We have the most exciting, amazing news! One of the young men, Abar, who went with Francois this last weekend to Alana’s village, shared that he beliefs the Lord is sending him and his family to move there to get this new church plant started! The first Mwinika missionary…
To back track a little: the guys came back encouraged from this last weekend’s outreach to Alana’s village. The people want the Mwinika believers to come as soon as possible to start teaching Literacy! They want to be able to read the Word of God, and asked us to please teach them… As a group we prayed that the Lord will clearly lay it on a believer’s heart to go… Pray that the local believers will see this as their calling, their outreach. [Photo: The 5 guys just after returning from the outreach, Sunday. Abar is right in front. Francois said: “We are looking up to God”, just as I took this picture :)]
Now, back to Abar. He is the young man we have written about before, that is part of our Literacy team here in Mwinikaland. A year ago, just before he started to teach a literacy class, we wrote: “It is gratifying to see a young man from this culture offering his time and effort, despite the fact that he will not receive a salary or any other material benefits from this voluntary job. He was in the first group of Mwinika people that did the Literacy course back in 2010 and became a believer through the 1st cycle Chronological Teaching the year after.” (https://blogs.ethnos360.org/francois-hattingh/2013/04/21/please-come-and-teach-us-to-read-gods-word/).
Abar’s testimony is gripping: “When I first heard about Jesus during the teaching [2010], I didn’t want to go anymore. This Jesus and his teaching was going against everything I have ever been taught and believed until then. It was against the way I have been brought up [his father is a local religious leader]. I was running, because I didn’t want to believe that this [the Bible teaching] could be true! But the Holy Spirit would not leave me alone! He was speaking into my heart, no matter where I ran to! He continued to convince me that indeed, it was true! After about 7 weeks, I couldn’t run anymore. I had to agree: Jesus is the Lord, the Messiah and I need Him. I went back to the teaching and since then He has turned my heart around [the Mwinika way to say he’s been born again]. I now only want to do what He wants me to do and go where He sends be to.”
A Few of the other blogs where we mentioned Abar and testify of his growth: https://blogs.ethnos360.org/francois-hattingh/2013/07/10/stretching-forward-to-the-things-which-are-before/ https://blogs.ethnos360.org/francois-hattingh/2013/05/12/praise-and-challenges/
He clearly has a calling on his life. The huge step for him – as for most who go into full time ministry! – was to let go, completely… A year ago, he could not phantom leaving a well paid job and the security of home, to go in obedience wherever the Lord sent him… But then, the Lord continued to work in his heart, we prayed and discipled, and now he WANTS to leave his job with us, to go to Alana’s village!
He will be teaching literacy and do the first cycle teaching from Genesis to Revelation. Although Alana’s village consists of Mwinika people, it also has big representation of another people group, until now unreached, the Maravone.
Another miracle is how his wife, Liberty had a change of heart. First she thought his working as a volunteer to teach others, crazy! But slowly and surely the Lord also started to work in her through his Spirit and the teaching. Recently she testified towards an unbeliever that they are leading to Christ: “We [the believers] believe that Jesus is the Messiah. There is no other way to get saved except through Him. He has taken our sins on Him and paid in full for them all!”
Abar and Liberty has two small children, a boy and a girl.
Pray for this precious family! They want to go soon… They are in the process of harvesting their rice and peanuts (cash crops), but will be done by the beginning of June. Thereafter they believe there is little else that keeps them here… Pray for the Mwinika believers, that they will have to support them fully, not only in prayer and blessing, but also financially. We believe that Abar and Liberty’s obedience in going will be huge encouragement to the fletching Mwinika church as to what being church is all about – getting His-story out there. Pray for Abar and Liberty’s preparation spiritually and physically; their protection.
Pray for the many other challenges ahead! Many people in Alana’s village – including the various leaders – want to hear more about God, but there is also some suspicion and a definite distrust between the different religions. The feeling in the village is also much more “town” or city-like: people are less involved in each other’s lives than here. As mentioned before, there are also more than one people group represented here. (See a separate blog update more about the weekend’s outreach)