Trustee Changes in the UK and Malawi

In the UK, Ian Furlong has resigned from his role as SaltMalawi trustee effective end 2018. We are grateful for Ian’s long and faithful service – he was one of the founding trustees of SaltMalawi in 2009. We have greatly appreciated Ian’s pastoral and church leadership experience, which he brought to us in a practical, thoughtful and prayerful way. Ian and his wife Jan visited the work in Malawi in 2013.

In Malawi, there are also some trustee changes that have taken place recently. The four trustees are:

John Seda
Biliat Ngoma
Aaron Sandikonda
Joseph Chisungeni

Phil Hanson retires

We were sorry to say goodbye at the end of 2019 to Phil Hanson, one of our long-standing UK trustees. He served the charity well for many years, at the same time as being extremely busy as a member of the ministry leadership team in Claverdon Church. We wish him God's blessing on his future life.

Bicycle for Kasungu

In September we were pleased to report that SM funds had enabled the purchase of this bicycle for Kasungu. The wrapping hadn't even been taken off at the time of the photograph!

This will help the leaders reach out to other villages.

Trustee Visit

In late summer, 2019, Evan Winter and Malcolm Franks visited Malawi to meet with Disciples of Jesus Church. Representing SaltMalawi trustees, Evan and Malcolm were welcomed by Malawian Church leaders and new relationships formed. John Seda, on behalf of the Church, described their vision, emphasising enthusiastic commitment to continuing growth and to ongoing partnership with SaltMalawi. John Seda and Biliati Ngoma hosted the week-long visit, giving briefings on recent growth and Church needs. Evan and Malcolm also met with all the Church trustees and contributed to joint-planning discussions. They left with valuable information and unforgettable impressions to help strengthen links with the Malawian Church and to focus the support we give.

Evan preaches at Nyombe Church as John translates

John and Biliati help Malcolm to nsima (maize), mustard, and egg dish

We look forward to ever closer ties as these new relationships develop. Please support us in prayer as we seek to respond to requests for help ranging from administration and finance, through orphan care, mercy work to the elderly and poor, food for the hungry, training on topics from discipleship to business skills, as well as a range of facilities from bicycles to mobile phones.

This story (among others) can be found in the September 2019 newsletter.

Food Aid Distribution

Julian sent us two reports in January, that have been combined into this article:

In Mphalale, Tsumba, Nyombe and Bisiketi we have been running our usual mercy work which involves the local church helping the vulnerable in their community with food aid. These programmes are a critical way of targeting the most needy who are without any means of support. They continue until the end of the hunger season.

We have taken food aid to the churches in Lilongwe (40 bags), Nsanje (10 bags), Nyombe (24), Bisiketi (16), and have released about 100 bags locally to the church. Each bag weighs 50Kg. In Nyombe, for example, there were 56 people waiting to receive the help. We spoke with several to hear their stories. One single mother of 5 children described how they had eaten only bananas for the past 2 weeks. Everyone reiterated that now there is no more piece work to be found. Therefore there is no possibility of finding more food until the fields have food in them - at least 5/6 weeks away. We will be working with the chiefs of the local villages to allow people in need (measured in hundreds if not thousands of people) to acquire food now against a promise to repay after the coming harvest - releasing upwards to 500 bags. Without this the majority in each village will have no means of finding food for the next 2 months.

We will also hire the services of an independent haulage contractor to deliver 45 bags to our 3 churches in Nsanje. The recipients will promise to repay (in maize) to their church after the harvest which will allow the church to have a food bank to run its own mercy work next year. The same principle will apply in Nyombe, Bisiketi and Lilongwe too.

We plan to repeat each of the above steps again towards the end of February.

Please continue to pray for the security of maize held in storage and for safety on the roads at this time.

New Church Plants

We have been delighted to learn that after 4 years of working within the Kanyama area (about 30 mins drive from home) our local team planted a church in that area in autumn 2017. In the short time since we returned to Malawi we have been involved with two further church plants. First we were called to Lilongwe where our church network launched a new church in a village called Madziamanga. We had a wonderful day-long meeting there on 12th November. (Photos right and below).

It was noteworthy that over 40 adults prayed to ask the Lord to cause them to be born again, confessing and repenting of their sin. Many children also responded. Several of the village chiefs were among those who responded. We have been invited back again by the senior chief who publicly declared how happy he was in his heart to have heard and understood our gospel message.

On 19th November we had another church launch in the village of Mbozi, again about 30 mins drive from our home. Once again there were several chiefs among those who responded publicly to the gospel message. (Photo below).

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