Mbsala

This past week, we journeyed by bicycle to Mbsala - a bush church near to the mission. The church service was already started by the time we arrived (due to our poor sense of direction while on bicycle). After we caught our breath, we were able to enjoy the service. I preached a message from Phil 3 - discussing the duty of a Christian to desire and "know" the Lord. One man came forward to call on the Name of Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
After the service, the entire church went down to the river (about 45 min walk). All the way we sang songs and praised the Lord. Once to the river, the pastor baptized 6 people while a couple men stood as look outs for hungry crocodiles. It was another great day to be part of the body of Christ! Always exciting to see people growing and maturing in their Christian walk of faith!




(left - Mbsala church)











(right - crowd gathering for baptism)

(bottom - the first of six baptisms taking place - another piece of the Great Commission being fulfilled!)

Kitwe West

On Thursday, went out to the "deep" bush to preach a conference. Had no idea what the theme was, but had just prepared to teach a lesson from Exodus and Matthew 7. Although it is a long trip down a very hard "road", it is always worth going and preaching God's truth. Much of Zambia is in poverty, corruption, and despair - and I honestly believe the only way out is through Jesus Christ. After the almost 3 hour drive to the conference center (field in the middle of no where), we were greeted by around 220-250 people.
Had a great time in fellowship with the Pastor's from the area as well as making new friends. As always, the language barrier is difficult, but it seems a smile and friendly face transcends all cultural barriers. In all had 12 people call on the name of the Lord Jesus to be their Saviour and Lord with a few more coming to the altar to repent of sin in their life. It is obviously the Lord that calls, draws, and does the work - but it sure is fun to be His mouthpiece from time to time...



(right) This woman is leading a group of chorus members. All the members have circled around her and the drummers as she orchestrates. It was quite impressive!

(left) This is Titus - he is the host pastor, along with his little boy. His humble church is made of mud brick and grass roofing. His church has around 80 members meeting in a very small building. He is looking to expand as they seem to be growing at a quick rate. Titus has a desire to come to Kafulafuta and be taught for 3 years in our Bible Institute. However, because it is so far from the mission, it would likely mean his church members would be abandoned for that period - obviously not good. It would be ideal to start a new Bible Institute in this area just for men like Titus. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He would send more laborers....

Container Arrives

We shipped a container from Gulfport Mississippi back in late March. It was suppose to arrive in Luanshya, Zambia, on May 16th... well, you guessed it - it never showed! There were always some sort of "paper work" problems :-) Thankfully the container has arrived and we were able to unpack - it was only 13 weeks late!! Guess this is how it works when living in Africa. Unfortunately it appears the container had a few items missing and a few items were damaged intransit. The customs and immigration inspectors feel it part of their occupation to steal what is not theirs - it is called corruption. The following pictures show us unloading the container in Luanshya with Suzanne - the friendly customs agent from Ndola. Suzanne took some "samples" off the container. I asked her if she was doing her job, or shopping... she could only laugh. The funny part, she was looking for specific size shoes and shirts for her "sample"... nice!

















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Prov 17:17

The purpose of Kafulafuta Baptist Mission is to train up men in order for them to go out and reach other men with the gospel. We have been quite effective at this task. However, some victories taste much like defeat.
Today, we commissioned one of the men I have become very good friends with. Anderson Chimfumpa has been at the mission from the first time I came to Zambia in September of 2000, until now. The Lord is moving Anderson and his wife to the country of Botswana in order he may teach, disciple, and fulfill the great commission. As happy as I am he is being obedient to the Lord, I am also very sad. There will someday be a sweet reunion of saints in which the fellowship will last eternally and the joy will overflow! C.S. Lewis wrote, Christians never say goodbye, only - I will see you later!

Finished

This year's Bible Conference was a great success! In all, there were some 4,000 adults in attendance - sleeping under the stars, crowded into bunk houses, and cooking over open fires... to hear the word of God preached. Jeff Adams, from KCBT came with the presence and power of God on his messages. Wow! Was a lot of fun to experience and be a part of such a working of the Spirit! Saturday night we heard about the glory of God and Sunday morning we finished up with exercising true faith. Each service saw men and women put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ - we rejoice just seeing the Lord work in such a humble setting. Such a great reminder, the Lord needs not fancy equipment and just the right setting, but simply men willing to preach the Truth!
Many new friendships were made along with old friendship renewed. Amazing how quick 1 full week of a Bible conference can go by - we all have just meditated and rejoiced on what the Lord is doing and how fast it all happened. To live in the presence and glory of God - that is what we all took away as our desire. Our original prayer is that the people of this conference would know the Lord God of Heaven - as Elijah prayed... I do believe God met with His elect! Ba Lesa Ba Chindiqwe.

Police Academy

This year, Detective Kelly Saap joined our annual Bible conference coming from the Kansas City Police Department. One of our Bible Institute graduates, David, has been ministering in the prisons as well as to the police, military, and fire department. This year, David was able to provide a program in which we were able to speak to the police academy recruits. The commanders allowed us 1.5 hours with his recruits. In all, there were 473 recruits in attendance. Kelly quickly was able to capture their attention with his experience as a previous soldier in the US Army as well as 17 years of police experience. After a few minutes of talking shop, Kelly switched to the spiritual talking about what it truly takes to lead and be a "man of war" spoken of in 1 Chronicles. After speaking for about 30 minutes, Kelly then did some basic defensive moves on the largest recruit in attendance.
I was able to conclude the session speaking from Proverbs 14:34, "righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people." I brought the issue of why police officers are even needed - only because people choose to sin. I then told the recruits that as police officers, they would either use their position to help solve the problem or they would use their position to be more of a problem. Both messages were very well received - the gospel was given, the word of God of preached, and the Spirit of God moved in the hearts of men and women. In the midst of our annual Bible conference at Kafulafuta - it was fun to get away and minister in a different way to the recruits and leadership of the police academy!











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VBS

It's all about the kids! Vacation Bible School finished yesterday after 3 full days of skits, puppet shows, Bible lessons, and chorus songs - praise the Lord! We had roughly 1,500-1,600 children attend this years annual event. We concluded the event with hundreds of children coming forward and being counseled. It was estimated 308 children made a commitment of faith. It is impossible to really know how many of those were true decisions for Jesus and how many truly received forgiveness of sin. Yet, to see so many interested in salvation and the offer of God swelled my heart and brought joy to all of us that had prayed and labored over the last few days - to God be the Glory!

KCBT

Every year in August, Kafulafuta hosts a large conference. The conference is broken into two parts - from Sunday to Wednesday, we have a large VBS and then from Thursday to the following Sunday we have an Adult Bible Conference. Currently, there are roughly 1,600 little Sunday School children running around the mission! We expect between 5,000 - 6,000 adults to attend the main Bible conference!
It has been tradition for a group from the States to come over each year and help with the VBS, teach leaders, and preach during the adult conference. This year, we have a group of 14 from Kansas City Baptist Temple. The team has worked very well together and has been a lot of fun to fellowship with! Amazing how the Lord can bring people from all over the world together for one common cause - truly it is the Spirit of God that does direct and unify the hearts of the brethren. Praise the Lord for this group and their kindred spirit, love for kids, and most importantly their passion for Jesus Christ.

Pastor Training - August

Every three months, we have a Pastor Training conference at the mission. It allows us the opportunity to bring together many of the pastors to encourage, teach, and unify. Not all the pastors are able to make it. This time around, we have around 70 men in attendance. The teaching being used this quarter is based on an outline by Wiersbe. The first two days, I taught the life of Joseph from the book of Genesis. This text has many spiritual lessons that really helped each of us grow closer to the Lord and see His sovereign plan. Joseph never blames his brothers for the wrong they did to him, but rather is able to see the Lord working in and through his life for the greater good. To God we could all slow down, sit back, and simply enjoy the leading and direction the Lord takes us. The next two days John Sarra will be teaching the first 12 chapters of Exodus. Every night, we have a short and brief service designed to challenge and motivate the men. Although each of these Pastor Training Conferences is a lot of work, I always walk away very encouraged having spent time with the Lord, with the fellowship of the believers, and having a renewed vision and hope for what we are trying to do here in Zambia!