on open fires outdoors, that Jesus dressed very plainly, how He loved the people of that day, His healing miracles & most of all how brutal His death was on the cross! They asked that we be sure to bring it back to be shown again, so more of the surrounding villagers may come to see this powerful depiction of the life, ministry,death,resurrection, & ascension of our Lord Jesus!

On the Saturday before Easter Sunday, March 30th, we & our ministry team went to the Grace of God Orphanage to minster to the children in this orphanage. Timothy ministered to them in Chichewa the real meaning of Easter as to what & whom we celebrate. Then the team occupied the group in games, so much fun, & then we were able to provide them all with snacks & a Malawian drink called SOBO which is a Orange concentrate you mixed with water, & it is so tasty! It is not sold in the States, but it should be! Following all these activities, we were able to set up the equipment to show the Jesus Film. We went from a crowd of about 40 people to well over 300 people, as the people surrounding this orphanage began coming to see the movie. At the end of the film in the Chichewa language. At the end of the film, there is a presentation of the gospel & how to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord & Savior. At least 80% of all in attendance stood & recited the sinners prayer! Praise His Holy Name & tahnk you Holf Spirit for drawing all these new saints into your Kingdom!!!!!

Nora, myself & all of our team will be traveling on Monday, the 15th, to a remote vilalge to continue to build upon the foundation that has already been laid out, to witness the power of the Holy Spirit doing His work in the minds & hearts of His beloved people of Malawi. We have embarked upon having our Malawian team to do much of the teaching that will be given on our 5 day outreach. The people of our team are men &women whom we have worked with, trained, & discipled, to put them in a position to be able to teach their own people in the people's native tongue without the necessity of a translator. We are so proud of our team, for their love for Jesus Christ, their faithfulness over the past three years to be sharing their time & love on multiple outreaches, as we have ministered together in so many villages over the past three years, & to now see them stepping up to accept more responsibility in their journey & development in & with the Lord!

Our proposed building project of the Ruth's Shawl Pavilion Training Center is moving forward. When we were back in the States in December & January, we were blessed with a financial gift from a family to give us a jump start on this much needed Center in order to expand the number of people we can then teach, train & disciple in the years ahead of us before the Lord returns for us all! This project is estimated to take 18 months of construction time and the financial resourses needed are so far beyond our capacities, but God has asked us to believe that He is able to do this, so when it is built & in operaton, there will be no one who can take credit for it other than God Himself! (Ephesians 3:20) So, what can each of us do to be a part of God's desire to bless the people of Malawi? First of all, pray, for without prayer, nothing will happened! We need to seek His face & hear His voice, to listen quitely, then obey what He tells us to do. Secondly, take on this vision with excitement in order to share with others what God wants to do in this endeavor, word of mouth from a friend or family member is the very best means of communicating this project. Thirdly, if you are aware of companies, corporations, & Charities that invest in projects of this nature, please make contact with them to tell the story. If there is interest, we will be delighted to provide a full overview of the project including a computer generated slide presentation depicting the Center as it is designed to look like at completion.

Well, I have done it again, trying to share too much information in one setting. So, I will close for now, thanking each & everyone of you for your ongoing prayers, love, & finacial support. Without each of you, there is no ministry! In Chichewa we would say, Zikomo Kwambiri to you for your faithfulness! (Thank you very much is the translation) Hope you enjoy the photos!