Rev. Bret Rickard
Interim Pastor
Rev. Bret Rickard
Interim Pastor
Laurette Hoagland - Bless Malawi, Africa - July 7-16
The Bless Malawi opportunity is ongoing and ends July 7. It is set up on a board in the small room at the back of the sanctuary. Grab an envelope that speaks to your heart, write a check or use cash and put the envelope in the box next to the board.
Malawi Missions Soup and Sandwich lunch immediately following worship services on Sunday July 7th. Come and enjoy a nice lunch along with excellent fellowship downstairs. Pastor Laurette will be available to answer your questions and share her heart for Malawi missions.
It's a lovely opportunity to sponsor specific supplies for Pastor Laurette's upcoming missions trip to Malawi July 16th.
Lindsey Schwartz - Malawi, Africa
So these last three weeks we have been in Pholambe, going back to village life. Oh the bucket showers, lack of power, and the clearest night skies. There we were been partnering with the YWAM base as they have many ministries and doing clinics as well. It's been SO good! The base is focused on bringing education to those not able to receive it. Teaching the children around the community as well as the local Pastors is a huge part of the ministries taking place at the base. Education is something we focus a lot on as a healthcare team-teaching prevention and simple health care to help empower communities. Really awesome to see the ministries being so intentional to helping the nearby villages.
Sitting in the plane heading back reflecting on these last 6 months, thinking of all we were able to do, and all that God's been doing in me. There's still so much work to be done in Malawi, lots of discipleship still needing to take place. As we were wrapping up God spoke about us being ones clearing the land. Tearing down the beliefs in the communities; that you need the witchdoctor for healing or that having multiple wives is what makes you a man. Before the Holy Spirit can bring regrowth with fresh, biblical, mindsets the old habits must be taken away. Which is what we focused on a lot during our time there. I am very encouraged that more teams are coming, just from YWAM Perth this year to continue the discipleship that these Christian communities need.
We were able to work in the government clinic again which is so eye opening just seeing the need for more workers and supplies. Everyday we were able to do a healthcare teaching for the people before the clinic opened and then share the gospel and pray for everyone who responded! It was an amazing opportunity to partner with the people there, encourage them and learn from one another.
In the last two and a half months we held 72 clinics where we saw 3,500 patients. We were able to share the gospel with each of those patients and see 1,567 respond to the good news by accepting Jesus into their hearts!!! 73 hours were spent teaching simple health care. We saw 120 instant healings and gave out 334 reading glasses! GOD IS SO GOOD!
And due to your generosity we were able to give 464 people their own Bibles! One of the ministries at this base was a Bible study and none of them had Bibles so we were able to give them their own (something they had all been praying for)! They were hooting and hollering all of them were so excited!!! Really praying that the words are anointed with understanding and that each family cherishes each verse that it can bring discipleship to those reading it.
One of my favourite moments during clinics is when a family brought their grandma to us for her eyes. The grandma could barely see we found that it was a problem that could only be helped with an operation. But we were able to pray with her. After praying we realized she didn't know who we were praying to and larnd they were Muslims. So I got to share the good news with the family and explain why we were praying for healing, the victory that Jesus has! After hearing they all wanted to accept Jesus into their hearts! I explained what it would mean and more about the God we believe in and lead them in the prayer to salvation! We were able to disciple them in the authority they carry in prayer and how to hear God's voice. Then we all prayed for the grandma together and her eyes were healed! This is an opportunity that healthcare really opened the door for. If we wouldn’t have had a clinic we may have not met this family and the grandma would still be blind.
One of our dear friends-Gifty who helped with ministries at the base. He had lost his mom earlier that month. We are able to grieve with him and share the hope that is there for him. He loved playing frisbee with us and was so blessed by the Bible we gave him. This kid has a very special place in my heart. I believe the youth are the keys to this nation to bring revival and change the mindsets of many of the people in this nation. Praying for him as he goes to secondary level school and follows his dream of becoming a pastor of his own church.
This sweet agogo/grandma had such bad arthritis. We weren't able to do much but applied some icy hot and give a little pain relief. While rubbing the icy hot she had thee biggest smile on her face. So sweet being able to listen to her and hear about the crazy life she's lived. Able to encourage her in the wisdom that she has and the eternity with God that she has to look forward to. Prayed for relief and joy.
I have lots more stories to share but just wanted to give a quick update of what we've been doing before I go into this next season! I will be joining staff at YWAM Perth for 2 years to continue doing medical missions. In two weeks the Medical DTS will be starting which will be an awesome opportunity to disciple others and continue bringing simple health care into the nations! As missions will be more long term I'm looking for people to prayerfully consider partnering with me in prayer as well as committing to giving monthly. I will be trusting for $400 a month and am happy to answer any questions you might have about this next step and can provide different ways that you could donate.
There are more stories to come! Thank you all for your support in getting me to this nation in the first place that provided the opportunity to touch so many people!
God bless you all immensely,
-Lindsey