In a country where aid from foreign governments has been a way of life for decades, it is easy to see why most of the Malawi people look first to external resources to solve problems.  Every step of the training material is based on the scriptures with a focused study on the book of Nehemiah.

If you remember,  Nehemiah's heart was broken over the news of the devastation of Jerusalem.  Through divine intervention and a vision that God laid on his heart, Nehemiah "facilitated" the rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls and restoration of the relationship to God for the people.  This was done with very few external resources.  The wall was rebuilt with resources already there and multiple families working on different sections of the wall.  Our first biblical example of teamwork!

We truly saw the power of God through His word transforming lifetimes of dependent thinking to empowering each person with God's direction to putting project plans in place utilizing only their own resources!  It was and is truly amazing!

Amazing is all you can say when God puts a desire and a vision on someone's heart!  It is also important to remember the reason for all of this.  It is not just to do community projects, but rather, to glorify God, by being "salt and light", by loving our neighbor, loving each other and restoring broken relationships.

We will continue to go back to follow-up with these churches to see, not only where they are with their initial projects, but have they trained others in their church, formed other Nehemiah groups.  We're hoping to see multiple groups with different projects at each church.