Dear Friends,
This week, please intercede with us for Mwawi Chilongozi from Malawi.
Malawi, a landlocked republic in southeastern Africa, is home to nearly 18 million people (87% Christian and 12% Muslim). Lake Malawi runs across most of the country’s eastern border and covers almost a third of Malawi’s area. Largely agrarian and rural, Malawi relies mostly on cash-crop and subsistence agriculture. Dependency on foreign aid has also made Malawi vulnerable to foreign exploitation of its natural resources. Poverty, malnutrition, and weak healthcare systems contribute to low life expectancy and high infant mortality rates. Since May, Malawi has been embroiled in mass protests over a disputed presidential election.
Mwawi is pursuing a PhD in Practical Theology at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Her research focuses on how the Church can promote socioeconomic empowerment through microfinance, especially among rural women, in order to alleviate poverty and strengthen social networks. An ordained minister in the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) Synod of Livingstonia, Mwawi ministers to the Zolozolo Congregation in Mzuzu. Mwawi and her husband George have three children: a son, Chisomo (age 13), and a pair of twins, Deborah and Emmanuel (age 10).
Mwawi shares the following prayer requests:
I give thanks to God for the financial, moral, and spiritual support from ScholarLeaders.
1. Between November and February I will be collecting data for my research in two Presbyteries in the Livingstonia Synod. Please pray for me that I will not encounter issues throughout the process.
2. Pray for my husband in his work and for our children in their schoolwork.
3. Pray for Malawi and the aftermath of the general elections we had in May. Some political parties have not accepted the election results and the case is in court. There have been protests, at times violent, calling for the chairperson of the Malawi Electoral Commission to resign. Pray that justice will prevail and that there will be peace in our country.
4. Pray for the CCAP, Synod of Livingstonia as we will have elections of church leaders in 2020. Pray that God will help us to choose servant leaders.
Kind regards,
Mwawi Chilongozi