Mupunda Church

What a wonderful Sunday with the believers at Mupunda. It is so hard to describe the joy and oneness in Christ that I witnessed from this church. We began with a communion service at 9:15am and I was able to give a brief word form Colossians focused on the salvation that we have been blessed with. This service was quickly followed by the main teaching service which then extended through until close to 1pm!

I taught from 1 Corinthians 3:10-17 on “How to Protect the Church” this precious bride of Christ. This was preceded by many hymns and then the mandatory choir items – these people know how to sing! After my teaching there was a special offering collected by the church. It was led from outside the building by the Sunday School children coming in bringing gifts of food and money all wrapped in cloths. This precession of children and then adults must have continued for around 10 minutes. The songs were of great joy and they danced as they came up the aisle of the church with gifts to give to the work of the Lord.

The children were encouraged to be part of this because the leaders of the church are focusing on needed teaching to the whole church on how to give from the overflow of the heart – something many of these churches have not focused on at all. The elders want all of the people to learn what it is to give with a grateful heart to the Lord. Little did I know as all this was happening, all the food that was coming in was for me to take back to Samfya!!  There was Kasava, ground nuts, popcorn, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, maize meal... How humbling to receive this from the overflow of their hearts – I must confess at times I had tears in my eyes.

This church is alive! It is wonderful to see the evidence of a strong children’s and youth ministry. The women’s ministry is excelling under the leadership of a Samfya Bible School graduate. They are evangelising both door to door and in the market place as they reach out to their community. These people are clearly being taught well and love the Lord.

After the service we retired to the house of one of the elders and waited for a most delicious meal to be served. Again their hospitality was an amazing blessing! We had a discussion after the meal – I have been in many of these before. This one was different – it was not just the elders, but the deacons and the deaconesses as well. These people are working together like I have never witnessed in a village church before – they love each other and they love to serve the body!

The needs in a church like this continue to be resource material for Sunday School, Youth work, Bibles... As you will see in the photos they are also in the process of building a new church building – it is all made of concrete block and the next job is to get a roof on the building. It is very large but they need it, there were 317 people in the service today! If only I had a supply of iron sheets I would give them – these people are not waiting for handouts – they are actively working, doing the work of the Lord and also building infrastructure to bless the people.

The old church building with the new building being constructed, visible in the background. They intend to use the old building for a skills training programme in carpentry and sewing!!

I would love to be able to pick you all up and bring you to a church like this – it changes the way you think! Is the Bible Training happening through Samfya worth it? There is no doubt. It has blessed this church and their leaders are looking at the teacher training that the Bible School will be running next year. Praise the Lord for His grace so active in this place.