Family news:- We ourselves are in reasonable health and have been living for the past 3 months in very small, furnished rented accommodation. It is a good job we have had plenty of practice in caravans etc. The kitchen for example is 2m square with a small fridge, cooker and sink in that space I(Martin) keep out of it if at all possible!! We have been disposing of most of our possessions having nowhere to store them any longer.

Church news:- Rock Springs Baptist Mission held their conference as planned. A Pastor came to it from D.R.C. where they speak French and Swahili We found it interesting to practice our French on him....the only way we could communicate. The contact came through the refugee camp near Lilongwe, which Godfrey Kamwendo has visited plus his visits to DRC.

We are still working our way through the difficulties mentioned in our last letter. We are praying for a real repentance and work of grace in one family in particular, who sadly have had their family life greatly disrupted by their daughter's death earlier this year, and promiscuity and other misbehaviour among their sons.

The New Life Church leaders are seeking to make opportunities for ministry development among the pastors, by rotating them to different churches and this has not always worked out well. With Pastor Chambo remaining in Zimbabwe, we had a place needing to be filled. The young man in mind felt he could not fulfil the role and so another alternative had to be found. In all these planned movements there are often obstacles to overcome e.g. tribalism, relative youthfulness versus local, more senior leaders, etc etc .However, it is encouraging that pastors will even consider a temporary move to another area--their means of livelihood, children's schooling often being back where they came from. So we do praise God that some are willing in spite of the difficulties.

Martin had a good time last Sunday at one of our village churches....the day started around 5.00 am, getting before the Lord, (as we had visitors the night before and they left late),check there was enough diesel in the Nissan, breakfast, pick up interpreter and wife + friend+ small child, (ask if anyone gets carsick?), drive for one and a quarter hours, on some tar and some dirt roads, pick up pastor of church and family, reach place where meeting is held, (a small schoolroom-very hot under tin roof), preach the word. Then partake of their hospitality, wait for all passengers to finish their meal. Load everyone back on plus 4 extras. Arrive home at 4.00pm.-a long day but we are thankful that we still have health and strength and the opportunity to tell the good news.

Country news:- The main, daily problem here continues to be the fuel shortage, causing long queues and price hikes in basic commodities. After a long, hot wait with temperatures around 40 deg. rain has come to Blantyre. On the economic front everyone is expecting a large devaluation soon.

Thank you to all who pray and continue to support us. May God bless and keep you.

Martin and Marian.

Dear Friends On November 9th we will be returning home for 2 months after a busy and challenging time here in Malawi. We are so looking forward to seeing family & friends again and it will also be nice to have some respite from the October heat. This has been made more difficult by the power and water going off nearly every day at the moment and Liz has also had more than her fair share of tummy bugs over the last month.

Review of Trust Work One of our main priorities here has been to visit and review all the people and projects Chisomo Trust has been supporting in Malawi over recent years. We have now largely done this in spite of the fuel crisis and have found some areas where things need changing or even stopping and others where people have done really well in difficult circumstances. Five of the seven key workers will continue as will the orphan care, widows ministry, youth work, HIV care and TEE bible training - albeit with some reorganisation in some areas. Some changes have already been implemented and hopefully will be completed next year.

However the fuel situation is getting worse by the day and the last time I went to a filling station it was more like a maul than a queue. It took me over 4 hours even though I was 6th in the queue because street vendors with cans were reportedly paying bribes to get to the front. We have managed so far but we hope & pray that by the time we return on January 9th there will be some resolution to the political crisis and subsequent lack of donor currency which is behind the shortages. Please continue to pray as the fuel shortage not only makes our work difficult or impossible but also compounds a sense of social isolation here.

Alpha Girls Liz has just finished the alpha course with about twenty five 16-17yr old girls from the secondary school adjacent to the church centre. The girls are bright and have asked lots of searching questions. The course concluded with a party with singing & dancing, crisps and bottles of Fanta orange and was such fun for them and us  a real treat!

A Good Foundation ...that is how far we have got with the pastors house that is being built at Zomba. Our home church, St Pauls, has given a generous gift for this project which we will enable the pastor to live at the church site which is a small former private school in a strongly Moslem town. He will then be much better placed to advance further plans the church has to start a small nursery school and other ministries to the surrounding area. Work is now beginning on the walls so the house will soon take shape and will have an inspiring view of Zomba mountain as an added bonus.

We continue to preach at different churches at weekends but it has not really worked out for us to make much use our medical skills here as we had hoped so we have felt underutilised in this respect. However we will be back doing locums in the UK in a few weeks and trust God for His guidance in each step of the way.

Thanks to all of you for your prayerful interest and support.

With love from Miles & Liz

Please pray for " Resolution of the fuel crisis " Strengthening of the Zomba church " The girls who completed the alpha course " Travel & time with family over Christmas " Good health, strength & wisdom

Contact Details: PO Box 20 Chigumula, Malawi, Central Africa 19 Harnham Rd, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP2 8JG, UK Tel: 01722 320893 milesnliz@aol.com

We have now been back in Malawi for 5 weeks and since returning life has been a challenging mixture of encouragements and disappointments with adventures along the way. The weather has been pleasant so far  mainly dry, sunny and not too hot although temperatures will start to rise significantly in October. We are thankful for a nice home which is a real haven for us.

Church Work Each Sunday we visit a different church when we preach, share a testimony or song and generally try to encourage the members who are sometimes numerous and at other times much fewer. These times have been all been good and worthwhile so far. Last weekend was the Rock Springs church conference held at a bible college in Blantyre  Liz was encouraged by two ladies who came forward during her session to commit their lives to the Lord, Miles and Martin Williams both preached and Will was able to take part in the youth meeting which was good.

During the week Liz has been running an alpha course with teenage girls at the New Life church centre not far from us  this has been hard work but rewarding. She has also been leading a bible study on Ephesians with the ladies there. Miles has been meeting with key church leaders to start to review progress of projects and financial management.

Quite soon after our arrival we were very disappointed to discover that the chairman of the New Life group of churches needed to step down due to financial mismanagement and we are still having meetings to try to sort this out  please pray for wisdom, clarity and for God to work in the situation.

Will's Visit It has been such a joy to have our youngest son Will with us since August 29th. After collecting him from the airport we drove to Zambia to spend 4 nights at the South Luangwa National park. We saw lots of wonderful animals and experienced the sounds of elephants and hippos grazing around our tents at night! We have also walked up Mulanje mountain together and stayed overnight in one of the mountain huts at 6000ft  this was a doddle for Will but quite a challenge for dad and mum but we made it and are now getting over the stiffness! However the mountain is both awesome and beautiful and we are so glad to have done it. It has also been nice that Will has been able to share in driving our truck and was able to help Miles take some iron roofing sheets to a church on the Thyolo escarpment the other side of the tea estates from us. We recently had a good Sunday trip to this church and the congregation have built a lovely church and just needed some help to finish off the roof so we look forward to visiting them again when they have finished.

Building for the Future Since a major priority for us here is to help prepare the churches for future financial independence we are really hoping to facilitate completion of key RSB church building projects in Lilongwe and Zomba and also improve some of the buildings at the NLC centre which now provide rental income for running the church.

Whilst in Lilongwe in the central region collecting Will from the airport we were able to reassess the large Lilongwe church building and have agreed a 3 phase plan to complete the roof as they have been struggling without one for the last 2 years! Quite a challenge in the hot sun or heavy rain!

This weekend we were really hoping to visit Zomba but thought we might have to cancel our trip because of the severe shortage of diesel. I spent 4hrs queuing yesterday to no avail and was praying about it this morning telling the Lord that we really wanted to go when my phone rang telling me to get to a particular filling station quickly  I rushed out and our tank is now full! Praise God!

Thanks to all of you for your prayerful interest and support.

With love from Miles & Liz