Camp Nathanael

This week has been filled with the sound of children singing, playing and praying (praying to receive Jesus as their savior).

Last Saturday Lou Ann and I drove back to eastern Kentucky near Hazard. Our destination was Camp Nathanael in Emmalena (http://www.campnathanael.org/home.php). Johan Gous and his wife Lida met us there for fellowship and planning coming events in Zambia. Sunday Lou Ann and I went to Happy Bible Church to share the Word and HIMAfrica ministry to Zambia. Johan and Lida went to Bethanna Baptist Church (where I pastored for 6 years) and we all met there for lunch and fellowship. GREAT TIME.

That evening we all met with Olivia Callahan and the Gospel singing group Free Indeed. They are organizing a benefit concert for Bibles For Believers to be held August 22. Monday morning Johan and I joined "Sug" Brashere at the local Christian radio station and did an hour long interview for Bibles for Believers! It was awesome. Thank you WJMD! We then had lunch with some local pastors and shared the ministry of Hope Builders International and HIMAfrica.

Johan, Lida and Lou Ann all returned home and I stayed at Camp Nathanael as the missionary speaker for 71 children. What a great time! The first night there were a lot of children wanting to receive Jesus as their Savior. The camp theme was "Be Energized!" and I sure am! My theme with the children was "How to be a Missionary." The three lessons were 1. you must be a Christian and ALL Christians are Missionaries. 2. You must be a Sacrifice (Romans 12:1). 3. You must be Changing (Romans 12:2). We kept it simple and showed lots of pictures from Africa. What a precious privilege to teach young teachable hearts and to love them and be loved by them. Thank you Jesus!

Here are some pictures of the classes and also a blessing from Ronnie and Myrt Miller who put decals on the car! Looks really sharp!

Today (Friday 24th) I will return home after the chapel time and a few more visits with dear friends here in East Kentucky.

Reaching Out

The picture above is the Malawi Mission Team of South Africans and Americans.

Pastor Titus Shapanda is recording the names of new converts and below praying for a new believer.

Pastor "Jean Pierre" is with the crowds in Mufumbwe and below is the team of Pastors from Harvesters International Ministries Zambia. The National Leader and District Leader Denson and Titus are on the left. All the men pictured I have had to privilege to meet and teach in training seminars.

This week our team from Malawi returned with great news of God's great glory and grace! The team of South Africans and Americans led by the Spirit of God witnessed over 8000 people profess faith in Christ! The end result was that 20 new churches have been started! These churches are immediately under the care of HUB church. Leadership from that church will oversee the establishment of these new churches. The Hub pastor will begin training the new leadership that God will appoint in the coming weeks and months. The task is great but our GREAT God, the Lord Jesus Christ will build His Church. Our part in that is in obedience to His command to "make disciples."

Pray for the twenty or more new leaders that will begin their 3 years of discipleship and Bible training. The National Leader Harrison and the South African Coordinator Herbie covet your prayers.

I also received some more pictures of the outreach in Mufumbwe Zambia. I rejoice with the dear brothers that joined Denson Mushitala on this outreach. All of these men are our pastors serving in other locations but came together with the National and District Leader Denson and Titus to evangelize and new area in need of a clear gospel message and to start new churches with the new converts. Rejoice with me as you look at the pictures of these dear, faithful brothers. These are the men I am privileged to work for and represent here in the USA.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support for the work being done in Africa. The fields are white unto harvest. Many good mission work is being done most of which is oriented towards meeting physical needs. Harvesters International Ministries has many widows/orphans projects, including homes, farming projects and others, but the focus and determined aim of HIM is to plant new churches, train new pastors and make disciples of new believers.

By God's grace many thousands of souls have been been saved and over 4000 churches planted since the year 2000! God gets all the glory because HE gives all the grace. Thousands of pastors have been and are being trained by other indigenous pastors through the Hub Church Planting model.

When you partner with us in prayer and support you share in the reward of seeking and saving the lost and obeying the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ to "make disciples." Thank you! Please continue to make sacrifices that are well pleasing to the Lord as you join with these men to win a Continent that is truly ripe for harvest. The laborers are few! So pray that the Lord of the Harvest will raise up laborers.

Blessings in Christ,

Jeff Hawkins

HIMAfrica

Zambia Coordinator for Hope Builders International

Malawi Team Returns

Malawi Team, family and friends
I have spoken to Herbie (National Coordinator for Malawi/Team Leader) to make sure that they arrived safely back home (South Africa). The group arrived at home at 2:30 am this morning (Wednesday) - it has been a long haul for them but they are excited about the results of the outreach. Obviously he has not yet had the time to draw up the final report but as you have asked for any detail I received I can share the following with you giving all the Glory to our Lord:
1). The outreach groups worked with the 11 congregations that are part of the new Hub that was formed towards the end of last year - it had grown to the 11 new congregations over the last 9 months since the Hub itself was established.
2). A total of 23 villages were served during this outreach.
3). Twenty new churches have been planted in the new villages - their establishment as congregations is the first task of the Hub Leaders in that area so that they can become local congregations with a local pastor - Pastoral training will be started within the Hub System shortly
4). The Jesus Film was shown 12 times.
5). The total number of people who made contact with the work the teams were doing is estimated somewhere between 15 and 18,000 (the numbers attending the Jesus Film shows are very difficult to estimate because it is dark, people are standing in clusters and more arrive all the time as they hear the sound projected by the loudspeakers.
6). A total of 8,800 names of people who made confessions of faith were shared with the pastors so that local follow up could be done by all the participating churches.
From this it can be seen that God has answered the prayers of the saints all around the world who received the information of this outreach and undertook to pray for your safety, effectiveness in sharing the Gospel and receptive hearts of those with whom you shared the Word of God. All Praise and Honor to Father God and to the Son for His sacrificial death to open the door for us to be reconciled with the Father, under the indwelling guidance of the Holy Spirit.
What a joy to share this early info with you - the final report may change some of these figures slightly and will give more detail together with some testimonies.
If you (travelers) will send a testimony of your experience of this trip to me I would appreciate it greatly.
Blessed greetings
Johan
Hope Builders International
Africa Director

Malawi Mission Team News

Here is a word from Johan Gous the Africa Director with Hope Builders International and our liason with the team in Malawi.

I am also including some pictures from previous Mission Team in Mozambique that I participated in.
As you read you will hear the "mission" and "heartbeat" of our work in Africa. We want, by the Grace of God, to empower and impassion the "indigenous" believers to reach their own people. We believe this is how we can best, that is most efficiently, economically and speedily, reach the world for Christ.
As you read this please pray for our Team in Malawi. Pray for the local believers they are working with. Pray that both the "foreigners" and locals will be strengthened renewed in their commitment to serve Christ and represent Him to the people around them.

Be Blessed,
jeff

Dear Parents, Family and Friends of our Malawi explorers,

I tried purposefully to get hold of Herbie or Steven today but did not succeed to speak directly to them as there seemed to be problems with the cellular phone signals. I did however speak to two people who have had contact with them yesterday and this morning.

The reports from there are that they are doing well and that the work is progressing well - now from experience in such situations I can tell you that the first days are spent getting to know your team members (every one is still unsure of themselves and most times a bit shy to speak out) but by tomorrow (Wednesday) that will all have passed and they will be in the swing of playing their respective rolls that they are comfortable with.

The team is a big one (40+ South Africans) the 5 Americans and then the local Pastors and interpreters together with the 5 to 8 local congregation members who are being trained (and mentored) in sharing their faith so that they can continue doing so after the "foreigners" leave. This is the whole strategy - empowering the locals to effectively reach their own people (community) with the Gospel.

I have been assured that all are well and learning a lot from both sides - the truth is that your loved ones will return richer in general experience but also in their own faith walk with Christ while the locals will be encouraged in their Walk. It is our prayer that the locals grab the vision of how God can use them in their local situation while our trippers see the vision of how much God can do through them as they inspire the locals by encouraging them to stand firm in their faith in some pretty difficult situations - My personal prayer for each of our travelers is that God will instill in them the understanding that the continent of Africa can be won for Christ purely because the natives are so hungry for the Gospel and we have it to give in abundance if we are prepared to obey God's command to be His witnesses even to the ends of the earth (where the Gospel has not yet fully reached) something that can be done through equipping and empowering the locals.

I will be trying to get hold of them again in the morning - so until we "talk" again.

Blessed greetings
Johan Gous