I received a disturbing message last night from Brother Harold who just had two very tired and hungry girls (“J” and “C”) in their early teens show up at his home around 7pm. \u00a0They had walked around 45 miles – starting at 3am – apparently because there was no food in the village and they were afraid of dying of starvation.<\/p>\n
We set out this morning to take them home, and I was glad that I had been able to buy about half a tonne of maize earlier in the week as I would be able to leave a bag at each of their homes to relieve the immediate hunger.<\/p>\n[peg-image src=”http:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/-8HiMgY_7kQ8\/VtHepOrMRgI\/AAAAAAAEF08\/oHjCvHxHw34\/s144-o\/DSC_0887.JPG” href=”https:\/\/picasaweb.google.com\/114002166528978549944\/20160227?authkey=jf1iDchr9KE#6256026157289588226″ caption=”” type=”image” alt=”DSC_0887.JPG” image_size=”3840×2160″ ]It was a disheartening journey, for although we have had a little rain in the Zomba area in the past week, the further we travelled the more bleak the situation became. \u00a0It is evident that, due to very poor rainfall, the maize in many villages is already beyond hope, and many people will be facing a serious food crisis in the year ahead.<\/p>\n
However, there was a still more disheartening surprise awaiting us. \u00a0When we eventually found the girls’ village it was clear that things were not as they had described them. Although a very plausible story, rather than being destitute, it was clear these girls were actually much better off than many of their peers – one had a relative with a good job in the army, and another just lately arrived from America! \u00a0The truth was even more depressing than the story they had told – these two comparatively well-cared for girls had set of for the “bright lights” of the city, hoping to make a “living” in prostitution!<\/p>\n
What to say in such a situation? \u00a0My mind went to Luke 15. \u00a0Speaking to the girls I warned them that their actions had been very foolish, and potentially disastrous for them. I told them they should thank God for preserving them from evil men who would have done them great harm, bringing them instead to Brother Harold. \u00a0Speaking to the family, I reminded them of the love and forgiveness the father had shown to the prodigal when he returned, and exhorted them to receive and help J & C to avoid the kind of life they had almost entered upon. \u00a0And to all, I spoke of the fact that the story is a very vivid picture of the great distance between us and God because of our sin and rebellion, and of the great forgiveness and welcome to be found through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
Please pray for these two young girls – that they will be preserved from a life of folly, and that the Gospel tracts we left with them and their families will be used to the salvation of their souls.<\/p>\n
On[peg-image src=”http:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/-3_KrFoNoToQ\/VtHeYyb793I\/AAAAAAAEF08\/EvbLZZB3gJE\/s144-o\/DSC_0885.JPG” href=”https:\/\/picasaweb.google.com\/114002166528978549944\/20160227?authkey=jf1iDchr9KE#6256025874831505266″ caption=”” type=”image” alt=”DSC_0885.JPG” image_size=”3840×2160″ peg_img_align=”right” ]\u00a0a much more positive note, it was a joy to meet Mr Saidi again and to replenish his stock of tracts. He had finished distributing the 2500 tracts we had given him a few days ago, and was delighted to receive a further 10,000 for use in that remote area! \u00a0Pray that God will richly bless His Word.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I received a disturbing message last night from Brother Harold who just had two very tired and hungry girls (“J” and “C”) in their early teens show up at his home around 7pm. \u00a0They had walked around 45 miles – starting at 3am – apparently because there was no food in the village and they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6pE8C-jX","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1050,"url":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/preaching-in-malawis-sodom\/","url_meta":{"origin":1237,"position":0},"title":"Preaching in Malawi’s Sodom","author":"Stephen","date":"18 November 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Nkhata Bay is a notoriously godless place - a haven for drug users and immorality. We had the privilege of preaching the Gospel there this afternoon, and they Lord have help to Goodson and Stephen both, each preaching a solemn and searching message. We were beset with several drunks and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Literature Work"","block_context":{"text":"Literature Work","link":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/category\/general\/literature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/wpid-wp-14478756753543.jpg?fit=450%2C253&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":716,"url":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/god-with-us\/","url_meta":{"origin":1237,"position":1},"title":"God with us!","author":"Stephen","date":"11 August 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"As we were had to meet the final two team members (Ruth and Deborah) at Chileka airport (Blantyre) on Monday afternoon, we spent the morning in Blantyre with open air meetings at the main market in the city, and later at Ndirande township, \"the Soweto of Malawi\". As always, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/wpid-wp-1439300516742.jpg?fit=400%2C225&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1227,"url":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/back-to-school\/","url_meta":{"origin":1237,"position":2},"title":"Back to school","author":"Stephen","date":"25 February 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"We had the real joy again today of distributing exercise books to three local schools. Altogether around 900 children received a complimentary jotter with a Gospel message from Acts 16v31. It may not seem like much, but if you could only see the pathetic conditions in which some of these\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/wp-1456418782119.jpg?fit=500%2C281&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1219,"url":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/more-encouragement-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":1237,"position":3},"title":"More encouragement today","author":"Stephen","date":"24 February 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This post is mainly for the encouragement of the sisters who accompanied us to Malawi last August. Victory, pictured on the left with Harold and I, received a Seed Sower text from one of the ladies on our very first day of outreach at Blantyre market. He is a believer,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Literature Work"","block_context":{"text":"Literature Work","link":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/category\/general\/literature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"image","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/dsc_0870.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1766,"url":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/mgo-2018-water-the-seed-with-your-prayers\/","url_meta":{"origin":1237,"position":4},"title":"MGO 2018 – Water the Seed with your prayers","author":"Stephen","date":"30 August 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"We have just returned from our latest trip to Malawi, when we were delighted to be joined by an excellent group of volunteers for two weeks of open-air preaching and Seed Sower text\u00a0 distribution.\u00a0 Thank you sincerely for your prayers \u2013 the Lord was exceedingly gracious and gave many opportunities\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Malawi Gospel Outreach"","block_context":{"text":"Malawi Gospel Outreach","link":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/category\/mgo\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/DSC_3840.jpg?fit=1200%2C677&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/DSC_3840.jpg?fit=1200%2C677&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/DSC_3840.jpg?fit=1200%2C677&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/DSC_3840.jpg?fit=1200%2C677&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/DSC_3840.jpg?fit=1200%2C677&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1053,"url":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/how-far-would-you-go-for-the-sake-of-the-gospel\/","url_meta":{"origin":1237,"position":5},"title":"How far would you go for the sake of the Gospel?","author":"Stephen","date":"21 November 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"We have travelled many miles, rising early each day to deliver calendars and tracts to many individuals, however I was greatly challenged by the commitment of this young man who set out this morning at 4am to cycle 4 hours to meet us to take literature to distribute in his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/wpid-dsc_0506.jpg?fit=500%2C281&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1237"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1244,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237\/revisions\/1244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}