A Letter from Kabwata

I attended the Family Conference today. Pastor Bob Dickie again started with his salvation testimony and how it led to a mini-revival. He then preached on Sola Gratia (“by grace alone”) from Ephesians 2:1–10. He dealt with the need for grace, the work of grace, the source of grace, and the purpose of grace. He gave a quick tour of the New Testament showing its emphasis on grace. He showed the logic of this truth by starting with the fact that unbelievers are spiritually dead and the Bible refers to salvation as recreation, resurrection, and rebirth. In each of those pictures, the beneficiary is passive while God is active!
The second preacher was Dr Voddie Baucham. He preached on the necessity of creeds and catechisms in gaining a proper understanding of the truths that were brought out in the Reformation.
In the afternoon, the Lusaka Ministerial College had their second graduation. Pastor Bob Dickie was the guest of honour and 5 students graduated. Pictures are the best witness and so…

The 2017 Zambian Reformed Conferences (plural because there are two conferences running in parallel but being united in the evening sessions) are being held at the Dream Valley Lodge in Lusaka from Monday 21st to Friday25th August. This is the 28th year of these conferences but only the second to be held at this venue. And what a venue! There are few places in Lusaka where you can have a conference while seeing Kudus and Zebras roaming freely around. 



The conference began promptly at 18.30 hours as scheduled with the singing of “Jesus paid it all”. Charles Bota, the conference organizing committee chairman, led the meeting.
“Yours truly”, on behalf of Pastor Ronald Kalifungwa who chairs the inter-church elders meetings that host this conference, welcomed all who were present. Countries already present were America, Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, South Sudan, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and Zimbabwe. Attendees from Tanzania and Malawi were still on th…

It has been a joy pouring our lives into 6 men who have left their homes (and for some of them their countries too) to come and experience the pastoral internship at Kabwata Baptist Church. I asked each of them to share how they have found this experience. Here is what they say!
Andrew Mulendema (from Lusaka) says, “It is a privilege to be part of this internship program here at Kabwata Baptist Church. I beg to express my experience, challenges, and the great lessons I have learned. To start with, my experience in this first six months has been a great joy. Very few churches have such internship programmes. The love and care the church offers to us, the fellowship and the liberty we are given to interact with all, and the freedom to do our work without close supervision is great. The great lessons learned have been integrity, discipline, hard work, and creativity.”
Ntungamili Mashumba (from Botswana) says, “During the first six months of my internship in Kabwata Baptist Church, I have …

Today, the remains of Erroll Hulse, a dear friend and elder statesman in the Reformed faith, will be interred in Cuckfield, England. My mind is, therefore, very much in that part of the world as the sun comes up here in the heart of Africa. I wish I could be there to witness the ending of an era.

(Correction:The burial of Erroll Hulse's remains took place on Monday 21st August, 2017)
For those of you who do not know Erroll Hulse, here is what I found on the Semper Reformanda website: “Erroll Hulse was born at Fort Beaufort in the Cape of South Africa in 1931. He graduated from Pretoria University, 1954, in architecture and later studied at London Bible College. In 1957 he co-founded The Banner of Truth with Iain Murray. Hulse also serves as editor of Reformation Today (since 1970) and director of Evangelical Press (since 1974). His pastoral experience includes Cuckfield (1962-1984), Liverpool (1984 to 1988) and as elder and associate pastor at Leeds Reformed Baptist Church (1988 t…

Every so often when engaged in discussion on the subject of the prosperity gospel, I hear voices sympathetic to this doctrinal poison say, “But surely God does not want us to be poor, does he?” This is viewed as a trump card, as if there is no middle ground between being stinking rich and being in abject poverty. The Bible has many texts that answer that question.
People who say such things suffer from deliberate amnesia. They choose to forget the words of the wise man who prayed to God, saying, “Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God” (Proverbs 30:7-9).
If you survey the Bible you will not find a single verse that warns you against the detrimental spiritual effect of material poverty. Yet you will find many passages in the Bible warn…