SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST
MISSION OF MALAWI
PO BOX 60150 BT. 6 BLANTYRE MALAWI AFRICA
TEL. 265-9-741-007/ or 265-8-751140 (mobile)
Missionary / Evangelist: Peter A. Halliman
Email: panagioite04@gmail.com
Date: June 09/2009
Dear Pastor, Church, and supporting brethren;
Php 1:2-5 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon all my remembrance of you, always in every supplication of mine on behalf of you all making my supplication with joy, for your fellowship in furtherance of the gospel from the first day until now;
Since our last report, the elections here in this country are behind us, like in most third-world countries where the pockets are lined, and as one man said to me once “the squeaky wheel gets the [grease]”; and so it’s no different here. Some years back I was travelling from South Africa back to Malawi and was waiting at one of the borders to cross, after three days of wait at the border I was finally given my clearance by the Customs Officer when he said to me… “Mr. Halliman you messed up”… I replied “how did I mess up, he said you tried to be [honest]”, I replied, I didn’t know that was messing up. I thought that was what we were supposed to do”… Paul said “Ro 12:17 Render to no man evil for evil. Take thought for things honorable in the sight of all men.” Again to the Corinthians “2Co 8:21 for we take thought for things honorable, not only
in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.
For the past six weeks I have been working on a project that was started back in September 06 but was put on hold. The project is a communications tower, most of you are aware that I no longer live in town (now going on four years) I have written many reports and visited many of supporting churches where I have personally addressed this issue. A preacher from my home church had visited me and the work whilst I was living here on at the farm; also my pastor has visited the work whilst I was here at the farm. I said all that to say this, my moving here to the farm has been explained over many times so that is not the issue but what I want to share with you is the difficulty I have faced in communications here. Firstly, I may say that even whilst living in town, and had a ground line in the house, it was a constant struggle to keep it in working condition and more of a headache to file the notice of a fault, wait the normal time period, then follow up again and again until you have spent countless hours in these offices and after having wasted enough days finally some workers were allocated to my area, I most of the time had to feed them lunch, transport them back and forth and even provide some tools if I wanted the job completed properly. Then when I felt good about having my line repaired and working again I would spend sometimes half the evening trying to get the modem to connect just so I could email. I said all that to say this, after all I am not sure that the communications that I had in town at the time I had it was worth it at all! Sometimes it was better for me to just type a letter, report and send it by Post. Communications are great when they work, now that some technology has come into Malawi and there are three firms which provide Internet service and two provide “hot spots” around the developed parts of the country, I can now go into town and access a hot spot and do my email. Yes, the service speed is not what most people in developed countries are used to, but knows this, I am way ahead of the game with what I have now, and guess what, I don’t have to worry about any wires having been stolen or dug up. Praise the LORD!
The geographical location of the farm puts me twenty to twenty-two miles from town depending where you want to be, that is on two lane roads that serve a population of one million, every man and his dog feels the road belongs to them, therefore it takes some time to get into town and becomes a real challenge on Monday’s and Friday’s; those are the days I try to avoid if possible. With fuel at five dollars / gal and the time spent in transit I try to make every trip count, meaning I don’t go into town just to do the email, its not that simple or feasible to do so. Therefore, when I do go into town I try to do other business that I have been putting off until I can do as much as possible when I do go in. This all sounds great and responsible however let me share with you the reality of life here. No one [cares] here in Africa about [time] or any kind of a program, and certainly no one cares about you (whom ever you are). No one gets in a hurry and no one will keep time as you think it ought to be kept. From departure time to town its taken me thirty-five to forty-five minutes. one way depending on traffic and situations, turn around 1.5 hrs out of the day. The entire city shuts down for two hours during lunch so that has to be considered. Forty-five minutes to get three loaves of bread in the best, biggest, and most updated grocery shop here in Blantyre. It can take up to two hours in the bank, or thirty min at an ATM.
At the traffic department where we renew our vehicle’s road tax, and road worthy stickers etc… many times will take several days to complete and that is getting there early.
I started this project back in 2005 whilst I was still residing at my old place in town but knew that I would be moving soon so the project was put on the table. Once I had made the move here it took me time to get settled in and the operation of the mission work kept me flat out as I tried to serve in a capacity that I know to do. As time passed I started the project again in late 06 when my nephew came to stay with me. The communications tower was fabricated to a length of one hundred twenty feet and the attempt to raise it was in progress. Since I don’t have any heavy equipment or funds to hire lifting equipment I needed to engineer a system to raise the tower myself with what I had, which was not much more then a simple winch on the military truck, ropes, some short chains etc… and some men who are employed but know nothing of this exercise.
The tower was raised about a third of the way up when we had to stop our operations and start the farming as the rainy season only comes around once here. Everything stops in preparation for planting, which is what we did. The weeks passed, other duties took priority and before long it was time to make another trip back to the US to return my nephew to his family and for a visit to supporting churches. When I returned again, I was kept busy with trying to take care of [damage control] within the work. Again another year passed and without another person to rely upon the tower that had been secured in its position during these months had suffered from high winds and with gravity working havoc on the weight of the steel it simply bowed under such conditions. This year, I decided to either take it down for good and get on with life as though it were, or continue to finish the project. I decided to lower the tower and try to straighten the bend and carry on from there. To cut a long story short, the training I received as a young man I had to make it right no matter what if I were going to erect this.
Six weeks later I am three quarters finished with the fabrication of the tower, I redesigned the support legs, and changed some of the support material from rebar to inch an a half pipe. The cost has been kept down due to the fact that I have been able to purchase the material at a local market, the pipe is used (second-hand) but as long as its straight (for the most part) I can work with it.
This communications tower will reach one hundred and fifty feet in height it will be erected here on the farm near the house which also sets up on a noel. The purpose of this communications tower will provide me here at the house with full wireless internet service. I have known the owner of (Skyband) the internet service which I use, since 1996, we have maintain a good relationship since the days we were involved in Blantyre City Neighbourhood Watch. He wants to use my tower to put a dish and will attract other customers around the tea, and coffee estates which are out this way. There is a direct line as the crow flies from the farm due East to Mt. Mulanje where they anticipate being able to send a signal. In all this, I will get the service free.
Someone may question or ask is it worth the time, expense, and energy to invest into a project such as this. Allow me to address my own questions, communications are not regressing but moving forward. We as God’s people can and should use what is available to us as much as we can to the glory or our LORD! If I can obtain the convenience of wireless communications here in Africa at my residence then I believe I should be afforded that option. Further to this, like most things that I have had on the mission field over the years I have either made, fabricated, myself or done without.
I trust this will explain a bit of what has consumed my time, energy and as well as resources. To put this into perspective, if I had to purchase a tower of such diminsions here in this country it would cost upwards of ten to fifteen thousand dollars, the one which I have fabricated from start to finish I will have less then three thousand dollars invested.
I continue to teach the Bible class each morning from six am to seven am, we have completed the books of Nehemia and Esther and are now in the book of Ezra.
I have preached two funeral services within the last two weeks, there are no modern conveniences , no embalming, no pews, or chairs to sit on, no climate control and no catering system for meals etc… As it was in biblical days so it is here in Africa, the grave diggers dig the grave people gather sit out in the open all day, those with some position in the village and or church will all have some time to speak. In the end I am given my time to preach. Its common among people all over the world that at funerals there are believes mixed with unbelievers, the sheep mixed with the goats, there are the houses with foundations alongside houses with no foundation, there is the wheat mixed with the tares; and therefore, I always preach firstly to the family of the one who has passed, and I always have a word for those there without Christ. It is my duty and calling to preach the Gospel to every creature at every opportunity in every case that I am able.
The last funeral was for a young child somewhere around three to five years of age, sometimes its difficult to determine the age here but the child was young.
I have preached more funerals here then I care to remember and no matter how many I preach, the reality of life and death is all too real.
I pray that our God will bless you in your labours and smile upon your life as you serve Him where ever you may be.
In His Name,
Missionary Peter A. Halliman
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