Dear praying friends,
Isaiah 40:30–31 says, “Even youths faint and become weary, and young men shall fall exhausted: but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” This, no doubt, points to the importance of prayer.
We continue to be most grateful for your partnership in the gospel, through your prayers for us as a church. Here is an update on what the Lord has been doing among us in the last few months and what lies ahead for which we would value your prayers.
Meetings
In our midweek meetings, which largely comprise small group meetings in homes, we are winding up Bible studies based on the DVD series Behold Your God and are getting ready to commence inductive studies in the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith. We go through this Confession about once every five years in order to ensure that our new members are grounded in the truths that we believe in. In our Sunday morning Bible studies we have started a new series in Pastor Mbewe’s book Transforming Our Working Culture. Pray that these studies may truly benefit those who attend them.
Another blessing that the church has experienced since our last newsletter has been the addition of Dr. Voddie Baucham to the preaching schedule. Dr. Baucham and his wife, Bridget, joined the membership of Kabwata Baptist Church at the end of 2016. In view of his being such a gifted preacher and teacher of the word of God, he is now sharing the pulpit regularly with Pastors Conrad Mbewe and Chipita Sibale. This is truly an item of praise. Pray for him and his wife and family as they often have to battle illnesses as they seek to settle here in Zambia.
Ministries
As Lusaka becomes a “Mecca” of private tertiary education in Zambia, our campus outreach ministry continues to grow. We send teams regularly on the various campuses to conduct Bible studies, preach in meetings, and do one-on-one evangelism and discipleship.
In April, we had Pastor Alan Dunn from the USA preach at a special Student Sunday Service. We filled the church auditorium with students from three campuses around Lusaka so that they could hear a very clear presentation of the gospel. We hope to do this again at the end of this month with the visit of Pastor Gordon Taylor. Pray that students exposed to the true gospel may come to the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lusaka Ministerial College continues to grow from strength to strength. We recently received a sizeable donation of books from the UK to put into the container, which we bought and are slowly turning into a library. We also had a block class in April with Pastor Alan Dunn where about forty students were in attendance. We are looking forward to the next block class at the end of July. Pastor Gordon Taylor (also from the USA) will be handling the subject of pneumatology. Pray for resources for us to finish putting up the library and for the students attending the coming block class to grasp these vital lessons.
Missions
We started a new church plant in Kasama, the biggest town in the northern part of Zambia. We sent Pastor Joshua Lungu and his family there at the start of the year and church services commenced in February with only one person in attendance. Numbers are now exceeding twenty per Sunday and already they have had one baptismal service down by the river. They are now processing the acquisition of land. Pray for this fledgling work that we hope will become the hub for church-planting works in the rest of the northern part of Zambia.
A number of our mission stations are currently labouring without full time missionaries. Due to various reasons, we either have not found men to fill those vacancies or have lost the services of such men and are looking for replacements. The mission stations that are in need of full time missionaries are in Sesheke and Kaoma (Western Province), Monze (Southern Province), and Sinda and Katete (Eastern Province). Pray that God will lead us to the right men whom he has prepared to lead these church plants to maturity.
Elders and Pastoral Interns
For a number of years now we have been conscious of the fact that our greatest bottleneck was the need for more elders in the church. Our growing numbers plus our growing ministries and church plants desperately needed more men to provide adequate oversight. Pastor Mbewe preached a series of sermons full of impassioned pleas entitled, “We Need More Elders,” and the Lord answered our prayers in giving us three more elders—Chola Chakonta, John Chundu, and Alfred Sakwiya. These men would value your prayers as they settle down in the work. Pray too for their wives as they support their husbands in this work.
Our pastoral internship programme reached its limit in April when Abutu Peter Joshua from Nigeria came to join the other interns. He had delayed in coming due to some logistical and immigration issues. So, for the last few months we have had him (from Nigeria), Ntungamili Mashumba (from Botswana), Wal Abraham (from South Sudan), Hiskia Tjindere (from Namibia), and Andrew Mulendema and Daniel Sitali (from within Zambia) on the programme. Hiskia has since returned to Namibia after six months of training. Pray for these men as they learn to live together despite coming from such diverse backgrounds and as they get moulded into godly servants of God through this programme.
Inter-Church Projects
Coming up next month will be our annual Reformed Family Conference and School of Theology. This is a joint venture with a number of our sister churches and is attended by brethren from right across Africa and other parts of the world. The main preacher this year is Bob Dickie from the USA together with a number of other preachers, including John Folmar from Dubai and Sam Oluoch from Kenya. This is always a challenge to organise due to the numbers who come and so we would again ask for your prayers for the organising team. The theme this year is “The Great Protestant Reformation” because this year marks the 500th anniversary of this epoch-making event.
One more item that we would value your prayers for is the African Christian University, which is a joint venture between KBC and other Reformed Baptist churches in Zambia. For some years now, we have been trying to drill boreholes on our plot of land north of Lusaka that would provide sufficient water for the campus that we want to build there. Our recent further attempts have not yielded any fruit. Join us in praying to God for direction and guidance. We know that our frustrations are not frustrations on God’s part. What we need is to discern what he wants us to do next.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading all this. We ask you to take a few moments to remember as many of these issues as you can before the Lord in prayer. We know that this form of fellowship with you is vital for the prosperity of the work that God has laid on our hearts. We look forward to hearing from you as well in due season.