Zambia Testimonies – To God Be The Glory!!

Below are some testimonies we received from a few brothers and sisters in Zambia.  We have permission to post them without their names – after all, we want Jesus to increase and for us to decrease.  It is so exciting though to hear how God is working through His Holy Spirit and can’t help but share with all of you these little excerpts.

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I know you may wonder how l can testify because l was not contributing or asking questions during our launching. I am not so educated but the Lord has blessed me with understanding English although l can not speak or write it well. I am writing this testimony through my wonderful husband who is translating for me.

The days we were together were different from all the days in my life as the Holy Sprit was speaking and ministering to me, revealing our mistakes we were making when planting churches. We have served the Lord for more than 25 years pastoring and planting churches. What we learned was so unique and very challenging. I truly regretted the wasted years we spent not doing everything with the owner of  the church, Jesus Christ. The material in CPM for God’s plan to planting churches is really a changing life. We missed Jesus way and again we could not apply Paul’s way but adopted the Western world system. May the Lord have mercy on us. The manual is fully packed with all that can bring a change. Thank Holy Spirit, thank you  To God be all the glory.

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Greetings in the blessed name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Where ever Jesus is a great change occurs or happens and this is what really happened in Lusaka, Zambia. Before brother team came l had the real conviction that the Holy Spirit was going to do something extra ordinary when we meet for God’s plan on Church Planting. Yes, it happened. The Holy Spirit convinced us that we missed something and then He showed us and we repented for the mistakes we made in the past. We thank God for his grace that he could come to correct us at the right time as we want to plant his churches with Him. We are now  Jesus’ partners as He builds his church. Never let God bypass you.

I was not seeing Tim but the Holy Spirit as he was teaching and l was all the time being highly motivated by the lessons. The teaching was really new and life changing to my personal life and to the church in Zambia. Churches in Zambia have  Western  systems artificially imposed upon them and they are so different from the Church which Jesus said he was going to build in Matthew 16:18 and the churches Paul planted. Thank God that we are going to plant indigenous churches in the proper sense of the word of God. Paul has provided the tools for our foundation and that is his letters. I am so glad to tell you that immediately we came back we started to lay the foundation on our  local church which will be the model for the other churches, we taught and things are happening. We want to to see the power of God manifesting now even as we teach than in the past, we must allow the Holy Spirit to work in us and in the church. Oh praise Jesus. Glory be to God.

We are looking forward to our next work shop to take place as soon as possible. We are ready for a CHANGE.

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Greetings in the name of Jesus our Lord

My testimony is, from the time finished the teaching about the church planting, a change started to take place inside me and l started to recall my past work which l actually considered to be done in vain and l regret because the foundation was not as l have  learnt. I have noticed that all the years l spent doing the work of God  was really  nothing ,how l wish l could go back and do it  in Paul’s way. I thank God that the change has started with me so that others may emulate from me and then the church will indeed have a biblical foundation. My change will also affect my family which will influence the church and the community. We would like to translate the material into our local language if God provides the needed funds for translation.Tim, please do not take long to come back.
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I am so humbled with what our Lord is doing. Brother, our service today was also different and this is because our homes are changing. Please pray as l meet the leaders tomorrow. ” Let Him increase and us decrease.”

Delhi, India – A Great Hunger For Christ

Friday night, I was in great despair because I knew if the Lord did not step in and heal me, there was no way I was going to be able to fly out of Lusaka Saturday morning due to stomach problems. Lusaka is not the ideal place to be sick, “no place like home.”  But all the worry was of no value, the Lord healed me or should I say, “He sealed me,” and I departed Zambia on time.

I Arrived Delhi, India via the soccer crazed Johannesburg and flooded Mumbai Sunday morning after thirty hours of traveling. Fregy was hanging in there after my flight was delayed two hours. We immediately headed off to speak at a new church, meeting in a home on the site of a police station. After bringing a brief message we ate and fellowshipped together, probably much like the early church. Than we headed back to lodging where I fought sleep until 10pm knowing that if I went to bed early, I would not sleep through the night. Had a good sleep and was up early Monday rested and fired up ready to launch GPCP with about 30 key church planters located outside of Delhi at the Agape Camp. This camp and ministry is headed by Dr. Alex Abraham, a surgeon who has dedicated his life to reaching the unreached people groups in India. Pray for him since he had a stroke at his father’s funeral last week.

We completed the GPCP with these key leaders, with many showing a great hunger and interest in getting back to the way of Christ and the apostles. One thing the Lord did reveal to us, as usual, we lack much of the leadership and power of the Holy Spirit. Two areas which were lacking was our intimacy with Christ and relationship with their wives. The Lord did not move exactly like He did in Lusaka, bringing confession and repentance, but He did convict and reveal just as Paul told the Thessalonians, “the Lord is faithful. He will establish you…”

We closed out the launch last night with much zeal and enthusiasm to complete the preparation work for a December four day workshop. I could already see the seed falling on some fertile soil. The increase is the Lord’s responsibility and this He will do in His own way and time. I often think about the slow work of those who have gone before, like Hudson Taylor, John and Betty Stam and many other saints who went to China. Little did they know after they were home with the Lord that God would be bringing thousands, actually, millions to Himself? So, we remain faithful to sow the precious and powerful Seed, the Word of God, leaving the results to the Lord of the harvest.  But we still pray that the Lord of the harvest will send forth laborers into His field which IS ripe for harvest. God is truly moving in these last days. He is looking for those vessels for honorable purposes that are willing to change and abandon themselves completely, set apart as holy, useful to the master and ready for every good work.

Today, we leave by bus for Rajasthan. You can see on the map below that Rajasthan is one of the least reached states in India with less than 1 percent Christian.  We were going to go by train, but the BJP party is striking the trains and in the north, the Maoists have threatened train bombings today and tomorrow. India remains an exciting and opportune place, probably the “last frontier for the Gospel.”

I have enclosed a picture of the world showing all the unreached people groups with purple dots. Guess what area is almost solid purple?  Yes, India, the last nations or people groups to be reached in fulfilling Matthew 24:14. Finally Brothers, pray that the Word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, that He will make our love increase and abound for one another so that He may establish our hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanks for your prayers and encouragement along this incredible journey the Lord has graciously allowed us to participate with Him. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen!

In Christ, Tim

…Spark A Revival Of The Church In Zambia And Beyond!

I sensed before I went to Zambia that God was going to do something incredible there. There were two contributing factors to this.  The first factor was that I was being convicted about teaching and preaching about the work of the Holy Spirit while not completely walking in His fullness and under His leadership. The second reason was Henry from Zambia.  Henry was sensing that God was going to do a great work there. Incidentally, Sherman and Chris picked up on this in their communication with Henry.

I have taught through Acts and the GPCP manual many times and after the dust settles, there is usually little that really looks like Acts with the exception of a few isolated stops such as in Myanmar, China and Laos.  I am always very thankful and privileged to work with God in these areas.

The conviction that lead up to this resulted from our visit to China last year when Chris and I saw firsthand a mighty work of the Spirit which looked like a modern day incarnation of the early church in Acts. I remember at one of the services weeping as I realized that I was missing something and did not have what they had. It was then that the Holy Spirit directed me to the church in Laodicea found in Revelation 3:14-22. Since then, the Lord has been knocking on my heart but I have resisted the knock by telling myself that the Lord has not called me to the West.  This was my escape from having to face my pride.

However, this time I knew things were going to be different.  I could not and would not teach even one more word for Jesus’ sake unless I knew the Holy Spirit was leading and controlling me. I wanted to stay home, but I departed not really knowing what was going to happen.

When we started our meeting, as is customary, we compared the early church with their contemporary church and as church planters, we contrasted our ministries with Paul’s. We all collectively knew in our hearts that something was missing.  It was at this point we all sensed the Holy Spirit convicting us from continuing on until we had confessed and repented of thinking that we are rich, prosperous, in need of nothing, not realizing that we are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. I realize how you might be wondering how this concept can be in such a poverty-stricken country as Zambia, but we were not referring to “physical poverty” but “spiritual poverty.”

A religious tradition of self-righteous pride has been mixed into the church all across Asia and Africa. This tradition has often been propagated by Western good intentions and that includes me as well. In all fairness, we must realize that this also occurred in the early churches of Ephesus and Laodicea about 40 years after they were established. Sorry Lord!

You see, much of the Zambian Church, although located in a very poor country, is in a similar situation as the Western Church. I think Watchman Nee gave us a great insight into the Western Church. At the conclusion of his visit to the USA years ago, he was asked what impressed him most about our churches, ministries and missions. He thought about it for a minute and then replied, “I am amazed at what the Western Churches can do without the Holy Spirit.” Sadly, we continue to take this philosophy overseas.

In conclusion, the results in Zambia were tremendous! It was like dead bones coming alive. I have had some powerful times going through the Scripture and the GPCP manual but NEVER have I sense the power and life of Christ in a more captivating way. Please pray that this will spark a revival of the church in Zambia and beyond.

Lord, we need you.  We need to buy from You gold refined by fire so that we may be truly rich, white garments so that we may clothe ourselves in purity and the shame of our nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint our eyes so that we may truly see.  I believe He is knocking today, “If anyone hears His voice and opens the door, He will come in to him and eat with him and he with Me.”