Belated Update

Hi and apologies for the belated blog - we hope you are all OK!

Day to Day Life

We’re both really well. We continue to enjoy living in Malawi and feel very peaceful knowing we are in the centre of Father’s will being here.

We’re now entering the hotter time of the year, currently it’s around the early 30’s during the daytime and doesn’t really go below the low 20s during the night, bit of a shock and adjustment for our British bodies, and it’s only going to get hotter; I know you’re all thinking oh poor them with their continuous sunshine but we do miss a bit of fresh air!

One of the practicalities of living in the poorest country in the world is the poor infrastructure, one being the power supply. We’ve been experiencing power cuts for a while now, but recently they’ve been getting much longer, yesterday for example our power was off for 17 hours, and it is usually on when we are sleeping. This makes putting the laundry on, cooking (electric cooker – no mains gas here), heating up water for showers etc, using the internet and charging things very challenging along with keeping food fresh in the fridge. We’re having to think of how to adapt certain things for example storing food and cooking, I think we’ll be living off salads and BBQs every day! The novelty of living by candlelight is starting to wear off slightly but living without power is just one of the realities of life in Malawi and actually we’re in a very small minority of the population that even has access to electricity so we are very privileged compared to the majority of the Malawian population.   

Ministry

Beehive Project in Chilomoni - Our work at Beehive continues to go well and the project continues to make a real difference to the township and it’s a privilege to be able to contribute to the work serving some of the poorest people in Malawi.   

Dalitso Trust – Malingunde We have just returned from a trip north to Lilongwe where we had the amazing privilege of spending 2 days with the team at the Dalitso Trust, this if the project that we have been visiting previously on our trips. It felt like going ‘home’ and it was so lovely to see them all again; they have decided that although God has called us to live in Blantyre, Malingunde will always be our home village here in Malawi!




Laura teaching the Dalitso Team



We spent some of our time hearing updates from their work and WOW, they are seeing the Kingdom come in their communities. Although we have only played a very small part over the years in inputting into this team we felt so proud of them, of how they have grown over the years & how they are now (to use a Vineyard phrase) well and truly ‘Doing the Stuff’! What they are doing is what we long to see, Malawians understanding Kingdom culture and then bringing God’s Kingdom to their communities.

Between us we delivered teaching & ministry around renewing our minds, recognising lies of the devil we might be believing and replacing these with the truth about what Father God says about us and our significance as individuals in the Kingdom. We were blown away & humbled by some of the feedback from the teaching: “My heart has changed”, “You have preached life”, “I believed I was poor as my friends from town are more educated and have small cars but I now know this was a lie from the enemy, I now know the truth is that I am rich and educated in bringing Heaven to Earth!”

 

Mark teaching the Team





Developing areas of ministry - We’ve recently realised that Father has been using in another area of ministry without us being intentional about it at all. Before we moved out we had a number of prophecies that we would be a ‘burning bush’ to other missionaries out here and they would come to us for refreshing / ministry. This had never really been on our agenda and in moving here it’s not something that we have sought out, but we realised a few weeks ago that we’ve actually been doing this without realising it! Life out here as a missionary can easily become a very isolated and lonely place and one where you give out all the time, with the added pressure of living in a culture that is so very different to the West. We feel honoured to be able to input into the lives of some of these amazing missionaries & encouraging them to keep advancing God’s Kingdom in their ministries; we’re not seeking people out but just allowing Father to connect us in His way with others as and when He desires.

 

We shared in our last blog that we were exploring a possible opportunity to partner with a ministry which works in two rural locations both about an hour’s drive outside of Blantyre. We’ll be able to share more in our next blog but discussions are going well between their directors. Part of it will include training rural church pastors amongst other areas of serving with a particular emphasis around spiritual growth and discipleship. We’re currently visiting this project on a weekly basis but if discussions continue going well we can see us giving more of our time to partner with this ministry. More details to follow in the next blog!

Church – We love our church! It’s so focused on seeing the Kingdom come to Malawi! Mark had the privilege of preaching a few weeks back at our church and is preaching again this coming Sunday.

Visit to England – We are returning to England for 3 weeks over December arriving on the 9^th. We’re soooooo looking forward to catching up with family and some friends this time as well as looking forward to a proper full English breakfast, fish & chips, decent cheese and continuous power and water! With it being such a short visit unfortunately we won’t be able get to see everyone we would like to, so apologies in advance, we’re splitting our time between family and then friends in Milton Keynes.

Prayer Points / Support

Thank you so much for standing with us in prayer – it is highly appreciated! This month’s prayer points are:

• Our visa situation – we will share more in our next blog but due to unexpected circumstances our application for our visa has not been submitted yet (long story!), we just want to declare God’s will over that side of living here.

Continued receiving of Heaven’s financial provision - God always equips those He calls! We have some amazing individuals and families that sponsor us on a monthly basis which allows us to live out here and serve. With the new ministry we are serving with, due to their location being much more remote & rural location our current monthly income doesn’t cover the fuel costs to get us there and back. Approximately £50 a month would cover this new additional cost. We would ask as well as praying if you would consider partnering with us in this & give an amount on a monthly basis towards this new additional cost. If this is something you feel led to do please find details of how to give on the ‘Support’ page of this blog.