4,200 New Testaments in the hands of new disciples!!

Thank You Lord!

November 10, 2023

These past few weeks we have been raising funds to buy New Testaments for Malawi. With the help of faithful supporters who offered matching gifts we were able to raise enough money to buy 4,200 New Testaments. Discipling without Bibles is difficult. Your donations will make a huge difference in the lives of 4,200 families or individuals!

Thank You!!

Reading God’s Word is exciting! When we visited Malawi in 2019 I found a man reading this Bible. he had received it a year earlier and almost every page was marked in some way. Most children learn to read. When the parents can’t read, the children read to the parents!

We welcome additional support for this project [designated to “Malawi”]. See the donate page here.

Dear praying friends,

Elly and I believe that our job as Christ-followers is to disciple people, both believers and unbelievers. Jesus Christ said, “I will build my Church….” (Matthew 16:18).

Jesus commanded us, His disciples, to,

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you….” (Matthew 29:19-20)

That is what we taught our DCI Team of three men, John Singinie, George Chipeta and Caleb Chirambo, to begin making disciples of all who would come and teach church leaders how to train leaders. We understood that this strategy would bring unity among Christ-followers from the various denominational churches in the villages.

We had learned to appreciate John Singinie during our visits to Malawi. His love for the Lord and his desire to serve Him with his life were evident to us. He became the leader of what we called the DCI Team (Discipling Christ-followers Intentionally).

Modern technology has helped us keep in touch with the DCI Team from Canada. We train, answer questions, talk via WhatsApp, and Zoom, email, and keep in touch almost daily.

Every other week the team travels to villages throughout the north and Central Region to encourage, train further or simply hear testimonies of people saved through the Good News of salvation.

As the DCI Team prayerfully considers going to a village to train local leaders, they begin looking for a person of peace (This principle is found in Matthew 10:11-13 as Jesus sends the 12 out). This local leader is then asked to invite 11 other local leaders to attend a training that would benefit their local church and community. Some pastors that come to these trainings are not believers. Some belong to African churches that don’t know God. Amazing conversions are seen as these pastors believe the Good News and are saved. Pastor Laswell is one of those men. He was a pastor of a church but did not believe in the Lord Jesus and did not preach the Gospel to his people. As he went through the first lesson of the Dynamic Discipling, God touched his heart and he was wonderfully saved. He was very anxious to get to his congregation and tell them the Good News. He told us that he needed to get back, because his flock was a congregation of the walking dead. How true! Today Laswell is the coach for his area and a man of God. (You can read and hear testimonies here http://www.dcimalawi.com).

After pastors are taken through the Dynamic Basics they are taught, using the Apprentice Leadership manual, how to train leaders to start reproducing Life Groups with the people they are discipling. (https://dynamicchurches.org/resources/life-group-disciple-making-model/learning-to-lead-course/).

This process has seen tens of thousands come to salvation as well as many believers being established in their faith, learning to live a life of faith through trusting in the Lord Jesus and the promises of God’s Word.

John Singinie, our team leader, is a Malawian and very familiar with the culture. He is an evangelist and noticed how other organizations are working. He taught us that, going to the villages with simply the Word of God will help the local people to hear the Word of God. People are not side tracked by the things being distributed but rather listen to the Word of God and take it deep into their hearts. Their lives are changed dramatically as a result.

Even though the Malawi villages are extremely poor, finding the God of the Bible and salvation through Jesus Christ His Son changes everything. The little money available to the family gets used for the benefit of the family as the husband learns to love his wife and children. The changed life they begin living in the village becomes a witness to the power of God to those who trust Him. Others ask what happened and the discipling process continues.

We are thankful for The Gideons (Now ShareWord International). They supplied us with New Testaments for many years. Because there are so many needs for Bibles in the world and we had already received so many, they stopped supplying us with New Testaments. This is hampering the work of discipling. The growing reach of the discipling process in this very poor is increasing in the meantime. Through one Christ-follower telling his friend or neighbour or relative about Christ the work has spread from the north of Malawi to the villages in Central and South Malawi and to Zambia and Mozambique. The DCI Team has trained leaders who became coaches as they in turn trained leaders. Some of these coaches, at their own expense, travel long distances to spread the Good News and train more leaders and disciples.

Brian Mkandaweri (a coach) lives in Jenda. He came to the first training conference we had in Mzuzu in 2012 and has become a great servant of God, travelling from his home in the Central Region to Lilongwe and Mzuzu to pursue people for Jesus and disciple them. He has dozens of Life Groups in Zambia and hundreds in the Central Region. He has trained many other leaders who have become sub-coaches to help him keep up with the training of new leaders. These new leaders train more leaders and disciple more people. We don’t help Brian (or any of the other coaches or leaders) financially; they do this work because they love the Lord and want to see people saved. For many years he went about discipling people and training leaders without the support of his wife; she was not a believer. She hung around with the wrong crowd and had a reputation to match. When pastor Brian started a Life Group in his house with believers from different churches, she didn’t attend. Lately, after many years, she began attending the Life Group and came to faith in Christ as she was discipled one-on-one. This changed her life and now she is a help to her husband and now she loves her family. Her community also has seen her changed life. She has begun to disciple people in her village.

· The three full time workers, John Singinie, George Chipeta and Caleb Chirambo are given an allowance to support their families.

· The Team has a 4×4 diesel truck, a 2010 Toyota Hilux that helps get the men safely to the villages with their supplies. The team also has two motorcycles they use to get around during their week at home, running errands and reaching people in Mzuzu they are personally discipling.

· DCI materials needed for the discipling process are available in the local trade languages, Tumbuka for the north and Chichewa for the rest of Malawi and the areas across the borders of Zambia and Mozambique. These materials are printed locally so the local economy benefits.

· We have been able to buy some New Testaments the last few years as God provided funds, but really need many thousands more as the work expands.

· John Singinie is working with the Malawian office of Awana to bring Awana to the DCI network and the thousands of children who need to know Jesus. Some local churches have a children’s work already, but Awana will bring the discipling process to this age group as well.

· John Singinie participated in a conference in Kenya, this year was a speaker at a Baptist Pastor’s Conference in Cameroon in August 2023 and is invited to participate in a conference in Tanzania in November 2023. The work of DCI Malawi is being noticed across Africa.

Our needs:

· Our budget needs help due to inflation.

· In December we need to order New Testaments. The cost of one New Testament has gone from US$ 2.95 to US$ 5.00 each as of last December. We can use 10,000 for the expanding needs as the Good News keeps spreading to new areas. The north has a population of about 1.7 million. The south, where the work is just beginning to reach the villages, has a population of 14 million, plus the Chichewa areas of Zambia and Mozambique that are being reached.

· Printing training materials in the Tumbuka and Chichewa languages.

· Finances for the Awana program to be added to the trainings and the cost of translating their material into Tumbuka (It is already available in Chichewa).

· Inflation is rampant in Malawi; fuel has gone from CAN$ 2.00/litre to CAN$ 5.00/litre. Malawi is a landlocked country, everything not produced locally must be imported.

· The cost of living has increased dramatically. The Team needs an increase to their allowances.

· Elly and I are Associate Missionaries with Dynamic Churches International since 2002, we don’t receive a salary from DCI.

Yours in His service,

Hans and Elly Timmermans

One of the people who has been reached in the Nkhotakota District and has been discipled is Akalina Kalaza. Akelina was into love potions, magic herbs and witchdoctors. Some herbs she sold to women who would add them to the food of a man they desired to be with. Sometimes these herbs would make him go mad and would end up staying with that woman and not go to work anymore.

By the grace of God, Akelina was reached with the Good News and saved by trusting in Jesus. She has been discipled and has discovered the truth that changed her life. She discovered that the devil is a liar and Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and that true life is in him and not in charms. She no longer relies on those demonic powers and charms as she did in the past. She now knows and teaches the Truth found by faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.

There are two things which are everywhere in the Nkhotakota District these are Islam and Gule Wamkulu or Nyau. Both practice cursing people and have rituals. Most people in Nkhotakota also believe in witchcraft and the many other rituals.

Muslims believe that if someone has wronged you, one can go to the sheikh who will curse or cast a spell on that person. Then that person will die or suffer severely.

They also believe that if someone who is not a Muslim has wronged a Muslim the Muslim has to retaliate even to the extent of killing that person. They believe that killing someone who is not their fellow Muslim is making someone to be rewarded by Allah.

Gule Wamkulu or Nyau is considered part of religion by the Chewa people. They believe in worshipping their ancestors. They also believe in magic herbs and witchcraft. They used to force people to join them by abducting them and taking them to the bush to teach and train them the Chewa culture and believe in Gule Wamkulu and the worshipping of ancestral spirits. The Chewa people used to send their children to Dambwe where they stayed for a month learning about the Chewa culture and Gule Wamkulu. They send them when they reached puberty. That’s why Chewa people were not doing well at school because they would miss classes too much and for too long. Some of these things are changing as people discover the truth of the Gospel.

The sign was raised which reads: “God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Peter or Eve and Esther”.

The Nkhotakota District is one of the places where the DCI Team is involved in training pastors and leaders of different churches in one-on-one and leadership development. We appointed Raphael Hala as the coach a many years ago. Raphael has trained 7 more coaches who have started many Life Groups in this area and also spread the work to some parts of the Mchinji and Ntchisi Districts.

We also encouraged one-to-one discipling in these areas and one-to-one discipling has turned out to be gladly accepted here because Muslims and those who belong to Gule Wamkulu are afraid that other villagers will see them attend Christian meetings. But one-to-one discipling is able to reach these people with the Gospel. Many are being saved and discipled. Through the discipling process, they get to know the truth and then they will be courageous enough to participate without fear in Life Group meetings. They no longer live a life of fear. Witchcraft as well as Gule Wamkulu and Muslims have lost their power to make them afraid. They trust God and as they study the Word of God, they become more encouraged as they learn more. That’s why the New Testament, the Dynamic Basic and the Dynamic Discipling booklets are such great tools for the people of Nkhotakota.

The Muslims like to give hand-outs, they use these to draw people to their religion. Giving them DCI materials and New Testaments as they are being discipled is a great approach with these people because they are used to receive things for free from the Muslims. As they are being discipled, they discover the importance of the Word of God and begin to enjoy studying it. Then they will buy a New Testament or Bible for themselves as the one we gave them wears out.

Many people are being reached through one-to-one and are being saved and discipled and become disciple-makers themselves and some also become leaders.

-George

Dear friends:

Four ways you can help the work of DCI Malawi:

1. Pray for the Team and their families.
2. Send a check with a note “for Malawi” (address below)
3. e-transfer: dcioffice@shaw.ca
4. Canada Helps click here.

Yours in Christ,

Hans, Elly and Malawi team

Dickens Mwakawonja Gondwe comes from the Hara area in Uliwa. He is one of the founders of Christian Love Church. He is so teachable and humble. He learned from the DCI Team when we started trainings at Uliwa and has been there since. He takes us to different Life Groups including the one which he has established in his own village.

This time he took us to the Children Life Group. He prays with the children as if he is a child and in this way they understand what he is teaching. His has a heart and a passion for the children. He has also trained other children’s teachers, Blanco Munthari and 2 more women.

We were so encouraged to see that children are being saved are taught and trained. They are being discipled while they are young so that when they grow up it will be difficult for false teachers to deceive them.

When a child is taught the truth while young it is difficult for that child to be deceived when they grow up. Discipling children is reaching and touching the next generation. They meet three times a week.

These children are discipled and as a result, their lives are changed. They learn more of the Word of God through one-on-one as well as on their own as they read and study the word of God. Those who were troublesome at home as well as at school are no longer troublesome. Jesus has saved them and changed their lives. They are now able to obey their parents. Before parents and teachers tried to change them but failed. That is why parents and teachers are very happy with the changes that have taken place in their children’s’ lives. Some of these children can even teach their parents. Seeing what God has done in their children’s lives, the parents are encouraging their children to go to the Life Group meetings.

Help us grow the work: Donate page

(sent Feb. 25, 2023)

The man in the picture is Zaccheus Nyirenda a village headman. He trusted Jesus for salvation during one of our Life Group follow-up meetings at Mulewera in the Euthini region.

After he trusted Jesus as his Lord and Savior, he was filled with joy and happiness for the peace of the Lord that filled his heart.

Zaccheus once attended a Holy Cross Pentecostal Church and was devout about the things of God. As time passed, he stopped going to church and got busy with village duties, customs, and the traditions of the community. For this reason, he has not attended church for over three years and his pastor stopped following up on him long ago.

Fortunately, a woman who was discipled by one of the people we trained started a Life Group in his area and Zaccheus started attending. Later he was given someone to disciple him and he received a Bible and a DB.

Now that he has trusted Jesus, he will be discipled by a member of the Life Group as they read the Bible and go through the Dynamic Basic booklet.

Thanks,

Caleb

EUTHINI FIFTH VISIT

This past week (February 2023) God gave us the privilege to conduct the fifth training with pastors from the Euthini area under the leadership of pastor Misted Manda of Pentecostal Christ Church International who also is the coach in this area. We started the trainings with the leaders from Euthini last year, but the work has advanced beyond the boundaries of Euthini. A lot of people have been saved in Euthini through the training these leaders have received from the DCI team.

So far there are over 37 active Life Groups and over 41 leaders have been trained. This is really an explosive growth experience we are witnessing in this region. The DCI team started to work in Euthini in 2012, but for some reason the work didn’t survive. We decided to stop going there, instead we used our time and resources to go to other places where the teaching is well received and implemented. But we never gave up on Euthini and we continued praying and kept searching for the man of peace in this region. We found pastor Manda who came from Ekwendeni (where DCI also trained and equipped leaders and pastors, ed.).

Euthini has a small number of born-again Christians. Most people who call themselves Christians do not really understand what that means. Most of these people belongs to Traditional Churches that do not preach the gospel. And we found that most these folks are double worshipers, they worship God, and they also worship the spirits of their ancestors. Many people still practice rituals such as drinking fresh blood of goats and chickens. Many others are into drinking much beer (both men and women).

We heard a story of a certain butcher who on the 24th of December last year (2022) killed a cow which spoke back to the men who were slaughtering it in the slaughterhouse. It is said that the cow said, “Why are you killing me? Please release me and let me go back and raise my kids”. They said the voice sounded like a lady. They thought it was the voice of a certain lady who went missing a few weeks earlier before this cow was taken to the slaughterhouse from the area where the butcher lives. As the result the butcher has lost his business. These are some of the true stories that when you hear them are hard to believe but witchcraft and magic are very real here in Malawi.

We also found that there are some people in this area (so called Men of God, self-proclaimed prophets) who are selling anointed water. They charge people Mk2500 (about $ 3.00) for a very small bottle of water and the price goes higher depending on the size of the bottle.

We were told that some of these men also sell stickers and make people believe that these stickers have divine powers to protect them from accidents and the attacks of evil spirits. Many people buy these items because people are hungry for the spiritual.

One of these prophets is so popular that he attracts people from far places like Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and even from Zambia. Learning about these things helps us to pray for Euthini in a better way and to also have a better way of presenting the gospel. That’s why we combine training sessions with follow-up visits right from the second visit. During these follow-ups we make sure we encourage the Life Group leaders and members from the Word of God. We are very encouraged to see God working in the lives of the people in Euthini, lives are being changed as traditional practices are abandoned by those that have come to faith through one-to-one discipleship. And seeing all these 37 Life Groups that started within a year’s time is a great encouragement to us and the body of Christ. This is a testimony that God is working in this area. During this trip we only visited three Life Groups and the testimonies we heard from the people we met encouraged us very much.

Please keep Euthini in your prayers for God to continue the great work He has begun in Euthini and that more people will come to salvation through the one-to-one discipleship and the Life Groups. Pray also that the Traditional Church will be reached so those churches also begin to preach the true gospel of salvation. And this can happen when the pastors of these Traditional Churches are saved. We already have seen two of these pastors saved and they are among the first generation of believing leaders in these churches.

Thank you

John

Dear friends,

As you can read from these reports the work in Malawi is seeing much amazing fruit. God is blessing the work in souls saved and we rejoice. But we need help. Right now we are short about 20% for the every month expenses. Would you help? Perhaps a one-time gift or a monthly commitment?

Thanks for your prayers and financial help,

Hans and Elly Timmermans for the DCI Team

Carmel Mtika Banda is a committed pastor. As George Chipeta explains in the article below, he is using his training to further the Kingdom of God in the Central Region. From the map you can see how great the distance is. The trip takes many hours. On his way home Carmel, travelling on the back of a truck, was involved in an accident. Two of his fellow travellers were killed, Carmel survived with bruises and much pain. Please pray for him.

-Hans and Elly Timmermans for the DCI Team

Sent on Feb. 11, 2023

I had a great time this past week with pastor Carmel Mtika Banda from Madise in Dowa District that’s the Central Region of Malawi. He came all the way from the Central Region to be trained further on DCI Principles as well as get some materials. This is the second time for him to use his own resources to come and learn more about DCI principles. He heared from another pastor that these training are very helpful to grow the work of God.

He reported that the work is going well. He has established 7 church branches using DCI principles and each church has a number of Life Groups where people are either being discipled or discipling others. The one-on-one discipling takes place outside the participation in the Life Group. I have been training him as a leader on one-to-one when he comes here as well as on the phone calls. He has also trained a number of leaders who are leading the churches and those church leaders are also training the Life Group leaders in turn. I like pastor Carmel because of his a humble heart. He is teachable as well as hard working. He is one of the pastors that we talk with for a long time on our phone calls. He feels free to ask for advice.

These are the churches he has planted so far:

• Wakerenela church branch. The Leader is Damiyano and has 4 Life Groups.
• Dwangwa branch. The leader is Precious Chiziko and has 3 Life Groups.
• Mponera has 5 Life Groups. The Leader is Lisa Kamanga
• Nsanganga. The leader is Juphrikisi Kapundu and has 4 Life Groups
• Nambamba branch. The leader is Selina Bizwick and has 5 Life Groups
• Kamwendo has 2 Life Groups and tey they have no bibles.
• Madise, where Carmel is based has 7 Life Groups

These are Life groups in other places:

• Chambande boundary Zambia & Mozambique. The leader is Dickson and has 2 Life Groups.
• Chinkhoma. Pastor Gibson Seza Banda is the leader and has 2 Life Groups.
• Lojwa. The leader is Fumu Chizunba and has 8 Life Groups.

Carmel has also started teaching some orphans the Word of God, seeing that it is the only hope for them to hear God’s Word and to start a Life Group with them.

– George

Dear friends of DCI Malawi

(Sent out in February 2023)

Greetings in Jesus’ Name! We are very thankful for the amazing reports we continue to receive from our Team in Malawi. They have returned from their Christmas break refreshed and ready for this new year of seeing what God has in store for them and their fellow Malawians.

You may have been wondering how your donations are used in Malawi… Thank you for your help in these very important items which are needed to facilitate the discipleship and leadership training that John, George and Caleb do in Malawi.

The exchange rate fluctuates a lot. In January 2022 the exchange rate was MKW 620 for CAN$ 1.00. In December it was MKW 750 for CAN $ 1.00.

The allowances for the three DCI Team members, John Singinie, George Chipeta and Caleb Chirambo take up 42% of the expenditures. This gives them an income comparable to a teacher in Malawi.

A lot of ministry takes place over the phone and “airtime” takes up 15% of the budget. Staying in touch by phone and counselling Life Group leaders this way helps the Team to stay connected. Transportation (truck and motorbike costs), lodging, meals, and providing food during the training for the participants, etc. are all part of our regular expenses.

We are so thankful for everyone who helps make this work possible through prayer and financial giving. God is using the DCI Team for His glory by saving many Malawians from a life without hope and making them part of God’s family through faith in Jesus Christ.

As workers together with Christ we can look forward to meeting these Malawian brothers and sisters when we personally see Jesus face to face. Then we will all together praise Him for His love and the salvation He worked for us. Then our new life in Christ, which we already have now, will be completed as He also gives us a new, sinless body. How exciting!

In the mean time things are getting more expensive, here and in Malawi. In Malawi, we ask the Team to operate on this budget of approximately $50,000, whereas in reality, the budget should be approximately 30% higher. So we want to ask you to think about how you can help this work. Perhaps you have never given on a monthly basis and are in a position to do so now, or perhaps you are able to increase the amount you already give each month. God is doing amazing things in Malawi and your dollars are laying up treasures for eternity.

Here is how you can help:

e-tranfer: dcioffice@shaw.ca

See our donate page here.

Thanks again for your interest in this work.

Shalom,

Hans and Elly Timmermans (for the DCI Team in Malawi).

Dear Friends of DCI Malawi,

We want to wish you God’s blessings this Christmas Season. How amazing that the Creator of the universe sent His beloved Son to this earth to teach us about His Father, but ultimately to die on a cross to bring salvation to a lost world. As we ponder the work of God in Malawi, we marvel. So many souls have been saved through the one-on-one discipling of one believer discipling his family member or neighbour. We want to thank you too for your part in this miraculous work of God. As you prayed, contributed to the work, God worked using the DCI Team, John, George and Caleb as they trained and taught people about the Great God we serve and His Son, Jesus the Messiah. Eternity will tell the whole story.

This Christmas Season we have been trying to raise money for Bibles. Each disciple receives a New Testament when they finish the 4 Basic lessons (if available). We need so many more Bibles. Would you consider making a year-end contribution to help with this project? So far we have enough money to buy about 4,000 New Testaments, but many more are needed. Also Discipling materials need to be printed regularly.

• You can e-transfer: dcioffice@shaw.ca
• Use Canada Helps: This link
• Send a cheque to the address of Dynamic Churches International at the bottom of this email.

Please read on about God’s Work in Chipita.

God bless you all as we remember the birth of our Saviour,

Hans and Elly

Chipita, Dec 1, 2022

I want to share with you a story that Honest Mwenisungu (pictured) shared with us in Chitipa (Chitipa is as far North as you can go in Malawi). Honest is the chairperson of the pastors fraternity in Chitipa. It was our first time meeting him and we were blessed to have him attend the training along with the other pastors. This pastor was discipled one-to-one by Stephen Siyami who is the DCI coach in Chitipa. Stephen trained and discipled him and now Honest has started Life Groups himself and is training Life Group leaders.

This is the story that pastor Honest shared with us.

One day two girls from his community passed greetings to him and his family at his house and he invited them to go through the Dynamic Basics lessons, which they accepted.

To the glory of GOD, after going through lesson one (all about salvation) and some other verses from other Dynamic Basics lessons, the two girls accepted the LORD JESUS as their Lord and Saviour. This brought joy to Honest and his family as well as to the two girls because they testified that they now felt the peace of the Lord in their hearts. One of these girls brought out a bottle of Tamec which she destroyed. (Tamec is a poisonous substance). She had just bought this bottle at the market and she was on her way home to kill herself because she had no hope for the future. Nothing was working out for her and on top of that she was very frustrated because her marriage had just broken apart.

Thank God the pastor invited her to the Word of God through the Dynamic Basics and she was saved not only from the second death and the eternal wrath of God, but also from suicide death that she was just about to commit. The next day these two girls came to the pastor’s house again to continue going through the Dynamic Basics, now not with sad faces and dwindling hearts, but with joy on their faces and cheerfulness in their hearts because of what Jesus has done for them.

Imagine if pastor Honest did not obey his call to disciple people in his community, these two lives may not have been saved.  We thank God for the discipleship work of one-to-one discipling that is done in Chitipa.

May we keep praying for Chitipa so that many lives should be saved.

Thanks,

Caleb