Greetings in the name of the Lord,
First of all I would like to thank everyone for the prayer support. Lynnette gave birth to
Samuel Jesse Beha at 2:03 AM on June 17, 2006. He was born approximately eight weeks
early. He weighed in at 4 lb. 8 oz. and was 18 ½” long. Praise the Lord, his lungs were fully
developed as well as everything else. He came home on June 30. Lynnette is doing well.
She did not have any complications and was not required to stay any longer than normal. I
was still in Malawi, Africa at the time on our survey trip.
Secondly, I need to thank everyone for the support that was necessary for me to
successfully complete the survey trip. What a blessing many of you have been for us.
Those of you that get a prayer letter from us will be getting an updated DVD. We will be
sending out a new (under 15 minutes) DVD of the field and the specific ministries we will be
working with. Lord willing, this project will be done within the next couple of weeks.
In Malawi, I have been asked to head up an existing project that has been dormant, the
prison ministry. There was a man that had gone over to Malawi and started a jail and prison
ministry, but he is not there now. I worked with two national evangelists that had started with
this other man but were not making any great progress. They had gotten permission to go
into six prisons but had only gone into two of them and the most recent visit was three
months ago. During the two weeks I was there the three of us went into three prisons. One
juvenal facility and two maximum prisons. A total of around three hundred and eighty nine
inmates made a profession of faith. At the second prison after we told the inmates who I
was and why I was there about fifty men got on their knees and praised God for about five
minutes. After a while one of the inmates told me that they were praising God for sending
me over there. He said we know that you are not here on your own but because God sent
you. He also told me that some of them had been praying for God to send someone to
them to teach them the Word of God for months and some of them for years. It was like
something straight out of the Bible.
I would also like to ask for your prayers and any financial support for the prison ministry I
am now running to help keep it going. If anyone would like to take these men on for as little
as $5.00 or $10.00 a month it would be a blessing to all of us. Their names are Chris and
License. If anyone would like to support the jail and prison ministry itself it would also be a
blessing. Counting the cost of transportation, food, and some supplies to take to the
prisons such as soap and vaseline it cost me around $40.00 to $45.00 per visit for the
three of us to go into each prison. That is not taking into account that the vehicle we took
was not ours nor did we pay for the tracks which Brother Gentry supplied. Most of the
prisons required three visits to set up one service. The prison authorities require that we
bring in something to help with the physical needs along with addressing the spiritual
needs. The prisons do not supply anything. We saw friends and family bringing in food for
inmates. You are talking about a country where the police stop vehicles and ask if they will
give them a ride to where they have to go because they don’t usually have vehicles
supplied for them. They did allow us to pass things out directly to the inmates that were at
our service.
If anyone of you would like to donate things like: toothbrushes, toothpaste, blankets (any
kind), white sheets (for the hospitals), plastic plates and cups (the kind you use at picnics),
aspirin / Tylenol, shower shoes, etc. Also, we could use spiral note books, three ring
binders, loose leaf paper, pens, and pencils for the school-age prisoners. It would be a
great blessing. It will help us fill some of the physical needs of the ministry and help smooth
the relationship with the prison administration. If you can, send things to Emmanuel Baptist
Bible Church and I will take them to a church in Ohio that makes regular trips to Kentucky
where they would go on a shipping container to Malawi. You may also call us for different
arrangements if necessary. This will be the set up until we can afford our own shipping
container. If anyone has a shipping container they want to move (preferably 40-feet) that
is sea worthy please contact me. A used one from a container company is between
$2,500.00 and $3,000.00 plus the cost of moving it. I know that there is someone out there
that had one they used to store material in or had a construction business at one time and
they don’t use it anymore. Please donate it to the Lord.
I have asked the men to visit at least one prison a week until we can get over there just to
keep the avenues clear and give hope to the inmates. This is the most important reason we
need your support. You need to understand when we went into a prison we were locked in
with the inmates and if there was any trouble we were on our own. The guards did not
come into the maximum facilities. The two nationals just needed some encouragement. You
see the first prison we went into was in a city where it is over 75% Muslim and there was not
a warm fuzzy welcome in the prison. In the second prison some of the men were reluctant to
gather until there was a group assembled. Then they came in groups of three to five to join
us. Some of the stronger Christians (and there were some in each prison) would patrol the
outside of the group to keep the Muslims and other hecklers from interrupting the service.
We preached the Word of God anyway ,and He blessed and protected us. When I left the
second prison about ten of the men surrounded me and escorted me to the series of gates
we had to go through to get out so I would be safe.
The authorities allowed me to take pictures of the court yard and of the service but not of
the living conditions or of the medical treatment of anything else that would make them look
like they were in violation of human rights. I can not describe how moved I was at the need
for the Word of God there. They asked me for Bibles at each prison. The most I saw at one
prison was three Bibles and one New Testament. The Bibles from the African Bible Society
are $7.00 each. I did not have any to pass out. We did have about twenty John and
Romans to hand out at the youth facility. The juvenal prison was a totally different story.
The warden was either saved or very religious. She required all 99 inmates (ranging from
12 to 18 years old) along with every guard to be present during the service. She also
wanted some of the John and Romans for them. I could spend hours telling you more but
space does not allow.
I do have to tell you that I really felt at peace there. I had no problem being in the situation,
in fact I wouldn’t have had it any other way. God gives grace and mercy when and where it
is needed to glorify Him. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we
may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)
The next project Brother Gentry asked me to head up is the radio ministry. Riverview
Baptist Church in Washington State is willing to help us with a 500 watt FM radio
transmitter. We will need about $100,000.00 to complete our end of the program for
equipment, land and licensing etc. Please pray for this project. There was no Christian
network in the area that I was in. There was a Sunday TV program but that had everything
from the Seventh Day Adventist to the Jehovah's Witnesses. I did not hear anything on the
radio but Arabic religious stuff. The reports I had heard about the Muslims over there were
under stated. I did preach at two churches that were having leadership meetings. I believe I
will be doing this until the radio station gets going.
I have had several people ask if I knew anything about adopting children from Malawi, and
I told them I would find out more when I went there. Here’s what I found out. Someone would
have to live in Malawi for about one and and half years before they can adopt a child. It
used to be easier but what happened was that people from the far east were adopting
children and taking them home and putting them into sweet shops. They were using them
as slave labor, tying them to machines and making them work, and barely feeding them.
After the government found that out they made it very hard for people to adopt children. I
hope this answers any questions. There was a woman over there that works with child
protective / placement services in California and she is working on the problems to see if
she can’t do more to make it practical for American couples to adopt children. I will keep
everyone updated as I learn more.
Most of the projects planned for us will require our presence before they will grow very
much. Please continue to pray for Lynnette, Samuel and myself that we can get there in
God’s timing and with the support needed to do His work.
Thank you and may God bless.
Yours in Christ, Mark, Lynnette and Samuel Beha
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