This report was written by Yotam himself and sent to to the church as an update on the work on the Training Facility
CHRISTIAN CHURCH, MZUZU.
The Christian Church was established under the Malawi Government Registration Act in 1994. Since then we have congregations in all regions of Malawi and many branches are mainly in the south and northern regions. As the work grow, we came into contact with some members of the Christian Churches in Zimbabwe. In 2015 when I was in Zimbabwe it came to my mind to have our Training Facility for new preachers and newly appointed Church leaders. This was my VISION of this Preachers Training Center Facility. This was agreed at our session of that time and we were waiting time that the Lord may intervene as we read in Psalms 19 ;14. We prayed '' Oh God help us ''. Amen.
The main point that gave us the confidence to have this was also from my son Geoffrey Theu who is doing a Pastoral Training at Zimbabwe Christian College. Now he is at home here and will return back to the college in April for his final examinations in May to June. Geoffrey gave us all the emphasis that he can be one of those who will help us to give lessons to new trainees. God may be with him.
Then finally God answered us when my Brother in the United Kingdom , Mark George Sandels sacrificed himself to give us money for the building of this campus. Oh '' THANKS MARK SANDELS.'' When I called all leaders to discuss about this, we came to the agreement that we need to build this Facility in Mzuzu. This is because I who is overseeing this Church now is staying in Mzuzu and many other strong leaders are also from the north where Mzuzu is. This will serve transport fares for the new preachers and many times northern region in Malawi produces enough food compared to other regions where many times faces droughts. And building materials are cheaper in Mzuzu compared to the prices of Lilongwe or Blantyre.
Then I was given a mandate to design it. I designed it to be built with a big room where Mzuzu congregation may be meeting as a prayer house . Inside it should have two rooms to be used as an office and a storage for studying facilities. I also designed it to have a small attachment of a small house outside measured 20 feet by 15 feet and if possible this should be an upstairs room. I thought this will give us enough place for the sleeping solution of the trainees. The whole building is 75 feet long by 25 feet wide. But this Preachers Training Center Facility must have a brick fence for security and to avoid confusion from outsiders.
This Facility will be used for both as a prayer house and for training new Preachers and also for general meetings of the Christian Churches in the northern region. This was also our statement to the Mzuzu City Council officials when we were applying for the approval of this Facility. The city council granted us freedom to build this but warned us that they can demolish it down if we have not built it according to the standard of the city council act of building. Hence any time when the foundation is started to be laid they will come for inspection. We agreed.
Those who will be eligible to be chosen to be trained here will be first chosen by their respective congregations. We will be finally asking them few questions as the entrance interview. We will train those who can just read and write well our national language of Chichewa . Those who has higher English level education will going to have an added advantage of reading more books in our library that we will going to have , Lord willing.
We will train these leaders in different criteria . Preachers will be trained for a month but a lay leader like an Elder or a Deacon can be kept at this Facility for a week or two weeks. During this period they will be taught how to preach , how to evangelize, leadership characters and how to study the words of God. These lessons will going to be added as those who will be training these new leaders will going to have a fresher courses from time to time. In addition to me, Geoffrey and Pastor Alfred Kachipeso of Blantyre we are praying that Lord willing we may have a foreign missionary to help us to teach here. We believe that '' ALL IS POSSIBLE WITH GOD '' Amen.
We plead with tears in our prayers that we may have enough books for training of new preachers and other leaders. In addition to these books we also need a computer (or a Laptop) to write new lessons on and help of plain papers , exercise books, writing materials and so on. We need Biblical books mainly about preaching and how to win souls in our Library. We will also appreciate books of Churches history , Bible dictionaries and Bible commentaries.
On top of everything we need help during the session of training to keep us alive. This is FOOD. We do not have a garden for food but we will depend on food to be bought...... including relishes and breakfast .
This Facility will help us to produce eligible good Christian Church leaders for the future of the Christian Church and preach the Pure gospel that our Lord sent us to '' go and preach the gospel ''. Nowadays many who claim to be preachers are not preaching the PURE GOSPEL of the Bible as we read in 2 Tim 4 : 2--4. Preachers produced from this Facility will preach the original times gospel, to speak where the Bible speak and be silent where the Bible is silent.
This building Lord willing will be finally finished next year. It will be officially opened in 2019 , I pray in July or August of 2019. During that time everything including painting , seats and so on will be ready. But Lord willing we pray that we should open this much earlier as we are with eagerness to use it so soon.
Finally we come to the throne of grace of God to plead with those who can help us to have the teaching resources that will help us at this Facility. The main ones are Christian books and Bibles, a computer , stationeries and PLEASE HELP US TO FINISH IT IN TIME. God may help us. All this burden of building this Facility mainly lies in the hands of my Brother from God above, Mark Sandels in Oxfordshire, England , United Kingdom. God may bless him. It is he himself who has stand with us either in rain or sunshine when we need help for the work of God. I am failing to mention one by one all that he has done for us and is still doing to us but I pray that God is remembering everything. He may reward him as I read in Hebrews 6 ; 10. Amen
Addendum
If you would like to help finance this initiative please could you give the money to your Church Treasurer, asking them to send it to Grove Methodist Church Treasurer, Eric Thomas, using the Circuit Giro account and asking for the money to be credited to the "Yotam Theu – Campus project" account. Your Church Treasurer might also be able to Gift Aid your donation.
Keith Underhill – MInister