Robbers Removed the Roof of the Church!

Dear friends of Malawi:

Please read the following emails from our friend, Rev. Copeland Nkhata, pastor of Mzuzu United Methodist Church and director of the HopeHome program for AIDS orphans in Malawi. Unbelievable! Robbers raided a thatched roof church and stole the roof!

Dear Rev. Michael,

It is sad to report that armed robbers came and vandalised the church and carried away the tent with which we had roofed the sanctuary of our small church structure. The roof is now bare. This has caused great disorder in our Sunday services and mid week services. The church floor has been messed up with rains and also services get disrupted because of rains or heavy sun shine. We use the same sanctuary to feed the children in our Hope homes for orphans and vulnerable children.

The matter is now with the police. Please pray that God would bail us out of this mess. We need urgent help to put things back to order. If the Lord would enable you to raise funds for another tent on our behalf it would be wonderful. The sanctuary size is 12 x 9 metres.

Copeland

Rev. Michael,

I am sorry for the delay in submitting the quotation for the tent. This is due to the fact that only one company situated in Blantyre almost 700km away is major supplier of tents and I have battled hard to get hold of them but to no avail since the day you asked me about the price of the tent. I am still trying and will soon succeed and then can furnish you with accurate information.

However, the stolen tent cost us MK139000.00 (US$1000.00). We had to get a bank loan to purchase it and we only fully paid back the in Nov 2007. I know that this time it might be around US$1500.00 as Malawi economy is still weak and prices tend to rise too fast.

Thanks for many valuable prayers. We are still holding together though a few
members were excessively shocked. Our services are badly affected with drizzles as the cold season is drawing in but we hope God will always protect His work.

Keep us in your hearts and prayers. Greet all the saints.

Copeland

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