Our first visiting elder was Frank Tembo from Kapiri Mposhi Church of Christ. Frank spent three weeks here in March. Most of that time, he and Lubinda Sikufle went from house to house witnessing. As a result, over 20 people accepted Christ. We praise God for this blessing. In addition to Frank we have a number of other elders and preachers who want to do the same type of evangelism here.

This is a wonderful opportunity and along with every opportunity comes responsibility. Lubinda has found it difficult to disciple all the converts from the first round of evangelism. If more evangelists come right away, he will certainly be overwhelmed. In order to build our capacity to handle more evangelists and disciple all the new converts, we need more people here on the ground.

Mr. William Chabala and Mr. Gibson Chintobolongo have agreed to move to Mongu for about 7 months to help push things forward and disciple new believers. They were Bible School students of mine in the mid 80’s. Mr. Chabala is now in his late 50’s and has planted about a dozen congregations in the last 15 years. He is a potent and effective evangelist. Mr. Chintobolongo is in his early 50’s and has had a successful ministry as a disciple maker and teacher.

These men will move to Mongu with their wives and families and remain here while we are in America. Their job will be to disciple the church leaders, evangelize as the Lord leads and disciple the new converts. The leaders of the church in Mongu have agreed to accept these men as their elders during the time of their stay in Mongu.

Our responsibility will be to foot the bill. We need about $2,000 to cover their costs and rent a house for them. This is our Disciple Maker project. Make this an item of prayer.

We were very pleased to have hosted Ed Buell from Harvest Discipleship Center in a series of prayer seminars here in Zambia.

Ed arrived on March 28^th and went immediately to Ndola for the Christian Church leadership conference. Two further 3-day prayer conferences in two different parts of the country rounded out his schedule. Zambia is a big country and we drove over 2000 miles to do these three seminars. That, along with lost luggage and a stolen video camera completed his visit to Zambia.

His visit was extremely helpful to us in a number of ways. It was a divine appointment. God has been motivating people here to prayer as He has in America also, but the enemy has been sowing seeds of dissension. An argument has been brewing over the style of prayer that God accepts. A couple of congregations have even split over the issue. This prayer conference created a common ground in prayer for all the churches based on content rather than style. We just want to praise the Lord for sending Ed to Zambia at this time.

Through Ed’s visit, we realized the tremendous potential to minister to the churches through this type of seminar. Although there are very few churches in the Western Province, where we are working, there are over 150 Christian church congregations in Zambia. We are the only missionary family in the whole country associated with the Christian Churches and we are under pressure to do something to help these other congregations. Hosting seminars such as the one that we just enjoyed, provides us an opportunity to do something positive for everyone. It also reinforces New Testament doctrine and practice. We have set a goal to host two seminars with outside speakers each year. Each seminar will be held in several locations. We will be looking for funding for these seminars when we have a speaker and a date.

SCCM stands for Shalom Christian Care Ministries. It is a Christian non-profit organization that we are helping some of our Zambian brothers organize. Its first project will be a pediatric clinic. Zambia has no such pediatric clinic at this time. One of the co-founders is a pediatrician who works for the Government hospital here. As soon as the organization is registered, we will begin to fundraise for a facility. The ministry vision for this clinic is that all patients will receive the message of salvation and orphans and vulnerable children will receive free treatment as well.

We need about $500 right away to pay for lawyer’s time, photocopying and other legal items that are necessary to both register the organization and apply for tax-exempt status.

We are currently looking at several properties that might make a good clinic. Some are houses, one is an ostrich farm and also there is an operational clinic complete with x-ray and operating room. Please pray that God would provide the financial resources necessary to complete this project.

Frank Tembo is a carpenter and the founder of Kapiri Mposhi Church of Christ. He was a student of mine at a Bible Training Center during the late 1980’s. He supports himself by making various types of furniture. He wants to train some of the young men in the church in this skill of carpentry so that they might feed their families instead of running off to the city in search of work. Many have shipwrecked their faith by going to the city. A pilot project will cost $500. Then it can be scaled up as it shows promise to a full-fledged job skills training program.

Frank has found a ready market for decorative hardwood doors with carved panels. He wants to start training a couple of young men to make these doors. He needs about $300 for a pickup load of hardwood and another $200 for a few more hand tools.

Lilato Home #2

The vision of the Lilato (Love) home in Mongu, is to provide 8 family like, Christian homes for about a dozen vulnerable children each. Christians provide the care in ordinary rented houses. Home #1 is already in operation. Home #2 should be added later this year or early next year.

The town of Mongu has about 6,000 orphans, most of whom live with other relatives. But among them are several hundred whose health and very lives are at risk from neglect and malnutrition. These are the children that Kids Alive cares for. The Lilato home is under the auspices of Kids Alive Zambia, which is affiliated with Kids Alive International, which has its American offices in Valpariso, Indiana.

We are on the board of directors for Kids Alive Zambia, which oversees the two existing homes, one in the capitol and one in Mongu. We have a much more intimate involvement with the Mongu home and are involved in its operations on a daily basis. The administration of the Lilato home is under Davern and Masoka Shilayi. For any contribution made to the home through GO Missions we would personally oversee its expenditure and then donate such goods to the home.

Approximately $8,000 is needed to pay the rent deposit, paint, repair, modify and furnish the home, interview & clothe the children for home #2

In our last newsletter we mentioned the project of the WPEA grocery. The WPEA is the Western Province Evangelizing Association. Mr. Lubinda Sikufele directs the WPEA. The WPEA coordinates the efforts of various elders and preachers who come from around Zambia to do evangelistic work in the Western Province. Their primary needs for finances are to cover the salary for Mr. Sikufele, food and housing for visiting evangelists, telephone and postage costs and some public transportation costs. In order to create self-reliance and allow self-determination from the Zambian leaders, it was decided that a small business should be set up to cover the costs of operating this ministry. The business was announced in our February newsletter as a grocery, but after consultation with a number of local businessmen, we have decided to open a small, carryout restaurant instead. This should increase our profit margin and give a quicker turn-around on stock. The setup cost for this restaurant is $2,500.

Mr Sikufele will set up and manage the restaurant, including the purchasing of foodstuffs, hiring and training of employees, etc. Our responsibility will be to make sure that he manages well and is trained in basic accounting procedures, which we have already begun to do. In addition, Lori has trained a young lady in the church to cook and bake to assist in the progress of this program. We have already agreed to rent a downtown shop in a high-profile location. We are waiting for the shop to become available, which will likely be shortly after we pay the rent deposit.

The Mbala Bible training Centre is a new Bible College that has just started up this year. This is the first Bible College among the Churches of Christ in Zambia. The founder, Darius Shakwamba, has volunteered himself and his students to come to Mongu for two weeks of evangelism during one of the three school breaks this year. The evangelism will be coordinated by the WPEA under Lubinda Sikufele. Usually, we expect volunteers to pay their own transportation expenses. However, since these are students, they do not have the means to do so. This project is beneficial in two ways. It helps the church planting effort in Mongu and it builds skills in the students.

The cost of this project for 5 students and their instructor is $750. To date we have received $280 towards this goal and a balance of $470 is needed.

A big thanks goes to both our regular supporters and those of you who have helped us with special gifts. If things continue like this for the next couple of months, it looks like we will have enough income to stay through our projected departure date of mid July. This does not include the funding for the projects we have highlighted in this newsletter.

Here is a summary of our current projects needing funding and their costs:

1. Disciple Maker Project: $2,000
2. Seminars for churches: $ to be announced.
3. SCCM Registration: $500
4. Pediatric Clinic: $ to be announced.
5. Carpentry Pilot Project $500
6. Students Evangelism Project: $470
7. WPEA Restaurant: $2,500
8. Lilato Home #2: $8,000

Please feel free to contact us at any time. May God richly bless you.

Chris, Lori, Joey, Jeremy & Joshua