Project Progress

I figured this week I could write about the progress of our many projects! Our main projects, currently, are getting the building finished, translating the booklets in to Chichewa, and translating the hymnal into Chichewa.

When we first arrived in Malawi, about a year ago, the church hall was still very much under construction. The cement floor had no tiles, the electricity didn’t work, there was no cement outside—only dirt and then mud when it rained, the windows had no panes, and so on. But now we’re able to worship and learn in a beautiful hall!

The outside of the church hall has been re plastered—the building is made out of brick and cement which is then plastered over with red cement and made to look like nice uniform bricks— the floor is tiled, electricity works every Sabbath (we have solar panels for when ESCOM cuts out, thanks ABC fundraiser!), we have a proper cement driveway, and now an outside kitchen is being added! On Friday I’ll hopefully remember to take pictures of the hall, so I’ll try to upload them sometime next week.

Right now, one of our members is translating UCG’s booklets into Chichewa. He writes down the booklet into a notebook then gives it to me to type up and put into the correct printing format. Right now he has completed two booklets—Fundamental Beliefs and The Road to Eternal Life, and we’re going through and editing the mostly typed up Fundamental Beliefs booklet. Once it’s done, I can’t wait to see it printed!

Our other project is one most of you know about—Chichewa hymnal. We were given an old Chichewa hymnal by a member and have been putting the words to music. Problem is, though, that the Chichewa hymnal doesn’t have all of the songs so once we run out we’ll have some real translating work to do. But I believe God has given quite a few people the gift of interpreting, so it’ll be done. Once we finish the hymnals, we can share them with the congregation in Chipata, Zambia and Blantyre.