{"id":702,"date":"2015-08-07T23:17:28","date_gmt":"2015-08-07T22:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/?p=702"},"modified":"2015-08-07T23:22:52","modified_gmt":"2015-08-07T22:22:52","slug":"darkness-descending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/darkness-descending\/","title":{"rendered":"Darkness descending"},"content":{"rendered":"

Darkness falls very rapidly here – only 15 or so degrees south of the equator, dusk lasts maybe 20 or 30 minutes and then the light is gone!  Only darkness remains.<\/p>\n

These nights, the constant beat of the village drums seem to welcome us home, yet solemnly  reminds us that this land is enveloped in another kind of darkness – just as pervasive, but altogether more serious.<\/p>\n

The drums are inseparably linked to dark and often physically dangerous practices which are traditionally performed at this time of year – rites of passage to bring the young men and women to majority and full participation in the affairs of the village. They remind us of the importance of spreading the only message which can deliver from darkness and spiritual bondage into glorious light and liberty.<\/p>\n

Two more team members travel today – Euan and Sarah should be enroute as I write. Ramona and Victoria should arrive on Sunday, and Ruth and Deborah on Monday, Lord willing. Then the work begins in earnest.  Please pray for them as they travel, and for us all as we distribute the Word of God.
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Darkness falls very rapidly here – only 15 or so degrees south of the equator, dusk lasts maybe 20 or 30 minutes and then the light is gone!  Only darkness remains. These nights, the constant beat of the village drums seem to welcome us home, yet solemnly  reminds us that this land is enveloped in […]<\/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":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mgo2015"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6pE8C-bk","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":712,"url":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/sunday-at-nsanama\/","url_meta":{"origin":702,"position":0},"title":"Sunday at Nsanama","author":"Stephen","date":"11 August 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"We had an 8 o'clock start Sunday morning for the 30 minute drive to Nsanama for the meeting there. Two funerals in the village meant that the meeting had to be kept quite short but we enjoyed the young people reciting their memory verses and singing a couple of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Outreach 2015"","block_context":{"text":"Outreach 2015","link":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/category\/mgo\/mgo2015\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/wpid-wp-14391586083621.jpg?fit=270%2C480&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1053,"url":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/how-far-would-you-go-for-the-sake-of-the-gospel\/","url_meta":{"origin":702,"position":1},"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":[]},{"id":1213,"url":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/a-fruitful-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":702,"position":2},"title":"A fruitful day","author":"Stephen","date":"23 February 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I haven't done as much travelling on this trip as I usually do, mainly because brother Harold has been suffering badly from sciatic pain after an injury last August. I've been able to help him have a few physio appointments since I arrived, but this has restricted our movements quite\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\/dsc_0867.jpg?fit=400%2C225&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1015,"url":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/bible-teaching-conference-begins-tomorrow-tuesday\/","url_meta":{"origin":702,"position":3},"title":"Bible Teaching Conference begins tomorrow (Tuesday)","author":"Stephen","date":"9 November 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"For those following this trip prayerfully, we ask you to specially keep in mind the 3-day conference which is due to begin tomorrow, God willing. A number of attendees have already gathered and will spend their first night in the simple purpose-built dormitory constructed just adjacent to the hall at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":685,"url":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/malawi-gospel-outreach-trip-commences-tomorrow\/","url_meta":{"origin":702,"position":4},"title":"Malawi Gospel Outreach Trip commences tomorrow","author":"Stephen","date":"3 August 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"We begin our Gospel outreach trip to Malawi tomorrow, God willing. Gail and I will set off from Dublin in the evening and the rest of the team will assemble in Malawi over the course of the next few days. We should all be in place by this day next\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1237,"url":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/the-prodigal-daughters\/","url_meta":{"origin":702,"position":5},"title":"The Prodigal Daughters","author":"Stephen","date":"27 February 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702","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=702"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":705,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702\/revisions\/705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodnewsmalawi.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}