Dear prayer partners, and friends in Christian Mission Field, all of you who focus on the glory of God, the salvation of souls and the reformation of churches,
It has been a long time since I last wrote to inform you about God’s doing in our midst. Please take this few minutes and prayerfully read our newsletter. As a Christian and for Christian reasons you ought to find a place in your local church’s mission or in any global biblical ministry to focus your prayer diary. The world has turned to a global village; you cannot see one continent burning while you laugh, today is your neighbour’s continent, tomorrows is yours. Please pray for Africa and many of its vulnerables.
Let me start reporting about my family and ministries (local evangelical visioning and global reformed mission). My wife and I are doing well. Concerning our children, my firstborn daughter (Laamenange Ndinomwaami) who got married last year is doing well by God’s grace. The second and third sons (Neilikano Mightypower and Nedulokokule Mightytower) are employed, and are currently self-supporting. While the last two children (Lamonamwene Hilenera and Neleloleumbo Labanera) are still schooling, both passed Grade 9, and are ready to face Grade 10 next year, God willing. Pray for Lamonamwene; she is a slow learner. Her brother who found her in Grade 9 is far ahead of her in school marks.
Our local ministries—I mean ministries of Monte Christo Baptist Church [MCBC]—have increased in both qualities and quantities. Some areas had grown beyond measure and blessed the church largely. I refer especially to mission ministry, training ministry, man/woman and marriage ministries, to mention but few. These had blessed our community, country and continent. You pick up more information about us from our website.
Join us in thanking God for men and women, who are students at Monte Christo Baptist Institute (MCBI). Some of them have joined either Man and Marriage Ministry (MMM) or Woman and Marriage Ministry (WMM), while others are part of Mission Ministry countrywide. Apart from those who are in Mission Ministry, we have in our MCBI, MMM, and WMM, people from across different denominations, especially from Pentecostal and Anglican background, who attend our Bible studies and have benefited greatly from us, learning from our model of biblical worship (manner of dethroning man’s pride and message of enthroning God’s glory, although in reality God is unenthronable, because he is the Great King who enthroned himself from eternity past to eternity future).
MCBC has grown twice this year. We have added 125 chairs to double the 125 chairs we had. We have revised our eldership, and put three of them in a probation period for another two to three years. We have also appointed seven other deacons to be tried for the same period. This seems to work; we are no longer rushing toward quantity, our foolishness and pride has turned against us. So we have learned many hard lessons these last seventeen years.
Thank God with us, for our missionaries countrywide, who are hard at work, although MCBC cannot provide enough income to pay her local pastor and national missionaries, we have just learned to divide the little we receive, and to support each missionary with N$500—the monthly equivalent to R500. We have thus far twelve missionaries in the battlefield. And, by God’s grace, we have been coping. Your prayers have caused God to act amazingly. In the midst of loneliness, many tears and frustrations, souls have been saved, missionaries have been sacrificially serving their God and their fellow men, while God’s very grace has been maturing many of us.
OUR PRAYER POINTS/REQUESTS
- Please pray for revival of religion in Namibia, Africa and the world beyond, we have enough people from different countries either studying or working in Namibia, who attend our church and mission stations, pray that, they will be truly converted, to take the gospel with when they return to their countries of origin.
- Pray also that, our men and women will not give up, but labour in those difficult situations to the end. Pray also that they may see the need of seeking the lost, binding the broken, spiritually nursing the hungry, reconciling the divided, drawing the friendless to the best Friend, our Lord Jesus Christ, and promoting love among God’s people.
- Pray for missionaries, their own families, and especially their children, that they may honour God together with their parents. Prayer for the conversion of pagans, true manner of making Gentiles disciples of Jesus Christ, and true love among church members.
- Pray for students, especially students of tertiary institutions (University of Namibia and Polytechnic Namibia and their branches countrywide). One of our missionaries (Buddy Bahun, an American by origin) is working hard among these two institutions, pray for wisdom and perseverance among postmodern mindset.
- Finally, pray for me. Sometimes I got stuck in difficult times and complicated situations. You know, my dear readers, that people complicate things sometimes. When you have a vision for country and zeal for mission, some people are thinking that you have either a lot of money, or you want to become a bishop or you want to form a political party, etc. This is why you want to be friends of everyone.
My burden is sustained by the prophet Ezekiel (34:1-31). That is what confronts my head, moves my heart, and stretching my hands time and again, especially vv. 1-10, where we read:
And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them. Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD; as I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock; therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD; thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.
NOTE
For these stated reasons, can you please pray, pray and pray until you have prayed for us. Pass this newsletter to people whom you know as prayer warriors. We will appreciate your many prayers. We need it so badly.
(Strengthen yourself with Ephesians 6:18; 1 Thessalonians 5:25; 2 Thessalonians 3:1; Hebrews 13:18; etc. as you pray, and God bless.)
Yours truly,
Laban Mwashekele