Amazing weekend

Hello Faithful blog readers! :o)

This is Alli writing to you today about our ventures here in Malawi! I think because I was privileged to write to you all I am allowed to put in a small Hello to mom, dad, sister, boyfriend, and friends! Thank you all for your comments, prayers, and words of encouragement I miss you all! :o)

So here we are in Salima, Malawi a city next to Lake Malawi, east of Lilongwe. Yesterday we spent most of the day preparing and driving here. We are staying at a ‘challet’ called Beach Villa. The scenery is beautiful and our cabins are right along the beach, It will be a nice treat to sleep in beds this weekend :o)

Today we traveled about 20 minutes from our ‘challet’ to visit Salima Technical School, a college that SCOM works with. There we spent the morning singing and worshiping God together. Kyle shared his testimony of what the Lord has been doing in his life, and Rachel K exposited 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16. Chris then led us through a whole group Bible study of John 1:40-51. It was very encouraging for us to learn together the importance of preaching the gospel and the power that is in Christ Jesus.

Then we took a break for lunch and returned later to do some on-campus evangelism. Now, I have never done anything like this at all, not even back in the States, so you can imagine I was quite nervous for what we were going to do. But as always, the Lord was so very faithful. We paired up into groups of about 3 (two U.S. students with each Malawian SCOM member) and went out onto the campus preaching the Gospel. Joseph, the SCOM student that Kyle and I were paired up with, was great. He led us to different places on the campus, and translated for the men and women who didn’t understand English. The first person I preached the gospel to (well, I preached, Joseph translated) was to two men who were working on and cleaning a bus. I led him through the story of Gods creation, our rebellion to Him, Jesus as our savior, and the choice we are presented with to follow Christ and be reconciled to God and let Him begin to transform our lives. Through Gods grace alone, we were able to witness this man accept Jesus into his life. How utterly AMAZING is that? Joseph prayed for him a series of 3 fairly long prayers, and the man repeated the words of acceptance too. It was truly a blessing to be a part of. As we were saying our goodbyes the two men talked to Joseph for a bit, he later told us that the men said that they were just doing their normal work on the bus, that they weren’t expecting anything to happen this day, but little did they know we would come to them with this good news. They told us they were thankful and happy we had come by. What an awesome, encouraging blessing to have my first evangelism experience!

The rest of the students (U.S. and SCOM) were similarly encouraged as well! It is amazing how willing and open people are to the Gospel here, I am really understanding how the Lord blesses the poor with rich faith more and more as we spend time here.

We will stay until tomorrow morning (Sunday) and then travel back to Lilongwe in the afternoon, we are all looking forward to some downtime of rest after a pretty full week we just had. Thank you all for your continued prayers and encouragement here are some ways you can be praying for us:Safe travels tomorrow, health (with the different water and food not agreeing with some), and good rest (people feeling effects of the long week)we have been able to get blog comments copied easily and brought back to the team, so feel free to continue to send prayers, verses, and words of encouragement, we have appreciated them all over here! Until they post again, goodbye!
For his Glory,

Alli and the Team!

We saw 11 people come to faith on Saturday. We gave them our some of our Bibles and encouraged them to walk with the Lord and to get involved with the SCOM mintry at Salima Technical.

Monday is cleaning day. Lots of hand washing going on. (see picture)

God Bless and Please keep praying

Chris