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Love Malawi Festival Anticipates Massive National Impact

Love Malawi Festival Anticipates Massive National Impact

MALAWI (ANS – August 4, 2016) -- More than 700 churches will collaborate with Andrew Palau and Luis Palau Association partner evangelists in Malawi for a significant effort to foster unity and reach out with the Good News through Love Malawi, August 5 through August 24, 2016.

The campaign will visit five of Malawi’s larger cities, including the capital city Lilongwe, as well as the Dzaleka Refugee Camp which houses people from a number of nearby countries including Ethiopia, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Evangelists Keith Cook, Daniel King, and P.J. Meduri will kick off the campaign in Ntcheu (Meduri) and Mzuzu (Cook and King) from August 5-7. Then, over the next weekend evangelist Richard Hamlet will share the Good News in Blantrye, Reid Saunders in Zomba, and Alan Greene and Andrew Palau at the Dzaleka Refugee Camp.

The campaign will conclude with a two-day festival at the open fields by Maula Prison in the heart of Malawi and the nation’s capital city, Lilongwe. Professional action sports athletes Vic Murphy, John Andrus and their team from the United States will perform BMX stunts, and will be joined by an FMX team from South Africa. Malawian artists Great Angels Choir, Kamuzu Barracks Gospel Singers, KBG, Faith Mussa, Suffix, and the Love Malawi Choir will perform, along with Gospel music artists Don Moen and Dave Lubben.

In addition, the festival will include a children’s area led by evangelist Duggie Dug Dug from London. Each day of the festival, Andrew Palau will share the Good News of Jesus Christ.

The Luis Palau Association is again grateful for the strategic collaboration of “Bibles For The World” in providing 40,000 copies of the Gospels in English, 60,000 copies of the Gospels in Chichewa (a local dialect), as well as 4,000 copies of the New Testament in English and 6,000 copies of the New Testament in Chichewa. Bibles For The World has partnered with the Palau team in Haiti, Jamaica, and Burkina Faso.

Throughout the week preceding the festival in Lilongwe, dozens of volunteers from around the world will join in several service endeavors, including providing reading glasses at several eyeglass clinics, assisting local medical teams, and leading outreaches for children and at several prisons. In addition, Palau will share the Gospel at a dinner for business and civic leaders, and his wife Wendy will join him to share the Gospel at a dinner for women.

Ministry partner “The Shoe That Grows” is providing 2,200 pairs of shoes and Torrey Babb with “The Mission Ball” is providing 400 soccer balls to aid in these outreaches.

Local Love Malawi sponsors include Fulcrum Partners, Evangelical Association of Malawi, Timveni, Nation Publications Limited, P.O.P. Car Rentals, Zodiak Broadcasting Station, Golden Peacock Hotel, Mercantile International, The Times Group, TNM, and Mamma Mia Restaurant.

Andrew Palau has previously shared the Gospel in other capital cities of Africa—including Cairo, Egypt; Kigali, Rwanda; Kampala, Uganda; Bujumbura, Burundi; Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. These festivals, in addition to the Love Malawi Festival, are part of a larger evangelistic movement in Africa that includes 10 campaigns in 10 capital cities of the country.

Gospel Crusade in Madagascar

Big News!

God has given us the nation of Madagascar. After a decade of building relationships in this country we will be headed back this month for our fourth and largest Gospel Festival.

The Gospel Festival will take place right next to the national soccer stadium in the middle of the capital city of Antananarivo. We expect thousands of people to attend each afternoon. Please pray for many people to be saved and healed.

In addition, our festival directors have informed us that over 4,000 pastors and church leaders are coming to our leadership conference in Madagascar. These front-line shepherds will be coming from all over the island. This gives us the unprecedented opportunity to speak to the entire nation. Please pray for God to anoint our words as we minister to these precious leaders.

Both the Gospel Festival and the leadership conference will be taking place at the bottom of a cliff. At the top of the cliff is the traditional palace of the kings and queens of Madagascar. Many years ago, local pastors were thrown off the cliff to their deaths below. Our festival will be taking place within sight of where these Christian martyrs gave their lives for the Gospel. Here is their story…

Persecution in Madagascar

In 1818, the London Missionary Society sent missionaries to the nation of Madagascar. At first they were welcomed, particularly because they taught the people how to make bricks and other practical skills. They translated the Bible into Malagasy and taught literacy. Several hundred people were baptized into the Christian faith.

But in 1835, Queen Ranavalona forbade her subjects to become Christians. She was worried that their Christian beliefs would undermine the traditional religion of the Malagasy people. As Queen she relied on the traditional beliefs for her authority and so she felt threatened politically by Christianity.

At first she forbade Christian marriages, church services, and baptisms for the Malagasy people. Later she expelled all the missionaries. Finally, she ordered that anyone who had a Bible, attended a church service, or claimed to be a Christian would be fined, jailed, tortured, or executed.

Fifteen Christian leaders were taken to the top of a high cliff. When they refused to renounce Christianity, they were shoved to their deaths in the rock-filled ravine below. Many other believers were condemned to hard labor or had their land and property taken away. By 1849, over two thousand Christians had been punished for their faith.

Tertullian said, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” Despite the persecution, the Church in Madagascar continued to grow. When Queen Ranavalona died, her son King Radama II, publically converted to Christianity. One of his first actions as king was to order a church built next to his palace. Queen Victoria of England sent stained glass windows as a gift for the new church.

Today, the church in Madagascar is built on blood, first the Blood of Christ, and second the blood of the martyrs who gave their lives for the sake of the Gospel. We are excited to follow in the footsteps of the original missionaries who preached the Gospel in Madagascar. Our upcoming crusade and pastor’s conference will take place at the foot of the cliff where the martyrs of Madagascar gave their lives.

Thank you for your prayers and your financial support! We thank God for you.

Love Malawi Festival in Mzuzu

Our ministry has been invited by the Next Generation Alliance, a ministry of evangelist Luis Palau, to participate in a nation-wide outreach to Malawi.

Malawi is one of the smallest nations in the world. It is located in southeast Africa and ranks 173 out of 188 countries on the United Nations Human Development Index because of poverty, high infant mortality, and low life expectancy (mostly due to the African HIV-AIDS crisis). The country is land-locked; it share a border with Zambia, Tanzania, and Mozambique. The majority of the economy is based on agriculture.

Despite all the problems the nation faces, Malawi is nicknamed “the Warm Heart of Africa.” The people are kind, willing to accept travelers, and the nation has never experienced a civil war between ethnic groups.

The ministry of Luis Palau will doing mass evangelistic events in Mazuzu, Ntcheu, Blantyre, Zomba, the Dzaleka Refugee Camp, and the capital of Lilongwe. These six campaigns will include events for children, women, business and civic leaders, and large evangelistic outreaches.

I have been invited to preach at the Love Malawi Festival in the city of Mzuzu. The city is about a five-hour drive from the capital of Malawi and the population in this area is 175,000 precious people. Mzuzu is the capital of Malawi’s northern region and the Mzuzu University attracts students from across the nation.

Please pray for many people to be saved in this African nation. It is the first time I will be there and I am excited that God opened a door for me to minister His love there. I am expecting thousands of people to be saved! Please pray for God to move in Malawi.