October Update

Greetings from hot and dry Mzimba;

We are managing to stay busy here. The True Love Waits training was a great success. 14 presenters were trained and they gave the presentation at two schools. The first school was a private boarding school. We were only able to present it to the boys. To make sure they understood about the commitment card and just not signing it because everyone else was, we had them come talk to one of the presenters. The majority of the students attending the presentation signed the commitment card. Their commitment is to practice abstinence until marriage. The program also talks about faithfulness to your spouse. Two of the three teaches that were there monitoring the students wants to be trained to present the TLW material. This can possibly become part of the curriculum of this school.

The second school was pretty much the same success as the first. The presentation was given to a classroom of male and female students. The signing of the commitment cards was handled in the same way and most of the students made the commitment.

The presenters that were trained were separated into three teams. One team is from Mzuzu. This team consists of four members. The second team is from Mzimba. It is made up of seven members. There is a third team waiting to be formed in a village about 120kl from Mzimba. I say waiting to be formed because there was a pastor from that area here for the training. He is requesting that the Mzimba team come and help train some presenters.
An interesting side note, this pastor’s first name is Starvewell. There is another presenter named Gift, and he is just a natural at presenting the material. There is a person on the Mzuzu team named Sky. He is also very good. Gift and Sky are the leaders of their teams. The Mzimba team has already given a presentation and the Mzuzu team has one scheduled for Oct. 3. Please pray that the Lord will give these teams the opportunity to present True Love Waits and the students will be open to this new concept of behavior. Also pray that Pastor Starvewell will be able to form a team in his area.

We had the pleasure of attending the graduation for the Bible School students last weekend. It was so exciting to see the enthusiasm of these students, 22men and 1 lady, having successfully completed this two-year study. These men are now equipped to accept the leadership role when new churches are planted in the villages. Some are already serving in these positions and some will be going on to seminary. The major obstacle here in starting new churches is the lack of trained church leaders. Many village churches struggle because the person leading the congregation will move to South Africa in search of work. Pray that these new graduates will find the place God has for them to serve. Pray that they will inspire others to follow their example and enter the Bible School for training.

The wives of the Bible School students are meeting here in Mzimba this week. On Sunday afternoon, Miriam Pumpelly, taught of health matters. She is a nurse, mother of three, and the wife of Chad. They went through FPO and 40/40 with us. They live in Lilongwe and he will be teaching at the seminary there. We have been having a debate about who lives on the roughest road. After the Pumpelly’s drove to our house, he graciously conceded defeat. Now, back to the ladies. They will be here until Thursday, Oct.1. This is a great opportunity for them to gain some much-needed knowledge of the Bible. Pray for these wives as they return home and resume their daily activities. They need to start teaching the Bible to their children or encourage their husbands to do so.

The hot dry season has arrived. The Mzimba River is almost dry. You could walk across it and barely get your shoes wet. The significance of this is that many people depend on this river for water, including us. Out of the last four-days, we have only had water for a few hours. This has barely been enough for us to refill our tank. We will have much adjusting to do because October is the worse month for lack of water and this is just Sept. 29th. Who needs to take a bath every week anyway? God never told us this was going to be easy but He did tell us He would be with us. What else can we ask for? Pray that the people around Mzimba will be able to find water during this dry season. These people also need the Living Water, which is Jesus Christ.

The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in an earthen furnace, purified seven times. Psalm 12:6

There is a church here called the New Apostolic Church that will not even allow the members to bring their Bibles to church. They teach that no one except the apostles can understand the Bible and they have to be members of New Apostolic Church to receive salvation. When witnessing to them, they claim to be Christian only because of membership in this church. They have no idea of what it means to be saved by grace. There is much to be done here in Malawi. Pray that God will give the true Christians of Malawi a vision for witnessing and disciplining new believers. Many of these people who claim to be Christian will go to church on Sunday and to the witch doctor on Monday. They just add Christianity to their traditional African beliefs. Malawi appears to be a Christian country but when you get below the surface you discover that it is far from Christian.

We love all of you and enjoy getting your emails. Let us know what is happening in your busy lives. You are our link to home. We will also answer any questions you may have. Who knows, your questions may inspire a topic for a future update. Also suggestions, like, “Hey, your updates are to long”, will be appreciated.

Thanks for all your prayers. We use all of them.

Al and Claudia