Forget the Frock 2021
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.
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.
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
- Pray for the pastors we serve and our team as they minister to people throughout the pandemic.
- Pray for clarity and wisdom about what to do and when to do it.
- Pray that our team always keeps the main thing the main thing!
