Malawian man Yankho’s personal struggles began when his father passed away. Only a teenager at the time, he had barely begun to process his grief over what had happened before his mother had remarried and his stepfather moved in.
Initially, things were fine but slowly over time his stepfather changed and revealed his true colours to Yankho. His stepfather began to insult Yankho, which escalated to serious verbal abuse. This made Yankho long for a new family and in a bid to feel a sense of belonging, he joined a group of youths that soon led him to a life of excessive drinking. He looks back and sees that this was like trying to quench fire with fuel because it only worsened his situation. His stepfather eventually chased him out of the house resulting in him squatting in a shack.
Yankho was miserable, lonely and trapped in alcoholism.
On the morning of October 23 2023, Yankho’s life was drastically changed during the Lilongwe Adziwe Yesu mission.
It was not a good start. In fact, the mission volunteer who struck up a conversation with Yankho quickly realised he was drunk! But the missioner persisted. Yankho showed he had previous knowledge of the Bible, but thought these were just stories from a book. But he kept on referring to Paul’s conversion story as he encountered Christ on his way to Damascus, and eventually revealed that he, too, had been hearing the voice of God calling him to repentance.
“In the past few days, I have been dreaming about heaven,” Yankho told the missioner. “In the dreams, I saw the sky open and then, a sharp voice came out of it. The voice said that I should repent but I ignored it. I would simply go back to sleep again. I have been troubled but I have been ignoring it.”
The missioner gently helped Yankho to understand this truly was God calling out to him, and Yankho soon realised, “I cannot ignore the call anymore. I need Christ and I am ready to dedicate my life to him.” Yankho humbly surrendered to God!
But Yankho’s story doesn’t end there! After he prayed with the missioner and received Christ, he took the missioner to his home and showed him where he was living. On their way back, he called his friends who were playing pool to come and hear about the message of the Christ that he had received. In the beginning, they ridiculed him, chalking this unexpected behaviour up to his drunkenness. But later they too came to believe and gave their lives to Christ as well.
While his newfound faith is a strong foundation, Yankho must make many changes in his life to get it back on track and to honour God. Please pray for him, that he will be able to overcome his alcoholism, connect with a good church, and learn how to discern God’s voice and will from the Bible.
On 21 October 2023, Stanley’s life was changed forever. A former prisoner, Stanley heard the gospel thanks to the Lilongwe Adziwe Yesu mission’s Serve the City cleaning exercise in Malawi.
Often, AE missions will begin with a component of serving the city, where teams will clean streets or feed the hungry, in order to demonstrate Christ’s love and build goodwill. In Lilongwe, the team embarked on street cleaning, which is where they met Stanley, who came to ask why this big group of people were so joyfully completing such an unpleasant task.
After hearing why they were there, Stanley shared his life story with the mission team.
“After finishing secondary school, I managed to undertake a short course that landed me a decent office job. I began to accumulate wealth for myself from the money that I saved up. In spite of the progress I made in acquiring assets, I was involved in financial malpractice at work which led to my being arrested. Because I did not have disposable income, I ended up selling all of my assets in order to make bail. After the case was closed, I realized that I had nothing, no job, and no money to sustain myself”, he shared.
After this, Stanley had to restart his life and became a vendor at Lilongwe Bus Depot to make ends meet. He has since struggled a lot coming to terms with the decisions he’s made in the past and was convinced that nothing good could come from him.
But on 21 October, after the the Lilongwe mission team had put down their cleaning tools, a preacher got up and publicly shared the gospel – and Stanley was immediately captivated.
“The preacher talked about God’s mercy and how everyone qualifies for it. It was hard to believe that I could ever be forgiven for all the wrongs I did,” he told the team after the sermon. “That prompted me to surrender my life to Christ. It was the first time after my arrest that I felt forgiven. I am grateful to God for His mercy and the clean slate He has provided me”, Stanley said joyfully.
As we read in Mark 8, For what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? Stanley is glad that he was saved from losing his own soul and he believes that he has found all that he needs in Christ. Praise the Lord!
In early 2023, Malawi was struck by a tropical Cyclone Freddy. The cyclone lasted five weeks, making it the longest-lasting tropical cyclone on record, and took over 1000 lives as well as leaving destruction and devastation in its wake.
The Cyclone Freddy Relief Initiative (CFRI) is an AE Malawi intervention that aims to provide relief activities such as relief items, trauma healing and counseling, and rebuilding of houses for victims affected by this disaster.
Macleana’s story
One such victim is Macleana, an elderly lady who sought shelter in the Cyclone Freddy victim Mwangata Camp after her house and its contents were mostly destroyed by running water as a result of the cyclone. With the support of the CFRI and the Mwangata Camp, she is steadily getting back on her feet.
Macleana feels grateful to God for having had her life spared during the disaster, saying “It is only by the grace of God that my bedroom wall did not collapse, I would not have survived the disaster”.
Though she has expressed that life in the camp has not always been easy, she is thankful to have a place to rest her head along with the 200 others who live in the camp alongside her.
The CFRI has been able to provide relief items to Macleana such as soap, flour, oil, sugar, salt and blankets to support her as she gets back on her feet. Macleana shares, “These items mean a lot to us, far beyond what the ordinary eye can see. The depth of our problems in the camp is beyond description but these items have brought great relief to our lives. You have provided a stepping stone for me to get back on my feet as I hope for my house walls to be rebuilt. May God bless African Enterprise for thinking about us, even though it has been a while after the disaster happened”, she says.
Chisomo’s story
Chisomo is only 13 years old, but was also a victim of Cyclone Freddy. Like Macleana, he has received support and assistance from the CFRI in the form of supplies.
Prior to the cyclone, Chisomo had a fairly comfortable life, living with his parents, attending school and eating dinner with his family in the evenings and playing with his friends. For Chisomo, the cyclone took more than just his house – both his parents were also killed in flood waters.
“Cyclone Freddy robbed me of both my parents in one night. It all happened very quickly, one moment we were trying to keep water out of the house and the next moment we had no house. Amidst the confusion and running water, I lost sight of my parents and that was the last I saw of them. One lady found me that night and took me to Chikunje Camp where I am currently staying,” he shared.
With the help he has received from CFRI, Chisomo shares a glimmer of hope that he holds in the midst of his tragedy. “I lost two parents that night, but I also survived that same night. The relief items I have received today give me hope that I can still live and grow up to be what my parents had always wanted me to be”.
African Enterprise Malawi is grateful for generous friends and partners that have joined hands to provide relief to Cyclone Freddy victims through CFRI.
Please pray for the victims of this tragedy, especially Macleana and Chisomo as they work to rebuild their lives and manage their grief. Pray they would trust and rely on God during these difficult times.
Ministry Update – March 2022
Thanks to your ongoing support, our AE teams have enjoyed some wonderful success in our outreach programs across Africa. By the grace of God, our Togo farming project has begun, with participants preparing the land ready for seed planting. They are also being educated on the correct way to grow vegetables for sustainability.
In Kenya, the local church leaders are helping to train up missionaries to reach even more people with the good news of Jesus. The Foxfire program has also had great success, with high schools now participating in forums to expand and continue the harvest. One young student, Boaz, says that he ‘feels strengthened to keep pure and serve God and His people.’
Our sewing school in Malawi has seen many graduates become trained in tailoring and professional dressmaking. These skills enable people to generate an income to meet their basic needs, and some have even gone on to open their own businesses.
The Hope for Girls Project will also soon launch in Malawi, with the aim of providing essential re-useable sanitary products to young girls aged 10 and over. This will be incorporated into the needlework program to ensure the sustainability of the program.
AE Ethiopia continues integrating new believers from the Kotebe mission into the mainstream church. New believer Gelan Megersa says she was met by someone on the street who told her about Jesus. “I was convinced and became a believer, and have been attending discipleship classes for the past 3 months. I have seen such a transformation in my life.”
In Uganda, the Omoo Youth Skilling and Production Centre has been training young people to bake cakes, mandazi, samosas, chapatis and buns to sell to the local market. They were able to raise more than 200,000 Uganda Shillings (approximately AUD 73.74) through the sale of their products.
Once again, AE has been able to outreach successfully in South Africa. In partnership with other ministries, we have been able to bring food relief to those who continue to suffer from unemployment, the ravages of the pandemic and the aftermath of recent unrest.
One recipient said that she had been praying for God’s intervention after both her mother and sister succumbed to COVID leaving her with the responsibility of caring for her brothers, all of whom are unemployed. Her response to our outreach was, “I feel I have hope now.”
Your prayers and support are invaluable to AE, and we give thanks to God for enabling us to bring some relief and minister to communities in desperate need. Please continue to pray with us that those whose hearts are moved by the Holy Spirit may grow in their journey of faith and be a witness to others.
It was a moment of complete surrender. Ruth stepped out from the crowd and towards the AE preacher. She answered the alter call and gave herself fully to Jesus. She repented before Him and experienced His life saving forgiveness for the first time.
Ruth is just one of the 906 high school students who accepted Jesus during the mission. Each one found hope in the risen Christ to change their lives. Ruth reconciled herself to His love and grace and allowed it to bridge the gap that had separated her from her family.
Alongside heaven, we celebrate the lives changed through the Zomba leadership mission. We give thanks to the 48 churches and the hundreds of volunteers who were involved. Their dedication saw over one thousand people make commitments to Christ during the school and leadership outreach.
This action-packed week facilitated the AE team to outreach to 8 Malawian leadership groups. These included the medical and legal professions, politicians, university lecturers, traditional leaders (chiefs), civic council members, business and student association leaders. Each group attracted at least 50 participants, with AE speakers exhorting the leaders to let Christ lead the way. It was humbling an inspiring to see an average of 20 people make commitments to Jesus per event!
One such person was a nurse whose life had taken a difficult turn. After losing her job, relationship, and friends, she realised that there was nothing left except Jesus. She needed him to restore her hope. As she listened to the guest speaker, she understood that it is never too late to turn to Jesus. As the speaker shared the story of how Jesus had forgiven him, she knew He would also forgive her. “In spite of my challenges, my joy and peace will always rest in God,” she said.
We thank our incredible supporters, who enable AE to comprehensively reach out to the Zomba community. It was a privilege to invite such a large cross section of the leadership community to hear about Jesus. Thank you for continuing to equip God’s people to bring the good news, unite churches, and give renewed hope to this city.
Southern African Region (Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe)
The Southern African region under the regional leadership of Dr. Lutangu Lubasi, is one of our newest established regions. This was done to strengthen our capacity, capability and effectiveness in reaching more people with the Gospel. Even with the impact of COVID-19, we are grateful for all that was still possible throughout the year.
Recently in the region, a very successful mission was held in Zomba Malawi under the leadership of Dr Cornelius Huwa. About 1,984 people were reached with the Word of God (this excludes those reached through radio, television and social media).
AE’s foxfire team in Malawi have done wonderful work this year by using their energetic dance and engaging drama performances to share the gospel with the youth during market and school outreaches. This approach has helped to reach more than 200 000 children with the Word of God over the past 10 years. The ministry’s goal is to provide a holistic empowerment and discipleship of Malawi’s youth and it is heartwarming to see the team at work.
AE Zambia has started the Lusaka Enhanced COVID-19 Response whose objective is to educate and sensitize vulnerable communities and distribute reusable masks to the most vulnerable among marketeers, street vendors and other vulnerable groups.
Your prayers for the following are valued:
- For the development of a new missions team in Zimbabwe to build our evangelistic presence in partnership with the church.
- For the vibrant and energetic Foxfires team in Malawi where they still want to reach a minimum of 10 schools this quarter and reach approximately 5000 students
- For the Tailoring Project in Malawi that the AE team can have the funds to train even more women next year.
- That the Lusaka Enhanced COVID-19 response program really strengthen the community and educate people effectively to stay covid safe.
- That in the year to come, this newly established Southern African Region under the care of Dr Lutangu Lubasi will grow and flourish to reach as many people as possible in a combined effort from the three countries.
- For safety of the teams, staff, board members and their families as they continue serve God.
That the churches in the Southern African Region will be unified to reach 1,000,000 people by 2024 through our regional initiative.
