Dear friend,
Greetings in the matchless name of King Jesus.
We have had a whirlwind year. Thankfully, our ending couldn’t have been any better. There are so many highlights for this year—as well as lowlights. Yet, in all honesty, the highlights far outweigh the lowlights. We have so many things to give praise for that a long Christmas Eve update will not be appropriate, but the following should suffice.
Land
We are thankful that you responded to our plea for a need for land. This will position our church to be more easily accessible to most and enable us to reach out to a new community. We have also been able to raise the funds for a tent and a slab. We are amazed at God’s kindness.
Deacons
We installed our very first deacons. For most part I (Newton) have been serving, among other things, as driver, deacon, administrator, fundraiser, etc. But it was becoming more difficult to be able to juggle all these things.
Thankfully, God has answered our prayer not with any kind of help but quality help. He has raised two men who had been serving already in that capacity in an unofficial way.
These men have now taken the load from my fellow elder, Emmanuel Mpeni’s, shoulders and mine. We couldn’t have asked for better men.
Hestings Mwanza and Peter Kulujii were affirmed and approved by the church to serve in the office of deacon.
New Members
Yesterday, was a special day at Reformation Bible Church (RBC). We had a thanksgiving Sunday and, among other things, added ten people to membership.
Two are missing from the picture. They had to go through a mandatory membership class, which was followed by an interview with the elders. We are trying to close the front doors and open the back doors. Basically, we are deliberately making it hard to come into membership.
You may be wondering why. We live in a very religious country in which the majority professes to be Christian. Yet it is a country infiltrated with nominalism rather than evangelical Christianity. So to add this number to our membership is testimony of God’s kindness to us.
We are certain God has added these to us. We haven’t done the adding. Hence the need for a rigorous membership process. We refuse to be in the numbers game. We are NOT here to simply add people to membership.
Baptisms
It is always a special time for as a church to witness baptisms.
Yesterday, we had four baptisms. What is even more special with the four baptised is that three of them got saved this year while attending RBC. Their testimonies were so clear and Christ-centred. It is exciting to hear of their testimonies of how they got saved and are growing in that salvation.
RBC Family
We continue to grow in leaps and bounds. We covenanted as a church with sixteen people in March of 2015. Over three years later, the church continues to grow. We are now fifty in membership and have an average of sixty people in attendance on Sunday mornings. The picture below was taken yesterday.
Family
We are looking forward to the Christmas break. We are physically tired, and we hope to be rejuvenated before the swing of things in 2019. Karabo has recovered well. He hardly looks like the little man who was operated recently. His sister is growing taller by the day. She is protective of her brother and it is a joy to see them play around the house together.
Vanessa’s health continues to improve. She remains on medication. She has been amazing in freeing me to pray and prepare for sermons and shepherd the flock. I definitely got the better marital deal here—hands down.
We remain thankful for your support and prayers.
Wishing you all a merry Christmas.
With love,
Newton, Vanessa, Chisomo and Karabo.