June, 2022
Report
Introduction
We send greetings to you brothers and sisters! We give honor and glory to God our heavenly Father who through His grace and love fully expressed in Christ has granted us the opportunity to work for Him in His kingdom.
The month of June was packed with a lot of activities of evangelism for the school so much that by the ending we were still out in the field. The students have divided so well the time between their studies and personal evangelism. As mentioned in our previous communiqué that a great amount of students’ time is devoted to putting into practice what they learn in class, which is bearing much fruit.
New congregations planted
We can gladly report that we have a newly established congregation in Luwingu district in the Northern province. Our students worked tirelessly in this district about 43 kilometers west of Luwingu township. This was a meeting at a residential place where our students invited the entire community to hear the gospel of Christ. The response was marvelous as our students interacted with the audience through preaching, which was a dialogue, engaging the audience during the time of teaching. The congregation has been established with 17 members and is growing. We are doing the best we can to remain in touch and attach them to the already established congregations in that district for the fellowship of Christians. The community in this area is still very zealous to hear the gospel and due to limited time we had to leave, but we intend to get back at a later date for face-to-face interactions. The first-day assembly was conducted at this same house of a new convert.
Our second congregation has been planted in Mpongwe district of the Copperbelt province with a new membership of nine. The place of meeting was acquired by one of the old members of the church who has restored the same area and a place seems to be a neutral place of meeting since these are farm areas. During the time of our preaching, we discovered that other family members of the church of Christ are residents of these farm areas, and were not worshipping. These members were restored back to the sheepfold. Please pray for us that such efforts may continue.
We have another new congregation in Mbala district of Northern Province which has started with thirteen member. They began meeting at the house of one of our current students by the name of Reuben Museka and now they are meeting at Kamiyanga primary school. The head teacher at this school is very cooperative and one of the teachers, who is acting as vice to the head by the name of Martin Lengwe, is now a member. Please pray that this congregation continues to grow. Reuben needs to be encouraged to go back after graduation and see this congregation grow. Reuben’s passion for preaching is so great.
Copper Belt Churches of Christ Gospel Meeting (2022)
The meeting started on 1st July 2022 and ended on 4th July, 2022 at Twapia Church of Christ in Ndola District of the Copper belt Province of Zambia. We are using the Zambia trade fair holiday to strengthen the churches of Christ on the Copperbelt. Every year we have these holidays and we are using every opportunity as the word of God encourages us to do in Ephesians. 5:16 The theme of the Gospel meeting was “The will of God”
Brother Cephas Mwamba was one of the Keynote speakers at the meeting. He ably presented a lesson and did a very superb job!
Every one of our students participated in the program during our four days of spending the nights in the cold. The program included adults, youths, and children. After worship on the first day of the week, the meeting ended on the following day (Monday) after lunch.
Statistics at the end of the 2022 Gospel Meeting:
Attendance - 348
Congregations – 20
Baptisms – 3
Restoration -5
BVBI-Z 2022 Graduation
We look forward in anticipation to having a graduation ceremony on 15th October 2022. This will be our third graduation ceremony since the beginning of this school here in Zambia, Africa. At the end of their studies at BVBI-Z, God willing, eleven men will be graduating. They are very excited to graduate and go back to work with their respective congregations. We are very confident that these students have been diligent in their work and conduct during the tenure of their studies at BVBI-Z.
Recruitment for 2022-2024
We have continued receiving applications from prospective students for the next intake (2022-2024). We have already interviewed most of these men. As said in our last report, there are some places that we need to go and talk to the respective church leaders of these men. Other places have very poor communication networks and it is extremely difficult to speak to them on the phone. Hence, traveling from one place to another becomes very important. When the process is done, we pray that we will have an exciting new intake which will probably start by the first week of October 2022.
A call to help in selecting elders
After our gospel meeting, we received calls to help in selecting elders in two congregations, Brother Fred Kanangu and Cephas Mwamba are tasked with the process. We intend to move with all our students to the end of this process. We anticipate more evangelism in the month of July and August
The health situation in the country
Zambia and most of the sub-region countries here are now in the cold season. The cool season starts from May 28 to August 2. During this period the transmission rate of Covid-19 is said to be very high. However, we are thankful to God that the transmission rate has remained negligible even during this time, and because of this, the government has allowed public assemblies to go on normally. However, they have emphasized that people must adhere to Covid-19 health protocols.
Conclusion
We are grateful to all our partners in this ministry of training these faithful men. We are truly grateful to Woodland Oaks Church of Chris for their commitment to supporting this work.
Brotherly,
Cephas and Fred
Attached are the pictures from the activities of the month of June.