We can’t quite believe in one week’s time we’ll be in Malawi, these last few months have gone so quickly! We plan to give more time to developing this Blog page when we move to Malawi, apologies for the lack of updates over the last few months, emigrating is a busy business!
We’re going to focus this update on 2 questions that we are asked most regularly currently. The first is what was your time in Bethel like? We’ve both found it difficult to convey in a nutshell and do our time there justice. We found it very valuable having three weeks away just the 2 of us and God away from all of the admin and preparation that comes with emigrating and just focusing on Him. God spoke to us a lot when we were there about Malawi and we will spend time in Malawi going back over all that was said and begin to process it, we both felt that God challenged us that we were not dreaming big enough and He quite literally blew our mind with a lot of the things He was saying, all very exciting! The church itself exceeded our very high expectations, they exist to host His presence and give away, quite literally to the world anything that they receive. The worship was like nothing we have experienced before, they have successfully created a church wide Kingdom culture, and with a church of 7000 they are very much family, we did not feel like visitors, we felt like part of their extended family whilst we were there. There is a lot more we could say and we hope to visit there again in the future years.
The second question is what will we be doing when we arrive in Malawi? Good question! We needed a Malawian organisation to sponsor a visa to enable us to live in Malawi. God has opened up an opportunity for us to volunteer and serve an amazing organisation working within a township on the outskirts of Blantyre (the city we’ll be living in), the organisation has Christian roots, if you have a few minutes please have a look at their website to get a feel of all that they do http://www.krizevac.org
A key part of their work is creating jobs for the local community through creating enterprising not for profit businesses. Mark will be serving in the Accounts Department that supports these businesses and his role will be some management accountant work alongside mentoring and supporting the Malawian accounts staff. The profits of these businesses are then sown into their Mother Teresa Children Centre which focuses its work on predominately orphans and vulnerable young children. Laura will be serving the Malawian family support team within this centre as a Social Work Trainer as well as establishing relationships with outside key individuals and organisations e.g. the Police and local Chiefs. Our heart is that as we serve this amazing organisation using our professional skills and experience that we also see His Kingdom come into that place, whether it be with our Malawian colleagues or with the people within the community it serves. Another part of this question is where will we be living? As volunteers the organisation provides us with a house within their staff compound which is living with a mixture of around 5 other expat volunteers and some Malawian staff.
A key part of their work is creating jobs for the local community through creating enterprising not for profit businesses. Mark will be serving in the Accounts Department that supports these businesses and his role will be some management accountant work alongside mentoring and supporting the Malawian accounts staff. The profits of these businesses are then sown into their Mother Teresa Children Centre which focuses its work on predominately orphans and vulnerable young children. Laura will be serving the Malawian family support team within this centre as a Social Work Trainer as well as establishing relationships with outside key individuals and organisations e.g. the Police and local Chiefs. Our heart is that as we serve this amazing organisation using our professional skills and experience that we also see His Kingdom come into that place, whether it be with our Malawian colleagues or with the people within the community it serves. Another part of this question is where will we be living? As volunteers the organisation provides us with a house within their staff compound which is living with a mixture of around 5 other expat volunteers and some Malawian staff.
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| Where Mark will be working! |
Alongside our work at Krizevac (which means Way of the Cross) initially we plan to acclimatise to the culture and learn how to live well there, attempt to learn the local language (prayers appreciated there for supernatural abilities!) We are trusting that over time God will begin to open up doors and make connections in relation to the other things we believe He has called us to do in Malawi, watch this space!
Prayer Points
There are two really practical elements of our move we’d love you to join us in prayer with, or, depending on your stance on prayer join with us in thanking God in faith that these things are already sorted!
Visa – We are entering Malawi on a tourist visa which we can renew up to a maximum of 90 days. During those 90 days Krizevac will begin the application of our work permit, we would LOVE it if our work permit is approved within those 90 days to prevent us from having to leave the country after 90 days.
Vehicle – Buying a vehicle isn’t quite as simple as it is in the UK! We want to purchase one ASAP in order to be independent and get around, and not be house bound. We really want to invest in the right vehicle (vehicles are probably at least twice the price as they are in the UK) and one that won’t need hundreds of pounds pouring into it to make it road worthy. So we’re trusting that God will bring along the right 4x4 at the right price at the right time!
Thank you and lots of love from us!
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