Meeting Medical Needs. Sharing Truth.

From the earliest days of the modern missionary movement, pioneered by men like William Carey and Adoniram Judson, medicine has been a vital part of the missionary task.

Bless a church by giving a roof.

Every year, church buildings with grass roofs collapse during the rainy season. This is why every year we help about 20 churches purchase metal sheets to protect the sacrificial investment they've made in their building.

By giving $400, you can help a church protect the building they've built with metal sheet roofing.

From the earliest days of the modern missionary movement, pioneered by men like William Carey and Adoniram Judson, medicine has been a vital part of the missionary task. Modern medicine arose from a worldview that teaches that the world was created by one, all-wise Creator God. Throughout history, most people have believed that the world is controlled by innumerable spirits. Therefore, the world is chaotic and unpredictable.

But if there is in fact one, sovereign Creator, then the world is ordered, and it can be studied and understood to the degree that fallible humans have the ability. We can learn the patterns of cause-and-effect, of disease-and-treatment.

Nurse Alinafe takes vitals at a clinic near Lake Chirwa.
Pastor Friday preaches the gospel at a clinic in the Lower Shire.

Medicine demonstrates to people that they need not put their hope in appeasing unpredictable spirits or look for cures through witchcraft. Medicine actively teaches a biblical worldview that we are creatures who belong to a loving and kind Creator. We can trust him with our lives through the knowledge he has embedded in creation, but even more so, we can trust him because he has provided the greatest cure to our greatest disease by giving us eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Dr. Ruth compassionately discusses a patient's needs.

Meeting healthcare needs

Over the past four weeks, Josh and Stacy Leigh visited 12 villages with the clinic team. The team was able to share the gospel with and show compassion to thousands of people throughout southern Malawi.

During this round of clinics, we saw lots of people (especially children) with malaria. Some villages in the Lower Shire seemed to be overrun with the disease, and according to the people, the government clinics they normally visit are completely out of malaria medication. Simply put, without our clinic team, many of these children would have died of malaria.

We also treat many people with STIs (sexually transmitted infections), which is a constant reminder that the gospel’s power to transform lives is even more necessary than the medicine we provide.

Day Camp Teams head out from Zomba
Day Camp Teams prepare in the Lower Shire

Reaching youth with the gospel

At the beginning of July, we sent out 9 day camp teams to visit our partner churches as well as new areas. These teams put on a program of skits, games, singing, and preaching in order to reach and encourage youth.

We provide the 45 team members with bikes, balls, gospel tracts, and other materials. Each team will put on 30 days of camps from July to September. Many of the team members are our first-year students at Shepherds Academy, who are learning through the experience to preach the gospel and counsel people who respond.

We will be visiting the teams in the coming months and will share with you everything that God is doing through them.

Driving in style

We want to send a big thank you out to Hardin Baptist Church for helping us purchase our new Ford Ranger! This truck will help us do many things for both the mission and our family which require a large vehicle, while allowing us to extend the lives of our Land Cruisers that are indispensable when going to remote areas. We are so thankful for how the Lord has used you to provide for this need!

LATEST PODCAST EPISODE

Josh and Stacy Leigh share about our first-ever pastors’ wives conferences.

Evolving Situation, New Plans

We were supposed to be having modular pastor trainings over the next two weeks, but due to the third-wave, we were forced to cancel those plans. Instead, we will be relaunching a program we started before the pandemic—Gospel Schools.

At Gospel Schools, we visit a church and ask the surrounding churches in the district to send their pastor and two additional leaders. We then use the six-hours together to go through the basics of the gospel, how to share it, and discipleship. Pray for us as we travel the country and get back to basics.

Prayer Points

Picture of Joshua Hutchens

Joshua Hutchens

Joshua Hutchens (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the president of Gospel Life as well as Associate Pastor of Discipleship and Missions at Overland Church in Fort Collins, Colorado. With a heart devoted to spreading the gospel, Joshua, alongside his wife Stacy Leigh and their five children, dedicated six years to serving in Malawi before returning to the United States, where he continues to lead Gospel Life.

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