Fun at the “Nyanja” (Lake)

This past Friday, July 6th, our team left for Salima, a town near Lake Malawi for a leadership retreat. This included 15 Malawian students, 2 SCOM staff workers, SCOM graduates from the Salima area that are part of the associates team whom help support the ministry and our friends Freddy and Delore from the refugee camp. The weekend was filled with leadership training for the SCOM students, empowering them to be leaders through a Godly perspective at their schools and eventually of their nation. What I thought was especially helpful about this training is the inclusion and importance of women in leadership and they play a crucial role. Historically, mainly men have held leadership positions in SCOM, so it is an important effort to empower women to take those roles.
You might be asking why Delor and Freddy joined us for the weekend, since they are not a part of SCOM. On Friday night, 7/6, Freddy was able to share with the SCOM students the work he is doing in the refugee camp. Afterwards, there was a lot of discussion of how the SCOM students could practically help the refugees and the ministry there.
The last component of the weekend was introducing manuscript bible study to the SCOM students. This bible study went through Genesis 12-16 looking at the life of Abram/Abraham and was led by Chris. We got to see what it looks like to be a Godly leader and how when matters are taken into your own hands without consulting God, there can be consequences. This bible study proved to be helpful for all in attendance.
Of course this weekend was not all bible study and seminars; we had a ton of fun also. Between swimming in the lake and teaching some of our Malawian friends to swim, relaxing in the hammocks and playing in the sand, we formed good friendships with each other and got to share our testimonies of God’s goodness. This weekend was defiantly a personal highlight of the trip because of the interactions we were able to have with the SCOM students allowing us to grow in friendship with our Malawi brothers and sisters.

Prayer requests-

-Pray that the SCOM students can be used to make a difference at the refugee camp through the love of Christ.
-Pray that the leadership training will prompt all in attendance to make a difference in their community, country and possibly the world through Christ-centered leadership.