it is multiplied into a self perpetuating movement. If you have 15mins it is well worth your time to watch him speak here, hearing the motivation for us to Go, and some principles rooted in scripture for how we Go.

]]> http://www.liamandrachel.com/why-and-how-we-go-david-watson/feed/ 0 http://www.liamandrachel.com/why-and-how-we-go-david-watson/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/liamandrachel/~3/geKntXqBv4s/ http://www.liamandrachel.com/returned-from-malawi/#comments Wed, 07 Mar 2012 15:53:19 +0000 Liam http://www.liamandrachel.com/?p=1028

h

ttp://www.liamandrachel.com/update-from-malawi-1/”>you can read here before reading below.

We’ve been here for the last couple of days settling in with the team in mangochi. Oliver and Rhoda have moved into their house and are exc

itedly collecting furniture for it and making preparations for their children to join them from the north.

Blessings was met by his wife and son who he had not seen for 2 years! We also arrived to see Jonah who is delighted to finally be amongst his team.

The last few days we have been spending time doing DBS with the team, praying, worshipping and encouraging them and sharing on the areas we feel are important for them as a missional team. The last couple of days we have shared with one another about perserverance in the face of dissappointment, being full of the holy spirit and asking for spiritual gifts.

Our travel up to mangochi was good overall. We managed it in 3 days straight, with a slight holdups with crazy border issues… we then spent a hot and tedious wait on the Zimbabwe side. As we drove the 7hrs through Zim we were stopped 5 times by police looking to extract fines from us through intimidation, but everytime we had favour as we explained what we were doing. Every policeman asked for a bible and we asked if we could pray for some of them.

With the holdups we just missed the closing time for the Mozambican border but managed to find a cheap place to stay just next to the border.

The next day was another 4hr border crossing process trying to navigate the autheorities and then those who are there to make money from unsuspecting malungus!

We made good time through mozambique even though the road turned into constant deep potholes and made it to the Malawian border.

We were ready for the Malawian border guards to unpack the quantum of all the stuff when mike came across a friendly believer customs agent. He allowed us to pass when he heard about the team and we were able to give him a bible.

In mangochi jonah has already started a DBS with men from his yard and everyone has been cheering and welcoming Oliver and Rhoda remembering them from their time here in CPx. Blessing went to get his bike fixed and is excited by the friendship he is making in his first day here.

Overall everyone is excited, God has an amazing destiny for mangochi and we believe these malawian church planters from all nations are those God has annointed to see a move of God in this place.

Pray for Oliver, Rhoda, Blessing&wife, and Jonah.

Liam&the team

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a,+Limpopo,+South+Africa+to:Mutare,+Manicaland,+Zimbabwe+to:Chimoio,+Manica,+Mozambique+to:Tete,+Mozambique+to:Mangochi,+Southern+Region,+Malawi&hl=en&ll=-24.287027,26.806641&spn=25.309221,46.362305&sll=-25.143775,25.992975&sspn=25.144824,46.362305&geocode=FS9h9_0dsZ8YASmn84v2-WrMHTHAl_e80T8BAw%3BFdMOq_4dXmfKASn3wEsLP7HIHjFJkvxQmaxh2w%3BFdh33v4dyEjyASlP1VVeaeosGTHz0IkLvSnCDA%3BFYVN3P4dEGj-ASkpmSCnoDUrGTGK9Lz_WN_HrQ%3BFfVQCf8dALIAAim5sKX_iEcmGTGCIhE5jTdLdQ%3BFRIXI_8d_RQaAimVhmsFNuLeGDGXDfL9Fj-maw&oq=Mangochi&mra=ls&t=h&z=5″>click here

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On tuesday I’ll beginning a 7500km round trip to Mangochi i

n Malawi, along with 5 others, we are taking some malawian friends who have been living in the township Masiphumelele. Over the last year they have been preparing and training to go and live amongst an unreached people group in Malawi. We are very excited about this, as our heart is for exactly this, to see African believed in and equipped to live out following Jesus and reaching the lost of their own continent.

I’m hoping to be able to send some updates from the road onto this blog, so stay tuned…

in the meantime, would you pray with us into:

- For safety on the road
- Easy border crossing
- Right now we are having an insurance issue meaning we might not be able to take the larger more able vehicle we had planned on, and may have to take something too small for the job. The insurance company is coming back to us on monday about that so please pray for that.
- Finally, this will be by far the longest Rach and I have ever been apart, so for her feeling of safety as she stays in our house with some friends and a sense of God’s nearness to her whilst she stays in SA.

The highlight of our month was a trip to the most rural and impoverished state in South Africa, Limpopo. Limpopo is in the very North East of Sou

th Africa bordering Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique, it is the home of Eric, Petrus, and Lucas, 3 African church planters that Liam has been working alongside and sharing discipleship with. We travelled there for the wedding of Eric and his fiance Thandi (pronounced Tandy), Liam was the only white guy of the groomsmen and it was a VERY African affair! Liam has 4 costume changes, the wedding lasted 2 days, the wedding rehearsal was meant to start at 7pm and didnt begin til 1AM, lasting until 4AM!!!

During the wedding, we had an encounter with a local demonized man who 3 times tried to put a ‘muti’ (witchdraft) curse on Rachel by rubbing a spit and mud paste on her arm. In the end Liam had to forcibly remove the guy, Of course this was frightening for Rachel but we have reflected on it and prayed about it a lot and felt we have learnt a deep lesson about the authority of God’s kingdom over these things.

Another highlight of being there, was to help Petrus another african guy, Liam has been working with, move home. We were so sad to say goodbye as the main reason Petrus has had to return home was lack of finances, but as we went to his home with him, we realised that God has also orchestrated our timing. We arrived with Petrus, who at first was reserved when he saw his family, which we are learning is quite normal for African families, later when we went inside, Petrus broke down in tears which is unheard of for most african males, explaining in English that his mother doesn’t normally look how she did and she was very ill, he asked if we could pray for her. So we invited through Petrus speaking in Northern Sotho, for her to sit and explain that we would lay hands on her. We don’t know if she was healed, or still will be, but Petrus shared with Rachel who hadn’t been there, how amazing our time was, this was the first time the kingdom of God has been invited into his house to impact his family who are animist (worshipping ancestors). We feel like it was very significant that we were able to ‘take Petrus home’.

We were exhausted by the time we returned to Cape Town, but our eyes have been opened like never before to the good, bad and ugly of rural african culture that so many of those we are seeking to disciple come from.

Videos:

Singing at Eric and Thandi’s Wedding

Spot the white guy dancing in the groomsmen dance!

To put it bluntly it had been a rag tag bunch, many who would even turn up half drunk, but would all read the bible and pray for one another when encouraged. When I left, even though I had coached one of them to gather the others, and how to lead the discovery bible study I honestly had no expectation they would keep meeting. So much so, that when I went to catch up with her, It was about 30mins into the conversation, I asked what she had been up to that weekend; to my amazement she said, “Oh, we had bible study on Sunday” – I was so shocked, I asked “You mean the one we did before I left”. She didn’t seem half as surprised as I was. To finish it all off, before we had left she had asked for prayer for getting a job or starting a small business. I had encouraged her, she should look for a way to start a little business, and helped her overcome a complete lack of self belief. When I got back I saw a little sign outside of her shack, and found out she had started selling pre-pay phone credit and electricity from her shack, and was makes a modest profit every week from it!