This Week's Program

Eileen, who works with the CIP in Willow River, explained the Challenge Program where they train pastors as leaders to help prisoners in Malawi. Bill said on their last trip 6 people with Prison Ministry went to Malawi to facilitate the Alpha Program. They train men for one week, then go into the prisons to help prisoners. The conditions in the prisons are deplorable - prisoners get one meal a day of meatless mush and water, they sleep on the floor of dorms in rows, they have no ventilation and temperatures can reach 110 degrees, some prisoners die at night. The prison they visited had 350 male prisoners and 5 women in a separate dorm. Malawi is the 10th poorest country in the world and now they are suffering drought with hunger and starvation. For 5 days the prisoners had no food. Eileen showed a video and discussed how prisoners are locked in a cell during the day with a dirt floor. The trained leaders keep order and read scripture, play music and praise the Lord. None of the prisoners had heard of Jesus, but they all say they are Christians. Since the trained leaders, called fathers, have been praying, preaching, singing and playing music, they have seen demonic and physical healing. Right now their mission is raising money to buy soap for the prisoners.