Redeeming the Time

        A word of encouragement from Stephen Lungu

Our valued partners in the gospel,

The Lord has been challenging me to preach to fellow brothers and sisters on “Redeeming the time”.  What does it mean “to redeem”? The Collins English Dictionary & Thesaurus has several meanings for redeem: to save; reclaim; buy back; recover; regain; repurchase or retrieve. These few meanings actually tell us that we are reclaiming or repurchasing something that at one time was ours, but somehow lost. Because we know its value, we endeavor to repurchase it.

God created and gave us 24 hours in a day. In His plan, 24 hours is just enough for
each one of us to do the very best for the Kingdom of God. The body and the mind can function effectively within these God appointed hours.

As the world continues to develop, we seem to have lost the 24 hours God has given us. We are continually racing against time. We hear people saying again and again that they do not have enough time to finish what they started or wanted to do. To try gain ‘more’ time, some deprive themselves of the necessary 6 to 8 hours of quality sleep that is needed to function effectively. Everything in our world has just become too fast! Yes, fast cars, fast foods, fast marriages,fast divorces, and fast one hour Church services. In some fast church services, God is only given 15 to 20 minutes to speak to congregations.

Ephesians 5:15-17 begins with these words of warning; “Be very careful then, how you live - not as unwise but as wise.” How you live is a very striking phrase. So often in these end times, people are living for themselves and striving to gain more material things, rather than living for Kingdom gain. Paul goes on to say: “make the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” My dear valued partners in the Lord, because we “live in the now,” times are very evil. The hours we have lost in doing things which did not count for the Kingdom of God need to be redeemed. Often people due to some unbiblical ideologies, invest their lives, resources, and time on things that will not count in heaven. I pray that God will help us, through His grace that both African Enterprise and all our partners will make the most of every opportunity given to us, for the sake of the Kingdom of God as we face these evil days. Apostle Paul ends his thoughts by saying: “therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” I pray that the Lord will continue to help each one of us to make the most of every opportunity to snatch souls for the Kingdom of God through His wisdom.

As you consider a New Year’s resolution think about the ways in which you could be redeeming your time. Consider serving in your congregation, food bank or another community based organization. Can I challenge you to find ways to further His kingdom in 2010, rather than your own?

May the Lord richly bless you in 2010,

Stephen Lungu

PS:  May I remind you to consider s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g your dollars this Christmas?

  Former Enemies Now Gospel Partners

My Dear Friends,

I grew up as an abandoned street kid in the slums of Harare in Zimbabwe, becoming something of a small-time terrorist during my teenage years in the revolution against the old whites-only Rhodesian government. You may have heard me share this in my testimony or read my book, Out of the Black Shadows.*

When I was a kid, I hated white people and I hated Christians, because I thought they were the cause of my misery. I even went with some friends one evening to bomb an evangelistic tent meeting in Harare. That was the evening when Jesus got ahold of me and turned my life around. I found healing for my wounds and hatred, and became reconciled with so many people I had thought were my enemies.

In fact, when I joined AE in Zimbabwe in 1984, I began to work in the ministry of the Gospel alongside a white man named Chris Sewell, who had been a policeman for the former white government. His job just a few years earlier would have been to arrest or even kill a rebel like me. And if I had had the opportunity during those years, I probably
would have sought to kill him also. Chris became a Dectective Inspector and I became a Gang Leader.

Yet Christ brought us together! Our testimony as a black former terrorist and a white former policeman who had both come to Christ and to friendship, forgiveness and reconciliation impacted people in a powerful way wherever we preached together.

Chris and I were, and are, by God’s grace, living proof of what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17-19: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”

That message, my friends, continues to be powerfully communicated and lived out through AE’s Reconciliation Ministries, directed by my colleague Emmanuel Kopwe. What a privilege it is to be entrusted by the Lord in taking this message of reconciliation to some of the most traumatized places on earth!

Won’t you share in this privilege with us by praying for this work and responding with a generous gift that will enable us to continue our ministry of reconciliation in Africa?

Yours in the Grace of Christ,

Stephen Lungu

STATE OF THE CHURCH RELECTS

THE STATE OF A NATION

a word of encouragement from Stephen Lungu

 Beloved Partners in the Gospel,

Of late, I have been so burdened about the state of the Church around us and the world. The Church is not living In the Promised Land as it were, but in Babylon. I mean The Church for which Jesus Christ died. Somehow, the Church has come up with so many artificial revivals, self anointing mixed with the prosperity gospel. It is a Church that does not like carrying the Cross and following the "Man of sorrows.” Our present Church lives in too much luxury, little time of prayer with a cup of coffee. The brothers and sisters who began that vibrant Church in the book of Acts would be shocked and cry if they came back to life today. Hence there is need for restoration of the Church today.

A good picture from the Bible is about the children of Israel. They began their journey from Rameses in the land of Goshen. That was the beginning of God’s deliverance from the bondage of the Egyptians to the Promised Land. It was history in the making. As long as they continued talking with the Lord and obeyed His commands, they also continued enjoying the peace and the fruits of the land. They enjoyed good health and victory from their enemies around them. Later, this is what God said about Israel: “You are the children of the LORD your God…. for uou are a people holy to the LORD your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the LORD has chosen you to be his treasured possession.” (Deuteronomy 14:1a
and 2)

Unfortunately, when Israel sinned against God, they were taken even further from the Promised Land into Babylon under the cruel king Nebuchadnezzar. God used a eathen king to punish His own chosen people. Yes when you look in our present map, you will see where Babylon was situated. Those are the same nations who have become a menace today.

The state of the Church in a country portrays the state of the nation. The increase of corruption in high places, immorality, drugs, divorce, unresolved conflicts within the church;
indeed, that must tell us that something is seriously wrong with the Church. The Church, in a way, has compromised its stand and has become complacent. And it is at this present state that the Psalmist in chapter 80 cries for God’s intervention for salvation. There is a deep cry beckoning God the Great Shepherd of Israel to save them. In verses 3, 7 and 19 the Psalmist repeats himself begging God to restore Israel. Now, restoration is actually bringing something back to its original condition. Oh God Almighty, bring us to our original condition. The Psalmist’s cry was: “Restore us, O Lord God Almighty, make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.” Oh my earnest prayer is that African Enterprise will continue to stand as a ministry which will address these issues and never compromise the truth of the whole gospel.

Our beloved partners, may I urge you to continue to stand with us so that we may never compromise the truth of the word of God. I want you be encouraged that we are making
these great exploits for the kingdom of God because of your prayers and financial support. Thank you a million times for all that you mean to us.

Yours for the extension of God’s Kingdom

Stephen Lungu

International Team Leader

COUNTRY PROFILE -DRC (Democratic Republic Of The Congo)

The Congo is one of the richest nations on earth and nearly a third the size of Australia. Yet much of its wealth remains unrealised or has been plundered by other countries. Within the borders of the third-largest country in Africa are untold deposits of diamonds, oil, uranium and gold, not to mention the vast water resources represented in numerous lakes and rivers, especially the Congo River, Africa’s second-longest after the Nile.

While new signs of hope for a peaceful and prosperous future for the Congo have arisen in recent years, the country has experienced nearly 130 years of exploitation and mismanagement by a succession of poor leadership. Originally colonised in 1885 by King Leopold II of Belgium, the nation gained its independence in 1960, only to have its first prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, assassinated by troops loyal to army chief Joseph Mobutu, who seized power in 1965, renaming himself Mobutu Sese Seko. The country itself has known numerous names, from the Congo Free State to the Belgian Congo, to the Republic of the Congo, to Zaire (Mobutu’s chosen name) to the current Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), to distinguish it from its northern neighbour, now called the Republic of the Congo, which was colonized by France and whose capital is Brazzaville. The two countries are also sometimes distinguished by including their capital city names and referring to them as Congo-Brazzaville or Congo-Kinshasa, Kinshasa being the capital of the DRC.
 

FAST FACTS

Captital City: Kinshasa,

population 8 million

Population: 69,000,000

Life expectancy: 54.4 years

Unemployment Rate:  Unknown

Infant Mortality: 81.21

deaths/1,000 live births

HIV & Aids Adult Prevalence:

4.2%

Literacty: 67.2% of population

age 15 and over who can read

and write French, Lingala,

Kingwana, or Tshiluba

Population with Access to Safe

Drinking Water:  42%

Human Development Index: 

139th out of 177 countries

Mobutu positioned himself during the Cold War as a staunch anti-communist and so earned the support of the United States, which lavished foreign aid on the Congo, much of which went into Mobutu’s Swiss bank accounts, making him one of the world’s richest people during his lifetime. After the end of the Cold War and the ascension to power of a Tutsi-led government in Rwanda after the 1994 genocide there, the Rwandan military began to make forays into eastern Congo to quell violence perpetrated by exiled Hutu militias.
Rwanda, backed by its ally Uganda, threw its support behind the rebel troops of Congolese leader Laurent Kabila, who swept Mobutu from power in 1997 and installed himself as president.