Changing plans…again

At the beginning of January, we started off the new term for Shepherds Academy with 32 young men, training to be pastors. Josh began teaching Theology by covering the doctrines of Christ and the Spirit while Isaac was teaching biblical counseling.

Forget the Frock 2021

Just in time for Forget the Frock 2021, a growing movement of people who choose to support a charity/nonprofit by buying and wearing their t-shirts on Easter Sunday instead of new Easter clothes, Gospel Life has a fun new hand-lettered design for everyone! The name Gospel Life was born from Philippians 1:27. We hope these shirts will inspire you to live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ.

At the beginning of January, we started off the new term for Shepherds Academy with 32 young men, training to be pastors. Josh began teaching Theology by covering the doctrines of Christ and the Spirit while Isaac was teaching biblical counseling.

Unfortunately, as the month went along, the number of Covid-19 cases in Malawi began to gradually rise due to the new South African variant. While we still have a very low rate of infections in comparison with our population, we also have a very limited capacity in our hospitals, and so on January 18th, the government closed all schools. We sent our students home.

In the last week, evidence suggests that the outbreak is starting to plateau, and we pray that this is indeed the case and that we begin to see the number of cases start to decline over the next few weeks.

After only two weeks together, we had to send these young men home due to a surge of Covid-19 cases in Malawi.

We received more bad news in mid-January when we learned that our primary clinic physician, Anthony Ntata, had passed away from Covid-19. Dr. Ntata worked with the mission in the clinics from the beginning, and he will be missed.

Dr. Ntata worked in the mobile medical clinics from the beginning and will be missed.

Thankfully, we are still allowed to worship as a church as long as we follow basic health guidelines and keep each service under 50 people. Josh, Wilkes, and Isaac are beginning a topical series answering spiritual questions related to the pandemic over the month of February before beginning to preach through the book of Hebrews.

Meanwhile, our team is focusing on making preparations for pastor trainings that we hope to resume in March and the mobile medical clinics we hope will go forward in April.

Pray for our team in Malawi as we seek to minister to many of the people around us who are confused, afraid, or without hope in this pandemic.

Prayer Points

Joshua Hutchens

Joshua Hutchens

Joshua Hutchens (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is a missionary to Malawi and president of Gospel Life. Before becoming president of Gospel Life, he served as a pastor in Kentucky. He is married to Stacy Leigh, and they have five children.

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