“Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Dear Brethren

The Bible in Proverbs 18:22 says, “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favour from the Lord.” This is a very relevant text of Scripture for KBC at this time as we recently witnessed the highest number of weddings in any two months of the life of this church since its inception over twenty years ago!

Judging by the number of courting couples, it does not look like the season of weddings is over yet. We have a few more lined up for the month of June, and one or two more before the year ends!

MEMBERSHIP

Nine individuals have been welcomed into membership since our last prayer letter. This includes six individuals who were baptized in March. We presently have another baptismal class in sessions with ten candidates awaiting baptism. In the month of June we are also starting two parallel new members’ classes for the purpose of instructing the new members about biblical churchmanship. As stated in the prologue, we have rejoiced in the number of Christian marriages that have commenced in the recent past. Every weekend in April was taken up with the tying of the knot. Pray that the Lord will truly unite the hearts of these young couples as they seek to honour him in building Christ-honouring homes.

MEETINGS

We have a very good turnover of visitors every Sunday and are still trying to maximise on this God-given opportunity. So, we have decided to make each ushering group to work across a whole month so that they are able to follow up the visitors the week following their visit to KBC. In this way we will only lose one week out of four or five, when the group hands over to the next group. We are all eyes to see how this will work so that this God-given opportunity is not lost due to indifference on our part.

The National Youth Conference also took place in Ndola, and we sent a full contingent of youths there. Continue to pray that our young people will attend such conferences so that they can get to know one another across the nation in their generation. The fruit of this will be a united Reformed movement in Zambia in years to come.

Ahead of us are a few major events for which we would value your prayers. These are:

6 June 2009... Ministry Leaders Seminar

20 June 2009... Heroes of the Faith Day

6—l7 July 2009... Antioch Snr Youth Conference

31 July—3 August 2009... Agric. Show Outreach

24—28 August 2009... Reformation Conference

In view of the fact that this year marks the 500^th anniversary of the birth of one of the church’s most distinguished heroes of the faith—John Calvin—we will be studying the whole Reformation period during this year’s Heroes of the Faith Day, scheduled for 20^th June.

MINISTRIES

(As usual, in the interest of space, we can only report on a few of the KBC ministries)

Hope Ministry: The ministry has printed HIV/AIDS posters with a spiritual message, which have since been distributed in schools. A block-making machine to help those who need to raise funds has been purchased and premises are being sought where the venture can be established. There are over 40 members of this ministry listed in the church directory, and the ministry aims to ensure that these members become truly active in the ministry. They plan to provide counselling for those visitors who come to church on Sunday who need to be counselled.

Marriage Enrichment Ministry: This ministry participated in the planning and attendance of the recent seminar handled by Dr Wayne Mack of South Africa. They also helped with counselling those who got married in April. They have just had a marriage enrichment outing where couples were counselled on Sexual Purity and Fullness in Marriage. They are still working towards getting the helpline ready so that those who need help can ring in for help and be counselled. Continue to pray for them that they will soon start this because that is what the ministry is primarily there for.

Music Ministry: The ministry had much activity in the period under review. They took part in Easter evangelism and held a very good Easter evangelistic music concert. They took part in music ministry to students at Evelyn Hone College, to attendants of a ladies’ evangelistic tea party at the new church plant in Kabanana, at the first ever Evangel Baptist Church music concert, and at the many weddings that took place at KBC across the month of April. They have been teaching new songs to the church for congregational singing. They have continued guitar lessons and are about to commence piano lessons. The confidence levels in singing and playing of instruments especially among some of the newer members is very encouraging.

Senior Youth Ministry: The ministry went for outreach in Saint Bonaventure area to help with the new church plant there. Outreach at the play park also improved, especially in the first few months of the period under review. On one of those days, the ministry had a joint outreach there with the Lusaka Baptist Church youths. The youths have been studying the Seven Churches of Asia in the book of Revelation for their normal Saturday meetings. Planned for this next period is the Antioch Conference over the first weekend of July, with Pastor Kendall Holley from the USA.

MISSIONS

Chitawe (Missionary: Matthews Banda): The only members at the moment are the missionary pastor and his wife. Attendance on Sundays has dropped to an average 30 from 66 at the beginning of the year. Two other men, who are presently working with the missionary, hope to join the church. In April they had evangelistic outreach in two villages (Mtukulu and Mnjuzi), where they conducted door to door outreach. 18 people from this church also attended the regional reformed conference in April.

Choma (Leader: Johnson Malipenga): In February, the youths were taken through a month-long seminar on personal and door-to-door evangelism. This was followed in March with actual outreach programmes for the whole month. This outreach continued in April, and was intensified over Easter as Ultimate Questions and What is a Biblical Christian were distributed widely. Easter Sunday had an evangelistic sermon with many invited guests. Preachers from KBC continue to go to the church for ministry on Sundays. Pray for the appointment of a pastor for the work there.

Kabanana (Missionary: Curtis Chirwa): They began the year on a good note with some people joining the church. They also made a part payment on the church plot. They had a baptismal service this month with five individuals being baptised. The youths at Chisomo Baptist Church have been helping with outreach to the youths of Kabanana.

Kaoma (Leader: Prince Nawa): An evangelistic tea party was held where visitors were in attendance. The work at the army barracks has stalled after the authorities informed them to stop the work of evangelism there, including the Sunday Bible studies. They have decided to focus their attention among the local civilian population. They continue to pray that an army officer of a Reformed persuasion would be transferred to Kaoma, whom they could work with.

Ethiopia: With the help of HeartCry Missionary Society in the USA we are continuing to help the Addis Kidan Baptist Church in Ethiopia. In three weeks’ time, we shall be sending Pastors Victor Kanyense and Grave Singogo there for a week of training church planters.

OFFICERS   & STAFF

Deacons: Mr John Chundu, the deacon in charge of church properties, was away in Botswana for most of the period under review, but it is good to now have him back. Mr Stanley Musukwa, the chairman of the board of deacons, will be moving to a farming area called Kanakantampa in the not-too-distant future. We would value your prayers with respect to his ongoing role in the deaconate. Apart from that, all is well in the deaconate and the two new brooms—Mr Kasango Kayombo and Mr Logan Nyasulu—are settling well in the work.

Staff: Members of staff continue to work well together. We have employed Mr Seke Lupunga as Pastor’s Ministry Assistant. In a few days time, Mr Chipita Sibale will be employed as a pastoral intern, with a view to sending him out as a missionary for the church towards the end of next year. He will be working full time with the youths and also helping to coordinate our visiting of visitors. We are yet to employ an Office Assistant for pastor’s office and so do continue to pray for this.

CONCLUSION

As we conclude, we would like to remind you of where we started from. KBC has become a “famous destination” for many young people in our community. Many of them are coming from non-Christian homes and finding the Lord in our midst. Others are getting a bonus by finding spouses in the church, as we have just witnessed in the recent past. Pray for us to remember how we once were in their shoes, needing spiritual uncles and aunts to confide in, and godly elder brothers and sisters to lean on. May God help us to seek them out, befriend them, and support them as they go through school and college, and as they find marriage partners, settle down in their careers, and try to find meaning to life. In answer to your prayers, we may see many of them turn into oaks of righteousness for the display of God’s glory!

Thank you for praying for all this.