Grace Baptist Church, Zomba, Malawi
November 2009 News Update
By Percy C.

Looking Four Months Back
The past four months seem to have flown away as on the wings of the wind. It feels like yesterday when in August I was privileged to take with me five Malawian brethren from Grace Baptist Church to the Reformed Conference in Lusaka Zambia. We came back challenged with the need to balance our church activities between evangelizing the lost and edifying believers if we are to be fully obedient to the Great Commission.

The month of September was my annual leave. My wife and I were able to take two weeks away from our mission station to visit relatives back home at the lake of Malawi and to see a little more of Malawi. It was quite refreshing for both of us. October and November were rather unsettling for us. My landlord died early this year. While he was alive one of his sons was responsible for collecting rentals, but he never shared the money with any of his relatives. After their father's death, his siblings wanted to take over the house and gave us notice to vacate by the end of October. So we spent the whole of October in search for a house to rent. By God's mercy we managed to find a house on the last day of October in the area where the church plot is. The new house is more expensive than the one we have left and it needed a few renovations before we could move in. We finally shifted to the new house by the middle of November.

November marked the commencement of the church building project following the approval of our building plans. On Tuesday 10th November we worked all day to set the foundation which was approved by the Building Inspectors the following day. Due to the limitation of funds we cannot engage a contractor and I have to supervise the construction project with the help of a foreman. The raising of foundation walls is in progress at the time of writing.

Church Attendance
We are blessed with visitors each Lord's Day; some of them becoming regular attendees. Our average attendance increased to forty five toward the end of November.

Tokens of Mercy
The Lord has been pleased to cheer our hearts with tokens of His mercy upon some of the people we minister to. Two cases have been of particular encouragement in the past two months. One is Mr. J. who had been visiting our worship services regularly for about a month. He is of the JWs background and had always been attentive to the teaching and preaching of the word of God. I visited his home on Friday evening, October 30, to find out how he was benefiting from God's word. He was very happy for my visit and he gathered his family, his wife and two teenage daughters to hear what I had to say. I thus took the opportunity to share the Gospel with them and challenged them with the need to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. They all seemed to appreciate the Good News and I extended an invitation to the lady of the house and her children to join us on the Lord's Day. The man has since professed faith and continued to come to church, but his family has not joined him yet. Pray for the man's spiritual growth and for the conversion of his family as well.

The second one is Mr K. His wife gave her life to Christ about a year ago when we were doing door-to-door outreach in their residential area. She was baptized and has been making good progress as a church member. But Mr K. had hardened his heart to the Gospel for a long time, though being fairly regular at attending services, and tried to make life difficult for his wife. On Monday 9th November he had a domestic dispute with his wife and decided to chase her away with a view to end the marriage. My wife and I went to counsel them in the evening and we emphasised the need for him to submit himself to Christ as Lord and Saviour of his life. After we left them, Mr K. left the house to go and get himself drunk so that he could cause more trouble to his wife. In mercy the Lord allowed him to get into such bitter scuffles with his drinking mates that he went home feeling he was a vile criminal. On Tuesday night when we made a follow up on the couple, we found the man in a broken state ready to seek God's mercy and cleansing with tears. What a joy it was to witness a stubborn soul break down before the Lord and pour out his heart in repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. He is now attending the baptismal class.

Development of Leadership
Three of the five men I am grooming for leadership are making good progress and are taking up some responsibilities according to their spiritual abilities. The other two need more time before they can be entrusted with responsibilities. Victor P., the first of the three, is my pastoral assistant helping me with church administration, sermon interpretation and teaching the youth Bible class. He will be marrying Nancy on Saturday December 5, getting better qualified for eldership.

Alexander C. is a young man full of zeal for learning and service. He has just completed diploma studies in theology and ministry at the Evangelical Bible College of Malawi. He is now working with Victor to develop a youth outreach programme.

Beside our weekly leadership training at church, the five men accompany me to Blantyre where we conduct a monthly leadership seminar in conjunction with Antioch Baptist Church.

1. Continued increase in church attendance.
2. Effectiveness of the word upon the lives of people
3. Effective outreach to both young and old.
4. Spiritual maturity of developing leaders.
5. Resources for the completion of the building project.