McDaniel September 2024

“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Ephesians 4:11-16).

God continues to amaze us with the many works of providence displayed to us as we continue to prepare for our move to Malawi. August 28, five months to the day from when we first received him from his birth mother, Jonathan Josiah McDaniel is legally our son and heir! His baptism took place at Saint Andrew’s Chapel in Sanford, Florida this past Sunday (September 8) and he is such a joyful addition to our family. We are now fully commissioned long-term missionaries for Rafiki and are awaiting the final documents needed for our departure to Malawi. Please pray that God would allow our Employment Permits to be approved quickly, for Jonathan’s personal documents to come in quickly from the State of Florida (so that we can obtain his passport), and that God would continue to increase our support in order to be fully funded before the end of this year. There is much to do in Mzuzu, and we are eager to join our brothers and sisters there in work and in fellowship, so we hope that you will join us in steadfast prayer for God’s continued provision.

Our Home Office staff continue to stay busy as we prepare to send out the last of our 2024 shipping containers to our ten Villages, with this one heading to Tanzania. While the majority of our time at the Home Office consists of supporting our missionaries in the field, we are also able to meet with leaders from our partner denominations while they are here in the United States. Bishop Charles Bameka and Stephen Maxwell, both from the Lutheran Church of Uganda (LCU), visited us last week to discuss the implementation of Rafiki’s curriculum and the Rafiki Bible Study across their denomination. LCU has nine schools currently making use of the Rafiki classical curriculum and hopes to transition fifteen more schools to the curriculum next year, after having additional teachers trained by our team in Uganda. Many in the history of the Church have only been able to see a small part of the fruit borne out of their labor and faithful service, but God continues to allow Mrs. Rosemary Jensen, our founder, to see the impact of Rafiki’s forty years of service to our African brothers and sisters.

Pallets awaiting shipment to Tanzania

Bishop Charles Bameka receiving a Reformation Study Bible from Rosemary Jensen

Our missionaries and national staff are also hard at work in Mzuzu, making the necessary preparations for our Rafiki Institute for Classical Education (RICE) to receive its first intake of students. While some of these preparations pertain to the facilities, much of the work is administrative or staffing related. Please pray the God will supply qualified lecturers who are committed to seeing classical Christian education flourish in Malawi and that the necessary building alterations would be completed quickly and inexpensively . Another exciting addition to the Village in Malawi has been made by way of Joshua Espinosa’s arrival in Mzuzu! Joshua’s energy and eagerness to get to work are a welcome addition for Anna and May, and we look forward to serving alongside Joshua, Anna, and May. Joshua attended “Survival Week” at the Home Office along with us and Mollie Mitchell (a new long-term missionary being sent to Ghana), which is the intensive training for long-term missionaries who are to be commissioned by Rafiki.

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