Since Alan is currently in Malawi, we are providing excerpts from his weekly report as soon as available in lieu of his normal articles we publish on Saturdays …
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Introduction. As I finish my third week, I have been confronted with some unpleasant realities. After the sermon I preached in Mchingi on the work of an evangelist, I had hoped we might have had some influence helping them see the error of thinking there is no such work today. Even the elders seemed enthusiastic when I used the Scriptures to prove Jesus gave the gift of evangelists to the church along with the apostles and prophets. I just learned the church there had disciplined and withdrawn their fellowship from those who believed there was an office of an evangelist. These families will now have to begin again with a new congregation and will face the opposition of “the committee” that formed to guard and guide the church against this and other errors. We will have to watch for later developments, but at least the truth has been given a foothold in the district. I hope I can return there next year and continue to reason with them.
The second unpleasant reality are the signs I am seeing in each district that the harvest this year was less than last year and will do nothing to alleviate the hunger they faced this past year. Very few people in the Central Region received enough rain. Some are already speaking of possible starvation if the government doesn’t help to avert this disaster. We can only hope and pray that they will recognize the need and do something to help their own people. . . .
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For more,
1) click on Malawi_2016_Report_3 (pdf) to display the full report
2) select the "more… > Malawi" menu item to see the report, associated pictures, and previous reports.
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Introduction. As I finish my third week, I have been confronted with some unpleasant realities. After the sermon I preached in Mchingi on the work of an evangelist, I had hoped we might have had some influence helping them see the error of thinking there is no such work today. Even the elders seemed enthusiastic when I used the Scriptures to prove Jesus gave the gift of evangelists to the church along with the apostles and prophets. I just learned the church there had disciplined and withdrawn their fellowship from those who believed there was an office of an evangelist. These families will now have to begin again with a new congregation and will face the opposition of “the committee” that formed to guard and guide the church against this and other errors. We will have to watch for later developments, but at least the truth has been given a foothold in the district. I hope I can return there next year and continue to reason with them.
The second unpleasant reality are the signs I am seeing in each district that the harvest this year was less than last year and will do nothing to alleviate the hunger they faced this past year. Very few people in the Central Region received enough rain. Some are already speaking of possible starvation if the government doesn’t help to avert this disaster. We can only hope and pray that they will recognize the need and do something to help their own people. . . .
----------------------------
For more,
1) click on Malawi_2016_Report_3 (pdf) to display the full report
2) select the "more… > Malawi" menu item to see the report, associated pictures, and previous reports.