From David - Church Planting

I have already had the privilege of helping start a new congregation. The first weekend in September my Zambian co-worker, Rogers Namuswa, and I went out to follow up on some people who were baptized at Singwamba during the medical mission. We left on Friday at noon and drove north into the bush. It was so far back I thought that if the Land Rover broke down I would be wearing a loincloth, eating roots, and talking fluent Chitonga before we made it back. We found a village headman and his wife that we baptized back in July. He was staying at his uncle's village and preparing to move his family farther north into Kafue Game Park to start another village. We met with his family and his uncle's family (thirty people) around the campfire that night. We told them how to start a church. I told the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. I encouraged them to offer up their knowledge, efforts, and talents to Jesus and watch Him multiply them. We asked Obed, a Christian from a nearby village, to come that Sunday and help them hold their first service out in the bush under the trees. (Both Rogers and I had previous commitments and couldn’t be there.)

That Friday night I tied one end of my hammock to a tree and the other end to the back of the Land Rover and went to sleep with the sounds of hyenas laughing out in the bush. On Saturday morning we did some more teaching and headed back to Namwianga. We distributed Chitonga bibles to four different village congregations as we went along.

This week we learned what happened. The first Sunday the new congregation started with 31 present. There were also some requests for baptism. The next week Rogers and another missionary went for the Sunday gathering. (Again, I had already been asked to speak at an area-wide meeting, so I couldn’t go). There were 54 people for this second Sunday. Thirteen responded to the preaching, and seven were baptized. Rogers had strapped a 6-foot galvanized water trough to the top of the Land Rover to use for the baptisms. Water is scarce this time of the year, so at the water source the Zambians used buckets to fill the trough with enough water for the baptisms.

This new congregation is inside Kafue Game Park, one of the largest game refuges in southern Africa. The kingdom continues to grow in Zambia as God continues to multiply what we offer in time, talents, and effort.
David