April 2008 Southern Malawi Ministry Centre Update

“At our Iris base in Malawi, we now have 48 children who live in 4 homes with Malawian house parents. To meet the educational needs of these children we started an Iris Primary School, currently with classes for pre-school through grade 5. Our second school block is coming to completion.

[Iris kids at school]

One of the big projects in the last few months has been the completion of a perimeter wall to keep out cows and goats around a new 3 hectares piece of land. The wall makes the harvest of our maize fields more viable, and also enables us to more easily control the snake population. We are demonstrating different farming methods and have gained quite a bit of interest in the community. Presently, we are also working on a new kitchen/dining room facility to meet the needs of both pastors and children.

"After many evangelistic outreaches, the number of rural churches in southern Malawi is growing rapidly. There are now over 500 Iris Africa churches throughout the country. It is imperative that the new pastors of these churches receive regular training. The Bible school can now accommodate 50 pastors each term.

“Beginning in January, we were once again involved in flood relief work both here in Malawi and in Mozambique. To date, we have delivered 170 metric tons of food to refugees, as well as seed for replanting. The rain has now come to an end, and many people are returning to the work of replanting and rebuilding. The need will be great for a long time to come.

[Kalina helping with food distribution to flood victims]

“We are delighted that Timothy Makwalo has taken on the leadership of the Bible school. He has served with us from the beginning and has proved himself as a faithful leader. We are also enjoying the addition of Chanela to our team, a Malawian accountant who has helped significantly with the large load of administration and book-keeping. Chanela, Peter Nkoma and Mo share a new office right in the middle of all the activity.”