March 2021 Report
Warm greetings to you all brothers and sisters!! As we remember the words of our master Jesus Christ who said “I must work the work of Him who sent me while it is day, for the night cometh when no man can work” (John 9:4) We give honor and glory to God who has given us this rare occasion to work in His Kingdom.
The students have started the third quarter of their first year here at BVBI-Zambia. But, Getting to know our two students with their families, Winstone Changala the oldest of all the students that are currently enrolled and has four children three boys and one girl, the oldest of his children is twenty one years and the youngest is nine years old. Winstone is from Luapula province of Zambia and is a very dedicated student and wanting to complete the course and get back to work with his home congregation. We also have Reuben Museka is also a Married man with two children; Reuben is also very dedicated man to the work of God with good business experience of his family his two quarters at the Institute has already shown that he means business. He is young 26 years of age we continue to ask for your prayers for these two students for them to remain focused. all our students did extremely well in the first and second quarters. And both quarters they had an opportunity to learn and study short courses with Kennedy Mukuka. In the first and second quarters they studied the Scheme of Redemption and the New Testament Church respectively.
Before resuming the third quarter, they had a ten day recess which they used to do evangelism and clear their assignments. From the evangelism they did there are some vital numbers to be noted. Eight people were baptized and five restorations were recorded. We also had a successful Leadership meeting which was held at the Institute, this meeting is held quarterly to strengthen the working relationship with the Church in our district and the province at large. We are also working to restore erring members at the nearby district known as Masaiti district; in this district we have the Church of Christ but due to lack of constant communication and preacher to strengthen the congregation members stopped meeting and those who remained went into Pentecostalism.
So far members have started realizing TRUE worship and are ready to let go of the false worship although women are still wearing uniforms as you can see on the pictures of women who were invited to worship with us at Church of Christ in Mikomfwa Luanshya. This area is also known as blind centre because most of the people are blind, the picture again shows of the blind woman confessing her faith and the reason they need to be true worshipers. The place is 53 kilometers south of Luanshya district, for this reason we continue to pray that the Institute may have the van which is the tool most needed has at now to help speed up the work of evangelism not only in this area but, in other places too. We continue to give God the glory for such works!
Our Alumni have continued to make good records in their preaching; Simon Khazi has baptized six (6) souls at Church of Christ in Mtendere, the congregation he is presently working with. Clive Kabika is actively teaching the youths and leading a team that goes for evangelism every Saturday morning and very soon he will be presenting a radio program running for the Church in Kabwe central province. Joseph Musonda has returned in Baluba District where he is preaching and he has managed to restore 17 souls back to the sheepfold.
Zambia’s Covid-19 national response strategy has led to great progress in reducing the number of Corona virus transmission, case admissions in hospitals and mortality rates. This reduction in positivity must however be received with a lot of caution. We anticipate that most of the public services will soon run normally if this trend is cautiously maintained. In order to maintain the gains made, the public has been advised to continually adhere to public health guidelines.
If this trend of downward spiral of the pandemic continues, the school has planned some very important event to take place in the course of the year. One of the events that we would love to hold once this situation is favorable is the graduation ceremony which was supposed to take place last year. But due to the upward spiral of Covid-19, the ceremony was postponed indefinitely.
We wanted Donnie Estep and some brethren from Woodland Oaks church of Christ come and grace this occasion. Since all our borders have been opened now then we don’t expect that the ceremony will be delayed any further.
We are eternally grateful for the partnership that we have with you in the Lord and the financial support that we have continued to receive from Woodland Oaks Church of Christ. Our hearts are always thankful to you brethren for all the encouragements and all your prayers offered for this noble mission. We pray that God will bless the work that you all are involved in as well.
Brotherly,
Cephas and Fred