McDaniel August 2026

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

Beautiful Malawi sunset

August is one of the quieter months here with the residents on home stays, the schools on break, and the Teachers College between semesters, and we are grateful for the time to focus on maintaining things around the Village and advancing Outreach activities. Our staff members are doing a wonderful job of planning ahead for the upcoming school and Teachers College terms and keeping things beautiful around the Village.

Our Outreach relationships with church partners are bearing continuous fruit, and we are planning to begin Rafiki Bible Study leadership trainings next month. We are hopeful this will include our Anglican brothers and sisters on Likoma Island, which is one of two inhabited islands in the waters of Lake Malawi. In addition to this, our friends in the Malawi Police chaplaincy are working through plans to implement training for chaplains, junior chaplains, and officers throughout the northern region of Malawi to go along with Bibles, written resources, and online biblical and theological training. We thank God for Crossway and their generosity in donating Bibles for us to distribute to their partners in Malawi. This year, we will be able to distribute 13,000 Bibles directly through Rafiki, and to assist with distributing more than 26,000 through Crossway’s other ministry partners within Malawi.

A special thank you to our grounds crew for their help moving these Bibles donated by Crossway

We hope to distribute 1,000 commentaries through our church partners as part of the Rafiki Bible Study leader trainings over the next year, and we have received Global Pastor’s Book Sets from Crossway for distribution to pastors and seminary students, including those in the learning cohorts being established locally through Westminster Seminary UK and Third Millennium Ministries. Our first book set went to the first graduate from the accredited diploma cohort that we established last year! God has provided many opportunities for us to act as a catalyst for theological training and access to resources that are doctrinally sound, effective in equipping pastors and lay leaders in their ministry, and going right alongside the Rafiki Bible Study in helping churches and families to study God’s Word and know Him as He has revealed Himself to us.

While the Village is quiet now, one of the highlights of the past month has been the graduation within the school—both for our seniors and our preschool students! Both graduations were joyful and beautiful, and we had the pleasure of hosting some church partners and friends from the Malawi Police to enjoy the events. The Superintendent for the Northern Region’s police service also participated in diploma presentations. We are seeing encouraging growth in our students and teachers, growing class sizes across all grades—especially the growth in our secondary school, which has been a challenge in the past, and a growing number of schools and ministries requesting teacher training and Rafiki curriculum! Growth is the word that continues to stand out as we think through what God is doing here in Malawi through Rafiki’s Programs, and we hope that you will continue to thank Him for the tremendous growth and to pray that it would continue for many years.

2026 senior graduates

Preschool graduation

Thank you for continuing to read our updates and intercede for us. If you think you may know a friend or church who would be willing to join in supporting us through prayer or giving, please share these newsletters with them also. One of our main requests is for growth in our financial support, so please pray that God would help us to build relationships with more churches and supporters, so that we can continue to have the resources needed to expand the work here and faithfully move forward with the opportunities God is providing .

We thank God for you always and for your love for us.

Learn more about Rafiki’s expanding opportunities.

Visit our newly designed website RafikiFoundation.org to learn how to:

• Purchase the Rafiki Bible Study for small groups for your church or neighborhood
• Serve as a missionary with Rafiki
• Sponsor a child with the Rafiki Foundation to bring God’s Word and the best education in the world to some of the neediest children in the world in Africa.

Explore the Rafiki Foundation YouTube channel.

Visit (youtube.com/@RafikiFoundation) for videos from Rafiki children, teaching at our annual Enrichment conferences, and the teaching at our African classical Christian conferences.

Listen to our podcast for current discussions on Rafiki’s work in Africa.

truenorth.fm/show/the-rafiki-foundation-podcast/

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