“As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (John 20: 21b)

“I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds”. (Psalm 9: 1).

In this Prayer Letter we seek to do what the Psalmist does, that is to give thanks to the LORD by recounting His wonderful deeds to us as a church, in the last six months of the year 2013.

1. MEMBERSHIP: We closed the year with a baptism class of three candidates, all of whom were new professions. We trust they will soon settle down in the life of the church. Sadly, we may have to remove two young ladies from membership due to their non-availability, even for worship on Sunday. We hope the discussions with the two will be positive, with them improving on their church participation.

2. SPECIAL Ministry and Evangelistic ACTIVITIES

a) Couples’ Fellowship: – We thank God that this ministry has been revived especially in the last half of 2013. Two special meetings were held, in July – an over-night outing at which various issues to do with a household were discussed. The other was an evangelistic outing to a country-side lodge. We thank God for the new committee that managed to organize these meetings. This is in view of the fact that in previous years the couples’ fellowship never managed to have any meetings at all.

b) Evangelistic Activities:

i) Door to Door Evangelism: – Towards the end of the year the focus in our evangelistic efforts shifted to door to door evangelism in an area called New Kaseba. The members felt that we needed to renew our efforts in this regard, rather than only through the monthly book table we had been doing. Disappointingly, however, despite having discussed this at length in a members’ meeting, the participation from members has been extremely low. We pray that in 2014 we will see an improvement in terms of participation from them.

ii) The Men’s Fellowship: – The fellowship had an evangelistic braii, to which a number of non-Christian men were invited. Those that attended have since been followed up, and one man in particular, Simon Monje, has become quite regular at church and at one of our home fellowship group meetings. He has indicated that he has decided to leave his church (Anglican) and will be attending church with us. Pray for wisdom as we ascertain his spiritual state.

iii) The Ladies’ Fellowship: – The fellowship had an opportunity to distribute a few gifts at our district hospital. Sadly very few of them participated in this effort.

iv) Youth Fellowship: – We had a number of our youths (23 in total) attend the KBC organized camp in December. One of them has since asked for baptism. We should be starting a new class soon.

v) Christmas Evangelistic Activities: – We concluded the year with the distribution of gospel tracts on two consecutive Saturdays prior to Christmas. It was encouraging to see a number of our young people participate in this activity with great enthusiasm. This was followed by a Christmas Guest Service taken by Pastor Raphael Banda of Mazabuka Central Baptist Church. We trust the Lord for fruit from these efforts.

3. BUILDING PROJECT :

a) We have begun the process of painting our church, which has not seen any coat of paint since it was built and we started using it over seven years ago.

b) We have begun to construct a veranda around the church building. In addition, we have decided to add the Pastor’s Office adjacent to it. The District Council has already approved these plans.

c) We also need to put up additional rooms to be used particularly on Sundays by various bible study and Children’s Sunday school classes. For instance one Sunday school class meets under a tree as well as two youth bible study classes. These classes are disrupted during the rainy season (which is especially pronounced from January to March).

d) Members have been asked to make monthly building pledges toward these planned works. Pray that these contributions would be regularly received to move these works steadily forward.

4. PASTOR AND FAMILY

i) Our children ended the year well in their respective study areas. Our eldest daughter, Kapambwe, is now in second year at university. Our son, Chabala, managed to come second highest in a class of 45 pupils. He was in Grade 11. Muleya, our youngest daughter, was second among the two combined Grade 6 classes at her school.

ii) My wife, Gladys, has progressed well in her studies and is remaining with one more year to complete her degree.

iii) We thank God that the church finally managed to pay me my gratuity and refunds accumulated over a period of two years (from 2009 to 2011). This was made possible through the efforts of KBC’s Pastor Mbewe with their partners, HeartCry Missionary Society of USA. At the end of the year 2013 gratuity for the period 2011 to 2013 fell due. At least this time in terms of my dues the church is up to date, and only has to work on raising the gratuity.

iv) After almost losing a year on my studies University of Pretoria finally assigned a Supervisor for me in December. I hope now I can make much progress with my MA Thesis in Practical Theology.

v) We are extremely grateful to the Lord for the family of believers in our church and for their support to my family and to my ministry in their midst.

AMEN

Kennedy Sunkutu (Pastor)

P.O. Box 360280, Kafue, Zambia. Phone: +260 211 311078; 0977 861361 kafuereformedbaptistchurch2013@gmail.com

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