REPORT FOR JENDA

We left for Jenda Monday morning and we had a safe trip. We arrived at Jenda in good time and looked for a place to stay. Jenda was cool because of the rains (it is the rainy season). We were warmly welcomed at Jenda by Pastor Brian Mkandawire (the Coach).  The training started well, we had 7 Leaders in attendance of which two were represented by their wives. The pastors of Jenda are so eager to learn more and they are always a great audience and very free in their participation.  When we ask one of them to teach back the lessons we have taught them they teach it back to us very well. 

Of all the many places we have been Jenda is a good example of leaders who have caught the DCI vision, and are applying it very well. The work in Jenda is growing fast and wide. The leaders in Jenda have spread  the Good News through One-on-One as far as Zambia (Lundazi), Mchinji, which is part of the Central Region of Malawi and Mzimba Boma. They even reached part of Mabulabo, and area where one of our other coaches, Foster Mlenga was, but never went to this area. 

And one of the things we are encouraged by is the fact that in all these places a lot of people have been saved and are being well discipled through the One-on-One discipling booklet. Brian has trained someone at Jenda who later moved to Mzuzu and has started the work there. In Mzuzu there are more than 4 life groups and Mzuzu has its own coach, Tabitha Sakala. (Mzuzu is a big city and now has two independent coaches). 

Brian has a heart for reaching the lost, that’s why the work at Jenda is focussed on lots of out outreach. He told us that he has also been invited to go Embangweni. We (John and George, the DCI Team) have wanted to introduce the DCI work there, but it has never worked out. But God is using pastor Brian to introduce the work there. We encouraged him to go and train those people who have invited him. He was asking us to give him some extra gospel tracts. Also he asked for the Butterfly tracts, which we usually get from the Good Hope Ministry. 

God is using pastor Brian and his fellow pastors at Jenda in amazing ways for His glory. We also find out that the work has gone as far as Mchinji where Chikondi who was trained at Jenda and was sent back to Mchinji and started the work. Now the work in Mchinji is growing and more people are being saved and trained through the One-on-One Basic booklet.

For a very long time we have been trying to introduce the DCI work at Mzimba Boma. Now pastor Ruben Chisi, who is a coach trained by pastor Brian, lives there and we hope the work will now be established in Mzimba Boma. (Pastor Chisi is also one of the leaders we trained at Jenda together with Brian Mkandawire). When pastor Chisi saw how  effective the DCI approach at Jenda was, he decided to go back to his home village to start a Life Group. The Life group was successfully started and has become a church.  

Now the churches in Mzimba are growing, both spiritually and numerically, and more Life Groups have been started from Mzimba even as far away as Manyamula, about 40 kilometres from Mzimba Boma, as well as many other areas. 

Just imagine, from May 2018 to February 2019 already 15 Life Groups are operating. Pastor Chisi also travelled all the way from Mzimba to Jenda to attend the trainings this time. In our discussions we encouraged pastor Chisi to keep up the good work as a coach of Mzimba and make sure the whole of Mzimba is reached.

What this means is that George and I don’t need to go to Mzimba Boma to try and introduce the work there, but rather we will leave it to pastor Chisi to reach the Mzimba region.

In the midst of all the good things we experience at Jenda we also had some difficulties, we had diarrhea and it grew worse. We decided to go to a clinic where we were given some drugs to help with the problem. We experienced not much improvement until we got home on Thursday. 

We really thank God for your prayers because though we were weak we managed to finish the training. We also had a problem with the car, it couldn’t start, the battery was low. We took the battery somewhere to be charged for 3 hours and we thank God the car started. I think the car battery is dying and we need to start thinking of replacing it in the near future to avoid further problems. (John has replaced the battery in the mean time).

Thank you

John.

Coach for Jenda Area is Brian Mkandawire and these four coaches have been trained by him. He has 182 Life Groups divided amongst 5 coaches, including himself:

Coach for Mzuzu is Tabitha Sakala

Coach for Mzimba is James Chisi

Coach for Mchinji is Chikondi

Coach for Zambia is Adson Ngulube