Hello from quite a cool Blantyre! We’re being reassured it
is unseasonably cold for this time of year so we’re waiting for it to warm up
so I can get back into summer dresses as opposed to woolly jumpers!
We’ve been here about 10 weeks now. In one sense it has
flown by, in another, it feels like we’ve been here much longer. We’ve both
talked about how we’ve (so far!) transitioned really easily and feel very at
home here in Malawi. We think this is a combination of being in the centre of
God’s will, there is always peace there, combined with our previous short term
trips and having a number of close friends having lived here before and sharing
the realities of life here, good and bad! We’re both really grateful to Father
that the move has so far been an easy one to make, long may it continue! We’re
totally used to and unphased by driving on constant alert (dodging children, cyclists,
mad (& unsafe & at times drunk) drivers, goats, wild dogs, monkeys,
cows, bulls – although the bulls aren’t so much fun, we wait for them to get
out of the way), regular police blocks on the roads, power cuts, being hounded
by sellers jumping on us as soon as get out of the car in town wanting to sell
us usually mops, brooms and fruit, things working very slowly or not at all –
it’s all part of life here and wouldn’t swap it for life in the UK!
We’ve been asked what
does a typical day / week look like? If you ask us this question in a years’
time we suspect the answer will be very different, but currently we are
enjoying this initial quiet season as God works on us as people in preparation
for the work He has for us in Malawi. Our week begins with attending what is
known as ‘Assembly’, about 100 of the 400 people who work and volunteer for the
project we serve come together and each department takes turns in running the
assembly. It usually consists of a bible reading, a short talk based on the
passage and then a worship song performed by a choir. The remainder of Monday – Wednesday are spent
serving in our respective departments (Children’s Centre and Accounts Department)
at the Beehive Project and Mother Teresa Children Centre. We have language
lessons on Thursday afternoons which we are both really enjoying, we love our
teacher (Fanny) she goes at our pace, is a brilliant teacher and encourager and
we have a good laugh with her too.
 |
| Fanny and Mark with some of our Notes |
Whilst we are far from being fluent we can see progress each
week as we learn more, we’re able to construct fairly simple sentences,
questions and most of the (many) different greetings within the culture here. The
remainder of our Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays are spent doing language
homework, everyday boring jobs like food shopping, bits and pieces that need
doing with just moving here, so for example, arranging our local driving
licences and searching for a rental home here.
There is no Rightmove here in Malawi! Right now we wish
there was, I’ll never say a bad work about British estate agents again. Trying
to find a house here is an experience, similar to buying cars it’s a time
intensive job of scouring websites, Facebook pages, word of mouth, using
Malawian agents etc etc! We’ve seen a wide range of houses from terrible
conditions with huge holes in ceilings, ones with huge amounts of land (far too
much and not great security wise) through to really nice ones manageable ones. As
yet we’ve not found the right one, we found what appeared to be a perfect one
but then the landlord was going to increase the rent way out of or price range,
we viewed another last week that we both loved but God clearly told us it wasn’t
the right one (to our disappointment!), He keeps telling us to trust Him, which
we do. He’s always provided us with absolutely the right houses in our marriage
so we have no reason to doubt He is not going to bless us again with the right
house here, it’s just a matter of finding it!
Whilst Father has made it really clear that our initial time
here is to be spent not doing ministry but being in His Presence allowing Him
to mould us for what is ahead, we both feel like He is saying to use some of
the time we are not working to begin to prepare and write teaching / training
for what is ahead. We both believe that this teaching is to be about knowing
who our Good Father is, our identity as sons and daughters of Father God, inner
healing and being aware of lies that we may be believing, freedom and
deliverance and supernatural Kingdom ministry. As most of you know, our heart
is to deliver this teaching to Malawians who are in a position of church
leadership. As yet we don’t know when or how this will start but we know it
will be in Father’s perfect timing.
We met a great couple recently who have been serving
throughout Africa for decades. They gave us some great advice and wisdom about
registering a ministry organisation here in Malawi, the process sounds a little
like registering with the Charity Commission in the UK. We have both always
felt that we will start something new here in Malawi as opposed to join a
current missionary organisation or NGO, although we would be happy to partner
with other organisations that share our values as its about building His Kingdom.
By registering an organisation here this
should (in theory) allow us as the directors of that organisation to gain
permits to live here. We both feel that firstly we will start the training
which we feel led to call ‘Malawi School of Supernatural Ministry’. However, we
both feel that we should register the name of the organisation as something
less specific which would then allow us to start other ministries if and when
we feel led by Father. We feel Father is leading us to name it ‘His Presence –
Malawi’ (spot the connection with the blog title!). We know and are learning
more and more that everything we do has to be done out of His Presence, and His
Presence is what Malawi, and every nation needs. We both currently don’t have a
sense of timing or a sense that it is right to start the registration process
now, but He will make that clear. We’ll continue to enjoy this quiet, hidden
season being moulded by Him as He prepares us!
We’d love it if you’d pray into the following areas:
- Certainty about the right house, and release of Heavenly financial provision to be able to meet the cost of running a house
- Continued clarity of Father’s leading in this initial season
With love
Mark and Laura
No comments:
Post a Comment