Tuesday, January 24, 2012

“While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them’” (Acts 13:2)

Yesterday, all our missionaries trooped back to base for our annual in-house missions week. I remain most grateful that every year, since we started this special missions week, we have 100% attendance by these men. Some of them are able to come with their wives, but others are not able to due to family demands—especially those with younger children who are still in school.

The first event in the missions week is the missionaries prayer retreat. This began last night. We are hidden away at a lodge, reviewing the previous year and strategizing for the year ahead. Last night, it was a time of fellowship as we shared testimonies from the previous year and prayed for one another. This morning presentations have begun. This will go on up to tomorrow evening.

Raphael Banda, one of our missionaries, presenting on ensuring biblical church membership

On Thursday, our missions conference begins. Ronald Kalifungwa, the pastor of Lusaka Baptist Church, will be our main preacher. He will be handling the theme, “The Role of Ordinary Church Members in the Work of Missions.” These meetings will go on up to Sunday morning, ending with an ordination service. We will be sending out our latest church-planting missionary (Kasango Kayombo), who is presently one of our church deacons.

Pray for us, as we go through this week. The work of missions is so important that we would hate to see our members and missionaries going through this week as “just one of those things”.  This is where God’s heart is. He gave his Son for the salvation of the world! We long to see our members going beyond Africa’s major cities. We want to reach Africa’s rural areas, where cults and ethnic religions are really flourishing. We want to get to the world’s citadels of Islam and Hinduism. We want to be used of God to reach the Jews in the Middle East and the atheistic communists in the Far East. These places desperately need to hear the world’s best news. May God make us relevant to the unfinished task!