GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH, ZOMBA, MALAWI
SECOND ACTIVITY REPORT FOR THE MONTH OF JULY 2009
By Percy C.

Monday, July 6
My wife and I visited Mr and Mrs M. on Malawi's Independence Day. Mr M., a secondary school teacher, has been interested in becoming a Baptist pastor for some time and he attends our leadership training seminars. We were amazed to hear from him that at one time he had shared with a group of Provident Industrial Mission (PIM) pastors about his desire to become a pastor and one of them responded sharply by asking, "Do you want to die early Mr M.?" He informed us that it was common in Malawi for pastors to threaten each other with death through witchcraft.

Wednesday, July 8
Victor and I went to witness to a Dr M., a reputed witchdoctor. We found him with his partner, a Dr W., preparing for a trip to Zambia where they had been invited to render help. These men are Muslims and consider themselves to be very good people. They say God uses them to help others with all kinds of needs such as healing diseases that hospitals fail to cure, getting rich, prospering in business and at work, protection against witchcraft, and the like. They also look down upon the Christian religion because they say that numerous pastors and other church leaders go to them seeking medicine to protect themselves against witchcraft, to secure their posts in the church, to rise up in the ranks of their denominations, to get rich and have many cars, and so forth. And that when these Christian leaders have been helped they come back with tokens of appreciation. The men told us that most of the Christian leaders who are doing well and ruling over big churches in Zomba and in other towns, not only in Malawi but in other countries as well, have been helped by them. They were preparing for a trip to Zambia where some pastors and other people had called them for similar services. They were very confident from their experience that we would also need their services some day. We tried to assure them that we would never need their help as we serve a different Christ from all those so-called Christian leaders who come to seek their services. As we left these doctors we felt that we were living in the days of "the man of sin ... who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he as God sits in the temple of God."

Monday, July 13
I visited a young man named Khisco K. who has been coming to church for a number of weeks. He was interested in becoming a true Christian but was not sure how he could. He was very attentive when I explained to him the way of salvation. I left him with guidance on how to call on the name of the Lord for the salvation of his soul from sin. The following day, Tuesday, I visited him again to find out if he had prayed to commit his life to Christ. He joyfully said he had. It is my prayer that this might be a true conversion. A number of young men have professed to give their lives to Christ in the past but have proved to be false. May the Lord grant Khisco to show the fruits of true repentance.