JSM-Langham Preaching in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is often in the news because of the distressing stories of economic and social disruption, and so it is good to report the encouraging news of the further development of the Preaching program in Harare, once again held in conjunction with ‘Keswick Zimbabwe’.
During the first week of October in 2005 nearly 100 participants came to Central Baptist Church in Harare for a three day seminar, and we were delighted to welcome pastors, lay preachers and students from across the city and beyond. It was specially encouraging to see a good mix of denominations and churches represented, as well as large numbers from several theological seminaries.
Femi Adeleye and Jonathan Lamb were leading the seminar, combining this with evening Bible expositions from Isaiah’s Servant Songs as part of the Keswick programme. The local coordinating team did a fantastic job keeping everything on track, and we hope that there will be possibilities of further development of the preaching program in 2006.
Femi Adeleye is IFES the Regional Secretary for English and Portuguese speaking Africa, and lives in Harare with his family. He is also serving as a Langham Preaching facilitator, and has not only helped with the Zimbabwe program but was able to launch the Ghana program with Rodney Wood earlier in 2005.
The churches in Zimbabwe continue to grow and, despite the severe pressures of living in an unstable situation with hyper-inflation, the believers demonstrate a great deal of courage in their commitment to Christian service in their communities. We would like to encourage you to pray for the country and for the Christians. In particular, please pray for:
- The political and economic crisis to be resolved;
- The Christians in poor communities and rural areas to be sustained in their day-to-day lives;
- The churches to have wisdom in their Christian witness in a society under pressure;
- The local team to know what is best as they plan for the preaching program and the Keswick events in 2006.
For further information on the Langham Preaching program, please contact Jonathan Lamb (email: jonathan@langhampartnership.org).