new congregations

Opening new congregations

My last days in Zambia are going to be busy. We are planning on refurbishing a few more wells. We also will be working on planting (they say opening here) two congregations.

I have written before about the congregation at Chitumbi. But with Gilbert Mutelesi’s visit to the Dakota area I learned a bit more about procedure. He had made contact with an individual who was interested in the church. But protocol says you do not just move in and act without informing the headmen and getting their (or his) approval.

So, Gilbert went yesterday and met with the young man he had spoken with last week. Together they went to the head man and requested permission to “bring the church” into the village.

Dakota area is not one village but six villages. He informed Gilbert that the head men would meet to discuss it. I do not see any of this as a problem. This is one of the benefits to our water work. We (the church) are known to most everyone in the district. On Saturday we will return and hear their decision. They will appoint a day for the event and then there is a village “crier” who will announce it to all in the villages. They may even allot a central plot as a place for the church to meet. We shall see…but it looks good.

Chitumbi is different but the same. The protocol is the same but there were over 30 people requesting the church to come. One of the was the headman of Chitumbi so everything was fulfilled by his participation. Chitumbi is a single village instead of a group. We will be going there on Friday of this week.

Keep all this in prayer.

More to come…

Charles

Siavonga, Zambia