ZAMBIA REPORT—Barry Haigh—PRAYER POINTS

1. The problem of spiritual darkness—animism— amongst Believers. Some would tend to believe the witch doctor rather than a fellow Christian who has done them no wrong.

2. Pray for President Rupiah Banda—it is not known if he is a Christian. The previous President, Levy Mwanawasa, was a Christian before he died of a stroke in 2008.

3. AIDs, malnutrition, and poverty are major problems, and 86% of population earn less than 50p per day. The young people want to get educated but cannot afford it. There is not much Muslim influence, but the poverty situation has opened a door for them. They are offering to pay for education from Primary School right through to University for those who become Muslims.

4. Barry & Rachel Haigh’s work has concentrated on meeting the need of the Body, Mind and Spirit:

Body— the team at Nyagombe have undertaken to provide inoculations and worming tablets at a cost of £5 per person per year. Families have been given a pair of pigs free of charge if they will build a small enclosure to keep them. All the water has to be filtered and boiled to make it fit for consumption.

Mind— they wanted to develop people’s minds so that they could read, which would enable them to search the Scriptures for themselves. So they have taught literacy and the use of computers to prepare the young folk for jobs in the 21st century. They’ve taught them carpentry and other building trades, and the use of sewing  machines.

Spirit—the Scriptures have been taught—the spiritual side is the most important. The Bible translation that existed didn’t make sense to the Lunda people, so 11 years were spent by 5 Missionaries + 5 Lunda believers revising the old Bible into modern Lunda and this is now available. The Scriptures are taught in a systematic way, Old and New Testaments,  History, Structure of the Bible, what the Bible teaches about Witchcraft, Family Life, Sex and Marriage, How to study, teach, and preach the Word of God, seminars for Sunday School teaches, etc. The Lunda evangelists can preach very well but are not strong on teaching. Hence a Bible School has been set up so that our Zambian friends can be taught how they can teach others. Please pray for these Zambian Christians as they go through these studies.

Please pray for Barry and Rachel as they go back to Zambia in August till late October, 2009.