From the Superintendent's DESK

We have received a report from our East Africa headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia. It states that the printing press acquired in October 2020 with help from world headquarters and dedicated in December of that year has already yielded results for God’s Kingdom.

Last year, several test runs totaling 52,000 tracts were printed in the following titles: Three Steps, Set Free, and A Scottish Deacon Finds Salvation. These are now being distributed in door-to-door and street campaigns in Lusaka as well as at several of the branch churches. The Gospel workers are grateful for the literature. One said it has had an impact by making it easier to start a conversation with people during outreach work.

There has been a good response from the recipients as well. The Zambia headquarters church is receiving more phone calls, and one staff member said, “These are not just inquiries, but Macedonian calls, and they are being followed up on.” In the branch churches, the outdoor campaigns have resulted in a number of visitors to the services. At one branch, a man received a tract and attended a service that week. Since then, he has prayed through to salvation and continues to worship at that location.

Another outreach effort using the tracts has been to place them in publication racks at the University Teaching Hospital in Zambia. This hospital is the largest in Lusaka, having over 1,600 beds, and our workers have been given access to one hundred publication racks throughout. To date, our literature has been placed in thirty-seven of these, and the most recent result has been 2,500 tracts taken in a two-week period.  

East Africa District Superintendent Boniface Banda has an eventual goal of printing 100,000 pages of Gospel literature monthly to supply the region’s churches. This would mean overcoming a number of challenges, including that all of the tracts must be folded by hand. The workers hope to obtain a paper-folding machine in the near future, and are looking to God to provide the means. Also, there is a lack of materials translated into the local languages. Volunteers are working to remedy this, and we now have two tracts ready to print in Swahili. The biggest challenge has been the cost of paper, so printing is currently limited to a quarterly basis.  

Digital files have been provided to the East Africa staff for printing a variety of Gospel literature. We know that as they look to God for guidance, He will bless their efforts, and we expect to see more souls won for the Kingdom.