Victory Churches of Malawi National Conference 2003
Praise the Lord for the wonderful success of the Malawi Conference! Under the leadership of Dr. Hazel Hill, VCI Missions Director, twenty-two individuals form Canada, UK and USA traveled to Blantyre, Malawi to minister and serve during the first annual Victory Churches of Malawi National Conference, July 7-13th. Rev. Phyllis Labrentz, missionary to Malawi and Pastor Austin of the recently built, King's Victory Church, hosted the conference.
From various cities in Malawi and Mozambique, regional leaders, bishops, pastors and congregation members were transported to Blantyre, where they were housed and fed 3 meals per day for the 7-day conference. In addition, hundreds of individuals from the city of Blantyre and the surrounding villages attended the conference. The total number was estimated to be around 3000 to 4000 people.
Praise the Lord for the hundreds of salvations, baptisms in the Holy Spirit and healings that occurred during the conference. In addition, many were water baptized, many pastors were ordained, babies were dedicated (one baby gave Dr. Hazel a very special "wet" blessing during the ceremony!) and close to 100 couples took part in a group wedding ceremony. The couples were married according to their traditional custom and now wanted to have a "Christian" wedding ceremony.
The Word of God was taught and preached to the Malawians who were hungry for the Word. There were various teachings during the day on topics such as the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and Starting A Small Business. The afternoons were filled with workshops for men, women, children and youth. altar calls for salvations, baptism of the Holy Spirit and healing.
Dr. Hazel Hill, Rev. Phyllis Labrentz and Pastor Austin officially opened King's Victory Church, a 1500 seat facility built by VCI Missions. Those from the area who were saved during the conference, were added to the church. Praise the Lord!
The Mission team worked diligently and faithfully throughout the week. The team gladly accepted Dr. Hill's challenge to take their personal clothing and items in their carry-on luggage in order to take 2 large suitcases full of items to distribute to the Malawians. The team distributed a total of over 3000 lbs of clothing, socks, shoes, soaps, toothpaste, toothbrushes, reading glasses, toys and candies. As the weather in Malawi was unusually cold during the first few days of the conference, the many sweaters and socks distributed were an added blessing.
In a meeting with the pastors, Dr. Hazel asked how many had Bibles. Only 3 pastors in the full room raised their hands indicating they had Bibles. This confirmed one of the goals for the Mission trip; to distribute Bibles in Chichewa (Malawian native language) to each pastor who did not have the precious Word of God to teach their congregation. The majority of the pastors had only portions of the Scriptures that they had written down on pieces of paper. Every available Bible was purchased from bookstores and street vendors in the city of Blantyre and distributed to the thankful hands of each pastor.
Nurses on the team ran a clinic daily to treat babies, children and adults. The sick were treated and prayed for by the team members. The clinic provided the opportunity for health teaching and to address many of the superstitious practices which were endangering the health of the babies.
Both children and adults were treated for abdominal worms with over-the-counter worm medications the team purchased. This was a blessing for the people as worms lead to more severe medical problems such as anemia and other complications.
The theme for the conference, "Unity is Power", was certainly evident as more than 700 churches from Malawi and Mozambique were officially welcomed into the Victory family by Dr. Hazel Hill. The congregation cheered loudly as the pastors marched into the church with their "membership certificates" in hand. As a symbol of their new relationship together into the Victory family, the senior pastor's wives all wore yellow skirts and white blouses.
The Malawians expressed their appreciation to Dr. Hazel, Rev. Phyllis and the Mission team by distributing gifts to each team member. Many of the leaders and the chiefs from the area and the city of Blantyre, expressed their gratitude to the team and to Victory Churches International. Many explained that they had seen the love of Jesus through the work that was done during the conference.
Thank you to our world wide Victory Family, who through your generous giving and prayers has made this possible! TOGETHER, we have blessed the people of Malawi in a wonderful way!
Each team member expressed how their lives were changed as a result of the trip. Below are a few of their comments.
Comments from the team members:
"The greatest aspect of this entire trip was to see so much accomplished by God's Spirit of Love!!" Teresa Brideau, California, USA
"This is a great blessing, great experience. God has put His compassion in my heart for all people". Pastor Kim Van Thi Tran, California, USA
"When they received their Bibles in their own Chichewa language - they showed such appreciation that I was humbled. - they were happy, so grateful. I will always remember the smiles and the expressions of hope, joy and love". Othlyn Jarrett, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada
"The thing that I will remember most about this trip is how God enabled me to do all things at all times supernaturally. As I stepped out of the boat to preach or teach, pray and minister, He met me on the water and gave me the ability to stand and do things I have never done before. I thought you had to have a degree or experience to do some of the things I stepped into, but God taught me qualification you need to do Missions work is to be a child of God." Flor Connolly, California, USA
"The change that came on the Malawian people and in myself will stay with me forever." Angel Marconi, California, USA
"The best part of the trip for me was the clinic - We met the needs of the people; spirit, soul and body as we prayed for them, gave them food, medicine and clothing." Connie McMillan, Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada
"Ministering to and serving the people of Malawi was priceless. It is amazing to see what God did in one week" Doreen London, Mississauga, Ontario,Canada
"The most memorable thing has to be my change in prayer. At the beginning, in the clinic when I prayed for the people, I only hoped and prayed that they would be healed. I soon started to pray with expectance, expecting people to be healed and witnessing miracles." Beth Barnes, Leeds, UK.
"The children touched me the deepest." John O'Brien, California, USA
"It was an honour to teach and preach God's Word - but the greatest reward was working in our make-shift clinic, seeing people receive medicine, being healed, saved and filled with the Holy Spirit." Gary Wondercheck, California, USA
