One of the common prayer requests I hear from our missionary pastors in Zambia is the desire for more men in the church. Mapalo (Blessings) Ndhlovu is planting Faith Baptist Church in the Copperbelt city of Kitwe. In this report, he is seeing hopeful signs in this area and other church-planting challenges:
The Need for Men
“In previous months, I have been asking for your prayers for us to have elderly and mature men that I can disciple and train for leadership. By God’s grace, we now have two older men that are willing to learn. I am currently working with them on understanding the nature of true salvation. Through my earlier discussions with them, I came to find that they don’t have a biblical understanding of salvation. I pray that God will bring them to the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. The names of these men are John and Mungangani, and they are both coming from the Twelve Apostles ‘church.’ Mr. John was one of the elder’s in that ‘church’ for some time, even when he started coming to our church. Through our regular meetings, he realized that he was teaching error to the members. The good thing with Mr. John is that he has given me humble attention when I am teaching him or when we are having a discussion.
Encouraging Response to Church Discipline
Since last month, I have been counseling with two unmarried young ladies who got pregnant and were under church discipline. It’s been a great blessing to see these young ladies respond to biblical discipline. They have made things right by confessing their sins to the church members and to their families. They also show a desire to learn from God’s word in order that they not fall into the trap of Satan again.”