New land

In the city, it is costly to buy land. In the village, one asks the chief and he can give land, or you can buy land from someone else for a minimal price.  When we plant a church, it does not take very long before they need to find a place to meet.  In the city, most church plants rent a school classroom.   Government and private schools rent classrooms to various church plants. This means that for young churches, not only do they have a temporary meeting place, but they also have a lot of neighbors! 

One church plant in Lilongwe meets in a public primary school. There are no windows, desks, the floor is broken up, and the roof leaks. In that same school there are 7-8 more church plants. Imagine all of these congregations sing at the same time! 







Another of the church plants in Lilongwe, rented a room in a private school. This meant the classroom had desks, but they were much closer together, thus much louder!
   In March, this plant was able to raise money (with the help of the national church leadership and the mission) for their own plot of land.  The first couple plots they looked at fell through. Finally they found a great deal on a plot in a new subdivision near where most of the congregation lives. This plot even had a couple older buildings on it.  One of the buildings is in rough shape, but one room is still good, so they can use it for Sunday School classes. the other building is also old, but with a little work they will be able to knock down a wall and use that old home for a church. this will give them a place to worship while they work to save money and make bricks to build their own, larger, and stronger structure.  In April, this new church was able to worship for the first time in their own land! We joined them for that special day!  Here is a short video about that day!