Considering the limitations which COVID-19 has placed on us all.We are grateful to the Lord for the tremendous interest in Gospel literature in Malawi. After a long Covid-related delay in customs, our literature container was finally released at the beginning of March, and brothers Harold and Goodson set about supplying our nearly 200-strong network or literature distributors with calendars and tracts. By the end of the month almost all 500,000 calendars, and a very significant proportion of the 1,000,000 tracts, had been distributed, so much so that we have had to arrange printing of a further 600,000 tracts in Malawi to try to meet demand in the coming months.
After a short pause due to the rainy season, the development of the site at Saidi is about to resume. Our immediate priorities for the next few months are:
Completion of the perimeter security wall (about 300m).
Erection of a suitable meeting place for Children's work and Bible Studies/Gospel Meetings.
Provision of office accommodation for translation work and additional storage for literature.
Thereafter, we would like to provide necessary accommodation to host long-overdue, and much-needed Bible teaching conferences. Our conferences have been interrupted for three years now (2019 -due to the Presidential elections; 2020/21 -due to the pandemic) but we would like to be ready to resume in 2022, if the Lord wills. Having our own facility to house attendees and conduct the meetings will enable us to have larger and more frequent conferences.
In order to facilitate these developments, we need to provide a water/electricity supply, involving drilling a borehole and installation of solar panels and water tanks. I am planning to be in Malawi for short visit from mid-late May, and hope to oversee this work. Please pray that my travel plans will not be frustrated yet again.
We are really thrilled to see Anna Vallance's plans to join the work in Malawi fall into place. Lord willing, she also hopes to arrive late May, although her itinerary is very much in the hands of the airlines too. She has already had one flight cancelled since she booked around less than two weeks ago, so please pray that all will go smoothly.
Spring 2021
Written by Stephen and Gail Harper - Malawi