McDaniel December 2024

We are grateful for your earnest prayers and can joyfully share that we will be moving to Malawi on December 13! Thanks to several friends in Malawi, including our Village staff, our Employment Permits were approved, and our tickets were booked for our arrival a week later. Please pray that we will settle in quickly, be able to serve Rafiki and our community well, and for continued joy as we see all that the Lord has in store for us. Preparing to move our family to another country on the first international flight for four out of our five family members has been an eye-opening process. It is a joy to see our older children stepping up and seeking out ways to help, and to see the excitement that abounds in them.

God’s sovereign provision, in so many directions, has become clearer with every step along the way of our journey so far. He has solved problems that have bound us up for years, provided for our many needs (those we knew of, and several of which we were not yet aware), and encouraged us throughout the entire process. “The safest place is in the center of God’s will,” could not be a truer statement, and it is a helpful reminder when we are struggling with the present circumstances and difficulties of abandoning all rights and personal demands in favor of being open to do whatever God has called you to do. A great example has been our efforts to prioritize and fit everything that we would need to take over to Malawi in a dozen suitcases, while not leaving behind clothing, kitchen supplies, household goods, medicines, birthday cake mixes, and the other things that must be planned for a year in advance. While it has been stressful at times, it has been a happy reminder of how much God has given us that goes beyond our base needs, and how much we are happy to live without when our focus is correctly centered on God.

Rafiki’s Outreach Program in Malawi continues to flourish with the work of our church partners, and we hope to see more of them adopting the Rafiki Bible Study and Rafiki School Curriculum in their schools next year. To that end, pray that God would allow opportunities for stronger connections with existing church partners, and that He would guide us in establishing relationships with new partners. Bryan has been able to connect with several potential partners during the last six months at the Home Office, and God has opened even more doors for resourcing these faithful leaders as they seek to serve and grow the church. Alexis has already started her training to act as the general bookkeeper for the Village, and she is excited to begin working with, and meeting, the Rafiki children who have graduated from secondary school and moved on to their university studies. Rafiki aims to cultivate a multitude of godly contributors, and we pray to see all these graduate students become shining examples of that vision.

Your prayers, support, and encouragement are precious to us, and we do not take any of that for granted. We hope that you will continue to support us in giving and prayer, and that you might even go so far as to connect with Rafiki and volunteer for one of the large projects throughout the year, take a tour of the Home Office, purchase some of the widows’ handmade products, or start to pray about whether or not God would have you to come and see all that He is doing through Rafiki, whether short-term or long-term. No matter what your calling may be, our greatest prayer for you is that you would take nothing off the table, hold nothing back from God, and be willing to readily follow wherever He may see fit to lead you, for however long He would have you there, knowing that whatever the perceived “cost” might be in your eyes, it is nothing in comparison to the smallest fruit that He may bear by your obedience. “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).

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