For us, we might be looking forward to the signs of the coming Spring, but in Malawi, it is approaching harvest time. At the time of writing (January), it is the rainy season, and so far it is going well. But the whole dependence on the land is so different from those of us used to our supermarket mentality. The photo shows one of the Evangelical Bible College of Malawi (EBCoM) students, James Dinyero, with his wife at the end of a busy day harvesting maize and pumpkins. They are fortunate, but for many the last year was hard: bad rains meant that many people suffered the effects of famine.

Apart from noting the different attitude to the seasons and the dependence on the rains, Ruth Guinness has noted other cultural differences: one of them is the different approach to ‘Open days’ – over here we use Open days to raise money for the institution, in Malawi it seems that people expect money from the institution so that they can feed and entertain their visitors! From December 2003 until she came back to the UK, Ruth has been Academic Dean at EBCoM. She says: ‘It has certainly been a challenging and stretching job, but I can see that God has used me to fill a particular need at a particular time – especially all that needed to be done during the accreditation process for EBCoM.’

So, what does an academic dean do? Well, it includes invigilating student exams; chairing committee and staff meetings; assisting the Principal in evaluation meetings with staff members; administration/computer work; being a tutor to groups of students, teaching courses (in the local language!); and, of course, there is that accreditation to deal with. After two years of work, the Accrediting Council for Theological Education in Africa has accredited EBCoM’s Certificate and Diploma – which was a relief to Ruth and the others who had worked so hard.

Since she has been back in the UK, Ruth has pursued an MA course in Contemporary Issues in Mission, but she says ‘EBCoM remains very much on my heart. Since I left, a new Principal has been appointed. There is a shortage of full-time staff – made up for by having many Malawian part-time staff. And, of course, there are still the effects of last year’s famine. Please pray that there will be a good harvest across the country in March.’

[For further information on Ruth’s work in Malawi, go to www.sim.co.uk ]