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I just received this email from George Phiri, one of the staff members of Flood Malawi. Several years ago, one of the founding members of their church passed away. At the time of his passing, we received a one-time offering to support the widow and her two children. Below is an email of thanks that they wanted me to share with you all.

- Adam

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Congratulations once again. I just saw the pics of your baby on internet-so cute.

A week ago I went to attend a ceremony of the unvailing of the tombstone of late Jimmy Mtitima at his village where he was burried three years ago. I was representing Flood.

Im writing to convey words of thanks that were echoed by both the Mtitima family and the chief of the village to Flood Church in CA for supporting the Mtitima for the past years.  The family explained to the gathering how Flood has been supporting the family for the past years. I just thought of comminicating this to you.

Hope you are doing fine together with your kid and wife. Please say hallow to Mr. and Mrs Klekowski.

Godbless

George

I had to stay home with my son who is getting over a cold, which means, I didn’t get to complete the shared experience of ending the fast in person as “one another”. Thankfully, God gave me a special time with Hunter as we made breakfast together. Here are some learnings:

1. I totally take food for granted.
   I care way too much about food and at the same time, I care way too little. I normally eat “on-the-go”, in front of the T.V., while doing email, or as I’m trying to get my kids ready for bed. All day Saturday I was frustrated. Admittingly, I haven’t fasted from food in years and it’s possible my body was in shock from not getting what it wants, when it wants. Ironically, I woke up at peace and not very hungry on Sunday. I’m thinking that this was more than a primer than a fast and the real blessing would be if I fasted for several days. In spite of my frustration, I did have a few moments of clarity.
2. I’m an entitled eater.
   I can choose to eat…or not eat. Every time I was tempted to cheat, or to just simply quit fasting, I acutely realized that many of my brothers and sisters throughout the world don’t have this choice. For me, fasting is a luxury, for the multitudes it is an everyday reality. What’s worse is the number of “the least of these” who are the most vulnerable (i.e., children).
3. Food is a provision, linked to all God’s gifts.
   I normally walk around with the idea that “I deserve food.” By why? Most of the animal kingdom spend their existence working for it. They hunt, eat, sleep, repeat. Moreover, the planet was created with this in mind and it fits each creatures makeup. I shop, grab, buy, take as if the world is one big coffer for me. It also dawned on me that if I take food for granted, I probably forget about God’s other provisions as well. As Hunter and I were making breakfast (egg burritos), we were very deliberate with each ingredient and we took our time. As a matter of fact, as I was eating, every bite was savored…and I was thankful.
4. Relationships, even with food, are everything.
   What I loved most about breaking the fast was my time with Hunter, making breakfast. I paid more attention to him and enjoyed our company. This made me realize the obvious, but nevertheless glorious. The key to fasting isn’t the discipline in and of itself, it’s paying attention and enjoying God. In doing so, realizing how much God enjoys “making breakfast” with me. I.e., spending time with me. However, without any speed bumps (i.e., fasts), when tend to race right by, missing almost everything good (and everything God). Another example of this happened on Friday night. We also fasted from T.V. last week and took some extra-ordinary time to ask six college students over: Mariah, Tyler, Shannon, Joe, Sarah, and Dave (I mention their names because it’s easy to remember when you spend quality time with people). Linsey and I were so fulfilled by that simple act—having people over to share a meal.
5. “It takes a village.”
   Or as one author put it, “It takes a church to raise a Christian.” Frankly, I wouldn’t have fasted had I not been encouraged and supported in community to do so. It’s a great reminder of the Gospel itself—we are in NEED! And any attempt to act like we are self-sufficient is the antithesis of the Good News—God provided, God provides, God will provide.

With thanks,

Scott Wildey

Praise God for his character building as He works in and through this team of ready willing and able individuals! I want to remind you that when God starts something He is faithful to complete it! It really is something to experience that God is still in the miracle business today and I am sure that He is proving that to each of you on this mission! ”Hand picked” by Him to make this team and to bring not only health and hygene to these children but His Spirit and the knowledge of Him is truely an honor. Know that back here in the States you are being thought of and prayed for daily. May God draw you closer to Himself , Keep you safe in the palm of His hand and return you with a deeper understanding of who His is. Continually astonished by His might myself, I will continue to pray for you, this mission and for your safe return home. So proud of all of you – God bless

The following was an email encouragement I just received from a participant from a leadership conference we hosted in Malawi in 2005!!

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Hie Adam,

God be praised for the connection that I have now to the Flood family.

In 2005, I attended the Leadership summit at ABC in Lilongwe, Malawi. Since then the inspiration I got from that training is still alive. The dreams and goals set in that meeting are the driving force in my life. Though not in touch with other participants, but today, it happened that I dived into Flood www. It is great to read developments taking place.

I got your email from flood www and i thought it wise to drop a few words.

Through the website, I have known that there is Flood Malawi. I will make sure that I am connected to this group led by Pastor Kampondeni.

God bless you as you continue with good works of the Lord.

Martin
Malawi

Monday, 22 June 2009

We have completed the Charisma conference!

The Flood Malawi conference, themed around evangelism, concluded on Saturday afternoon. The attendees had some time to reflect on what they had heard throughout the week, and then spent time in small groups discussing what had the greatest impact on them. I had the opportunity to facilitate a discussion group with 5 young women, and it was the part of the conference I enjoyed the most.  From the conversations that emerged, it was clear that God was able to teach each person something unique. Bertha, a young woman who works for a civil rights organizztion here in Lilongwe said that she was leaving the conference with much more excitement about the gospel and evangelism. Bertha had made plans with her work supervisor for later that afternoon to chat and share a meal – she was hoping to take advantage of this opportunity to share with her coworker who Jesus is, and how he has impacted her life.

This was the tangible application for everyone who attended the conference – each person was challenged to think of one friend, family member, or acquaintance who did not have a personal relationship withJesus Christ, and initate a conversation with them, sharing the gospel. On Sunday, we attended the Flood Malawi worship gathering, and there was a portion of the service set aside for members of the church to share stories of how these conversations went. It was amazing to hear that not only had people followed through with the challenge, but at least one person made a decision to accept Christ as an immediate result of the conversation initiated by a friend. It takes a lot of boldness to proclaim the gospel anywhere, and it was inspiring to see those who attended the conference inviting Jesus to work within the relationships they have with friends and family.

Some of you might also be excited to hear that the team of 4 from Flood who will be serving as interns with COTN Malawi arrived safely yesterday! A COTN staff member who we ran into at the Flood worship gathering invited us to Njewa, COTN headquarters, for a ‘brai,’ or barbecue, they were having to welcome all the interns arriving from the U.S. and African Bible College hear in Lilongwe.  It was fun to see Alicia, Angela, Carson, and Chris groggy from their 2 days of travel. I especially enjoyed being there at Njewa and seeing many familiar faces from my own internship with COTN 2 years ago – from COTN administrative staff, to Malawian college students, to the cooks and drivers who will serve the 100+ interns and venture team members throughout the summer – there were at least a dozen familiar faces, and I was glad for the opportunity to catch up with old friends, even if for just a few minutes.

It’s funny – it was three years ago that I first came to Malawi, almost on a whim. Now, on my third trip to Lilongwe, I find myself crossing paths with the people I’ve met and did not expect to see again. It has been amazing to watch God build for me this network of relationships with genuine, trustworthy, relatable people, at both COTN and Flood Malawi. It makes this big world feel strangely small – and yet again it reveals God to be much bigger and more loving and more powerful than I daily believe Him to be.

In a few hours we leave for Lira, Uganda, where we will meet up with the other teams from Flood who will help us put on a leadership conference in partnership with COTN. Internet access will be much more limited than it has been here, but we will try to update as we can!

Much love to you all,

Mawi & the team

Hello to everyone who is reading this blog!

Yesterday was quite an excitement. Well … everyday is an excitement to me here in Malawi for it being my first visit. Anyhow, on Thursday, our Evangelism Conference began and continued smoothly, thank the Lord! We had no electricity outages (which is very common here in Malawi) and we were able to worship together and hear a great message from Sean Kampondeni. I also had a very sweet opportunity to co-lead a seminar with Scott McGhee. The seminar was entitled “Sharing the Power of Your Story” and we got to lead our group in some practical ways for them to discover the Gospel in their testimonies while also learning to share them with one another. All to say, I look forward to tonight of the same similar setup.

Today (Friday), we paid a visit to a village outside of the main city called Kudoku. Flood sponsors this village and we
were able to see the water well finished and in use. For most of the time I felt as if I was in the movie Peter Pan.
We sat around in a circle with all the chiefs and elders of the village and had a “meeting” yet without the peace pipe haha.
I loved it. Culture is definitely one of the sweetest things and I definitely had a great taste of it. We had meaningful
conversations about the health of the people in the village as well as identifying how the well has affected them. It is really important for us to keep up a meaningful relationship with the people there because the villagers are coming to hear the Good News through our support of building a church there.

And we couldn’t have had these conversations if it wasn’t for George who has been an amazing servant to Flood Malawi.
He was our translator and did all of the preparations for us even while he was sick with Malaria. I even asked him in the
car why he wasn’t complaining or why he didn’t even look sick and he said “It’s because I am a man”. lol. He has definitely raised the bar, that’s for sure.

One thing in particular that I would like to share with you is my answer to a question from one of the chiefs of Kudoku. He asked me, ” How do you like being here?” and I answered, “Very good”. If you’ll allow me to elaborate, as I did with the Chief, I explained that my understanding of who I say God is has now become more vast. He has been stripped of the box I have given him in the United States and set free here. I believe that can happen anywhere, but the Lord has used the people here, their words and their actions, to illustrate yet another part of His character. He is a God who gives strength and simplicity to his servants in a world full of sometimes complicated distractions. So, thank you guys for your prayers and meaningful encouragements!

The team and I are off to start the second part of the conference!

Sincerely,

EJ Knowles

Hey Flood Family!

My name is Scott McGhee and I am one of the Undergraduate Interns for Flood, and I have been given the awesome opportunity to participate in this summer’s conferences in Malawi and Uganda. Our team arrived safely on Saturday morning in Lilongwe, Malawi after two days of traveling. By the grace of God we were unexpectedly bumped up to business class on one of our longest flights, all the way from Amsterdam to Nairobi, Kenya! Quite an experience if I do say so myself. It has just been awesome to watch how God has blessed us on our way.

Today Adam, EJ and myself had the opportunity to spend some time with the staff and core leadership from Flood Malawi. I was not really sure what to expect from this meeting as we had it planned to go for six hours, and if this internship has taught me anything about myself, is that I start to lose focus after two. This meeting was going to be very important though for the future of Flood Malawi and I wanted to be able to see and understand just what was going to be going on. Today we were going to focus on setting goals for the coming year and explore what the next year may hold for Flood and different things they could do to see that more people were being reached for the Kingdom of God. The meeting started pretty promptly, which kind of surprised me; I expected it to start pretty late given that Malawian culture is often more relational and from my experience in Africa, I’ve noticed that things often do not run according to American standards of promptness.

Sean Kampondeni, the pastor of Flood Malawi, started off our day with a devotion themed around the purpose of the church and it was really cool to stop and actually study just what Jesus wants His bride to be. After that we began planning, strategizing and discussing many different ideas and plans for the church here and everyone listened as Adam led us through different activities to help us understand many of the strengths and weaknesses of Flood and determine how to direct the energies of the leadership here to accomplish their vision and set goals for the next 12 months. It was amazing to be able to sit and listen to all the people at the table share their thoughts, fears, frustrations, and stories with all of us as the day went on, and to see this solid group of leaders begin to work through what they wanted to see happen. As it turns out, the meeting lasted over seven hours if you include the lunch break, but I think overall it was very successful.

The most rewarding aspects of today for me come two fold: First I was able to sit though a meeting where I witnessed and participated in a church determining what they wanted their future to look like. It was really cool to see how the staff and leadership worked together and had practical discourse to plan out goals. Second, and more importantly, I was able to see a family come together and have fun. Fun at a 7+ hour meeting? Yeah, strange isn’t it? Most people would never even think to put those two words together but it was clear that these people really enjoy each others’ presence and spending time together. They really seemed to make the most of every minute of it. I think that is a good lesson to come away with.

The people at Flood Malawi really have made us feel right at home, and though they are so far away, they really are an extension of our family back in San Diego. I learned today that they struggle with many of the same things that we do and have the same desires to see people come to know Jesus that we do. It is really exciting to be a part of God’s work even so far away from my own home, and to know that I have family even as far away as Malawi!

For Now,

Scott E. McGhee

Tomorrow I leave on another adventure back to Malawi and Uganda, Africa. Below is an overview of our trip, including specific ways you can be praying for me and the team. We are going to do our best to send out updates through this blog. I am also going to try to update my Twitter account along the way

TRIP OVERVIEW
Our primary purpose  in traveling is to host two conferences for people in both Malawi and Uganda.

In Malawi, we will be working with our church plant, Flood Malawi, to host their annual Charisma Conference. This year we will be focusing on the topic of evangelism. Our hope is that this would be an inspirational and practical time for church attendees to learn how to share their faith with friends and family. The conference will conclude with a time for participants to go and share their faith with someone that they know. While in Malawi, we will also have some strategic planning meetings to continue to strengthen the new church plant. Lastly, we will visit a traditional Malawian village to encourage them and explore future malaria prevention efforts.

In Uganda, we will be working with Children of the Nations to host a leadership conference in the northern city of Lira. This is a war torn area where nearly every resident has been severely impacted by the conflict. This conference is for emerging leaders in the city. These leaders could be pastors, NGO workers, and government officials. Our hope is to inspire and equip them to help bring restoration to their community. We will also get to see the exciting construction projects that Children of the Nations has begun to house and minister to orphans.

I am traveling with a team of 4. Mawi Patten is Flood’s Impact Director. Scott McGhee and EJ Knowles are college students who have been interning with our church this past year. In Uganda we will be joining a larger team from our church.

ITINERARY
June 11            Flight: San Diego to Minneapolis to Amsterdam to Nairobi, Arrive @ 7:05pm (on June 12)
June 12            Overnight in Nairobi
June 13            Flight: Nairobi to Lilongwe, Arrive @ 9:35am
June 14-17       Strategic Staff Meetings with Flood Malawi, Staff Retreat, Village Visits, Conference Preparation
June 18-20      Charisma Conference (Topic: Evangelism)
June 21            Attend Flood Malawi
June 22            Flight: Lilongwe to Entebbe, Arrive @ 11:15pm
June 23            Travel north to Lira, Uganda (4-6 hours)
June 24            Conference Preparation
June 25-27       Leadership Conference
June 28            Travel south to Kampala, Uganda
June 29            Flight: Entebbe to Nairobi to Amsterdam to Minneapolis to San Diego, Arrive @ 7:06pm (on June 30)

PRAYER REQUESTS

• Clear and Compelling Communication: I will be preaching at the Charisma Conference, MCing the Leadership Conference and teaching elective seminars at both conferences. It is not always easy to speak cross-culturally, so pray that people would understand my words and be inspired to respond.
• Conference Attendees: The success of these conferences relies upon the right people showing up to attend. Pray that existing church and prospective church members would attend in Malawi. Pray that emerging English speaking leaders would attend in Uganda.
• Emotional and Physical Health:  It is extremely difficult to leave at this time due to Corrie’s pregnancy. Pray that I would be able to focus on the tasks at hand and trust God with Corrie’s care back home. Pray for opportunities for us to communicate while I am abroad. Please pray for Corrie and the health of our growing baby due October 2nd. Please also pray for the overall health of my team mates. Many will be encountering dire poverty for the first time. In Uganda, the war stories are horrific and can take their toll as well. We will be doing a lot of traveling, so pray for safety and energy!
• Results: In Malawi, pray that many people would come to know Christ in a genuine and transformational way. We hope that Flood Malawi will grow as a result of this conference. In Uganda, pray that the leaders who attend would leave empowered and motivated to bring positive change to their city. That God would bring the people together to hope to a devastating situation.
• The Future: As Pastor Sean and I get to spend several weeks together, pray that God would be speaking to us about next steps in Africa. We both have a dream to see churches planted in every major city in Africa! Pray for his time in Uganda, and that God would lead him to people who could possibly plant churches one day.

See you when I return!

Pastor Adam

Flood Impact Model from FloodSanDiego on Vimeo.

I hope that this finds you well in answer to my prayers for you. I know that God will encourage you as you read on to find outwhat you have done for Jesus through the monthly gift you send to support us.

Look below to see what you have done over the last couple of months:

1.       YOU helped me preach 8 sermons to the members of Flood Church, covering 8 long chapters of the book of Romans for 8 straight weeks, in which I explained what the life of a Christian looks like.  I ask you to pray that God will use His word to enlarge the souls of those who hear it.

2.       YOU helped me pray for a weekend along the beautiful shore of Lake Malawi, which helped me return to my preaching with new strength at a time when I was feeling weak. I ask you to pray that God will enlarge my faith in His ability to work through a weak and broken vessel like me.

3.       YOU helped me work to finally get Flood Church registered with the Registrar General’s office of the Malawi government; a process which we were told would take years.I ask you to pray that God will use our church’s registration to open doors for ministry and partnership with others.

4.       YOU helped me teach 100 students at a college in the city of Lilongwe how following Jesus affects the development and use of technology, challenging their thinking and stimulating their imagination. I ask you to pray that our church’s ministry to this age group will be enlarged.

5.       YOU helped me reach 200 – 300 college students from colleges around Lilongwe, who gathered for a conference at Bunda College to hear me speak about how they can be a transformed generation. I ask you to pray that our church will be a community where such lives are changed.

6.       YOU helped me pay for the high cost of living in Lilongwe, covering everything from rent and utilities to fuel, food, groceries, phone, internet and much more, freeing me to concentrate on caring for God’s people. I ask you to pray that your gifts will be used by God to meet our needs.

7.       YOU helped my son, Gabriel, get his monthly check up at the clinic where he was born 10 months ago, and he has all the health and smiles to show for it. I ask you to pray that God will continue to shield him from illness and grow him in stature and in favor with God and people.

8.       YOU helped my wife, Tapiwa, get treatment after coming down with a cold for which she had to be temporarily excused from her work of teaching 3 – 4 year old kids at a Christian pre-school in the city. I ask you to pray that her upcoming holiday will be restful in spirit and in body for her.

9.       YOU help us move, later this month, from Area 18A to Area 3, where the Lord has provided a house for us which has better facilities, will be cheaper to live in, and is closer both to where our church gathers and my wife works. I ask you to pray that our move will be smooth and safe.

10.   YOU help us rejoice with gratitude for God’s and your faithfulness in meeting our needs!

Without your help, none of this would have happened. So thank you for making Christ’s mission a priority by your giving.  Rest assured that your giving is bearing fruit. Our previous service had nearly 70 people in attendance, 118% more than we had on our first Sunday 11 months ago!

Jesus Lives!

Merry Christmas!

Sean

PS:

I just came from dropping George off at the airport on his way to buy us equipment from South Africa. Pray that all goes well.