Election Day Update and Prayer Requests

Dear Friends and Family,

This week, 20 May, is the TRIPARTITE Election for Malawi. This is a rare election cycle in that EVERY elected official in the country--local, regional and national--is up for election on Tuesday. There is a tense atmosphere in the country. Rumors are flying all over the place regarding what will or won't happen depending on who wins. There is a mild security concern for how things will go on Election Day, but the main reason we have declared a school holiday that day is so that our Malawian staff and families can get out to vote without any difficulties. If there is going to be a serious security concern, it will be in the days following Election Day when the votes are certified and a winner is declared. It is highly likely that the winner may only get 25-30% of the vote, which means that most people will have wanted someone else to win. As we experienced in the riots of 2011, the overwhelming majority of Malawians are very peaceful and do not want any kind of violent response, even to oppression or injustice. However, there is a growing movement in that direction among some of the younger urban Malawians.

Please pray for Godly men and women to be elected and to govern in the best interest of ALL Malawians.

Please pray for a peaceful Election Day, certification period and transition if new leadership is elected.

Please pray for the Church in Malawi to lead the way in showing what is a proper and Godly response to the outcome of the election.

Please pray for the Carlisles. We are OVERWHELMED and so tired, but God is blessing us so abundantly! We just sent 5 boxes with some friends, Matt and Rachel Floreen,  who are going on furlough and did not need all of their space! What a huge blessing. Many others have already helped with taking a box or two here and a suitcase there! There are a number of good leads on work for Brian, but no offers yet. We need patience and more trust. We also need to be loving our kids hard during this crazy period of the closing of our time here.

Please pray for Samuel on his seventh birthday tomorrow! We can hardly believe that our barely three year old that we came here with is now a big brother and  seven years old! Pray for the work of the Holy Spirit in Samuel's life.

We hope to get a "proper" communication out soon, but as Scharlie just told me, "that may never happen!"

Thank you for praying!

Grace and Peace,

Brian, Scharlie, Gwen, Samuel and Nathan