KIMI in Malawi

The vision of KIMI goes beyond Zambia, and this month we had opportunity to conduct two PowerClub trainings in Malawi.

Last year we had a Malawian graduate from our School of Supernatural Children’s Ministry, Sara Kaunda, who completed the course with Noreen as a facilitator. She is married to a pastor, who has planted 14 churches in rural areas of Malawi and Mozambique. They served as our facilitators in our training in Mulanje, and Sara was part of the team, who trained in Mangochi, another town in Malawi, where we also have contacts to a PowerClub graduate.

Sara translating for Noreen

The Heart of Malawian Villages

Our nations become more and more diverse. Life in the city looks nothing like in the villages, which remain undeveloped and with a culture on its own. A PowerClub training in the village must have a different approach, if we are to reach the hearts of these beautiful people. (I wrote another blogpost about village life to give at least an idea of what life is like in those places.)

Simplicity and Creativity

We have just recently changed how we conduct our trainings; shorter sessions to give room for discussion, and less sessions to allow the information to be “absorbed”. That strategy worked really well in Mulanje. We tried to make our sessions really simple, using lots of objects and illustrations known from the every day life in the village. We packed away all the objects we had brought, and went “scouting” for local objects in the village and the house where we stayed. Never before had Sara’s cushions, artificial flowers, beans, cabbages, armchair, bikes and children been used in the teaching of children, but I think we proved a point – and had a lot of fun! Made in the image of creator God and with the Holy Spirit living inside of us, we have everything we need to make creative object lessons and altar times, no matter where we live.

Family Services

In the village children are always around. The morning after our arrival, we had children around the house at 5am, waiting for the visitors to wake up! So we decided to include more family services into our trainings, and ended up with 6 family services in just 3 days. That was a great success. The teachings were new both to kids and adults, and the many objects and illustrations created a foundation of understanding, that we then used in our training sessions with the adults.

The level of understanding and biblical knowledge were very low in both places. No one had heard about the tabernacle of Moses, and one suggested that it was Jesus, who lied inside the Ark of the Covenant. That is our starting point, and we have to build from there.

Children Filled and Set Free

The pastor had previously prayed for people to be filled with the Holy Spirit, but many did not understand what happened, and he had a vote against him. Since that, the subject hadn’t really been touched. The pastor gave us the floor to teach on the subject, and we spend much time, both with kids and adults, to explain this mystery and wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit. The subject that had caused much conflict in the church, was now taught thoroughly and solid based on God’s word, and the people received it. They were hungry for this gift and we had a strong sense of God’s presence as we prayed for the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Many were filled and touched by God, and two girls received freedom from witchcraft – this is a topic on its own and often handled by the local pastor. As a team we got to pray with these girls and they finally found freedom and declared faith in Jesus.

During our training days a couple of members, who had left the church came back because of the solid teaching and the sense of God’s presence. In Mangochi several people came to say, that they had never received such a teaching before, and never in their churches had they experience God’s presence like they did during the training. We could feel it in the atmosphere and see it on their face, how God brought new joy and freedom as we trained and prayed with them. It is our prayer that they will continue to teach children, so that they will be rooted and grounded in God’s word, and develop a love for His presence.

Bold Prayers

On the last day we wanted to pray for the sick, and asked the pastor, when they last time saw someone healed. It was sometime last year. At the end of our training we hand out certificates, which means a world to someone who has never received a certificate in their life. All the children were watching as we gave the certificates and we had the children to make a long blessing tunnel, praying for all the adults. Then we asked adults and children to form prayer teams of about 5 and pray with people on allocated chairs. The pictures show the enthusiasm of the children, and we had many healed from different pains on that day.

Grandma is Dancing!

Granny was one of them. Already on the first day, I had opportunity to pray with her, and I really got to love her. She couldn’t walk much, but would still find her way to the church attending our family services with the other grannies of the village. On the last day I met her in the morning, and said that she would be dancing before the end of the day. I prayed with her, and so did the children – and here granny is dancing!

On the last day we went into the village to pray with people and a group of children did a prayer march, praying and worshipping God through the village.

Glory to God!