Dear Friends,
As you read this Caron and I have served Equipping Leaders International (ELI) l for two and half years. Our time serving Grace Community Church as pastor ended January 31, 2019. You truly are our sending church, as the elders of the church did everything possible to help us be sent out to this ministry. Grace and her members are a larger portion of our prayer and financial base. So, first of all, THANK YOU! As Paul said, “I thank my God every time I remember you”. You have blessed us and blessed the Malawian church greatly!
We serve the church in Malawi, Africa, based from Greene County, VA. Originally, we planned to be in Malawi in person about a quarter of every year. Though COVID changed our plans, the technology we all know so well has allowed us to accomplish a great deal even during the pandemic.
Some of you reading this don’t know us. Why does Malawi need us? While the church is fast growing and influential in Malawi, a lack of training has left the church subject to the trifecta of negative influences of syncretism (the mixing of tribal religious practices with Christianity), legalism, and prosperity gospel (the idea that faith leads to financial and other blessings automatically). We are teaching through a 12-course curriculum for untrained pastors that includes courses in biblical studies, biblical doctrine, and Christ centered practices.
ELI’s distinctive strategy is to train trainers for the church. We have training programs for pastors, business leaders, and teachers. I am teaching in the pastor track. Where are we as of today in Malawi? We have 66 pastor trainers in 3 strategic locations learning and teaching our 12 courses.They teach the material in practice to one another, in their own local churches, and then to a network that now includes over 500 churches (it grew 20% this year!). The pastors of all of the churches learn the material, and as these 500 pastors pass their lessons along, we estimate 25,000 believers are impacted. Our dream is to add 3 new training centers, and send the trainers from the first 3 areas to the most remote areas of the country once they complete the course of study. Our Malawian teammates desire to spread the training to neighboring Mozambique.
When I wrote this blog originally, I included this information about my upcoming trip:
On July 7, I fly back to Malawi for the first time since November 2019. I will be joined by two ELI teammates (Michael and Wendell) to teach Christ Centered Preaching to our 66 partners. This trip is a key next step in our development as we rekindle our friendships and discuss our future plans together in Malawi.
During this trip from July 7-23, Please pray for:
- Effective communication of the preaching course
- Growth in our relationships with our Malawian teammates
- Unified thinking on our strategies for the future
- Safety and health for our team
But the Bible does warn us,
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” James 4:13-14
Last week, while Caron and I were on vacation, we learned of growing COVID case numbers in Malawi. Our Malawian team saw signs that things were much worse than the numbers were showing. They recommended we postpone the trip. So, we are planning (God willing!) to do in September what we were to be doing even this week.
Pray for us, as a key leader, Rabson Chilewa, lost his wife a few weeks ago, and is himself battling for his life in the hospital. He is beloved among all our Malawian team there.
If you would like to get our monthly email newsletter or learn more, feel free to reach out to me at doneliva@gmail.com. Many Sundays Caron and I are at Grace Community, and we’d love to speak to you about the ministry or about anything else!
Yours in the Lord,
Don Ward