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!

Donations

Just a reminder to all of our precious financial supporters of the CC School of Ministry (Malawi Outreach), please begin to mail all donations & your checks payable to Ruth's Shawl and mail to Ruth's Shawl address at 1172 South Main St Box #354 in Salinas, Ca. 93901. As of January 1, 2013, Calvary Chapel Monterey Bay is no longer the receiving location of all donations due to tax laws pertaining to receiving funds for a non-employee.

We have, therefore, have joined under the Ruth's Shawl Non-Profit 501(c)3 corporation in the USA & under Ruth's Shawl legal status under the NGO Board, the Government agency here in Malawi. Calvary Chapel Monterey Bay is still our sending church & continues to support the ministry here in prayer as well as their continued financial support. This change of combining both ministries in reality has changed nothing, as we have always operated as a team ministry, using two different names in order to clarify the focus of each ministry.

To those of you who sent your gifts in Febraury to CCMB, they have forwarded these to us at Ruth's Shawl and they have been recorded accordingly. You will also recieve your Year-End Tax Dedutible Receipts from Ruth's Shawl for all gifts/donations for 2013 & beyond.

Thank you for your prayers & your financial giving, as we have said many times before, it is because of your faithfulness we are able to continue to minister here in Malawi as our Lord directs us to do! Here is what you are supporting, changing lives in the least, the lost and the last! So, we say a big, Zikomo Kwambiri to you all!!!!!



3-11-13

Malawi 2013

We arrived back in Malawi on February 7th, after spending 10 full & busy weeks in the States. Up & down all of California, Texas, & Washington State. 12 churches, 2 High Schools, 2 Elementary Schools, several Home Fellowships; numerous doctor appointments, and best of all, spent some very precious time with each of our four grown children, our 13 grandchildren, 7 great grandchildren, what a total blessing it has all been! We are so truly blessed of God and we are eternally grateful for His goodness towards us!!



We experienced some of the warmest greetings ever in each church and other venues where we shared this year , about what God has & is doing in Malawi Africa! People received us with open hearts & made us feel as a part of their respected church fellowships! They rejoiced with us in the reports of God's goodness which He is showering on Malawi & its people, and many people have expressed a genuine desire to come to Malawi to serve & see the work here in peron! This is something we are very excited about and we look forward to their arrival someday soon, prayerfully in 2013 and beyond.



We also wanted to take this opportunity to express our sincere & heart felt thanks for the generous outpouring of financial gifts, given for the work of the ministry here in Malawi from those churches we were privileged to share with, as well as our faithful donor base that have stood with us these past four years. There are not words that can adequately describe how grateful & blessed, both Nora & I are, with your faith in Jesus & your trust you have expressed in us! All we can do is to say thank you Jesus & Zikomo Kwambiri to each of you! Our promise to each of you is this, we will keep on keeping on until the Lord returns for us all or until He decides to take us (Nora & I) to be with Himself! We absolutely love serving our Lord here in Malawi, because we know, experiencially, this is where He has sent us to serve Him.


Some exciting good news is that all the crops that were plaanted on the newly acquired 8.13 acres in early December are almost ready to be harvested come late March & mid April. The crops are maize, ground nuts,(Peanuts) pumpkins,& sweet potatoes. It looks like all of these crops are going to result in a bumper harvest! PTL!!!! We also met with the architectual firm again this week and we are moving forward with plans to seeing the fence around the property to be going up after the harvest. This fence in its total footage will be approximately 1 mile in length in order to fence in the total acreage.



Our schedule for village outreaches will begin in March, with a number of new villages, as well follow up with those where we conducted our seminars last year. We have already conducted a Pastors & wives Conference for a local Baptist Church here in Lilongwe on 2/15 & 16th and I have been asked to start a weekly Bible study on a new T.V. station beginning operational viewing in July. We will begin a new weekly mentoring gathering of the young men & women of Flood Church very soon as well. We have also been requested by a local Pastor & its church leadership to consider conducting several different Seminars for their three churches in 2013.



So, all in all, 2013 has begun with a clear path of what is before us as of this moment in time and we understand that we must keep a close abiding fellowship with our Lord so we only follow His directions! We earnestly seek your continued prayers, love, & support for Malawi and for us persoanlly, that the Lord will keep us healthy & strong, so we can teach, train & disciple the people whom God has entrusted into our care!

Furlough

We left Lilongwe on Nov. 29th, arrived in San Francisco on Nov. 30th from Malawi, getting up at 5:30AM Malawi time, & getting into the condo here in Salinas, Ca,we clocked 39 hours. Tired, but we had great flights all the way. God has been so good to us and we praise His Holy Name!

We began the very next day with a Board of Directors meeting at 9AM PDT & we have been on the run since. We have spoken at the following churches since our arrival:

Sanctuary Bible Church in Carmel Valley Ca.
Grace Christian Chapel of Seaside, Ca.
Calvary Chapel Foresthill, Ca.
Lighthouse Fellowship in Pacific Grove, Ca.
Calvary Chapel Monterey Bay, Monterey, Ca.

To come:

Cornerstone Fellowship in Napa, Ca 12/23/12
Calvary Chapel Hollister,Ca. on 12/30/12
Calvary Chapel Visalia, Ca. on 1/6/13
Calvary Chapel Annual Missions Conference in Murrieta, Ca. 1/7/to 1/11/13
The Cross Church in Shell Beach, Ca. on 1/13/13
Stockdale Christian School in Bakersfield, Ca. 1/24/13
Trinity High School in Monterey, Ca. on 1/25/13
Calvary Chapel Salinas, Ca. on 1/27/13


We have also attended to our annual Medical check-ups such as :

Chiropractic Exam
Eye Exams
Hearing Aid Exam
Annual Check up with our Doctor of Internal Medicine
Dermatologists
Dentist
Allergist

and all of them with wonderful good reports!!!!

This week we are enjoying our time with our daughter & family in Vacaville, Ca. near Sacramento. Natalie is our oldest child, married to Greg Locastro, their two boys are Domenic & Sam. Natalie loves to cook & bake, & Greg also loves to cook the best Italian food you have ever tasted!! It has been in the 20's at night & high 50's during the day. Burrrrr! Tomorrow we will get to be with my older brother & wife, as well as several of their grown children & families. So blessed to be able to spend time with family!!!!!!

We have the blessing of spending Christmas week with our son Tom, his wife Mayra, & three of their children, Kayla, Jaeden, & Quinn in Salinas Ca. It is so good to be with some of our children & grandchildren. We will also be able to see most of our great grandchildren and we met recently for the first tme our newest great grandchild, Addison Mae, who was born this last May. She is a beauty, even if I say so myself! Her father is Ty Matthew Hurlbirt (1st grandson) & mother is Savannah.

Then the first week of January 2013 with our daughter Erin & family in Bakersfield, Ca. Erin is our youngest child & is married to Todd Brendlin, their children are Trevor Alan & Keely Grace. It is always a wonderful time to spend with them as well as getting the opportunity to speak at their Christian School in January. We might also get to see Trevor & Keely to play some of the sports activity.

Then the week of 1/14/13, we fly to Washington State to be with our daughter Kelly & her husband Lewis along with their daughters, Avery & Delaney. It will be really cold in Washington, but we also have the best time with Kelly & family. Really looking forward to Lew's B-B-Q pizza! Our daughter Kelly & both of their daughters love to bake, so probably will gain a few pounds, but with a smile on my face!

We will then return to Salinas in time to speak at Calvary Chapel Salinas on 1/27/13 and then wrap up our visiting in & around Monterey/Salinas before we head back to Malawi. Please be praying for us to enjoy all of our time with our family as well as be good ambassadors for Christ as we share at each of the venues described above. We love & appreciate each one of you for your love, prayers, & support!

Merry Chrstmas one & all, remembering whom we are celebrating, Jesus Christ, our Lord & Savior!! To Him be all the glory & honor! Amen.











This is what the ministry it is all about, teaching, training, & discipling in the villages of Malawi along with the young men & women who assist us in every element of the ministry!