Below is a ministry update from Chris Mnguni and Grace Baptist Church in Daveyton, South Africa.
This update is for the month of October 2017 and covers family news for the Mngunis, outreach and church news for Grace Baptist Church, reflections Chris Mnguni’s ministry at the 2018 Sola 5 / Rezolution Conference, and information about the Township Reformation ministry.
It includes prayer pointers to help you pray more intelligently for the ministry in Daveyton.
Please be much in prayer for Chris and his family and the ministry of Grace Baptist.
Our Family
It is such a joy to serve the Lord knowing that they are people who are far away and near who are concerned for the advancement of the gospel throughout the world. The Lord has been good to us. Our Son Zanecebo is continuing to grow and is such a blessing to us.
Good news to those who don’t know: The same month our son got home we found out that two months after that my wife is pregnant. After waiting for three years to have a baby, we were not thinking it will happen so soon. But the Lord has shown us that nothing is impossible with him. Since you know that my wife was struggling from anaemia, we were told that her pregnancy needs special attention. But so far she is strong and coping very well. We are thankful to the almighty God. Please continue to pray for her to remain strong.
We thank God for Brother Clive Smith from Antioch Bible Church, who put us first by giving us an opportunity to go to our first holiday as a family. It was our first time to go to a proper vacation. With the hard work of church planting, we really needed it.
Outreach
In the month of September, we received heart-breaking news that the church that was helping us to do soup kitchen will focus on something else. It was so painful to see the kids who were depending on that meal for the day. By God being so gracious, he touched Brother Tim Potter, who committed to help us to continue the soup kitchen until next year September.
We are so excited about God’s provision, we have decided now to only feed the kids and teach them Bible stories and memory verses. Many of these kids come from broken families. Last week, on Friday 3 November, they were touched that they found me and two brothers from church cooking for them. Few of them came for our church service on Sunday, 5 November.
Please pray with us to continue taking care of the poor as Paul says the apostles reminded him to do so (Galatians 2:10).
Church
Last month, we attended two conferences with our church members. This was a biggest group that we ever took to a conference. Our members were so encouraged by these conferences. They saw a need of learning the word of God more. Hence, we have started a second service. The focus of this service will be evangelistic. One of the areas that needed more attention in our church was leadership. We are planning to have an intern next year who is doing his third year at Christ Seminary. It will really strengthen our leadership.
Conference
I had a privilege to preach in number of conferences this year. This includes conferences like Sola 5 and Rezolution, with speakers that are respected so much. This included the likes of Voddie Baucham, Ronald Kalifungwa, Newton Chilingulo, Martin Drysdale, Joshua Mack and Seth Meyers. It was such an experience and a growing opportunity for my preaching.
Township Reformation
I would also like to introduce to you a group that is been such an encouragement to us as a church. These brothers they all work in the township. They understand the difficulties of ministry. We plan the township conferences together. We meet together for counsel and prayers. At least our members they know that we are not the only one who are holding to reformed faith in Townships.
The biggest population of South Africa is in the townships, and there are nine churches that are we know of and are holding fast to a Reformed faith. All these churches are very small in number and only two have church buildings. Many of them meet in tents, garages, and in renting places. Please pray that the Lord may establish these churches in the biggest townships.
How to Pray for Us
- We thank God for Brother Clive Smith from Antioch Bible Church who put us first by giving us an opportunity to go to our first holiday as a family. It is our prayer that the Lord will bless him for his generosity.
- As a church, we are still looking for a new venue. Our problem is that we might find a venue a far place than the majority of our people. Pray that we may find a venue in a walking distance of our members, or we may have means to transport for our members to a new venue.
- Pray that God will provide for us. As a family, we are still passionate about bringing young people to our home to disciple them. Next year, we are planning to add another young man (Zakhele Mkhwanazi) who is studying at the seminary.
- Pray for financial provision for these efforts. We’ve been doing most of our activity in schools, clinics, and door-to-door. Only the soup kitchen is in our meeting place. We’ve seen few people visiting us. We are planning to use our meeting place to reach out to people. We are planning to have marriage, childrearing, and career expo seminars.
- Pray for God’s wisdom as we lead Bible studies. We are having four Bible studies. This is part of our strategy to teach our people and also to reach the community.