The Bible Society of Malawi held its Annual General Meeting on 27 May 2016. Forty-one members of Bible Society attended the meeting which took place at Monarchy Square in Blantyre.

The AGM received the Audited Accounts from the Auditors (Graham Carr), the Chairman’s Report and the Executive Director’s Annual Report.

Presenting his report, the Chairman, Mr. Dasford Kamkwamba said that the year 2015 was a very difficult year for Malawi because of devastating floods which brought food shortages and the Malawi Kwacha lost value. This made prices of imported products to go up and the Bible Society was affected by these price increases resulting in rising operating costs.

The Chairman also reported to the members the support from received the British and Foreign Bible Societies in the Stepping Stone Project where a number of BSM projects will be funded by BFBS for the next five years (up to 2020).

On his part, the Mr Clapperton Mayuni, the Executive Director, outlined the projects and

translation programs being undertaken. The Society is keen to reach out to the youth and has therefore recruited a Youth Officer to implement the youth programs.

As for translation, the translation of Ellomwe Bible is now at 84% and is expected to completed in 2017. The Lambya New Testament was launched on 23 April 2016 and the Old Testament work is still in progress. The Society hopes to publish the New Testament of the Chichewa Study Bible by the end of 2016.

“We shall remain thankful in 2016,” said Mr Mayuni, “For the great things the Lord does through us, with us, for us and indeed even in spite of us.”

The meeting announced the retirement from the BSM Board of Pastor Clive Mwalwanda and Mrs Lovely Kamanga who have served the board for three terms (9 years) and also the election of Dr James Kumwenda and Mr Garry Jumbe as new board members.

The AGM also witnessed the launch of the new Bible Society of Malawi Website which has been developed under the UBS Global Digital Project. The new website will help improve BSM’s online presence and be able to respond to a changing world, now and in the future.