Dear Pastor:
It has been a while since our last updates, but in spite of the difficulties we have faced and the much ministry work in which we have been involved during the last few weeks/months, the Lord has been faithful to us.
Training Leaders
Our semester at Central Africa Baptist University began in August, immediately after we returned from Mexico after being stuck there for a couple of months. Due to the Covid-19 restrictions in Zambia and the changing nature of the current situation, we decided to shorten our semester by almost one month. This just means that our semester was a lot more intense and difficult for both teachers and students (probably one of my busiest and most challenging semesters so far). Furthermore, in order to comply with government regulations and stay open, we had to make a lot of administrative and program changes as an institution pretty much overnight. Thankfully, the government granted us the permission to continue with regular classes after all the changes were made. Sadly, however, we had to cancel our annual leadership conference, which is the highlight of our year. Last year we had over 500 pastors and leaders in attendance from Zambia and other neighboring nations, but because of the restrictions and uncertainty that we are facing, we had no option but to cancel it. We pray and hope we will be able to have our conference again next year.
Our semester just ended and our students are on break until January. Please pray for all our students, especially those who are traveling to other countries, since there are many restrictions at the borders that make traveling very difficult and costly and our students are on a tight budget.
Finally, we are so thankful to the Lord for the provision of funds to erect a new multipurpose building on our campus that will be able to host up to 800 people. It is amazing to see how the Lord provided everything even in the midst of these difficult and uncertain times. We will be commissioning this building on December 5 with special activities planned for that day.
Kitwe Church
As far as our ministry at Kitwe Church, like many churches everywhere, we have experienced quite a few challenges due to the current pandemic. As we informed you earlier, we did lose several families due primarily to relocation; the unemployment rate in our city is quite high since the mines and other industries are not doing well. Our attendance dropped by 40% during the summer. However, on a positive note, the Lord has also brought several new people to our church lately, some new believers and others that have come in search of biblical preaching. In addition, we are excited to see several young men that the Lord has raised from within the congregation and have become very involved in the different ministries of the church. Some of these men are what we currently call “pastoral apprentices”, and we have about six of them in our church.
By God’s grace, our congregation recently chose 4 new deacons. We had lost 3 deacons this year due to different circumstances, but the Lord graciously gave us 4 more.
Finally, we ask you to pray for a special missions emphasis Sunday we will have on the 5th of December. As you may know from previous letters, Kitwe Church began a small Bible study in the neighboring city of Chingola a couple of years ago. This Bible study developed into a church plant 13 months ago when one of the elders went out from among us to take over this work. Therefore, on the 5th of December, we will be appointing/ordaining pastors in this congregation, as well as formally and officially recognize them as an independent church. This is only by the grace of our Lord since our church is still very young, but it does have a great heart for missions and church planting. We are also thankful that, even though the pandemic situation has made things very difficult, the Lord is still building his church and we are seeing it clearly though the ministry of Kitwe Church. Please pray for this new church so that the Lord would use them to carry out the great commission in the town of Chingola.
Finally, we are planning several evangelistic activities during the month of December; we covet your prayers so that we see more people coming to the Lord.
Our Family
By God’s grace, our family is now doing well and enjoying good health. As many of you know, our son Everett was sick for several weeks and hospitalized for 7 days. He had malaria, several infections, anemia, pneumonia, and very low hemoglobin. It was a challenge to attend to him due to the poor quality of medical care and facilities in our region, but the Lord protected our son. He needed blood and plasma, but it proved to be difficult to find them since there is only one place authorized in this region of the country to draw, process and provide blood for health facilities and everyone who needs a transfusion. Thankfully, a friend in government was able to help us; otherwise, it would have taken a while to get the blood. However, after 4 days of being hospitalized, we had to transfer him to a different hospital since he was not improving and they did not have the capability to care for him. Initially we were going to fly him on a medical plane to the capital city, but due to the Covid-19 restrictions, it was not possible. We ended up transferring him in an ambulance to a children’s government hospital in a neighboring city. Thankfully, they were able to help him and he began recovering quickly. By God’s grace, he is now doing very well. We thank all of you who were praying for him.
I also had malaria a few days ago, but after a week of battling it, I am now fully recovered. As you can imagine, we have experienced several challenges in the last few months, both personally and ministry wise, but we do praise God for the gracious help he always grants his children.
We also want to ask you to pray for our son Asher and his school. He is homeschooled but my wife never went to school in English and I do not have the time to teach him. Therefore, we are praying we can find someone to come and help us for a few months with it.
Finally, please pray for us since I will be traveling to the country of the Democratic Republic of Congo on the 28th of November to train a group of Congolese pastors for a few days. Paola and the kids will stay back in Zambia. As you can imagine, it is very complicated to travel internationally due to the current pandemic, especially, but we pray for God to intervene in our behalf and help us continue carrying out the great commission in Africa through the training of leaders. I will be teaching 1 Corinthians, which is a much needed content, especially in Africa where extreme Pentecostalism is the norm. Please keep me in your prayers.
Prayer Requests
- For the CABU students that are currently on break
- For Kitwe Church and the many evangelistic efforts and activities we have planned
- For our health as a family
- That the Lord will help us find someone that can help with Asher’s school
- For my trip to Congo.
