Last week, Emmanuel Pangani started his second year at Shepherds Academy. At 41 years-old, Emmanuel is older than most of our students, but when Emmanuel applied last year, Josh was touched by his story and eagerness to study.
Emmanuel grew up in a mixed Catholic and Muslim home, but later chose to become a Muslim. After he married, his wife quickly had a son, but for the next 13 years they endured miscarriages and infertility. When a Christian pastor prayed for Emmanuel and his wife, God gave them a daughter, and God used this miracle to bring Emmanuel to faith in Christ.
Emmanuel’s pastor, Pastor Fasiyo, planted Mkundi Church in 2008, but now at 80 years-old, Pastor Fasiyo decided that the time had come to step down as pastor and allow a younger man to lead. The Spirit led Mkundi Church to call Emmanuel as their new pastor.
Emmanuel is a man of beautiful humility and powerful gifting, and he is exactly the type of man we count it a privilege to train at Shepherds Academy, and we know that he will be able to lead Mkundi Church to faithfully bear witness to the Word of God in their village because of the training he is receiving.
Shepherds Academy starts its second year.
On October 25, we welcomed 34 residential students to Shepherds Academy, 19 returning students and 15 new students. The students immediately set to work studying Systematic Theology and Ephesians with Josh, as well as Heresies and Cults with Isaac.
In addition to their studies, they are learning outreach and evangelism by partnering with Gospel Life Baptist Church. The students are sharing the gospel door-to-door in our community and hosting evangelistic youth meetings every Saturday.
Sponsor a Student
Making disciples and baptizing them at Chisi Island.
In October, Pastor Donald baptized 10 new believers who belong to the new church we’ve started on Chisi Island in Lake Chilwa. We continually hear reports from pastors who are engaging new villages with the gospel.
One pastor recently shared that he bought a motorcycle, and his church decided to give him a portion of their small offering for fuel so he could travel to plant churches.
We are continually amazed by how the Holy Spirit fulfills Jesus’ promise: “You will be my witnesses…to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
Meeting temporal needs and identifying an eternal need.
On October 20, we completed our second round of mobile medical clinics in 2020. We visited 12 remote villages where people do not have access to quality medical care.
In October, we saw increasing malnutrition in Malawi and related diseases along with larger numbers of malaria patients and scabies in children.
While these needs are significant, they are temporal needs. They are limited to this life. Like Christ, we gladly meet these temporal needs, but we also point people to their eternal need—a relationship with God through Christ.
God’s kingdom will never fall.
Like many of you, we’ve been paying close attention to the U.S. election, which at the time of this update remains undecided. The outcome of elections do indeed have significant consequences for the lives and well-being of the people in our nations. But at the same time, we are thankful to serve God and his kingdom. His term will never expire. His reign will never end, and his kingdom will never fall.
When politics tempts you to despair, we hope that you will remember all that God is doing here in Malawi and across the border in Mozambique, and that you will rejoice and choose to invest your prayers, your money, or even your lives in the expansion of his kingdom through the gospel.
Prayer Points
- Pray for our 34 residential students as they study at Shepherds Academy.
- Pray for new churches that have been planted across Malawi and Mozambique, especially the new believers on Chisi Island.
- Pray for Stacy Leigh's women's Bible study, which meets every Wednesday.
- Pray for the continued growth in maturity of Gospel Life Baptist Church in Zomba.
- Pray that we will always recognize God's hand in the circumstances we face.
