Update from Pastor Manda
October 2020
MALAWI MISSION ANNUAL REPORT
First of all I would like to thank each one of you for your unwavering support to our mission work/his mission in Malawi. We remember mentioning you in our prayers because of your love to see lives being saved and transformed in Malawi. Once again allow me to express my sincere gratitude to our new board members for joining the team. I am always amazed and encouraged to see what God is doing through us all. This report may not be adequate to express it all what God is doing in Malawi. I hope and pray that this annual report will encourage you to keep praying and supporting the Mission work in Malawi. My report includes three main mission areas namely: Pastoral Training Institute {PTIA}, New Life Academy & Infrastructure projects from January to October 2020.
PTIA STUDENTS
All students are completing their second year studies. All of them are in their respective homes and churches. We were unable to have in person classes (extensive classes) due to current global pandemic. However, students are geared up to write and submit their end of year paper and Church plant vision. Academically most of them are doing well. Economically most of them are struggling to feed their families due to national wide hunger of about 2.8 million people. Despite these challenges one student (J.J) got married last month.
PTIA CHURCH PLANTERS
All our Church planters warmly welcomed the vision of providing monthly scholarship. The success of this program is already seen and felt in two planters. Pastor Chikondi Banda and Pastor Simeon Nangwale. These two planters were able to do irrigation farming and small-scale business for their family support. Their families are becoming financially stable. For instance Chikondi Banda has managed to buy motor bicycle, which is helping him a lot to do ministry in further villages. Another Church planter Fiender Minjolo is getting married this week on October 24. Two pastors have managed to construct small size churches with the minimal support from PTIA. These are Pastor Gawanani and Pastor Elias Munthali. In the mean time Pastor Innocent Limwa is planting another Church in the southern part of Malawi. We paid him visit last month and we really got encouraged with what he is doing in the village. Of course just like all other Church planters, Innocent is struggling to support his family just because he lost his part time job due to COVID-19. Most of our Church planters are facing problems of family support. Pastor Tendayi Ngoma is also geared to plant another church in Lilongwe. Currently we are processing to secure place for the Church plant. If all goes on well he is planning to launch the church end of December 2020.
STAFFING AND STUDENTS RECRUITMENT
Preparations for the new academic year in January 2021 is almost done. We have completed conducting interviews for the next cohort across the nation. We have selected 12 best students. The level of education to the newly selected class is quite good compared to the outgoing class. As usual demand for enrolment is high but we can only take so much for obvious reasons. We have put in place good staff members who are willing to help teach in the upcoming academic year. We are planning to have graduation ceremony next year early January. The local PTIA board failed to meet in person due to Covid-19. However, now that restrictions are lifted up we will hold the meeting end of November. Among other things we will be selecting board positions and plan for the graduation.
NEW LIFE ACADEMY
It is almost one year now since we started the school with 150 kids in kindergarten. The school was closed from April to mid October following government order to close all learning institutions across the country. The demand for our school is very high. The need to upgrade the school from Kindergarten to elementary has been high too. We have now upgraded the school on one condition; parents should be willing to contribute at least $30 per term per student. Currently we have 40 new students who have enrolled with us. Of course we anticipate more students come January when we start new academic year. We have employed 7 teachers including two from Rafiki Foundation. The school has potential to support itself after two years. Currently we will struggle to buy teaching and learning materials as well as paying schoolteachers.
MISSION INFRASTRUCTURE/CAPITAL PROJECTS
We thank God for the completion of classroom block for the kindergarten with a few areas to finish like ceiling and installing desks/chairs and electricity. On the other hand we are happy to have fence around our premises. The Church building project is on window level. Three Acts 29 Churches from South Africa, USA and Australia are the ones who gave towards Church building project. Currently we are praying for additional funds to complete roofing before rain season gets tough in December. We are still praying for the provision of funds to install electricity and construct School Library in the campus. We have installed solar electricity at PTIA school block, after thieves second attempt to vandalize our campus. During night our campus has always been in darkness and our three watchmen are not enough to cover the whole campus of 5.1 acres. Of course solar power is not sufficient to cover the whole campus nevertheless it is helping us to have some lights in the campus.
We are grateful to God and to the people/Churches who donated funds to buy food for our community. The donation was timely since the country is struggling with covid-19 pandemic effects. Our Church planters and many people in our community were helped with the donation.
Our annual financial report for 2020 will be complete by end of November and will be submitted by first week of December.
PRAYER POINTS:
Gratitude to God for all our partners and their unwavering commitment to support us.
Praying for the Nation of Malawi, about 2.8 million people are facing terrible hunger.
Praying for good rain season and bumper harvest.
Praying for Church planters and the new cohort.
Praying for funding for 2021 annual budget.
Praying for all field workers for strength and wisdom.