April 16, 2010

Zamcom 2010



News

COPPERBELT. Our month came out of the box being busy; our whole family jumped on a bus on the first day of March to visit the Speedy’s in Greater Grace Church of the Copperbelt. That in itself was quite an endeavor. Picture the four of us loading up into a taxi at 5:30 am; heading to the bus station where it seems to be full at all hours of the day; and then the four of us making our way through the crowds to our bus. At any moment we could have been going in one of 8 different directions (that is how many countries that Zambia borders); every one trying equally hard to earn our travel expense money. Eventually we made it to our bus and sat down with the girls in tow and seated on our laps. There are two choices of seats: on one side of the bus there is the row of two seats and the other side has the row of three seats. We thought we would give mercy to any single traveler so we chose the row of two seats. After a precious five-hour trip north, we were in the Copperbelt region of Zambia. Our light affliction was just for a moment because we saw our eternal weight of glory. It was the precious people in the 3 works that are happening in the Copperbelt. First there was Chingola (an hour north of Pr. Adam’s home), we met a group of about 20 people gathered in a school classroom waiting to watch Intro to Missions class on video. As we did the review after the class, we could sense each student’s hunger to receive the Word of God. The next two days were spent in Kitwe (where Pr. Adam’s main church is); we also did Bible school and a church service there. We rapped it up on the last day with a trip to Ndola (a city 40 minutes south of Kitwe where there is the 2nd church of the Copperbelt). We spent the whole day evangelizing then gathered for midweek church service and then Bible school. All was so amazing you would think that we were with an army of people; but God is using one family: Pr. Adam, Mindy (who does all this being pregnant), Baby Micah, and Emil Nkulu (a graduate from our Bible College in Lusaka). Pray to the Lord of the Harvest that He may send forth laborers into HIS harvest. This is truly HIS harvest; none of what we do is through our own power or merit.

MALAWEEE. After our return home, and recuperating from the long journey; a week passed and we were at it again. I and two of our local pastors here, Pr. Enoch (the head of Church Operations in our Emmansdale Lusaka Church) and Pr. Nelson Nkoma (the pastor of the Greater Grace Church of Chawama Lusaka), boarded a bus and went on a faith missions trip to Lilongwe, Malawi. The verse God gave us was Joshua 18:4 which says to take 3 men and send them to describe the land according to their inheritance. We felt the Holy Spirit’s assurance that He was leading us (it was also pretty cool that there were 3 of us too). Upon arrival in Malawi, we felt that God really given us a great open door (1Cor 16:9). The people in Lilongwe were open and hungry to hear and be taught the Bible. One man, Owen, stayed with us the whole day and helped us rent a room where we would have the first service of Greater Grace of Malawi. God gave us favor and we felt His good hand upon us (Ezra 7:9) and all this happened on the first day. Day two of our 5 day journey we traveled 3 hours south to the administrative capital of Malawi called Blantyre to enquire about church registration. It was amazing; God even gave us favor with the officers in the Register General’s Office. They took the time to explain to us how we should register the church and what steps we should take. The next two days were remarkable. We had salvations and made many contacts. One of which was a pastor who had seen the Greater Grace Website in Baltimore (www.ggwo.org) and requested a visit to his church 3 years ago. Baltimore had given him Pr. Renaldo’s telephone number and he called it. At the time it was not possible for us to visit him, but when we called him telling him we were in his city he came straightaway to meet us. We invited him to our conference in Zambia next month and he and his assistant said they’d be coming. The whole trip culminated with our first meeting, which was held in a community hall. Twelve people came!!! It was amazing! We spoke about what Grace is – Grace is Jesus Christ, All of God given to All of us. As we were leaving we exchanged information and felt the bond of Spiritual fellowship formed. We left the next day feeling like we were in the first century church praising God for all He had done. Wow! We’ve got some big decisions to make.

Lusaka Explosion. We were not the only missions team to go out that week. In fact, Greater Grace of Zambia sent three teams in three different countries: Congo, Botswana, and Malawi. Pr. Victor Ndwayo and Albert Ntalasha registered the Greater Grace Church of Congo in Lumbumbashi (a city of 10 million people); and Bernard, Maggie, and Lumba (their son) Ntalasha visited Botswana and also enquired on church registration. It was quite a fruitful week. We covet your prayers as we really see the Lord’s leading as we branch out. Please also pray for our annual conference called ZAMCOM; that it would be a great blessing and that God would impart His vision and eternal purpose for this part of the world in each individual’s heart. The title of the conference is “Grace without Boundaries, Love without Borders” (or something like that, I may have mixed it up).

God Bless You,

Pr. Chris, Julie, Callia Chanda, and Poema Chisomo Arman