Dear brothers and sisters,
“Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel” (Joshua 1:2). This passage has been very close to our hearts as a congregation, as we have sought to come to terms with the death of one of our missionaries. The news is at the end of this prayer letter. In the meantime, please read on.
MEMBERSHIP
We have continued to experience growing numbers in our church membership. Forty-two people have joined since February 2011. Half of these have been welcomed into membership since September 2011. This brings our membership to 421, while nine are still in the process of application as they await baptism in the coming weeks. Thank God with us concerning this matter.
MEETINGS
In the Sunday morning Bible studies we are now looking at a biographical study on the life of Joseph in the Old Testament.
We commenced a new church plant in Ibex Hill last year and so we lost a few families during our Sunday morning services. The effect of this, together with that of preaching teams we are sending to Chibombo, Crested Crane Secondary School, SOS Children’s Village, etc. was that we had more pew space during our Sunday morning services. We are grateful to God that this space is now being filled up as members invite friends and relatives to church. Pray for us that we continue to do this, and that we “capture” these visitors for follow-up visitation during the week.
In the midweek meetings, we have come to the end of the study of the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Please pray for fruit from these studies, and for our members to remain committed to these meetings.
CALENDAR ACTIVITIES
Thank the Lord with us that all our planned calendar activities took place as scheduled, except the Interchurch Social, which was cancelled due to a wedding at a sister church. We also changed the Singles and Marrieds’ Seminar into a Day of Special Studies and dealt with the subject of finances in the church. The attendance at all these events was fairly good. Please pray that our members may continue to benefit spiritually from these calendar activities.
MINISTRIES
We regret that we can only report on a few of the ministries due to lack of space.
Children’s Ministry
Eagle’s Nest School put up a concert and a Grade 7 evangelistic lunch. Out of over 25 Grade 7 pupils last year only one failed. Sunday school classes concluded a series on salvation and commenced a series on Christmas. Bible clubs were launched and relaunched in Chalala and Northmead homegroups, respectively. Children from Sunday school and Bible clubs also went for an outing at Barn Motel. A Christmas play was performed at Kabwata Baptist Church and a Christmas recital was done at the SOS Children’s Village. The teachers finally ended the year with a retreat.
Marriage Enrichment Ministry
Four marriage enrichment seminars were held last year, with two being between September and December. Alfred Nyirenda and Martin Holdt handled these last two. Pastor Holdt’s seminar was a joint seminar with sister churches here in Lusaka, which we hosted. The ministry raised almost K10 million ($2,000) to facilitate its activities. What was most gratifying was that about 40% of those in attendance at these marriage enrichment seminars were people from outside KBC. Facebook was also being used in order to reach about 1,000 “friends” through this ministry.
Media Ministry
The ministry continued to give the church visitors a sermon CD as a way of reaching out. Radio programs continued to be aired. Their challenge has been the uploading of sermons on the Internet especially now that they are using a cell phone modem. Feedback from those listening to sermons on the Internet has been very encouraging. Thank God with us.
Publishing Ministry
The ministry distributed 7,000 copies of evangelistic literature during the Christmas evangelistic week. Due to increased demand of the devotional notes we publish, production and circulation of the Jan–Apr 2012 Pilgrim Bible Notes increased from 420 to 490. In answer to prayer on the lack of evangelistic literature, Chapel Library of Mt. Zion Bible Church in USA sent us 140 boxes of literature. Continue to pray for the printing of Pastor Mbewe’s book on Adoniram Judson and Pastor Ronald Kalifungwa’s Meditations on God.
OFFICERS AND STAFF
Elders
Pastor Sibale has clocked one year as a pastor in our church. He concluded his first series of sermons on the atonement in the morning services and he will be concluding on lessons from life’s trials in the evening services. His new series this year will be evangelistic sermons from John’s Gospel in the morning services and lessons from the life of David in the evening services. He is also still studying with the Sovereign Grace Theological Seminary.
Pastor Mbewe continued with his doctoral studies and is planning on graduating this year in September—with the help of your prayers. He was preaching from Psalm 32 in the morning services and recently commenced Psalm 51. He is also preaching from Romans 9 in the evenings.
The rest of the elders continue to work well, but please continue to pray for them as they have very busy and demanding jobs.
Deacons
Having lost two deacons in the recent past—the latest being Pastor Kasango Kayombo, who was recently ordained to the office of missionary pastor—the church nominated and later voted for two more deacons; namely, Bobbline Cheembela and Misheck Kumwenda. The two are scheduled for ordination soon. Pray that they will be equal to the task.
Interns
We have a very busy and growing internship program. Towards the end of last year, Wege Sinyangwe returned to Mount Makulu Baptist Church, Adamson Shamfuti returned to Ndola where he has since taken up a pastorate in Mushili, and Emil Grundmann also returned to Germany after being with us for three months. Of all the interns that we had last year, only Kwenda Kwenda has not moved on to further spheres of ministry. Please continue to pray for him.
We have now received two more interns for the year 2012. These are: Chopo Mwanza from Kitwe and Sydney Kombe from South Africa. We also had Monametsi Moncho for three weeks in January, but he has since returned to Botswana. We intend to bring his name before the church so that we vote for him as our missionary to Botswana later this year.
Our internship program continues to grow. Our main supporters for missions—the HeartCry Missionary Society—are sponsoring us to buy a house or two to accommodate interns from across the whole of Africa (and the world?). That is how big this program is getting. We see this as an investment into the future ministries of these men. The fruit of this investment will continue as these men go on to minister and plant churches wherever the Lord may send them.
CONCLUSION
The elders have continued to remind us of how our role as a church is growing beyond our financial capabilities as we now tackle the Western Province of Zambia, develop the African Christian University, grow our internship program to bring the nations of the world here for training, etc. While we are doing all this, we are reducing our own financial capacity by releasing chunks of members to start churches across Lusaka. Pray with us that God may give all of us faith to follow his command, especially in terms of tithes and offerings so that all these plans may be financially sustained. Amen!
THE PASSING ON OF PASTOR PERCY CHISENGA
In the early hours of the morning on Thursday, 29 February 2012, our missionary pastor to Malawi, Percy Chisenga went to be with the Lord. He had battled with cancer for a year but finally yielded to the cold hand of death. We thank you for standing with us in prayer for his healing and ask you to continue to remember his family. He has left behind a wife, Betty, and four grown up children. Two of them were still dependent on him for their support. Pray for us too as we help his widow to settle down in Zambia. We also need to see how to go forward with the church plant in Zomba.