Zambia July 2022
Report
Introduction
Nowadays not all Christians leave the comfort of home to work in the vineyard of our master. Many times the pandemic has led some to become lazy and not do what we are exptected to do as Christians. One thing can be said with certainty – it takes a special kind of breed of Christian to leave the comforts of home and security to face an uncertain future so that our fellow man can hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Many congregations in the world would not exist today without such Christian men and women. We keep on thanking God for missionaries and evangelists who are doing the work for our master with all courage and confidence. We send greetings to you all brothers and sisters! We give honor and glory to God who has given us this rare chance of working in His Kingdom.
The month July 2022 continued to be jammed packed with activities of evangelism and other related events. Hence we would like to share with you some of these in this report.
NEW CONGREGATION
Once again we are so excited to report on a new congregation in Mpongwe Kamitondo, born with thirteen members and making good progress. Mpongwe is sixty-one (61) kilometers south of Luanshya district. We still have challenges in terms of transportation in getting to rural places like Mpongwe and there is a great demand to be worshipping with this congregation if we are to contribute much to maturing this congregation spiritually.
As an outreach program, BVBI-Zambia has been requested by many congregations here in the Copperbelt province to be involved in their evangelism program. Most of these congregations have an outreach program that runs every fortnightly. These programs have so far yielded good results. We have also realized that whatever time we spend together helps us encourage each other. After all, strong families do the same – they spend a lot of time together and we are a family
New Babes in Christ
Bruce Munachunga, Bob Mundia, Ignitius kabalata, Angel Mukuka, Bruno, Siampindu, Memory Mwenya, Grace Chanda and Josphine Lumayi were baptized into Christ in the month of July, we pray for God’s continued blessings on their lives.
Northwestern Gospel Campaign 2022
The school is scheduled to be in the northwestern province for a gospel campaign which will commence on 25th August, 2022 and ends on 28th August, 2022 in Solwezi of Zambia. This meeting was supposed to be held two years ago but due to the advent of Covid-19 the meeting did not take place
Brother Cephas Mwamba is tasked to do the recap on the theme and indeed on every lesson of the meeting. We pray that our students also will interact and be fully involved with whatever will be happening at the meeting.
A call to help in selecting elders/deacons
The right words to use are joy and happiness because it was evidently seen in all the members of Chiwempala church in Chingola district as elders and a deacon were installed. Brother Cobbert Mundia and Brother Simon Muchonkwa were installed to serve as elders on 17th July 2022 at the church of Christ in Chingola district. And at the same event Brother Moses Mandandi was installed to serve as one of the deacons. We give God the glory!!
The pictures below shows our students who were evangelizing in Chingola. Though when we returned home five of our students were hospitalized with the flu. Maybe it was due to the fact that we had to use four different buses for us to reach there to and from Chingola. They recovered and we are back in class.
We also had time to preach in the Baluba district, which is twenty-seven (27) kilometers west of Luanshya. We have one church in this district which is surrounded by many denominations. Hopefully, we are planting a new congression
Avenue of blessings
Bvbi-Zambia venue is becoming a center for marriage blessings. We have witnessed a colorful marriage blessing at our Institute in the month of July. The marriage blessing which was done by Brother Cephas Mwamba has been good practical learning for our students and the church at large. We are also eagerly waiting for the wedding ceremony of Vincent Kawala Simwanza to take place at the same venue soon. Vincent is one of our former students whose wedding is being spearheaded by members of the church of Christ here in Luanshya.
For the purpose of learning how to conduct a wedding ceremony, all our students were in attendance for the ceremony.
Shaba province in D.R.C
Through our former student Joseph Ilunga who came from D.R.C in Lubumbashi, we have reached Kamisa and Kalemie districts in D.R.C. (Democratic Republic of Congo). Joseph is doing commendable work and needs to be supported.
More blessings
We are so glad to report also on one of our current students by the name Daniel Kapata, who has been offered a job in Government as a teacher. He has done all the paperwork and after graduation, he will be preaching while teaching at a government school in October. We have no doubt Daniel is going to make a good preacher.
On the same development, a church in Chingola district has offered to hire two evangelists from our institute upon graduation in October. Actually, they said “we will come on the day of graduation to take them with us “This has come as a result of the good outreach program the school is running. The students’ conduct impressed the leaders of the church in Chingola district ( Chingola district is 104 kilometers southwest of Luanshya district where our Institute is located). We pray that these students’ relationship with our master will improve even more.
Recruitments for 2022 to 2024
The recruitment process has entered an advanced stage with more men to come and be trained as Preachers.
Martin Lengwe is one of the members of the church that meets at Kamiyanga Primary school in Mbala district of the Northern Province of Zambia. Brother Lengwe is also the deputy headmaster at this school. He has expressed interest to enroll at BVBI-Zambia for the next intake.
At the end of the Copper belt Church of Christ Gospel meeting, a number of men from Copper Belt Province expressed interest in attending Bear Valley Bible Institute–Zambia. All the applications we have so far received for enrollment in the next intake indicate that six (6) Provinces of Zambia will be fully represented. We have applications from the following Provinces: Southern, Northern, Central, Luapula, Copperbelt, and Northwestern. We are in high spirits as we look forward to a new intake at Bear Valley Bible Institute- Zambia. We are also very eager and anxious to meet these new students. We know they will make another very exciting student body.
BVBI-Z 2022 Graduation
The students have finally entered their final quarter of studying at BVBI-Zambia. After completing all the prescribed courses, the eleven students will be awarded an advanced diploma in Biblical Studies from Bear Valley Bible Institute International. We look forward in anticipation to having a graduation ceremony in October 2022. As we mentioned in our previous correspondence, this will be our third graduation ceremony since the beginning of school here in Zambia, Africa. The students are very excited to graduate and go back and work with their respective congregations. We have confidence that these students have been very hard working and diligent in their work and conduct during the period of their studies here at BVBI-Z.
Conclusion
We are always grateful to all our partners in this noble work of training faithful men. Special appreciation goes to Woodland Oaks Church of Christ for financially supporting this work.
Brotherly,
Cephas and Fred