Malawi Life

Hello from a very hot Malawi! Everyone keeps assuring us it will cool down soon, I think they are just being kind – never thought I would day dream about air conditioning!  

We’re just going to reflect upon the last 2 weeks. We’re both into full swing at work. Mark is busy helping with the accounting office and getting his head around how accounting works over here; his office is very quiet and very busy. Mine on the other hand is much more bustling and loud! I’ve been spending the last few weeks shadowing and observing the work of the family support outreach team which has been a combination of home visits and groups e.g. parenting groups. The project works in a very poor part of the city and it’s challenging to get your head around the level of need here, families and children not eating for days, child prostitution as a common means of making money to survive, child marriage, domestic violence an accepted part of the culture (for the men anyway!) – it could be very easy to be overcome with the needs in this country.

 Whilst Mark’s team is small (only 3 Malawians) I work with 8 Malawians and I’m trying to build relationship with them, they think it is wonderful that an expat volunteer is a Christian as they are not used to westerners being Christians.



An area of the City Laura visits




Parenting Class



On Easter Sunday we managed to borrow the project’s vehicle to drive to church. We decided to visit a church that has been recommended to us for being a Kingdom minded church. We both felt welcome and at home, it is a small church of about 40 people, a mixture of expats and Malawians. The city YWAM base is a few doors down from where the church meets and they kindly invited us back afterwards to have a Braii (or in English a BBQ). It was lovely to spend some time with them and hear a little about their work, the leaders spent 2 years at Pemba with Heidi Baker and this is reflected in their vision. They have invited us to attend a gathering in late May / early June in Blantyre for people throughout Malawi who are Kingdom / Holy Spirit minded for 3 days to encourage one another but also to have very little agenda for the 3 days aside from saying Holy Spirit come and see what happens!  

In terms of challenges we’re still adapting to community living, we’re used to having our own space so living, eating 2 meals a day together, working and spending most of your spare time with the same people 8 people is a new experience for us. On the whole everyone is friendly and everyone is inclusive of one another, it’s just different but for now it’s a great starting base for us as we transition into life here.

Our biggest prayer request right now would be to find a vehicle to buy. The compound we live on is right on the edge of the city down a very small rocky steep dirt track and the only way in or out is on a 4x4. The project has a vehicle that can be used on evenings and weekends but there are 10 volunteer sharing 1 vehicle for all food shopping, banking etc. so we try and be as sensitive as possible when wanting the car to go to church or to view cars. We’re scouring the internet daily for any that meet our criteria and as yet haven’t found the right ones or they’ve sold.

Overall we’re both feeling really comfortable living here, it definitely feels different than being on a trip, and we do feel like we’re living here. We hope all is well in the UK – love from the both of us x