Missionary profile – Henry and Annie Bisani

By Mercy Kambura

We didn’t know the local language when we arrived at the mission field. The young children found it amusing and always flocked to our home to verify this bizarre situation for themselves. Those children became our first point of contact for the community. We’re CAPRO missionaries among the Yao people on the border of Mozambique and Malawi. We now have a church with a wonderful membership of 6 people, including my wife and me. We learned the language from them and taught them Bible stories in the national language. It was a mini Tower of Babel for a minute; we spoke in gestures and the national language, Chichewa, while they responded in Yao. Still, we made progress.

I was born into a Christian family but wasn’t saved until later in my teens at a Christian open-air meeting. I had the zeal to learn more about the Lord so that I could minister in my own church. I attended a training by Teen Missions. The training school was in the region of the Yao people. My heart broke for them as they didn’t know the Lord Jesus. I no longer desired to return to my church filled with nominal Christians. I went home, praying I’d get an organization to help me work among the Yao. God connected me with CAPRO, which was already working among the Yao. They deployed me among the Yao in one of the stations. It was my first time learning the language and culture at the station.

My wife joined me in January 2016, which was a breakthrough. The children kept coming back, and we started giving them three-hour literacy class in Chichewa and an hour teaching them Bible stories. We’d mix with the words we were learning from them. There was no school in the community, and this became the first school there. We graduated the kids and began a new class in the new year. The community raised funds, moulded bricks, and built a block. We now have a block of classes, and another is under construction. We have also been having evangelism and Bible study among the Yao people. The school is going strong, but we need more workers. We need Christians to come and see what we’re doing and join us in prayer.

#Pray:

For more graduate teachers.
For support for the current teaching volunteers; they have no support. Can Christians please adopt these teachers and support them financially?
For more workers to join CAPRO Malawi.
For funds to expand the school. The government has given us conditions to complete the school—two more blocks, trained teachers, and a toilet before we can be registered. We are seeking organizations to support us.