Dear brethren,
We have again had our ordinary general meeting as a church, which is a great occasion to reflect on what the Lord has done among us and through us over a period of about four months. It is also a good time to look ahead and focus on a few areas that will need much prayer. So, let us share these with you. Here goes!
Sunday Bible Studies
This year, we have been running a unique Bible study series on Sunday mornings from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM entitled “Ask the Elders.” We let our church members send in questions, which we tackle one-by-one every two weeks. Our hope seems to have been realised. We wanted to answer the real questions that our members were wrestling with. This has been happening and the evidence is seen in the number of members coming for these Bible studies!
Lusaka Ministerial College
The Lusaka Ministerial College held its first graduation ceremony in Mongu in June. It was exciting to see the students who had been with us from the beginning of our Mongu block classes finally reach the end of the journey. We now call this the Mongu Ministerial College and are transitioning into exclusively training pastors as we go into the years ahead.
Eagle’s Nest School
Our children’s work continues to grow. The Eagle’s Nest School is slowly putting up its new building and the second-floor slab was cast. As usual, with a project like this, funds are ever in short supply. Pray with us that the Lord will supply all that we need to bring this building to completion. Our church school seriously needs this new space.
Children’s Ministry
We also held our vacation Bible school in August and about 400 children were ministered to on the life of Daniel. We are grateful to our partners (The Ark Church in Hamburg, Germany) for their generous support towards this programme.
Annual Reformed Family Conferences
In the month of August, we also held the 29th Zambia Reformed Conferences, which is a joint venture with other Reformed Baptist churches. The theme was “Redemption—Accomplished and Applied.”
We are grateful for the ministry of H. B. Charles, Jr., whose expositions of Scripture were a model of fine preaching. A number of our Zambian pastors, too numerous to mention, also participated in handling some of the teaching sessions. About eleven countries were represented together with almost all the provinces of Zambia.
Upcoming Events
Next year will be the 30th anniversary. We expect Stuart Olyott and Hensworth Jonas as our main preachers. We can hardly wait!
Between now and the next prayer letter (scheduled for February 2019) we have a number of major events coming up for which we would appreciate your prayers. The first is an inter-church event. It is a Christian business seminar on the subject of entrepreneurship and is scheduled for 13 October.
Then we have a day of special studies on 24 November when we will have Gavin Peacock, Voddie Baucham and Pastor Conrad Mbewe handling the topic of “Biblical Manhood and Womanhood in the African Context.” The month of December will have two major events. The first will be our intermediate youth camp, which will be in the earlier part of the month. The second will be our Christmas evangelistic week, which will be around the festive season. In both of these events our goal will be to present the gospel with a view that boys and girls, men and women, may come to Christ.
Finally, at the end of February next year will be our missions week. It is a time that we always look forward to because our missionaries come back home for a short period and we get to interact with them. We currently have fourteen missionaries. It is also a time for them to be ministered to. Next year’s missions conference preacher is Dr. Lazarus Phiri, the Missiologist-at-Large for Pioneers and the current Vice Chancellor of the Evangelical University. May the Lord enlarge our vision and our work in the area of missions.