We recently received an update from Pastor Arnold Phiri in Malawi. His letter, edited for space and clarity, follows.
Greetings in the name of Jesus.
First of all, I would like to thank you for the prayers and support, this quarter has been good, and also challenging.
Thank you very much for trusting me to lead our ministry Empower International in this nation. I am really humbled and I don’t take this for granted.
Many lives have been transformed and touched through this ministry. We hear testimonies all the time about how families have been transformed. They have let go of cultural practices, traditional practices, that had been hindering them.
For example, we conducted very successful trainings this year on Created to Belong, where parents can learn about attachment. The participants learned a lot. We had pregnant women who were amazed when they learned that children in the womb do recognize the voice of their fathers, and even their footsteps. This has helped them tremendously.
It was good for fathers to learn about attachment, because in this culture, all the child-rearing duties are in the hands of the women and men are always busy with their own things. The training showed them the gap between the fathers and their children. After the training, parents were confessing that they did not do well, and also did not treat their children well. They were seeking God’s forgiveness.
When we have conducted the New Man, New Woman, New Life training, we also saw great success. When we explained the framework of Creation, Fall and Redemption, and studied Paul’s letters, we saw people receiving Jesus as their savior. This was very good.
The challenges were the same on creation for the men to accept that even women were created in God’s image. Because of the cultural practice that put men as superior all the time, they believe that men are supposed to eat good food, and women get the scraps, if anything. The participants had some debate about whether women should be allowed to eat good food. Getting them to understand that they are equal was a challenge. Their argument was that if they give women equality, it will undermine men’s authority.
But in everything we came to one understanding that they are all equal and created in God’s image.
When we discussed the fall, many participants said they’d been taught that the fall was the woman’s fault. But after looking into the scripture together, and the Holy Spirit helped us, their eyes were opened. Even the old pastors and bishops confessed that they have been misinterpreting the scriptures.
Polygamy is also much practiced in this area and to them, it’s not considered a sin, it’s just part of daily life and cultural practices. It was good for men to understand that the Bible teaches “one man for one woman.” We are expecting good news from them when we go out for follow ups.
I am happy to see how people are finding freedom in Jesus Christ. One of the compliments we receive often is about the workbooks. They clearly spell out answers to people’s questions. When I was in the far part of the Northern region, people were amazed because a lot of critical questions which they had, they were answering themselves by going through the workbook.
I am grateful for all the financial and prayer support that you always give to us. You always make my work easy and look more organized.
Over the last five years, there has been a lot of unexpected change in our government. People suffered, and there was much poverty.
The Healing from Trauma workshops really helped the people trusting the Lord for healing and processing different traumas. In the coming year, we plan to expand our work in different areas, with coordinators in the south, central, east and northern regions.
Thanks also to Rev. Sally for her hard work, she always comes and sacrifices a lot because the places which we always conduct our trainings are not in town but villages, and she connects with people very well and also the local village chiefs.
Finally, we always pray for you as you lead our ministry and also for the ministry as it grows. I would like to let you know that we are more committed in working very hard to make sure that the ministry grows in Malawi and beyond.
For next year we are planning to make use of the new year holiday in conducting the trainings with the pastors as trainers.
Be blessed,
Arnold