Angola

Greetings from Zambia

I just want to share with you what is on my heart since it is overflowing with hope, vision, passion and conviction about what the Lord would have us do for the suffering people in Angola. As you know, we have been praying for a door to be opened for ministry in Angola since 1999 and today I have been blessed and challenged that that door has been opened and I am overwhelmed with the possibilities of what could be done if we go through the door as a team!

I have been waiting for a young man from Angola to show up here for the past week and today he came and I met with him together with Simon, our proposed missionary to go to Angola and we had a wonderful meeting. I was struck with the fact that In the meeting I was with one of God’s true servants, someone who has selflessly been serving the Lord and who now has come out seeking partnership and accountability which we are ready to provide. David Katiki has started an orphanage in response to the more than 450 little children that the community had identified as orphans in need, many of whom were orphaned due to the war and due to the HIV infection in the local areas. David was able to take in 50 of the children, ages 3 to 7 and has them up to date in a local centre he is running and it sounds like an amazing outreach! The congregation that he has started has two senior army generals in it as well as a number of prominent members of the local community in the city of Luena and they sent him to meet Simon who had previously gone to Luena with the vision of starting a church. It seems that this is the right timing because all of our efforts to get a work permit or even a visa for Simon before were un-successful but now the Generals say that getting a visa and even registering the church to give us legal status is a ‘piece of cake’ What a blessing!

Our next move is to send Simon on a one month survey trip which will involve teaching a seminar to the church in Luena, surveying one of the port cities as a possible place for our headquarters and getting all the necessary groundwork complete to get his visas and work permits and the registration of the church.

My prayer is that you guys can help me get partnerships in this mission so that together we can go through this door that I feel God is opening for His work. Our next move would happen after seeing what the real needs are for the Church work and the Orphan work, but I foresee us getting involved in a big way with this endeavour so please join me in praying for this that the Lord would push us to our limits to meet this need.

Part of the package for this work is to finish the community center in the Northwestern city of Mwinilunga where Simon has been working for the past 4 years establishing a strong church and a vibrant community project. This project would be well on the way to completion so that Simon could leave behind a working ministry at this Northwestern base of operations. The secondary purpose for this community center is to run our Bible training center for the churches in the Northwestern area, 900 klm from Kabwe. We have three other ZGBI graduates in that City that can manage and run all the projects there so we see it as a necessary step in completing Simon’s work before he leaves for Angola.

Our plan for leadership training is already in place as we will get at least 4 men from Angola to attend our Bible school in Lilongwe Malawi in the language of Portuguese with our new missionary Joel Molina. Joel will be opening a Portuguese class for Mozambique and Angolan men to get their Bible/Discipleship and missions training starting in January 2008.

Despite the work on many fronts, I feel that the Lord is calling us to “less talk, more action” and with this motto we are moving forward to Impact the continent of Africa as quickly and powerfully as the Lord allows. Join me as we continue praying for the dorr of opportunity to open for ministry in Lesotho and Sudan before the end of this year as we work on Angola and Mozambique where the doors are already open!

May God richly bless you and light the fire of passion and action under you as he has done for our team here on the continent!

Dan