Dear Friends and Family,
Warm greetings to you in the Name of Christ! As our special Christian family, we invite you to be a part of God's work in Zambia through prayer.
Since early spring, we have been in preparation for the exciting 2011 Zambia ET (Evangelism Training) Conference! Boxes of training materials have been sent by Fed Ex, arriving safe and sound. For the first time, we were blessed to print the ET Training Books in Lusaka, Zambia, a huge savings in shipping costs. Also new this year, the Darien, Connecticut High School Band donated dozens of warm sweaters and jackets for youth to our Zambia mission......a tremendous blessing for the cold African winter season.
We are thrilled to announce, the time has come for the yearly conference!!! Tomorrow morning (Monday August 8th through the Friday, the 12th) the 2011 ET Zambia Conference will begin! It will take place in the Southern Province of Zambia in the area of Livingstone, near Victoria Falls. What an appropriate location as it is near the memorial of David Livingstone, one of the first missionary's to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Africa.
We are expecting 120 pastors and church leaders from the near by villages to attend. Our ET Team, under the leadership of Pastor Maxen Phiri (pictured) and his faithful wife, Stellia, are on their way right now from Lusaka with other team members in a rented truck/van carrying all the training materials, food, and necessary living supplies for 5 days and nights for all who attend. Tents will be set up, with straw mats for sleeping. A cooking team will supply 3 meals per day with several big pots over smoking bon-fires.The conference will be held on the grounds of the Libuyu Church which is slowly being built by the members of the church. (pictured below-April, 2011)
Since 1997, Bob and I saw clearly the great spiritual need to help the tribal/church leaders become their own missionaries and evangelists. They are an intelligent, peace-loving people who take great pride in being given the opportunity to be equipped to serve the Lord.
Since that time, we have complied freely given materials and experienced the joy of teaching Zambia pastors and church leaders how to share the Gospel effectively and boldly. We have watched them grow with great effectiveness, leading literally hundreds of their own people to the saving knowledge of Jesus. Best of all, it doesn't stop there...it multiplies! The new ET graduates return to their villages to continue their own ET training classes as enthusiastic, effective church leaders. It is the ET commitment to give free training materials (in their common language) to every ET class throughout Zambia. With 72 different Zambia tribes and languages, there is virtually no way foreign missionaries can spread the Gospel as quickly as the Zambia people themselves.
In 2007, following my major surgery, Bob and I gladly turned the teaching role over to Pastor Maxen Phiri who was one of our first trainees in 1997. As a result of ET, Maxen became devoted to winning souls for Christ, held ET classes faithfully, went to seminary, was ordained as a Baptist pastor, became pastor of the Jack Baptist Church and was even voted by his peers as President of the Lusaka Baptist Pastor's Convention. With the growth of the ET Ministry, I rejoice to tell you as of January, 2011, Pastor Maxen now works full time as our ET partner. Together, he and Bob have set up a 10 year plan to reach all the provinces of Zambia for Christ.
It would be a great blessing to have you join us daily this week in lifting up the 2011 ET Conference in prayer. Following are special prayer requests:
- May the ET Team accompanying Pastor Maxen & Stellia Phiri arrive safely from Lusaka, without any hindrance or truck problems,both coming and going.
- May the ET Trainees also have safe journeys to the conference as they walk, ride bikes, and if they are fortunate, get a ride in the back of someone's truck.
- May the trainees have excellent memory retention as they learn a Biblical outline, memorize scriptures and illustrations in learning how to the share the Gospel effectively.
- May all those who "hear and understand the true Gospel message" open their heart and life to a renewed obedient walk and relationship with Jesus Christ as their only Savior and Lord, giving up all other false religious practices they have learned from their ancestors.
- May Pastor Maxen and his team be filled daily with the Holy Spirit, speaking and teaching effectively and clearly the truths of God's Word as recorded in the Bible. May God be glorified!
- May many local people come to know Jesus Christ, accepting Him as their Savior and Lord, as a result of the "daily ET on-the-job team training" in the community.
- May God provide an inspirational Praise & Worship team!
- May God provide an amazing Cooking Team of ladies!
- May Graduation Day on Friday, with the handing out of ET certificates, be the "beginning of a revival in the Southern Province of Zambia!" May God call and use every ET graduate to serve Him in the days ahead: as missionaries, evangelists, church planters, pastors, deacons, elders, Bible teachers....powerful witnesses for Jesus Christ.
- May the enemy be bound in the Name of Jesus from causing distractions, confusion or harm to any one attending the ET Conference.
- May God continue to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ in Zambia through the ET Ministry in the years ahead, reaching all the Provinces and tribes by 2020. Amen and Amen!
With love and thanks to you all in Christ Jesus,
Bob & Ann Kuefner, Maxen & Stellia Phiri and our precious supportive families
(picture taken in August, 2010 in Zambia with some of the Phiri family)
" How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" Romans 10:14-15
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