Kantete
Village is approximately 76kms from Samfya and there is nothing there – not even
a small roadside shop stand! Six graduates of the Bible School and some of
their leaders gathered for a time of encouraging and training during the
Saturday. These graduates work together through a large number of churches and
are also active in church planting and teaching across the close border with
the Democratic republic of Congo.
They report
the common needs of bicycles to assist in the work, sleeping bags for their
mission and teaching trips, mosquito nets… They have been in receipt of Bibles
from the Bible School in the recent past, which helped them in their DR Congo
work. The bibles are sold at affordable rates to the local people and the money
raised goes to support their ministries. We are pleased that we have been able
to acquire two new bicycles which will go toward they work they are doing.
The great handshake tradition to close a service
One of the
big challenges that these local churches face is understanding their own
responsibilities to give towards supporting their workers as they go and do
mission work. 1 Corinthians 9:14 is very clear that those who preach the gospel
should get their living form the gospel, however these local churches have not
been taught well about the New Testament principles of giving. Please pray for
the Bible School staff as they endeavour to bring teaching to these rural areas
that will change the way that they look at ministry.
The graduates at Kantete
It is encouraging
to see the levels of commitment that many of these graduates have to the ministry
of the local church. Our ongoing support of the Bible School ministry ripples
out to these wide spread rural areas, and sees resources and encouragement
extended to these dear brothers and sisters.
Taking a break
Last years
consignment of bibles saw 12 boxes sent out to provide scholarships for
students at the school. This year 9 of those people are in training! The other 3
are from DR Congo and are expected next year. Again this years Bibles will be
used for the same purposes so we expect to see good numbers of students encouraged
to study (20% of Bibles). Of course there are also the bibles sent to graduates
that they sell to support their ministries (50%) and a portion that are sold at
the Bible School itself (30%), the money raised from these goes to sending the
staff out to village areas to conduct training. So as you can see support for
Bibles gets them into the hands of village Christians, but also goes to support
vital ministry!
Our Camp site at Kantete
