Rev. Stanley Daile and his family will live in a new house being built on the campus of the Lutheran Bible Institute in Lilongwe, Malawi
Building God’s House in Malawi
It’s been fun to watch the progress. Standing on my front porch, I can look across the road to see the new house being built. The house is being built on the campus of the Lutheran Bible Institute (LBI) in Lilongwe, Malawi. Once it is completed, it will be a home for our newest LBI professor, Rev. Stanley Daile, and his family.
At the beginning of this project, the ‘house’ was nothing more than an architectural drawing on a piece of paper. It was only a nice idea that did not exist in reality, but then the workers came. They cut down several trees, dug up all the stumps and leveled off the ground. Large trucks carried in their cargoes of bricks and sand and stone. In a matter of days, the workers had dug the foundations and poured a concrete slab. Then the walls appeared – each day a little taller, as if they grew up from the ground. Soon there were a dozen workers climbing in the rafters and hammering down the corrugated metal roofing sheets. Other workers installed the windows and the doors. Every day, the worksite was alive with activity. It was fun to watch the progress. Slowly but surely, a house was being built, one brick at a time.
As I watched the progress of that house from my front porch, I often thought about our ministry in Africa. The Bible often uses the building of a house as a metaphor for Christian ministry. In his letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul says that the Christian Church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Ephesians 2:20-22). To me, that house across the street was more than just a building. It was a daily illustration and reminder of why we are working in Malawi in the first place. We are working together to build God’s house, one brick at a time.
Sixty years ago, a strong and vibrant Lutheran Church in Malawi was nothing but a dream. It was only a nice idea that did not exist in reality, but then the workers came. WELS missionaries Raymond Cox and Richard Mueller were the first to arrive in 1963, and other missionaries followed them. By the preaching of God’s almighty word, they gathered a few faithful Christians together to form the Lutheran Church of Central Africa (LCCA). Back in those early days, missionaries did almost all the preaching and baptizing. It wasn’t until 1976 that Rev. Deverson Ntambo became the synod’s first Malawian pastor. Even by 1980, there were still only about 3,000 confirmed members in approximately 50 congregations.
But things are different now. Today the Lutheran Church of Central Africa numbers almost 40,000 baptized souls who trust in Jesus as their Lord. They gather together on Sunday morning in approximately 130 congregations. More than three dozen Malawian pastors do virtually all of the preaching, all of the baptizing, and all of the confirmations. And all of these Malawian pastors are paid and supported by the congregations that they serve. What a joy to see the progress! Slowly but surely, God is building up his church.
In fact, even this new house at the Lutheran Bible Institute is evidence of the church’s growth. The LBI exists to train young African men to serve as future pastors in our Lutheran churches. The new house is necessary because a new professor, Rev. Stanley Daile, has been called to serve as a professor of New Testament Greek. In the past, courses in Biblical Greek were always taught by missionaries. But now we have a well-trained Malawian professor who is able to teach these classes. This is progress. God is building up his church.
By the grace of God, I have had the privilege to serve as a missionary in Malawi since 2006. For almost 15 years I have been able to wake up every morning and to look out of my front door and to see tremendous progress. Slowly but surely, God is building up his house in Malawi, one brick at a time.
Missionary Mark Panning lives in Malawi and teaches at the Lutheran Bible Institute in Lilongwe
Please pray for those working in fields that are ripe for harvest. Share their story, engage with future news and receive updates. Learn more about our mission fields in Africa and how the Holy Spirit is working faith in people’s hearts at https://wels.net/serving-others/missions/africa
Salem Board of Education/Education Committee Meeting - The Board of Education meets at the same time as the Education Committee. Their next scheduled meeting is Tuesday, March 13, at 6:30 p.m. People that would like to address the board may request time at the beginning of the meeting by contacting the principal, Roger Zolldan (rzolldan@salemlutheran.org), or the chairman, Karl Paulsen (kvkthethinker@gmail.com). The meeting will go into closed session after the people that signed up to speak are finished with their topic.
This is an update on Stillwater School Board’s proposal to change school start times in 2019-2020. The Stillwater School Board met last night and one of the topics on the agenda was the proposed changes in starting time to accommodate a later start for the high school students. This change in start time for the high school would affect the start and end time for Salem students. In the proposals presented last night, Salem would start school between 9:15 and 9:40 a.m., and end between 3:45 and 4:10 p.m. Jane Grobe and I spoke on how starting later and getting out later would affect our students’ learning and how it would disrupt family schedules. The middle school, where some of our students participate in after-school extra-curricular activities, would have their school day ending at 2:00. That would mean if students left Salem for after-school activities, they could miss over 2 hours of instruction to be at the start of the middle school activities. The board’s discussion on th
School will remain closed on Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019 and Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019 due to the extremely cold temperatures and dangerous wind chills predicted. Some school closing links you can monitor: http://kstp.com/schoolalert/ http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/school-closings/ http://www.kare11.com/alert-center#alert-center-closings http://www.fox9.com/closings Blessings on your time off. This information was posted at 12:10 PM on 1/28/2019. If you have subscribed, you will receive an automated email containing this information after the fact, around 4 PM on 1/28/2019. Please be aware that this is not an error, but this is how our system is configured. For live information, you can always visit our blog at https://salemsaintsmn.blogspot.com/ .
