God is working for his glory

July 18 marked 2 years since we moved to Malawi. Through every challenge we have faced and are facing, God continues to demonstrate his call and his provision on our lives.

July 18 marked 2 years since we moved to Malawi. Through every challenge we have faced and are facing, God continues to demonstrate his call and his provision on our lives. As we walk with him, we see him doing the work for the glory of his name!

The Church at Chisi Island

At the end of July, Josh went with a church planting team led by Pastor Donald to Chisi Island in Lake Chilwa. We’ve been praying for Chisi Island since November, and Josh visited a small group of 3 believers there in May.

After Donald’s church planting team visited two more times in July, the church has grown to 11 believers and several others who continue to listen to the teaching despite not yet giving their lives to Christ. In the 2 small villages where these believers live, there was previously only a Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall and prosperity gospel Pentecostal church. Now there is a growing church that believes and preaches the biblical gospel!

Pray for these believers as the church planting team continues to disciple them and transition them to having their own leadership. Josh will be visiting to encourage them again on Sunday, August 30.

Church Planting Teams

In early July, we trained 9 church planting teams to go out across southern Malawi to preach the gospel, disciple believers, and establish new churches. We provide these teams with training, bikes, Bibles, and other supplies, and they go out to do the work in their home areas.

This year the teams have faced increased challenges due to constantly changing and confusing Covid-19 regulations on gatherings, but nevertheless most of the teams have persevered.

Their preliminary reports indicate that they’ve visited about 35 villages with 1,600 hearing the gospel and 375 making commitments of faith.

These teams will continue to preach and follow up with believers over the next month.

New Location for Gospel Life Baptist Church

With the help of Hardin Baptist Church, we were able to buy a piece of land that will be a permanent home for Gospel Life Baptist Church in Zomba. We dedicated the land on July 26 and have since built a Tabernacle for outdoor worship as long as we face Covid-19 challenges.

Our new location is on a main road in Zomba near the Mpunga neighborhood market. We can hear the music of the local bar down the road as we worship, and we hope that they hear our songs too! We estimate that as many as 10,000 people walk past this location every day, and we are excited about the opportunity for outreach it gives us.

Mobile Medical Clinics

At the end of July, our teammates Eric and Stephanie Chapman were able to get to Malawi, and after a quarantine period, they have been running mobile medical clinics.

Due to Covid-19 regulations, we have to run fewer and smaller clinics, but we were glad to be able to reach people in need for the first time this year with this ministry. They finished the first round this week and, Lord willing, will run a second round of clinics in October. 

Pastors Conferences in September

We haven’t been able to meet with the 160 pastors we serve since February, but in September, we are preparing to run four pastor conferences. We’ve split the pastors we serve into smaller groups so we can hold 1.5 day conferences to encourage them.

Eric will be preaching to encourage them while Josh and Isaac will be teaching Romans 1–6.

Pray for us as we continue to do all that we can do to advance the gospel, disciple believers, and plant churches during this strange and difficult year.

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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