As temperatures drop back in Canada, ours continue to go up as summer approaches. We’ve just had three days and nights of intense heat (46 degrees Celsius in the shade). The breeze that gently blows across the land feels like the heat that comes out of an oven. Yet, even so, our pastors from the Bible school on Friday were poised like race horses at the starting gate ready to begin their practical evangelism class.

Then, with the help of Timothy translating, I began to preach about the Bread of Life who satisfies our every hunger. I told the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 to the 50 or 60 who had gathered around us. Young and old, they took it all in under the shade of a tree on the side of the dirt road. They were so glad to have visitors. They were grateful for our encouragement from the Scriptures. We prayed for them and then moved on throughout the village talking with people.
We went to a mud hut where we found a man and his family. He was asked whether he goes to church. He said he used to but not any more – he lost interest. The conversation continued and this man listened intently to the counsel he was given by one of our pastors who talked to him about the joy of knowing Jesus personally. He was hungry to know Jesus the way we do. Seeds were planted, the Word was sown. Later, we met up with the other pastors who were in our region of the village and heard the news that ten people had accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior that afternoon.

As the sun got closer to the horizon we knew it was time to leave and begin picking up the rest of the teams scattered throughout the village. Time for more worship and celebration as we traveled back to the Bible school for dinner. On lookers at the side of the road looked and smiled as we joyfully drove by. We were all exhausted – drained by the scorching sun, hungry, thirsty, weary from a busy week, yet full of life from the river of God that we had just witnessed flowing through Dande Village. We had promised to return again sometime to encourage them – they were so grateful for the visit.

Joanna and the kids are settling in well. They have already far surpassed my limited vocabulary. Joanna especially is working hard on learning Chichewa.

Our kids are meeting more children who live around us here in the village. We are glad to see Daniel eating his beans and rice without a fuss from time to time. The kids love playing out in the dirt and are often playing soccer with the local kids in our yard.

This past week the family helped transporting food that we purchased for the widows, orphans, cripples, and blind people who receive food gifts each month from Iris Ministries. We filled the truck with maize and beans. There is hunger all around us. So many people do not have money to buy food. The food that is distributed through Iris Ministries here keeps people alive.

Here is what one of our boys had to say: “Today (Oct. 20th), I helped Mr. Sosolo (one of our guards, otherwise nicknamed named ‘Mr.Malawi’
because of his amazing muscles) and Charles (a friend who lives with us – daddy calls him brother) build a hut for cooking outside our backdoor.

I climbed up onto the roof and helped to tie down the posts with reeds but first I packed down the dirt around the posts so that they won’t fall down when the rains come. I also used a ‘jemba’ (a machete or gigantic knife) to chop off the ends of bamboo poles.

Later the same day, I went with mummy to the Bible school on daddy’s bike. While mummy taught, I punctured a small hole in a termites nest and watched the termites patch it up. After that, I built a sand castle and then we went home, enjoying the beautiful mountains in the sunset.”