Our day started in the usual manner with morning prayer together followed by a hearty breakfast.  Another road trip to a local assembly located at Thyolo some 35 minutes out of Blantyre.

The hall, made of mud brick as the vast majority of village halls are, was situated on a hill overlooking the road we came from.

We were entertained by the Sunday school kids followed by the assembly choir.

Barbara was a ‘hit’ with the littlies and just couldn’t get enough of these beautiful kids.

Shortly after our meeting at Thyolo concluded there was time set aside for Pastor Nelson Mbewe to present bibles, Sunday school and chorus books to the various local pastors, youth leaders and Sunday school teacher.

We saw five young folks get baptised in accordance with the bible directive of full immersion. There were also eight folks who received the Holy Spirit with the bible evidence of speaking in tongues.

In addition to the bibles and books, a new bicycle was presented to the zone pastor and another presented to one of his assistant pastors. This simple gift provides such a practical solution to one of the biggest challenges the oversight have to deal with which is the tyranny of distance. 

After a very fond farewell we took to the road again this time for two hours to visit a little assembly near Mount Mulanje.

Mount Mulanje is the second highest peak in Africa climbing to approximately 16,000 feet or more! Here we were greeted, as always, by a genuinely enthusiastic group of humble folks who appeared to be inspired by us having made the ‘effort’ to visit them!

I have said it before but it is us who never cease to be inspired by our Malawian brothers and sisters. Testimonies were shared by the locals and visitors alike.

The Sunday school kids recited their favourite memory verses. We were entertained by these lovely children as the Sunday school teacher led them in a very short but extremely encouraging song.

At the close of this meeting in which another four people received the Holy Spirit (speaking in tongues) we would have watched these too be baptised by being fully immersed. This could not happen during our short visit due to the assembly baptism tank having sprung a leak so there was no water ‘locally’ to baptise these folks in.

They will all go down to the river a short distance away to be baptised over the coming days.  Our time at the foothills of Mount Mulanje had come to a close.

We headed ‘home’ for a recharge in anticipation of our biggest day to come. Driving home this evening I captured another glorious Malawian sunset.

To all of our loved ones and friends back home, God bless and we will see you all soon.