Baptist Church didn't really commence as a result of theological inflection. It was an answer to an SOS call. We were involved quite a lot in helping a church that was almost closing down in Choma, Central Baptist Church there. So the initial work we were involved in, as you can already see, was not really theological reflections, what we ought to do, let's go. It was churches, individuals coming to us saying, please help us, and we felt this is our responsibility, let's do it. And it's from there, therefore, that the mission's work has grown. From there, we have involved ourselves in more strategic planning, where we try to fill up all the provincial capitals and the major cities. From there, we've also had an internship program where when we get interns, it's with a deliberate view towards sending them out as missionaries. We then have a church in Choma, we've got a church in Monze, we've got a church in Mazabuka, and we have a church in Kafiwe. We have just commenced a church. Further up, just before you go into Tanzania, called Mvala, that's the name of the town, a cluster of ghost people there, a number of whom have come from Kawane Baptist Church, have only recently made covenanted and asked us if we could provide oversight. But between here and Chipata, Guri Church in Nyumba, Village, Coach Tower, and then also a church in Katete. So those are the churches that we've planted. You can understand why I said I stopped counting them. They're quite a number. And we have a number of interns, again, that we're thinking about where they should go to. So a few more church plants are likely to come up soon. Everyone needs compassion A love that's never failing Let mercy fall on me Everyone needs forgiveness The kindness of the Savior The hope of nation He can move the mountains My God is mighty to save He is mighty to save forever Author of salvation He rose and conquered the grave Jesus conquered the grave All my fears and failures Filled my life again Gave my life to follow And everything I believe in Now I surrender Yes, I surrender altar of salvation. He rose and conquered the grave. Jesus conquered the grave. He shines a light in the whole wide sea. We're singing for the glory of the My God is mighty to save He is mighty to save Forever Lord to salvation He rose and conquered the grave Jesus conquered the grave A number of the places where we have our churches are not really pioneer situations. It's not places where people don't know the name Jesus Christ. But it's places where there is no or hardly present a church where you have doctrinal clarity, where you have regular expository teaching, where you have church life after the New Testament pattern. You know, a lot of what are called churches, and I think they are churches, but they've moved so far away from the biblical norms that if you've ever been exposed to anything biblical, you believe Like, there are so many people in churches, but they're basically surviving on watery porridge, if porridge at all. So, having one good, solid church in the midst of that community, you are planting a word that's going to be having a salting and lightening effect. I would say, first of all, prayer. Now, sometimes when a person says that, it almost looks like it's just an introduction, it's really going to quickly move into finances. But experience has taught us with so many churches that we are planting at the moment, that our ultimate dependence is not so much on the finances, but on the Lord himself. And the Lord is able to do much more abundantly, exceedingly beyond what we're able to ask or even imagine. So really, it's for brethren to be praying for us. The second, of course, is finances. We realize that we live in different economic setups. And some countries are better off than ours. And it's good for us to always think in terms of how can we partner together. So certainly, yes, we would like to encourage sister churches around the world to see us as an avenue of investment. Let's throw our weight into the work of missions. That's what church is all about. It's about subduing the enemy. It's about multiplying in order to subdue the earth. And I would like to see that before God calls me to glory, that the 30 to 40 churches that we have at the moment can be 400 churches. That sounds like a wild dream, but all you need to do is if each of these 40 churches plants 10, and if we've already planted so many, why can't we plant another 10 in the next 10 years? And if each one does the same thing, you put 400 solid churches across Zambia, in the region, and so forth, you don't need a lot. At that point, as Old Simeon said, take me, I'll sing your glory. One other area of challenge, It's just answering the core conditions. I'm not sure where the impression has been created that you, first of all, have to have everything in place financially before you can say, Lord, OK, now take me where you want me to go. You should already have your retirement home in place. You should have enough money in the bank to take your children through college and university All your finances are in place, then Lord, I can save you. I'm not sure where this is coming from, but I can't help picking it up everywhere. And sometimes I ask the question, maybe it's those of us who are ministers at the moment who give the impression we are suffering so badly financially. Don't come and join us, we made a major mistake. First, you have all the money in place, then come out. I hope that's not the impression we're giving. I often look my wife in the face and we look at each other and say, now, is this the impression we're giving to people? I hope not. The Lord takes care of us. And yes, there have been pockets where we've been without. But those periods have made us better Christians because we've trusted Him more. and so forth. So I'm not convinced that we don't have people in our church who don't have a sense of calling. Or maybe let me make it a positive statement. I'm convinced that we've got individuals at Kawata Baptist Church on whose heart God is knocking, saying, I'd like you to get up there and do work. I don't doubt that. But I think it's this issue of money. And really, my appeal to people who are struggling like that is trust the Lord. I'd like to speak on his behalf. To follow the words of David, I was young and now I'm old. I've never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging for bread. When the Lord gives you that little period when you're almost despairing and you cry to Him, it's simply to teach you to trust in Him. And when He comes through, He comes through in such an incredible way, you are amazed at what the Lord is doing. In fact, our own experience, Mohef and I, is that when the Lord is dealing with us and we say, okay, let's give away this, Because he's dealing with us, not because we are extra generous of ourselves, but because he's dealing with us. And we do that. Within a month at the most, he gives us so much that it's almost like, wow, aren't we glad we obeyed him. If we had been stubbornly saying, well, look, until we have something in place first, we would have never known the joy of the way in which the Lord provides. And that's really the appeal that I'd like to make to KPC members. As you can see, I've taken longer on this because that's what my passion is. Yeah. Pray for the men who are out there laboring, our missionaries. They are our foot soldiers. They are our frontline soldiers. That's where the war is thickest. They've got their own needs. which I often think about and pray for, and it would be too much to try and lay them out, but do pray for our missionaries. I look forward to every January when the troops come in. I've written some about the extended family system, a number of them are really looking after because there are so many around them. So in the midst of labouring to get the church off the ground. So really do pray for them. Pray for fruit in their ministries, conversions, because ultimately that's what church planting is, you're not trying to steal sheep from elsewhere. from their labours. Also, still with them, pray for them to be very clear as to what priorities they should have. In the midst of the demands in the community and in the family circle, it's easy for them to get sidetracked. Even the community wants them to play certain important roles in society. And it's easy for them to become little chiefs rather than fiery evangelists. So do pray that God would enable them to do that. I've also said that a number of our churches are maturing towards independence. Again, just pray for that whole process so that the way can become completely indigenous functioning on its own and we can move on and look elsewhere. It's never completely easy to go through that process and it demands humility for everybody and at the same time courage. So pray for that. Pray also for ourselves as Kabana Baptist Church in the realm of giving. We always want to be the primary givers towards the for that, that our people will grow in that respect. They are already doing a lot more than I know other churches to be doing, at least in the Zambian context. But we still have potential to do more. So pray for that. Pray also for our own men, with the encouragement of their wives, to answer the call to missions. It's such a glorious calling. To see so few rising to it makes me really want to hold some prison by the collars and say, are you blind? Look at you, silly, wake up. So I pray that God will remove the scales from so many of our men. I mean, they could handle a pulpit every week and grow a church and just pray that the Lord will move them into that kind of phase. So those would be the major prayer requests. I mean, prayer for us as elders as well, we are the center of things. We need to keep all the systems going and keep the agenda of missions. as a priority, so pray for us that we will continue to do that.