Hooten's February/March Travels

David attended a leadership meeting in Kenya in February and we praise God for a good meeting.  He returned to Malawi with a Trustee and his wife who spent a week with us visiting various missionaries and their work in Malawi.  The picture above is IMB trustee Jessie and Cecelia Smith standing with a dear pastor/friend of one of our missionaries. That night after their visit, that pastor had a stroke and went to be with the Father the next morning.  We praise God for the opportunity to get to know this godly man, his faith in spite of the enemies attacks.  We praise God that the missionary was able to spend that last day with his dear friend and mentor.  Had it not been for the visit of the Trustee and his wife, the trip would not have been scheduled!  Please pray for the work being done by Malawian believers in the Shire River Valley.  Pray for courage to preach the Truth and live the Christian life in spite of attacks from the enemy.

Special opportunity: We were invited to participate in a Global Ministries Conference at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Atlanta the first week of March.  It was a wonderful time of connecting with IMB personnel from all over along with other personnel that were sent out by that church in Atlanta.  It was wonderful to see the sense of passion this church family has for reaching the lost.  There is a strong eagerness to participate in whatever way they can in our countries of service.  

Please pray for wisdom, discernment and vision as we work at finding strategic ways for volunteers to engage the peoples in the Zambezi Cluster.

 Would you please pray that God would put it on the hearts of our churches to give more towards sending career personnel who can give of their lives in serving overseas to reaching the lost?


Visit in Lynchburg!

 Icing on the cake:  One benefit of our visit to JFBC was a side trip that we made to Lynchburg, VA  to visit with Anna and Nathaniel .  It was just so wonderful to be able to spend a weekend with them.  We were able to meet and get to know better their special friends- Derek Homsher and Courtney Vestal.  We climbed a mountain the day after our arrival…. I was quite exhausted to say the least…but I did it! J   Please pray with us for Anna as she finishes up her studies at Liberty University and prepares for her board exams.  She has done so well and we are so proud of her.  Also, please continue to pray with us for Nathaniel.  He returned from Nepal having his heart touched by the lostness that he encountered.  He is presently searching for full time work while holding down two part time jobs.  Pray for Nathaniel that he have clear direction in his life as to where and what he should do next….  

So wonderful to be able to spend a couple days with our kids!





Upon our return to Malawi, both David and I have hit the ground running.  We are making the final preparations for our first Cluster Meeting which will be the end of this month.  Would you please pray with us for clarity of mind, wisdom, patience and strength to do all that needs to get done prior to the meeting?  There is a team of volunteers from Kentucky who will be coming to help out with our children’s program along with the adult worship times.  We are so very thankful for their willingness to come and help out in this important meeting.

Sowing seeds....

Just before we went to the USA for the conference, our neighbor lost a young child to some illness.  I was able to go over and visit and pray with them.  The family are Yao, and therefore are M*****ms.  I talked with the mother and those around in broken ciYao and tried to give her the good news of Jesus.  Also, one of our night guards is a Yao.  His 8 year old son is very sick. We went to visit him in the hospital the other day as he has been waiting for treatment for almost a week now.  Doctors in Malawi are on strike due to lack of being paid their salaries.  You can only imagine the huge mortality rate at the hospitals as patients go unattended.  We prayed with the mother.  The next day the father told us that the boy was doing a little better.  How we pray that they would recognize any healing is from the Father and that they would give praise to Him!.   Would you pray with me for these families and that somehow God would use our faltering lips to bring them to a saving knowledge of Him?





I just had to take the opportunity to make a snowman!