Dear brothers and sisters,
“Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ” (Colossians 4:2-3, New Living Translation).
This is our on-going appeal to you, brethren, as we seek to serve the Lord in our corner of his vineyard. As you will see from this prayer letter, the Lord continues to answer your prayers on our behalf. We are most grateful. The doors remain open for us in Lusaka, across Zambia, and even further afield. With the help of your prayers, we trust that we shall utilise these open doors to God’s glory. So, pray with us over the matters listed below.
MEMBERSHIP
Fourteen new members have been welcomed since the last AGM in February, bringing our membership to 430. Six of them joined through baptism. Continue to pray for the Elders as they deal with issues arising within the flock of God at KBC.
MEETINGS
The Sunday morning Bible studies continue dealing with how to biblically respond to the challenges we face in each stage of life. We have lost a few families during Sunday morning services due to the commencement of the new church plant in the Ibex Hill residential area. However, we are grateful to God that we continue to receive a good turnover of visitors every Sunday. Pray for us that, as they come, we will “capture” them for follow-up visitation during the week. In the midweek meetings we continue to study the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit. The subject of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is an all-important one today. Please pray for our members to truly grasp this. Pray also for our Tuesday door-to-door outreach, which is often a challenge as we enter into our winter.
CALENDAR ACTIVITIES
During the period under review we had a number of outreach efforts, retreats and seminars. There was the song leaders’ retreat, the ushers’ retreat, the Bible study leaders’ retreat, the Easter evangelistic week, and the National Reformed Baptist Youth Conference. Pray for fruit from all these events—for the salvation of souls from the evangelistic efforts and for the building up of the saints from the retreats and seminars.
MINISTRIES
We can only report on a few of the Kabwata Baptist Church ministries in this newsletter.
Hope Ministry
The ministry was granted permission by the University Teaching Hospital management to undertake outreach works there every first Saturday of the month. Praise the Lord for this. Their first outreach was on 5 April to a male surgical ward. They had good reception from both staff and patients. Three ladies taking care of patients have consistently attended church services at Kabwata Baptist Church since then. Pray for finances for the ministry as they intend to source for Bibles (about forty) to donate to the ward. Also pray that the literature distributed will lead people to the Lord.
Ladies’ Ministry
As a result of their “street evangelism” (this is outreach to prostitutes at night), two ladies have professed faith. Thank God for this, and for consistency in prison evangelism. YWCA hostels evangelism continued with Bible studies and evangelistic sharing. The YWCA administration appreciates the work being done as they see fruit in the lives of the ladies at their hostels. The ministry was also recently invited to share the gospel with SOS Children’s Village mothers. A few of our women also attended the first regional Reformed Baptist Churches women’s rally, hosted by the Kafue Reformed Baptist Church. The theme was “Creating a Christian home.” Those who attended appreciated the event. Finally, the monthly Saturday prayer meetings have commenced and the first was held in April. Praise God for the zeal in this ministry.
Magazine Ministry
Pray for an increase in subscribers, especially for the international magazines that this ministry distributes. The 22nd edition of Reformation Zambia magazine will soon be on the market. Two latest issues of Free Grace Broadcaster and one issue of Reformation Today have just been received and distribution has since started. Praise God for the growing interest from non-Reformed churches in subscribing to the Free Grace Broadcaster magazine.
Intermediate Youth Ministry
They continued to meet every Saturday either at the play park or at church. They had an evangelistic trip to the SOS Children’s Village on 5 February during a conference at which Pastor Saidi Chishimba preached. In March, they held a careers’ seminar at which three schools attended, and the gospel was preached to over 300 pupils. On 12 March they held a soccer tournament at the play park. Eight teams participated, and this culminated into over one hundred youths in attendance with whom the gospel was shared. In April, they travelled to the Copperbelt to attend the National Annual Reformed Baptist Youth Conference, and so far one young person has professed faith in Christ.
INTER-CHURCH PROJECTS
Covenant College
The Covenant College Trust had its annual meeting last month and Pastor Mbewe represented KBC. Cees Molenaar’s term as college principal has ended. He is planning on moving to Malawi to set up a similar institution. Dr Heinrich Zwemstra has now taken over as principal. Pray for him as he settles in this role.
Zambian Baptist Historical Society
This society had its AGM in March. The steering committee, on which Pastor Mbewe sits, had its mandate extended for another year to continue with its agenda to lay a strong foundation for the society.
African Christian University
Pastor Mbewe visited a number of Reformed Baptist churches in Lusaka to update them on what was going on in this project. Pastor Kalifungwa of Lusaka Baptist Church travelled to the USA to raise awareness and financial support for the University. The director, Ken Turnbull, has just been given his work permit and is scheduled to arrive in Zambia soon. Remember this project in your prayers.
Sovereign Grace Theological Seminary (SGTS) and Lusaka Ministerial College (LMC)
These two institutions are both running and largely ministering to pastors outside our immediate circles. SGTS recently had its contact sessions in Lusaka and Windhoek, while LMC finished its first term in 2011 and has just commenced its second term. Continue to pray for both of them.
Sola 5
The Sola 5 conference this year will be held in Livingstone from 1-4 September. Please pray for logistical arrangements. Members have been encouraged to start planning to attend.
OFFICERS AND STAFF
Elders
Pastor Sibale, who was ordained into the KBC pastorate on 13 February, is settling well into his new responsibilities. He is preaching one Sunday a month and is taking a series in the Atonement in the morning services and Lessons from Life’s Trials in the evening services.
Pastor Mbewe commenced a series of sermons in Psalm 32 and 51 for the morning services and has returned to Romans in the evening services.
The rest of the elders continue to work well, but please continue to pray for them as they have very busy and demanding jobs.
Interns
During the period under review we’ve had three new interns.
Wege Sinyangwe, who came to us from Mount Makulu Baptist Church, is coming to the end of his stay with us in June.
Adamson Shamfuti, who came to us after his studies at TCCA in Ndola, will also come to the end of his stay with us in June.
We have also received an intern from Germany, Emil Grundmann, who is only with us till July.
Although Kwenda Kwenda’s internship came to an end in January, we extended it for another three to six months and attached him to Mazabuka for his own further development.
Staff
Mr Seke Lupunga ceases to work as Pastor’s Ministry Assistant at the end of June. Please pray with us as we look for someone else to take up this very demanding job. All the other members of staff are well and continue in their work. We thank God for this.
CONCLUSION
Lately, the elders have been reminding us that in a spiritual sense we have to “be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it” through the work of evangelism and missions. Hence, they are challenging us as members to examine ourselves by asking ourselves the question, “Am I truly spending and being spent individually, and are we truly spending and being spent as a church, in the work of evangelism and missions?”
This is food for thought, and on that note this where we end our prayer letter. Continue to pray with us that our members will become committed to the cause of Christ individually. Amen!