Looking back & looking ahead…

Looking back

Hello from Malawi! We can’t believe we have been here for 5 months now, it’s gone so quickly! When looking back at our time so far here in Malawi we are struck by the faithfulness of our Father and we wanted to acknowledge His goodness!

We’re so thankful to Father for:

• Providing us with a great vehicle. As we continue to meet new people they always remark how we’ve got the best vehicle for Malawi & comment what great condition it is in. we certainly weren’t looking for a Hilux in our car search but Father knew what the best was for His children and now we have it we are so thankful for it and wouldn’t swap it for anything else!
• A home – we love our home! Father has been so good, it’s such a great central location, we have great neighbours (a family from the Congo, one of whom is a doctor, handy!), great value rent, great condition (not at all guaranteed for properties in Malawi) and enough space for us to host visitors comfortably.
• Church – we are SO thankful that Father led us to our church family. They are pursuing the advancing of His Kingdom in Malawi, seeking to host and release the presence of God, fully pressing into the supernatural, spiritual gifts are used every week, we feel really at home there and released to be ourselves!
• Easy initial transition – so far we have both genuinely found the transition to living here easy and have had an overriding sense of peace since we arrived
• Language learning – whilst this is by no means coming to us naturally we have found a great Christian language teacher who is brilliant and we have a good laugh with each week, much needed in the midst of trying to get our heads around Chichewa grammar! Through generous donations from two wonderful couples the cost of our language lessons have been met for the foreseeable future, thank you!
• Lessons from Father – the most important thing to be thankful for! We knew Father wanted to use our first few months to teach us things and we have learnt so much about Him since moving here and with all of the comforts and ease of western living removed we’re having to rely upon Father a lot more than we ever did previously and subsequently are much closer to Him and hearing His leading more.   

Looking ahead…    

As we’re shared previously we both felt very strongly that Father told us to not pursue any ‘ministry’ opportunities during our first few months and use this time learning from Him which we have done and enjoyed resting in His Presence.

However, five months on, we both feel that Father is beginning to bring us into a season where we feel His release to begin to push doors and see where He leads us in terms of ministry. Following a ‘coincidence’ conversation with a director of an organisation they were describing a need in their ministry and what she described was exactly the kind of thing we have a heart to do……so we’re just beginning to have initial talks and push the door to see if Father opens it. When we know something more concrete we’ll share!

We’ve also both been asked to join our churches preaching rota, so we’re looking forward in the coming weeks and months serving and sharing what we feel Father wants to say to our church family.

Jonah, one of the Church Leaders with Mark

We’ve joined a house group where we’re listening to an amazing teaching series about keys to hearing the voice of God; we’re loving the teaching but also loving the opportunity to encourage and lead others in this area. We’ve just joined a group of people in church going through Bill Johnson’s ‘Hosting His Presence’ teaching series and these evenings have been a great opportunity for us to minister, prophesy and see people experience freedom through using some of the Sozo tools (If you’re not familiar with Sozo, Google Bethel Sozo UK) as well as the both of us continuing to receive revelation from the amazing teaching about Father’s Presence.

We were also invited to spend half a day with the local YWAM base doing some teaching and ministry. They have 5 bases throughout the Southern region in Malawi and the leaders from all the bases were gathered that morning. Mark led a bible study on intimacy with God and we did some 1:1 ministry with those who felt prompted to respond to the word. I (Laura) then led a session on recognising lies that we believe and asking Father to shine a light on those lies and ask Him what the truth was. Again, it was great to see people released from lies from the enemy and be set free into the freedom of the truth about how Father sees them! We finished our session by seeking Father for prophetic words for people individually and again Father graciously spoke and ministered to His children.

Some of the YWAM Teams, there are a mixture of Locals and other Nations

And finally we’re looking forward to spending a couple of days with the Dalitso Trust team in October, this is the amazing project that we were regularly visiting before our move here and we’re so excited to see the team again and minister and encourage them.

So that’s us currently! We’re both really well, enjoying life here but also looking forward to visiting friends and family in December.

Prayer point:  

We’d love it if you would join with us in praying and declaring Father’s will & favour over our visa situation. We’re currently on a temporary visa that lasts until December. Beehive are now working on the application for our 2 year visa, we would LOVE this to be in place before we travel back to the UK in December so we don’t encounter any problems re-entering Malawi. Usually visa applications here are fraught with difficulties and we’ve been informed Immigration have been directed by the Government to issue considerably less of the type of visas we are applying for. Also, we’re aware these applications can drag on for up to 18 months. BUT, our Father is way bigger than the Malawian immigration department so we are believing and declaring for a miraculous and speedy granting of our visa/ permits!