It’s my privilege to bring you briefly up to speed about the work of Equipping Leaders International in Malawi, Africa. I saw many of you on this past Sunday, and some of you were in Sunday School to hear an update. In September I was able to teach in person in Malawi for the first time since November of 2019. Here is an update on that trip.
For visual learners - click on this 3-minute report.
What a remarkable September! I remember a few weeks before the September 8-25 trip telling some friends that I thought somewhere between 1 and 4 of us would make it to Malawi. All four of us made it there and back home again. I was the only one delayed as COVID testing delays affected my departure. That was just one of several lessons learned about international travel during COVID.
There was great joy on many occasions during the trip. Reuniting with my close teammates was terrific. Seeing Rabson Chilewa alive and well (after the loss of his wife and his own near-death illness) was so encouraging. We had three very joyous visits to well sites. Michael Cooley (ELI Agroforestry teacher) led a great conference, and in a series of providential events, connected four farmers with a group called Foundations for Farming for an additional 6 weeks of training. I’m praying to return to a flourishing Phalombe region as these four train many others in Jesus’ name.
We all were able to preach in village and urban churches during our visit. My most unusual experience in Malawi included preaching at a church at a rock quarry. I never thought we’d make it there because of the terrible roads!
We trained our 66 pastor trainers in Preaching Christ. We also learned a lot about their learning styles and are making changes to the materials to improve it for training village pastors. It was a lot of fun though, and they really enjoyed a number of the concepts. I think we may have learned more about them than they did about Preaching Christ!
We met with our informal National Committee leadership and were very encouraged by their reports of the impact of ELI Malawi. The one report we didn’t get on video was from village pastor James Mopewa, who with tears in his eyes reported how ELI Malawi’s training had changed him in ways that many were noticing. He thanked us for coming and looks forward to more courses. It was an emotional interaction as I told him that he was the kind of pastor we most desired to train. He works for Christ and His church with very few practical tools in his hand. I told him we want to give him more tools for the work to which God has called him.
Time doesn’t allow the telling of so many good stories from this trip. We had lots of time in the car with our friends which deepened our relationships and helped us get to know them even better. I look forward with anticipation to more in person teaching in 2022, God willing.
We are hoping and praying for the highest impact year ever in 2022. We, that is to say our national partners and me, would like to have five new training courses in 2022, including 3 in person trips. This will involve a substantial increase in budget and a need for other in person teachers for all of the teaching. Pray for us.
Lastly, here are more cool videos from September:
Evans Khobodi discusses the impact of the prayer course
Clement Jere describes how the Ephesians course changed his church (audio is a little difficult- but worth the effort!)
Visits to the new wells ELI placed in 2021:
A woman testifies to the dangers of not having a local well, and the blessings of now having one.
Thanks for taking the time to read this!
Don Ward
Equipping Leaders International
Project Director for Malawi, Africa
doneliva@gmail.com