Grace Baptist Church In Petauke Receives A New Pastor
(A testimony from the new pastor)

My names are Kenneth Lutina Kalondawanga. I am married to Justina and we are blessed with 5 children and two grandchildren. Grace Baptist Church in Petauke had experienced a pastoral drought for about three years after their pastor who served for more than 10 years (Lovemore Banda) stepped down from the pastorate. The leadership of two elders and two deacons was left with a membership of 35.
On December 18, 2016, I was ordained as their new pastor. I inherited a discouraged and scattered flock with 10 active members. Later, another setback happened when one of the elders who was the church’s “Barnabas” (Jackson Kasolo) got a new job and left for Lusaka. This happened soon after my ordination as the new pastor. However, the Lord who called me to take up the work was my encouragement as I was confident he knew everything that was happening. The other encouragement was that, these leaders left a good church building on a sizeable land and residential location.
Prior to taking up this pastorate at Grace Baptist Church, I was a deacon at Chiyanjano Baptist Church in Lusaka while I worked for Lusaka Baptist Church for 20 years at the back office doing administration work. This work involved being a caretaker for 8 years and then an accounts clerk for 12 years. From 2013 to 2016, I attended Lusaka Ministerial College for my Bible training. I never imagined I would find myself in Eastern Province pastoring a church. My dream after I sensed the call of God in 2013 was to go to Western Province. I shared this with my elders who confirmed my calling as they witnessed my love for souls. There were two reasons why I wanted to go and serve the Lord in Western Province:
First, I was going to have an advantage because of the Lozi language, which is my mother tongue. Second, I knew that there were very few reformed Baptist churches in the province. I wanted to help increase our presence in that province. However, God’s plans are not ours. He makes the wind blow where he wants (Jn. 3:8). He is a God of missions who crosses the barriers of culture and language (Matt. 28:19). I realised there is time for everything (Eccl. 3:1). I have now been in Petauke with my family for 7 months.

The achievements in 7 months

• I have learnt how to depend on the Lord in everything. Prayer is the answer to all our situations.
• I have also learnt the importance of preaching and the power it has to change lives.
• Leadership training is going on well.
• The church’s Word Ministries are active. The Sunday school, ladies ministry, youth ministry, home cell groups, Sunday adult Bible class, and pastoral visitations are all bearing fruits.
• Sunday morning attendance is now about 70 to 90 adults and 15 to 20 children on average.
• Many people, especially those from other denominations, want to be baptised or re-baptised.
Pass through our church or home any time. Also partner with us by praying with us for the consistence and growth of these ministries.

Kenneth Lutina
Pastor, Grace Baptist Church

Shalom Reformed Baptist Church Starts In Kasama
(A testimony from the missionary pastor)

My name is Joshua Lungu, missionary pastor in Kasama, Northern Province. My wife is Nchimunya Nkholongo Lungu and we have a nine months old son, Joshua Lungu Jnr. We thank God for the opportunity and privilege as a family to come and plant Shalom Reformed Baptist Church in Kasama. Kabwata Baptist Church sent us here at the start of 2017. Settling down in this new place has not been easy as we have had to move from one country to another. Although my wife and I are both Zambians, for many years we lived in Cape Town, South Africa, before relocating to Kasama. This meant going from one culture to the other. But through it all, we have seen the grace and faithfulness of God as a family. He has continued to protect and provide for us. Most of all, we are finding joy and gladness in seeing souls coming to Christ and getting to know the truth. As we reach out to the people and preach the gospel, it has dawned on us that there is nowhere else we would like to be as a family but here, because the harvest is plenty but the labourers are few.
I started out on my own in January this year and my family only joined me in May due to some circumstances beyond our control. I evangelised on the streets, in the shops, in the homes, and so forth. The Lord enabled me to build wonderful relationships with people. On the February 12, 2017, by God’s grace we had our first service. It was held in our house and only 1 person was in attendance. This was a young man who had received the gospel through the evangelism endeavours. Since then, the Lord has continued to cause the numbers to grow. Currently, after six months, we have moved from the house and are now meeting at Mubanga Chipoya Primary School and have an attendance of between 22 and 27 people.
By the Lord’s grace and mercy, we had our first baptism on May 21, 2017, and 3 baptismal services are on the way. We are so grateful to God who has caused all this to happen in the space of 6 months.
I have noted that a lot of people coming to the church do not understand the gospel at all. Therefore, with the Lord’s help I have embarked on teaching the gospel to individuals and families and that is going well so far.
The church is challenged with a lot of unemployment among the people attending. The illiteracy levels are also high. We are praying that as we reach out to the people with the gospel, the Lord by his grace and mercy will also impact their lives holistically. We stand in awe of what God is doing here in Kasama. All praise and glory to him.
We thank God that we are in the process of registering the church and acquiring a church plot. Please pray for us that as we preach the gospel there may be fruit. We simply want to be partners with God in what he is doing here in Kasama and Northern Province. Amen!

Joshua Lungu
Pastor, Shalom Reformed Baptist Church, Kasama

Emmanuel Baptist Church Reaches Out In Tanzania

A door has opened in Tanzania that we must praise God for. A conference with a focus on ecclesiology was held in Sumbawanga, Tanzania, from March 14 to 16, 2017. This followed a visit there by Pastor Emmanuel Sakala in November 2016. Pastor Sakala had held a seminar there with a group of people who were interested to start a Reformed Baptist church in town. He returned to Zambia convinced that the place was ripe for such an undertaking.
Sumbawanga has a population of approximately 396,000 (2012 national census) and the municipality has more than 2,000 registered employees working for government. The province thrives on agricultural and financial services and industries. The town can be compared to our Choma town in Zambia. Most of the people including the prospective church members are indigenous farmers.
I, Sydney Kombe, was the speaker at the March 2017 conference. I planned for twelve sessions. However, I could only manage to go through 6. He considered the following topics: The body of theology—worldviews & the Reformed faith, the church and her meaning, the church and her inaugural foundations (emphasis on covenant theology), the church and her structure, the church and her purpose, the church and her organisation (focus on regenerate church membership).
On the last day, Deacon Masanzi and I from Emmanuel Baptist Church in Mpika spent some time with the potential leaders, Fanuel Ibrahim, Simon Patilo, and others. These men expressed interest in seeing to it that a church planting work commences sooner than later.
The concern was raised about the individuals who had left their churches after being exposed to Reformed doctrine. The current feeling is that they have been left “hanging”. They have no spiritual direction and no guidance under sound spiritual leadership on a regular basis. This is due to the fact that they do not have regular church meetings. Therefore, they anxiously await a response from Emmanuel Baptist Church and Lusaka Baptist Church to give them a go ahead to get a church plant off the ground. During the two days conference, 20–30 men and women from the surrounding districts were in attendance, with a large number being from within Sumbawanga District and the surrounding villages. One of the encouraging highlights of the conference was the people’s hunger and thirst for more of God’s truth.
The people who attended the conference wanted to learn more about the topics on hand. The number of questions we received made it impossible to cover all that we prepared. We did not mind, as we believed it was better that people learn more from what we were able to cover by our answering the questions they had. Roman Catholics, Moslems, Pentecostals and a number of mainline churches are already in the area. The people’s culture is basically syncretistic, mystical, and superstitious. In fact, the name Sumbawanga means “pour your witchcraft”. Subtly, Islam is fast growing around this country of 50 million people. Thankfully, around Sumbawanga and some selected parts of the country, the Islam is not a physical threat to the freedom of spreading the gospel. This is because Roman Catholicism is entrenched in the majority of the people.
However, Islam continues to spread its wings of influence slowly and unrelentingly. Because of the varied faiths in Tanzania, a few have come in contact with the Reformed faith and the doctrines of grace. These are able to see the difference. They compare what they first believed with what they are now seeing in the Bible and the result is overwhelming. The Sumbawanga brethren have come to embrace these precious doctrines and have become a people of God who should be meeting regularly. Since they embraced these doctrines they have stopped attending their former churches. They are eager to starting something new, in line with the Reformed faith. This is unmistakably proving to us that Tanzania is fertile ground for the establishment and spreading of the gospel. Here are some recommendations:
1. Regular leadership trainings of the identified men must be scheduled at least across three quarters of the year.
2. Appoint an interim leadership before we finally set apart the man or men to run with the work.
3. Set up a preaching schedule incorporating saints from Lusaka Baptist Church (LBC), Emmanuel Baptist Church (EBC), and others, to help in setting pace in the unfolding of the Tanzanian Reformed work.
4. Set the Tanzanian work on at least 2 to 3 years’ probation. During these observatory years, regular meetings should be held and frequent visits should be made as we seek to establish the seriousness of the Tanzanian brethren toward the work. It would also enable us to establish the credibility of their testimonies of God’s salvation in their lives.
5. Finally, invite all of them to apply for church membership with a view to constituting membership and setting apart the identified leaders for the work.
In this way, a Reformed Baptist church will be planted in Sumbawanga. It is centrally located as the second major city from Tunduma. To use Simon Patilo’s words, and I quote: “If the church is planted at Sumbawanga, it will be easy to support the works in the villages, than vice-versa”. The Sumbawanga town and its status quo would easily promote and support the village church plants, with the help of the sending churches (LBC and EBC).
Therefore, in conclusion, I am earnestly praying that Tanzania will see Reformation take place through faithful men and women as they avail themselves to the service of God for the salvation of the sinners, the establishment of health churches, and for the edification of the saints—all for the glory of God.

Sydney Kombe
Pastor, Emmanuel Baptist Church, Mpika

An Overview Of Covenant College Zambia Trust

Covenant College is part of Covenant College Zambia Trust (CCZT), registered with the Registrar of Societies in Zambia. In its Trust Deed the work of the management is stated thus: “To advance the work of the Trust in terms of its professed aims and beliefs; namely, the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Three Forms of Unity, the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, and the Thirty-Nine Articles.” So, this is a Reformed institution!
The college is situated 400km east of Lusaka on the Great East Road, close to the town of Petauke. There are plans in the political hierarchy to turn Petauke into the capital for Eastern Province from the current town of Chipata. These future plans place Petauke today on an attractive pedestal for business and corporate investment.
Thus, the town and its peripheries are wide open for grabbing and for such investments to the ‘discerning’ opportunists. The church should not be left behind. CCZT, on the other hand, has been a ‘pacesetter’ in the entire province. CCZT embraces a vision to reach out to the entire province and beyond with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Their vision encompasses the establishment of a wide mission station, not only to train pastors, but also to promote a biblical worldview in all of life in the surrounding communities. They envision the Christianisation of culture. It is a pedestal of achieving cultural redemption. Hence, CCZT has been a pacesetter in the province.
CCZT runs three major ministries and these are the Covenant College Ministry (CCM), the Covenant College Farm (CCF) and the Christian Education Ministry (CEM). In this vision, the college is the main business of the Trust, with the farm as a support of the college and the schools as an outgrowth or extension of the college. From their inception in 2001, these three ministries were run independently of one another. They had their own leadership, financial support, and set of accountabilities towards the Trust.
Missionaries who operated as ministry leaders or directors headed these ministries. However, in the recent past, major changes were undertaken by the Trust that were seen as part of the transformation of the institution. The two significant changes were, first, the integration of the three separate ministries under one central command. It entailed that the ministries would no longer be run independently and separately. This meant that in the intervening period, the college principal would technically assume added responsibilities as CEO for CCZT. Second, the recruitment of Zambian Christians to take up leadership positions and continue the ministries of CCZT in accordance with the objectives of the Trust. This second change is partially implemented. The college (CCM) and Christian Education (CEM) are already being headed by Zambians instead of missionaries as before. The farm (CCF) is yet to make a similar recruitment.
The following is a summary of the three ministries operating under CCZT in Petauke.

The covenant college ministry (CCM)

The College was set up as a Trust in 2001. The initial purpose was to provide pastoral training opportunities to lay pastors and other men involved in the running of the various church ministries, such as elders and deacons. The catchment area for recruitment was principally the town of Petauke or the peripheral area of six or less hours of cycling away from the College. This was so as not to move away students from the context of their families, villages, and churches. A part of this overarching purpose was to ideally offer to them the best theological qualification at the lowest cost possible. Students, as a result, are charged minimally a fee of K40.00 per term inclusive of tuition, boarding, and food! As can be observed CCM has lived up to this conviction from its inception.
The college provides education at certificate and diploma level in theology. The certificate program is designed to run for two years and the diploma for three years. Today, CCM has a future challenge of expanding the current boarding facilities on site to accommodate married students with families and also be able to cater for many students coming from further afield or even beyond Eastern Province. On the agenda is the facilitation of the upgrading of the current qualification to a bachelor’s degree level.

Covenant college farm (CCF)

CCF was ideally established not only to promote a Christianity that brings all of life under the sovereignty of God (cultural redemption) but also, and more specifically, to create income for the college. This is in the hope that the mission as a whole could become financially independent. Currently, the farm survives on donor funding. This salient objective is yet to be realised. However, plans are underway to commercialise the farm and make it ideally viable for self-sustenance in the near future.
The main field crops grown at CCF’s “Abwino” farm are maize, cotton, sunflower, cassava, groundnuts, and soya and local beans. On a smaller scale, some crops are grown on a trial basis such as rice, cowpeas, sun hemp, sorghum, millet and sweet potatoes. CCF seeks to grow as many of the rain-fed field crops as possible and devises ways of increasing their yields.
The main teaching of CCF is twofold. First, it is to teach “Farming God’s Way” lessons, which apply a biblical application to Conservation Farming. Second, it is to train farmers on the benefits of integrating farming between livestock and crops. This approach is what is developed in the form of a teaching curriculum intended for the classroom teaching. CCF also has field open days, workshops, one-day seminars, farm walks, and farm visits. The target groups are the rural small-scale farmers, the surrounding communities where CCF provides the “work-for-food” program, the peasant farmers in the wider community, and the college students.

The Christian education ministry (CEM)

The general vision of the CEM is to give basic material support to Christian community schools across Eastern Province with dedicated teachers and training. CEM emphasises religious education and the general Christian character of education. Currently, CEM manages 40 community schools where the program for religious educational is supported. So far, there are only five CEM trainers responsible for the implementation of the work in the 40 villages. There is an urgent need to increase the number of trainers.
CEM also holds an annual teachers conference for the community Christian schools. The college hosts the conference. During such meetings, a lot of attention is put on lessons about sharing Bible stories, literacy, Christian worldview, and the role of teachers in the education of children.
Last year, CEM managed to accept and open 10 new schools that applied to be recognised as Christian schools. The ministry also managed to procure a motorbike, which is enabling them to monitor their satellite schools on a regular basis.

Conclusion

2017 has been a year of much activity at CCZT and our prayer is that, with God’s grace, we will be able to achieve much progress. We covet your prayers for the college as we move forward.

Emmanuel Sakala
Principal, Covenant College Zambia Trust

Covenant College Receives A New Principal

This year in January, Covenant College Zambia Trust (CCZT) recruited a new Principal in the name of Emmanuel Sakala who took over from Dr George Kalengo, a Malawian, who served less than two years before resigning to take up another job in Malawi. Historically, missionary pastors have occupied this position at CCZT since its inception. So, this is the first time that a local man has taken up the mantle. This development is a decisive step for CCZT in its ministry to the pastors.
Pastor Sakala is coming from Fairview Reformed Baptist Church where he served as a local pastor for over 7 years before answering the call to CCZT. He also serves as a board member of the Copperbelt Ministerial College (CMC) based in Ndola, Zambia, and the Kenya Reformed School of Theology (KReST) in Kisumu, Kenya.
CCZT is a strategic institution located in Petauke in the Eastern Province of Zambia. The college prides itself in running three ministries; namely, pastoral training, farming, and Christian education support. The doctrinal position of the college is based on the Reformed confessions; such as the Westminster Standards, the 1689 Baptist Confession, the Thirty-Nine Articles, and the European Three Forms of Unity. This identity is what qualifies the college to be of Reformed foundation and persuasion. However, in spite of this identity, the college serves as an interdenominational training institution catering for students from protestant churches mainly in the Eastern Province of Zambia.
Incidentally, it caters for a special niche of pastors and church leaders who are unable to fund their quest for theological training due to lack of finances and opportunities. CCZT bridges this link by providing theological training and accommodation at next to no cost to them. The college provides certificate and diploma programs.
With the new man at the helm of CCZT there is already evidence of new signs of improvements taking place at the college. Top on the agenda is an improvement in the number of enrolments this year. For instance, the number of students improved from 9 students last year to 26 enrolments this year! There are also new buildings being constructed on campus, a quest that will hopefully give a new lease of life. No doubt these developments are going to enhance the work of Reformation and the advancement of the gospel in the province and the country at large.
Please join and continue to pray for Pastor Sakala and his family and the college staff in general as they labour together in the ministry so that they may know success in the Eastern Province of Zambia.