Grace Reformed Baptist Church is a new work of barely two and a half years. It largely consists of brothers and sisters who, due to doctrinal differences, broke away from the Evangelical Bible Church of Windhoek, Namibia. The church meets in the Round Table Club Hall and has a healthy initial membership of thirty-three individuals, while the average attendance during Sunday worship services is between sixty and seventy, including children. There is an interim leadership of five men (see picture below).
The registration process is still ongoing and we hope that sooner than later, preferably this year, the church will be registered. The papers are with the lawyers, having been returned by the Ministry of Trade and Industry for further adjustments and corrections. We anticipate, God willing, that they will be resubmitted by the end of August and that this time the application will be successful.
Interim leadership: (from the left) Japhet Kazavanga, Raphael Maendo, Ehrenfried Kukuri, Amon Kasaona and Godwin Murangi (leader of the group)
Evangelistic Meetings
The church invited Pastor Kapambwe Nsenduluka to preach at their evangelistic crusade running in the evenings from 16 to 20 June 2008. The theme of the meetings was “Warnings against Unbelief” from the book of Hebrews. The meetings were scheduled to run from 18.30 hours to about 20.30 hours every evening, though they often started some twenty to thirty minutes later. Attendances were always quite good, averaging sixty-five to seventy people, which is just about the full seating capacity of the hall. This was in spite of the extremely cold weather in the evenings. It was gratifying to see some three young men, in their early twenties, consistently attending these meetings clad in their wild fashions (depicting street heroism) but listening attentively. Although no figures of conversion were reported during the week, it was quite evident from post-sermon confessions that many were affected for better by the Word. But God alone judges the hearts of men and to him alone belong the glory and the power to save sinners and to edify the saints through what is preached in weakness.
The congregation on Sunday, with Pastor Nsenduluka on extreme right.
The need of a missionary pastor
The visit of Pastor Kapambwe Nsenduluka was also intended to discuss the prospects of his being called to minister at this church as a missionary pastor. During his visit, members had the opportunity to discuss this matter with him in private and one public meeting was held with the whole church. After his departure, the church voted overwhelmingly that he should come and minister among us. The church wanted him “yesterday” but he is only able to make himself available at the beginning of 2009, due to his present engagement with Fairview Reformed Baptist Church, where he serves in the same way as a missionary pastor in an interim capacity.
In the light of Pastor Nsenduluka’s failure to obtain a work permit to labour in Botswana a few years ago, he is not taking this matter for granted. He is, therefore, asking for prayer that the Lord would be gracious to open a door into Namibia that no man can shut. To borrow his own words, “Through painful experience, the Lord has taught me not to count on human responses but on him who ‘…made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him…’ (Act 17:26–27).”
The role of the Zambian Reformed movement
We are grateful for the part that the Zambian Reformed movement has played in inspiring us as individuals to take the step we have taken to start a Reformed Baptist church. I say “inspiration” because they did not advise us to start a new church, but as many of us visited their annual conference and saw that it was possible here in Africa to have churches based squarely on the principles of Scripture, we came back resolved to see this implemented in our church. When we finally saw that we were trying to pour new wine into old wineskins, we left the Evangelical Bible Church to start Grace Reformed Baptist Church.
Since the starting of the church, brothers from Zambia have been part of us. Pastors Ronald Kalifungwa, Conrad Mbewe, Kabwe Kabwe and Kapambwe Nsenduluka have been here as speakers at different events of the church. The brothers have helped us a lot as we have been going through teething problems. They have shared the pains with us. Their involvement with us in this way has reminded us of many situations in the book of Acts where the stronger and bigger churches were helping and assisting newer and smaller churches.
We believe that the role of the Zambian movement cannot be left to the past. They can play a major role in the future as well. As we look forward to the coming of Pastor Nsenduluka, we think that more cooperation and fellowship will be feasible. We shall certainly continue attending the conferences in Zambia. We will also continue using the Zambian pastors as speakers at future church conferences and evangelistic meetings here in Namibia. Another area in which we envisage their support will be in the training of leadership in the church, and also in helping us to set up church-based ministries as is evident in their churches.
