abusa

On Sunday, Jonathan and our neighbor Kelly traveled to Abusa Edward Tembo's church. Tembo is an ordained minister in the CCAP(church of central africa presbyterian) and a sophomore at ABC. He oversees over 8000 congregants in about 25 different prayer houses. CCAP pastor's have a main station church and then smaller prayer houses in outlying village areas. They visit the prayer houses as much as possible, but it is quite a challenge to be so many places at once. Sometimes prayer houses only see the abusa(pastor) twice a year.

This past Sunday, Tembo invited Jonathan and Kelly to visit one of his prayer houses. Jonathan preached, did baptisms, as well as a communion service.  They learned the flow of the liturgy because Tembo asked them to return again and serve at his station church or prayer house so he can be more free to visit his other prayer houses. Jonathan is practicing his Chichewa!

Tembo is a gifted pastor. His congregation loves him. He is passionate about the gospel and seeing lives transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are thankful to be a part of ABC and have the opportunity to see our students grasp and apply the gospel and communicate this message so clearly and immediately to the church in Malawi.

The church is large in number, and is in great need of well trained and gifted pastors. It is a blessing to be involved in the lives of our students, especially the ones who make great sacrifices to serve in the pastorate.

At the end of the day, Tembo's congregation thanked Jonathan and Kelly by giving them the gift of peanuts or "ground nuts" as they are called.