Malawi Outreach Ministries

It has been much too long since we have posted to our blog, but wait until you read this blog posting to have a better understanding of why! Gary Guthrie from CC Napa & SF arrived April 12th to begin work on some of Ruth's Shawl widows houses in Area 44. Gary was with us for two months doing reconstruction of mad & brick house that was ready to fall down before his arrival.This project alone took almost 5 weeks of hard work. He also travel with us as we went out to remote villages to do week long outreaches with a team of 7-10 people where I ministered to Pastors, Elders, church leaders, Nora ministered to the women & widows of the villages, Timothy ministered to the Children & Youth leaders from the villages, & the rest of the team ministered to the children with games, activities & the Word of God. These villages included:

* Chisanja, Chipolopolo, Chipahzi, Tembwe, Mlesi, Nsambiamfa,& Nsambeta Primary School Special Needs Classes with severely handicapped children.

These outreaches are for a week a a time where we stay in the area the length of the outreach. Our initial visit is to lay a foundation based upon we find the depth of their Biblical knowledge. Then we teach on subjects that we find where their biggest needs may exist. If the village(s) are cooperative, well attended & we find that they truly interested in growing more, then we make a date to come back to build upon this foundation that has been laid.

Then a team from North Carolina led by Pastor Brad Wright of the Glennview Baptist Church arrived on May 15th for 10 days where we ministered at:

Nsambeta Primary School at the Special Needs Classes as well as the Bible Club Ministry we conduct every Friday at this school with a student population now at 5110 students. Pastor Brad also spoke at the African Bible College at the Evangelism Explosion Building to a large group of students & he also conducted the morning devotion for the entire student body along with the ABC staff & faculty. On the next Saturday this team went to minister to the Ruth's Shawl widows & orphans in Area 44. On Sunday following church services at Flood Church Malawi, we & the entire team headed to Tembwe, a village near Lake Malawi to do a four day outreach, using the same format as described above. The outreach was a total success as Pastor Brad & I shared teaching, & one of the team was a medical assistant, who was able to treat men, women & children everyday we were there as there is always medical needs that so evident in each village we get to visit! The rest of the team conducted a VBS for the all the children from 12 villages that attended the conference. Nora, Timothy & the remainder of our Malawian team ministered to the same type of audience as noted earlier.

On June 7th, Gary Guthrie left after spending two months with us & Robin Hughes, Chair of the Ruth's Shawl Ministry arrived that same day. Robin was here for 20 days on her first visit to Malawi in person. Her visit was to see the ministry in operation and to coordinate with Nora the ongoing ministry of Ruth's Shawl here in Malawi On June 12th Professor Judith Canner of Cal State University Monterey Bay & CC Monterey Bay, our home church, arrive for a 5 week visit. Judith's time with us with filled to the brim as the day she arrived, we had her out in Area 44 to minister & the following day we made a 1 day Preliminary trip to the village of Mlesi to set up the week long conference later that month. One of the Ruth's Shawl widows has had a medical condition, two days later, Judith was on her way with us to take our widow to a Hospital that is located 2 hours from Lilongwe to have a Biopsy performed. That next Sunday, we were off to teach at a church location about 45 minutes from our house at one of the Pastor's Church who attended my first School of Ministry classes in 2010. Great little church & a wonderful group of believers.

Judith was also privileged to to be able to speak at the African Bible College Campus to students on the role of a "Christian student in Academics", at the Evangelism Explosion Building on the ABC Campus & a wonderful response from those students in attendance. Then then conducted a series of classes at the Nsambeta Primary School for all the teachers on how to teach Math to primary students here in Malawi. Math is a much neglected subject here, & this is a subject that they requested assistance which Judith was able to provide for them! She also accompanied the team to another week long outreach to the village of Mlesi, where she assisted Nora in the teaching of the women & the widows.

On June 28th, Dr. Chris Hansen arrived from Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula to work at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Blantyre for two weeks & then here in Lilongwe for 10 days. We were able to visit a number of hospitals together & we also gather the doctors for evening at our home for dinner & a round table of discussions of what the major needs are in each of the medical sites and how we might work together to assist one another in accessing more meds & equipment for the very needy hospitals & medical clinics here in Malawi. A very fruitful time together & with a basic plan to move forward on the plan of action.

Then we were excited to see Lana Lynn & Sarah LeWarne arrive for the dedication of the Elizabeth Tolhurst Library for Hope Home Ministry. This was both a glorious time & yet, a very sad occasion. The glorious time of seeing a special event being dedicated to the life of a very special young woman, Elizabeth Tolhurst, who went home to be with our Lord in 2011, but the extremely tragic & completely unexpected death of Elizabeth's father, Mark Tolhurst, just before he & his wife Robyn were to depart for Malawi for this occasion. I was able to attend this very special event, as both Nora & I were extremely close to Elizabeth & her parents!! It will a day of great remembrance in my life to have been there & see this dedication of a special library in honor of a extremely godly young woman who lived her entire life praising her Lord & Savior Jesus Christ!

Then to cap all this off, our Malawian son Timothy & his bride to be, Maureen, exchanged wedding vows on July 28th, followed by a reception attended by 300+ people. If you have never attended a Malawian Reception, you have not experienced an event like no other you have ever seen. We have seen many unusual celebrations, including being in a number of foreign countries over the past 36 years. Absolutely nothing compares to this event, it is a wild experience to say the very least!! We were blessed also to have John & Pam Lane form the U.K. here with us for a week so they could attend Timothy's wedding. Great to getting to know them in person as they have been friends of Timothy's since 2007.

So, this last week, we have try to calm down the running around, get paper work done that has been left undone, & at the same time re-cooperate our very tired bodies & minds! On August 13th, Nora & I are taking off a week to go get some real R & R as well as celebrate our 53rd wedding anniversary which was on July 24th. We are really looking forward to getting away for a short time!!

Prayer requests:


Please pray for our get away, that we can truly experience some restful days & enjoy the beauty of Lake Malawi, a gorgeous lake, 365 miles long & 50 miles wide, with one of the largest species of fresh water fish, over 400 species of birds, and abundance of wild life in & around the lake.

Funds needed to assist a wonderful Malawian young woman to finish her college this coming school year as there has been a 50% devaluation the currency here & school fees are now prohibitive for so many students. ($800 per semester)

Funds needed to purchase Bibles for the village outreaches.(Bibles are $9.00 per)

Funds needed to purchase the Proclaimer, a unit manufactured by "Faith Comes By Hearing" in the USA, that has the audible Bible, solar powered, in the Chichewa language, as so many of the villagers cannot read or write. It has proven to be wonderful addition to the work we do in the villages. Each unit is $100.

Prayer for our next team arriving on September 11th from cc Forest Hill Ca., Pastor Mike, his wife Stephanie, & their three children. They have had a ministry of puppets for many years & they have been encouraged of God to come to Malawi to minister & to train our Malawian team of the ministry of puppets, which will be so valuable to village ministry!!!!

Our heartfelt thanks to all of you who love us, pray for the work in Malawi & those who help support the work here financially. Without each of you, there would be no ministry here in Malawi. God bless & keep you all in His loving arms!

In Him,

Steve & Nora

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                       

May 28 2012 Malawi Outreach Ministries Update

April & May have been very busy fruitful and extremely exciting as we have been able to reach several villages for our week long conferences, as we witnessed the Holy Spirit working in the lives of the saints in these remote villages. We were in the village of Chipolopolo, to do a follow up to see how they were applying the teachings & resources we had provided them when we last there for our week long conference. We were so blessed to hear the amazing stories being shared with us on the transformation that had taken place since last November. Accounts of renewed marriages, forgiveness of people who had wronged them, different churches spending time getting to know one another & focusing on what they had in common Biblically & not their difference.Pastors sharing how they have taken new Biblical truths they had learned & are now teaching their respective fellowships in a confident & powerful manner!

We then did a week long outreach in Chisanja, in the Ntchisi District, to a group of 8 churches, including pastors, elders & Youth leaders in the churches, with a total attendance of 89. We had an additional 900 children to minister to as well, as the adult sessions were taking place was taking place in the church building, led by Timothy, Ben, & Danny, our young Malawian team of dedicated Christian men who love to minister! The lead pastor, whose name is Mphatso, has a large fellowship here in Chisanja as well as 14 additional fellowships he is responsible to oversee. A real man of God, with a heart for the people. We are planning on doing an additional outreach to these 14 Pastors, so we can present the IBS training. A well recieved & very fruitful outreach!

We then had an outreach to a village in the south of Malawi, named Chiphazi, located at the base of a large mountain range, in a Forest Reserve area containing a huge protected forest of large Pine & Eucalyptus trees. There were 10 churches and 75 attendees in this beautiful forest setting. Another wonderful outreach, with great attention to the studies being given by taking copius notes, wonderful, thoughtful questions regarding the subject matters being taught. We were requested to pray for several severely handicapped children, women with serious medical issues. Just a generally warm & thoughtful group of Christian brothers & sisters in Christ! After the teaching on the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of a beleiver, all the women (50) ask for prayer to receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit

In May, we had a one day set up meeting in the village of Tembwe, located in the Salima region near Lake Malawi in preparation of the team from North Carolina arriving to minister with Malawi Outreach Ministries & Ruth's Shawl Ministry . Their first week was spent in Area 44, where Ruth's Shawl ministers with 39 widows & about 350 orphans. They also taught one Friday at the Primary School in the same area where the student population is 4880 students. Ruth's Shawl runs Bible Club ministry at & in the school rooms. The school also has a Special Needs class of 30 students, from mild to severely challenged students. The team ministered the first week all in Area 44 at each location noted above. Pastor Brad Wright, who led the team also had the opportunity to do one of the Chapel Services at the African Bible College, & also held a 7PM Forum for the college students as well as those from our church we attend. The Evangelism Explosion Building at African Bible College was packed & he had a great response from these young Malawian men & women who are preparing for ministry after graduation. The second week was with the Malawi Outreach team & the visiting team spent the remainder of their their time in the village of Tembwe where we ministered to 100 pastors, elders, youth leaders from 10 different churches. Attendance was consistent, the attendees took very good notes, asked good questions during the Q & A time, & we all felt the receptiveness of those in attendence was excellent. Our format was as follows:

* We showed the Jesus Film on the first night.
* We ran two teaching sessions in the morning & two in the afternoon each day.
* Youth Ministry taught by Timothy Kailedzi to 8 Youth leaders.
* Medical Outreach done by one of the visiting team members.
* VBS was run by the visiting team members to 400 children.
* We also donated Bibles in Chichewa to the Pastors & Elders.

We have also been blessed by the arrival of a brother, Gary Guthrie,from CC S.F. & Napa Ca. He has begun a work on repairs of the Ruth's Shawl widows in Area 44, as well as going out on the outreaches to the remote villages. He has done an outstanding job, not under the best of conditions here in Malawi. It is most certainly not anything like the USA as to being able to get quality tools, lumber, experienced help, & the list goes on & on, but he has run the race well. We are so grateful for Gary & all his very hard labor of love while he has been here for almost two months! Gary has also organized the tools & procedures to follow for those who may be comning in the future to continue the house repairs of the Ruth's Shawl Widows.

We are expecting the Chairperson of the Ruth's Shawl Ministry, Robin Hughes, who is due here on June 7th, followed by Professor Judith Canner from CSUMB, & a precious sister fro CC Monterey Bay, our home church. Later in June, we are expecting Dr, Chris Hansen from CHOMP Hospital in Monterey, who will be working with the two major Hospitals in Malawi, Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Blantyre, & Kamazu Central Hospital in Lilongwe.

So, all in all, we have been & will remain busy doing the work of ministry we have been called to here in Malawi by the grace of God. We started earnestly praying for individuals & teams to come to Malawi to minister along side of us since last June. When we were home on furlough last year, we encouraged all who would listen to us to come, & look at what God has done to answer our prayers. We also have teams coming in August, September, & in October. Wow, what an awesome God we serve!

Please be praying for our continued good health, strength, vision, & attention to the Holy Spirit, to make sure we are following His lead, not going on our own wisdom. There are so many needs in Malawi, & we would like to mention just a few for your prayers:

1. For our Lord to raise up more long term, called people of God, to come serve here along side of us.
2. For many more Malawians to be raised up to be trained to expand the ministry into so many more villages.
3. For medical teams to come to assist in the awful conditions found in every village, that have no resources to get the proper
medical assistance they so desperately need!
4. Financial assistance for students who desire to go for their education. The Malawi Kwacha has been devalued by 59% over the
past year, making it so very hard to continue their education due to lack of financial resources.
5. For the new President of Malawi, Joyce Banda,a Christian woman, who has inherited a true mess from the former President who
died suddenly in April. That she might continue to be led by the Holy Spirit, as she leads this nation back to stability
that has been missing for several years!

Thank each one of you who faithfully pray for the ministry & for us personally. To those churches & individuals, who faithfully support the ministry financially, we say Zikomo Kwambiri to all of you! We cannot do the ministry God has called us to, without all of your involvement! To Him be the glory forever & ever!!!!!!

Outreach to the village of Msambiamfa

When one experiences & is aware of the Holy Spirit working among His people, it is an extra - ordinary blessing! Well, that is exactly what happen in our Outreach on 3/25/12 to 3/29/12 This village is located in the Ntchisi District, which is about 2 hours north of Lilongwe where we live. It is in a remote, mountain area, with dirt roads that have been destroyed by all the heavy rains we have has this year in Malawi. We just read a report that in the last storm, over two hundred homes have been ruined & washed away during the heavy rain & strong winds!

But God...... He allowed us to reach this village with some difficulty, but safely, & no automobile problems. (Thank you Lord for a 4 wheel vehicle. When we arrived, we were warmly welcomed by the church & local leaders, as well as 6 Chiefs of this village & surrounding villages. We had in attendance 175 people, 85 were women, & the rest made up of the men. There were in addition approximately 200+ children & 50 young adults of High School age.

We are attaching a photo log so you can see their faces, & the conditions associated with living in a very poor country & village. That being said, they are very gracious loving people, with joy being openly expressed upon our arrival! Our teaching was to the whole community; Men, women, children & young adults. My attention of teaching was to the churches Pastors & leaders, Nora to the women & also special time with the widows, Timothy with the Children & Youth leaders, & two other young Malawian men ministering to all the young ones!

Glorious is the one word that comes to mind regarding this outreach & this village! When the conference was over, the leaders of the communities all stood up & thank us so richly for the quality of the teachings, how we conducted ourselves among all the different churches represented, & pleaded with us to return very soon to build upon the foundation that had been laid! The Head Chief of the area, who all the other Chiefs report to for direction & leadership, then got up to share. We were amazed & blown away by his comments. He indicated that when outside people come to their villages from time to time, they are never very enthused with the content of what they have to share with them & the people. However, he, as well as all the other Chiefs came everyday because they heard the teachings which were so badly needed for all of them to hear & they learned so much! Then he indicated that we are welcome anytime in their villages, & please come back as soon as we can! He then said that he & all the Chiefs will make sure that the whole area of villages will be informed and the Chiefs will be very active in desiring to see their people being blessed with the Word of God taught by people who clearly loved the Word of God & were able to share it in a manner that they can easily understand & believe!

Then, one of the most emotional encounters we have ever experienced here in Malawi took place. As we were saying our heartfelt good-byes, they asked to wait a few minutes, they had something to present to us. All the women left the building for a couple of minutes, then returned in single file, singing their beautiful Malawian worship songs, their hands filled with produce from their gardens to bless us with out of gratitude for coming & sharing the Word of God with them! We had a large Chinese bag with us that was filled with their gifts for u; corn, pumpkins, beans of many different varieties, cumcumbers & etc. All any of us could do, with our eyes filled with tears of joy, was to look each woman as she passed by us, to hug them & say, Zikomo Kwambiri!!!!! Blown away is the term we have all used to describe our emotions!

God is so good to us & we are truly blessed by our Lord as well as the team He has has surrounded us with, to work side by side, to accomplish His will & be a blessing to His people of Malawi. Continue to pray for us, the team, the country of Malawi, & all its people, that they all may come to a real understanding of how much God truly loves them, & how important it is to know & understand the Word of God!

We have not had any petrol or diesel delivered to the entire country in two weeks. We cannot to go out to the remote villages without fuel, so please be praying that our Lord will intervene in this matter & provide us with what we need to continue His work here in Malawi. We love & appreciate your love, your prayers, & your support of the ministry. Without the leading of the Holy Spirit & your involvement, holding the rope across the ocean, half way across this earth, we cannot do His will. To God be the glory, now & forever! Amen & Amen!