Marshal Kasongo is planting Mapalo Reformed Baptist Church in the city of Ndola, located in the Copperbelt region of northern Zambia. In his latest update, Marshal wrote:
“We have been working so hard to have the church experience the first water baptism ever as Mapalo Reformed Baptist Church. On 1st November, 2015, we baptized five people – Mrs. Cecilia Mushibwe, Peggy, Miriam, Gershom, and Chama.
Mrs. Cecilia Mushibwe’s background is Muslim. Her parents tried to convince her not to be baptized as a Christian. They told her that if she was baptized then it was going to be complicated for her family to bury her when she dies. Her father had vowed that all his children would die as Muslims. But, to his surprise, Cecilia got saved and she has become seriously in love with Jesus. She chose to disobey her parents and was baptized on 1 November. Before her baptism, she asked me to explain the theology of dying and burial, since the Muslims make a lot of emphasis on it. I explained to her that it was only Jesus who died, was buried, and raised from the dead for us. While Muhammad died and was buried, he never rose from the dead because he was not the savior for the world.
We are facing a serious Islamic challenge, and the number of Muslims is growing rapidly here in our town of Ndola. Just in the industrial area of our town, we have a multimillionaire Muslim man who has put up a large cement production company. This man is putting up mosques in the outskirts of town. Islam is growing by taking advantage of poverty and unemployment. It’s troubling to see people that we know and have even spoken to about the gospel, that they are now putting on the attire that Muslims wear, because they are attracted by the food and promised answers to their unemployment situation.”