Dear Praying Friends,
I am so excited to share with you some answers to prayer, and how God is working in our ministry here in Zambia. When I last wrote to you, I was asking you to pray for some our upcoming outreach and ministry opportunities. I am thankful to say that the Easter conference I was privileged to preach at was a huge blessing, and we had a great turnout. There are five churches east of Lusaka that are being pastored by Zambian pastors that met together for the Easter conference and we praise the Lord that there were some professions of faith through this. I will be returning out there and camping out a night this week in order to help a Zambian evangelist named Douglas Sakawaha to teach a pastors training class. We are going through I & II Corinthians with these pastors. The greatest need we are finding in these churches is a continuation of Bible training to help them as they pastor their churches. They have been working hard, and God is blessing their ministries. We are glad to just be a help and guidance as they do the work.
On May 16th, our son Henry Finn Robinson was born here in Zambia. We thank the Lord that my wife had no complications, and that the birth process went well. In the past few years, there was a new hospital built which has very good care, and we thank the Lord for it. When my son was born, he had to be put on a CPAP machine for a couple of days in the NICU, and ended up staying for several days. This created some challenges, but he is completely healthy and growing fast now. We thank God for his healing, and also for the good hospital where we could feel comfortable with them treating him.
As you know, part of our burden has been to start a church here in the southern part of Lusaka, or at least to help with that process. A fellow missionary here in the city, Justin Sauder, and I had been doing a Bible study at our house once a week, and God began to open doors and answer prayers. We started with a couple families who had a desire for a Bible preaching church, and through this we have seen this growth. Once we saw the desire, we began searching for a place to meet, which had been a struggle for me before, but through some of the individuals in the Bible study God opened up a plot for us to meet on temporarily. It is just a tent in a grassy plot, but it has been perfect. The owners allow us to meet there rent free, which is a huge blessing, and even provided the tent and chairs for us to use for now. We have now shifted the Bible study to Sunday, and through that have had many visitors attend. We have now been meeting for about 3 weeks, and have seen an average of 35 people every Sunday which is a huge start. This Bible study which we are planning to Lord willing charter as a church in the upcoming months is in a part of Lusaka that has been largely neglected by churches due to the proximity to many mosques and a large Muslim population in the city.
As we have continued praying for direction in the Bible Study and where our future meeting will be, we ran into another hurdle. Bro. Sauder had been given some money for some land for a future church, and we had been saving and looking around for land in the area. While searching, we saw the price of land kept increasing and the availability diminishing. We prayed for God to open the door, and through prayer God has provided, through one of our supporters, the money needed to buy rest of the land we had been looking at! The land is about 2.45 acres, and not far from one of the new tarmac roads in the city. It will have easy access to public transport, which so many people need, but also it is located in the heart of a quickly developing part of the city.
God’s provision for this in such a miraculous way shows His power in such a real way. We are humbled to be used by God in this way, and are thankful for the clear direction God has been giving us. All these things over the past 2 months have been absolutely exciting to watch. We see God bring the people, the temporary location, the money,and now the permanent location all in a matter of 2 months. Although this may seem so fast, Bro. Sauder began praying for something like this years ago. When we moved to Lusaka, we began praying about how to do this, and what God would like us to do, or what part we should have. The people who were the first to come to the Bible Study have also been praying for something like this for a couple years. God has slowly been orchestrating our paths and allowing us to come together “For Such a Time as This.” What an honor to be serving on the field here. Please be in prayer for this Bible study as we progress to the chartering of a church. Pray that God gives wisdom and direction.
We as a Bible study are saving money and making plans for the developing of the land and all those steps that will be involved. There are many things we will have to do in developing some type of a structure on the land to meet in, if you are wanting to give something toward the church plant, we can tell you some specific needs.
Praise the Lord for his goodness. Please pray for this ministry as we know our adversary Satan would like nothing more then to destroy this light in southern Lusaka. Please pray that we remain strong and that the Light of the Gospel will shine forth so that lives can be changed. I feel like I can’t share all of what has transpired to get us here, but we thank you for your prayers and support, and we just want to report to you our supporters and prayer partners what great things God is doing.
Sincerely,
Caleb, Abby, Rosalie, Oliver, and Henry Robinson
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