SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST
MISSION OF MALAWI
PO BOX 60150 BT. 6 BLANTYRE MALAWI AFRICA
TEL. 265-620-472-(hm) / 265-9-946-261 or 265-9-320-881 (mobile)
Missionary / Evangelist: Peter A. Halliman
Email: panagioite04@gmail.com
Date: 23/11/05
To all the Saints of God,
I greet each of you in Jesus Name, He who was, is and forever shall be Amen ! I will try to pick up where I left off, but some how it always seems that so much has passed in between that often times I am forced to simply hit the main points and even when trying to make it concise, it turns out to be a lengthy report.
I am not sure if I had in the previous reports or not, but I want to publicly thank my home church and Friendship Missionary Baptist church, the home church of Bro. Joe Padilla for their efforts and part in making the new vehicle a reality. I also want to thank any other person, and or church if they had a part in it. I am not sure I kept up with each individual offering towards the vehicle, but I can assure you this, I thank God every day for it and want to elaborate just a bit whilst I am on the subject.
When I came here in 1996, I came with a backpack, two suite-cases and one mountain-bike (which I still have today) and after six months the LORD provided a vehicle for us here in the work. It was a second-hand vehicle but was all we could afford at the time. My home church was gracious enough to see that the expenses were paid and we had transport, what a blessing it was. This became an invaluable asset to the mission work and our personal lives. Through the years of being here the vehicle took its toll, it was to the point of costing more to keep it maintained, then it was to sell it and move on. I made the decision to do so and we managed to salvage much more out of it then it really was worth but then again this is Africa and such is the nature of things here. The funds were applied to the work. As time went on I shipped over my second-hand Range Rover which also became a part of the work and seen more use for what it was really built for then it had in its entire life being in the USA. After a couple years of hard labour the rust eaten floor board from Ohio began to give way and soon it was not safe to drive. After the windscreen was smashed on a trip I had made to RSA and back I decided to strip it down to the chassis and try to salvage it. In the mean time I was blessed with a motorbike and this too was used and is still now being used far more then most imagined a bike of that nature was to be used. I traveled to every church in every district we have a work going on, during the dry season as well as during the rains. It does take a bit of talent and expertise to stay upright, and to return home alive. I used the bike to carry groceries, hardware, as well as cement so it has also been worked. I desperately needed a vehicle for everyday use so I begin to explore the avenue of ordering a new Land Rover pickup. I started the communication before I departed Malawi back in January of this year so by the time I arrived in California I presented it to my home church and we decided to go ahead and set up a vehicle fund. When we had enough funds in to make the twenty-percent down payment we did so and confirmed the vehicle which I had placed on order. Because there was high demand of that particular vehicle ours was on back-order. When it was time for me to depart America and return to Malawi the vehicle had been paid for, as well as the shipping etc… all the way to Blantyre Malawi. Since the vehicle had been placed on a back order it was much later then usual for its arrival here in Malawi. All things are controlled by God and nothing happens but what HE doesn’t allow or direct in the way it should be, thus, the vehicle was not so late after all it was right on schedule according to God’s plan and schedule. Thank the LORD for the motorbikes as this was our only means of transport. As I have stated before and so too will again, there is a vast difference in taking ones motorbike out for a run on the week-end, or to work when the only thing they are carrying is themselves. However, it’s a totally different story when you have to ride your motorbike, carry a passenger and him carrying a backpack on roads which hardly comply with being roads. The surface starts out with tarmac and turns into hard dirt, then sandy dirt with patches of nothing but sand, besides all this the roads are corrugated as well as circuited with pot holes. Then there are the goats which jump out into the road in front of you, cattle, chickens, turkeys, guinea-foul, pigs, and then the people who will walk out into the road without thinking or looking. The cyclist all believe the road was built for them and that you are the one to give way for them. Anyone and everyone believes that the road is only for them and you (whoever you are) are supposed to watch out for their well being.
Bro. Padilla found out exactly what I mean when I said “your talents will be tested”.
As time passed on here in Malawi with our mission work, the needs were ever increasing for a vehicle. Bye and bye the LORD worked it out for the vehicle to arrive here in Blantyre. The beauty of this shipment was that I did not have to organize nor negotiate all the borders as I have had to do in the past. All documentation was in order, and all payments had been met prior to shipment so there was very little to do in the clearance. I will make a point in saying; I had to pay the usual government tax for registration and then the usual cost of registering a new vehicle. After three days of arrival in the country I had it out and was processing the registration and licensing of it.
This report is rather late in relation to the arrival of the vehicle; however every day is a new day with the vehicle. In twenty-two years of mission work, living in two different countries this is the second “new” vehicle that I have had the honour to be a steward over which the LORD has provided through his people. I want to again thank each of you personally and tell you, outside of having food to eat and raiment to put on the vehicle is the next most needed and used thing in the work here.
Since we have had the vehicle it has been such a blessing, the accessories which I ordered on the vehicle resulted out of years of living here and experiences which have taught me what I need and do not need. The vehicle is very basic and plain by “America” standards. There are no carpets, nor plush seating, no frill’s “toys” inside, it may appear “Spartan” by most standards; windows wind manually, the flooring is simply covered with washable rubber mats. The entire inside is designed where it can be covered with mud, and then brought home to be hosed out. However, the Land Rover Defender is not a vehicle that one would purchase to impress someone with the comfort zone, however, it is a 4 X 4 vehicle which all other four wheel drive vehicles are judged by. If one has the off road experience and the right tyres for mud, the vehicle will perform far beyond ones expectation. That is the sole reason the Land Rover was ordered to perform off road and meet the demands we need for it to.
Since we have had the vehicle I have been off road several times and now that we are in the rainy season the roads which we travel (off road) are nigh impassable, all other vehicles which dare travel these roads have long stopped and people now resort to either walking or bicycle hire to get to and from. The Land Rover is the only vehicle seen negotiating many of these roads. Bro. Chris Silvey has been here now three weeks going on four, and he has seen the capability of the Land Rover so he could testify to its performance. I will be preparing a special report on his stay with us and the work we were involved whilst he has been here.
I want to close this report by again thanking personally my home church L.M.B.C. of Roseville, CA. and also the Friendship Missionary Bapt. Church, as well as any individual and or church who had a part in contribution of funds towards the purchase of the Land Rover for the Mission work here in Malawi / Mozambique Africa.
I will be preparing a special report on the vehicle with some photos for anyone and everyone who has a desire to see it.
My prayer is the LORD will bless each of you in your labours for Him wherever you are and continue to smile upon the work of your hands.
A servant saved by Grace,
Missionary Peter A. Halliman
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