Grace Baptist
Church – Eldoret
September
2014 Prayer Letter
Dear Friends,
The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy
forewarning him of times of difficulty ahead, he said:
“For
people will be lovers of self, lovers of money…without self-control…lovers of
pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but
denying its power. Avoid such people.” (2 Tim.3:1ff)
This is a strange way otherwise to
begin a Prayer Letter. However, as we sat in front of our church Tent of
Meeting talking with our Deacon, a man ‘Prayer Warrior’ (for that is what they
call themselves) from one of the Word of Faith churches was visiting in the
neighbourhood and answering a caller on his mobile phone. The one-sided
conversation went like this:
‘Let
me tell you, we are so busy we cannot come for a prayer worth 10 Bob [less than
a penny]…No, mark my words, we are so busy, we can only pray to God for big
things not for flu or common aches and pains...’
My
heart sunk and I felt so sad. I had had that men pray for money but I had never
come so close to hearing a ‘prayer man’ turn away a needy person because the
price tag would not be met! Upon hearing that, my wife in a cunning way said,
“my dear we shall remain poor!”
Church Plot Update
The many visits to the Lands and
Municipal Offices have continued. Both the architectural and structural
drawings are ready and together with the Certificate of Change of User
application are all submitted. We however learned that all land matters for
considerations and approvals are put on hold by the Governor till further
notice! Please pray with us that the Sovereign Ruler of heaven and earth will
move the hearts of all concerned. When we consider the fees and delays involved
at every stage of the process, we now understand why so often many people fall
into the temptation of corruption.
Naphtally, Bill, Michael and Sam at the Conference
Running Forward, Remaining Faithful
Together with Pastors Sam Oluoch
and Michael Maura, colleagues in the ReCFoK and Pastor Bill Issa from Uganda we
were privileged to attend the 25th Reformed Conference in Lusaka
Zambia. We arrived on Saturday 23rd August and the following Lord’s
Day preached in various churches. I preached for Pastor Ronald Kalifungwa at
Lusaka Baptist Church in the morning and in Pastor Conrad Mbewe’s Kabwata Baptist
Church in the evening.
From 25th to 29th
some one thousand five hundred people gathered daily at Lusaka Baptist Church.
The Conference theme was “Running Forward, Remaining Faithful.” Pastor
Kalifungwa gave the keynote address saying that ‘Running Forward’ is all about
missions. It is taking the gospel to every part of Zambia, the rest of Africa
and indeed to the West also. ‘Remaining Faithful’ relates to the Doctrines of
Grace. This is the other great thing that can happen to one after conversion.
The two main speakers were Pastor
Voddie Baucham and Pastor Ken Jones both from USA. Voddie handled the ‘Running
Forward’ showing very convincingly from Genesis to Revelation that our God is
always on mission; that God expects His people to always be on mission and that
the whole of Biblical revelation has missionary tone from beginning to end and
finally the consummation of all things come at the end of mission.
Ken Jones very ably day by day
took and expounded each of the five points (TULIP) of the Reformed Faith which
Charles H Spurgeon once called “the revealed truth of God as it is Christ
Jesus.” Ken would take each Doctrine, set forth its statement, then extract
summary teachings from the same and finally draw out applicable observations.
Pastor Conrad Mbewe gave the
closing address by asking a pointed question ‘what difference will all this
make to us from here onwards?’ Using Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians
Dr. Mbewe brought out two important points:
1.
Gratitude – Reformation in
Zambia has
truly been God’s work and He is
worth all praise. 30 years ago there was no Reformed Baptist Church in Zambia.
Now there are 40 English speaking RBC in the whole country with 10 of these
within Lusaka the capital city. He then added that ‘Humility does not mean
denying what God has done but accepting what He has done and giving Him the
glory.’
2.
Anxiety about tomorrow – (1)
Greatest
fear is toleration of gospel
error. He underscored that while the gospel is our life-line, it is being
diluted in the present church. (2) Lose of unity in the years ahead. Pastor
Conrad reiterated that it is important for leaders to meet and talk over issues
that they don’t agree on. Reformed movement is first of all about the Bible so
we must go as far as the Bible goes. Infighting robes any group of the energy
they need for the work of the Lord; mission.
It
was greatly commendable how the organizing committee handled the daily
logistics including the challenges that arose as they sought to provide the
best meals possible for such a large multitude. Brothers and sister opened
their homes for visitors, took time off from work and used their resources to
make the 25th Reformed Conference a success. It was at this
conference that I marked my 50+10 years!
Way forward for Kenya and the rest of Africa
After the Conference, we were
again invited to preach in different churches which saw me preach for Pastor
Kennedy Sunkutu at Kafue Baptist Church about 45 Km from Lusaka. But September
1st Monday night was in all ways the climax as the Reformed Baptist
Zambian leaders met with the ReCFoK Kenya together with our Ugandan Brother.
Meeting of Reformed Zambian & Kenyan (ReCFoK) Learders
In the spirit of
Colossians 4:7-9 we shared with our Zambian Brothers all about our activities
so that they may be able to know how we are and that they may encourage our
hearts. We in deed were encouraged and challenged in no small measure.
We stood in admiration and praise
to God as we considered that once upon time we were at par with them where
Reformed movement was concerned. That however is not the case today and we
sought to understand ‘why’ and ‘how’. The answer to the ‘why’ is certainly the
sovereignty of God. But the answer to the ‘how’ is strategy. They have laboured
over the past thirty years on the principle that the river flows naturally
downwards. Thus they invested initially among the Universities and Colleges. As
these men and women graduated and got posted to different towns of Zambia, they
were never satisfied with anything less than Expository Preaching and Reformed
Biblical style of worship. Where these were not available, church plant work
would soon commence. With such urban church plants, the Pastor was almost
immediately supported by the local church. The results are the statistics
presented above by Pastor Mbewe. It is now they are channelling their ‘missional-energy’
towards the vernacular and rural Zambian. What a strategy! It is both Biblical
and it works! We have kept encouraging each other since our return not to be
discouraged. Friends, will you not partner with us that what the Lord has done
in Zambia He would do among us and in the rest of Africa?
KReST Study week
Soon after return from Zambia it
was our lecture and study week in Kisumu. Helida and I together with my fellow
elder Paul travelled to Kisumu and were there for a whole week. Helida and
Melly Oluoch did all the cooking while we did the rest of the work! Pastor Sam
and I taught the OT Biblical Theology – Historical Books as Pastor Sunkutu from
Zambia handled the NT Epistles.
We concluded the week by holding
the Reformed Family Conference committee meeting on Saturday as we planned out
our 4th Conference which will be December 8th to 12th.
We solicit your prayers.
Preaching and Teaching ministry
Pastor Paul leads the adult Sunday
school through the Gospel of John. We are all thankful to God as we see his
growing ability in the word.
I continue with expository
preaching through Mark’s Gospel. Last Lord’s Day I preached from Mark 7:14-21.
On September 20th I was invited and spoke twice at the University
Students’ Outreach Conference under the theme of ‘Foundation’. The two papers
were a) Sufficiency of Scripture b) Sovereignty of God in Salvation. Please
pray for fruit.
As we labour among those who
peddle the gospel for monetary and material gain, we very much value your
partnership that we may maintain the course of ‘Running Forward and Remaining
Faithful.’
In Christ by grace alone,
Naphtally &
Helida Ogallo
Grace Baptist Church – Eldoret
P.O. Box 170
Eldoret, Kenya.
Cell: +254 723 918943
Landline: +254 53 2030823
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