Nyimba's Future

"Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe."  1 Timothy 4:11

You rarely hear Kendall and I speak of the youth in Nyimba. God has laid it upon our hearts for that to change in 2010. At the end of 2009, we began praying for the Lord to direct our steps of ministry for 2010, He has and in amazing ways! Kendall and I both felt that the youth were pushed aside in this culture and no one was targeting them except Islam. That is a scary thought and we began having a passion to reach them. Our job description is to reach the Nsenga People and youth are people too! God has begun moving in ways that we never anticipated among the youth of Nyimba.

 To give you a bit of background, the age for a person to be considered a youth in this culture is from ages 12-29. Many of the youth are married by the time that they are 16. They carry a great deal of responsibility at home. If they are blessed with the opportunity to go to school they balance school, house chores, and helping with the family's field or business. Youth are not respected but viewed more as slaves. They always do as they are told and hardly asked what they desire. In our American viewpoint of youth it involves: going to the movies, sleepovers, prom, athletics, and all the fun that goes with that time of life.  The youth that live in the bush have a different perspective of life. But we are so excited at what God has already begun to do among them in the past few months.
First of all, in June and July we are hosting two teams from Universal City Baptist Church in Texas. Eight youth along with their leaders are coming to evangelize and prayer walk Nyimba and target the youth of the area that God has blessed us with! Pray for these youth as they continue to prepare through prayer and study of God's Word.

Second, several months ago, a pastor from Sinda (a town east of Nyimba) came to our home sharing with us what God is doing in Sinda. When we began looking at his calendar of ministry for the year we noticed that in July when our team is here there will be a youth rally in Sinda! God opened the door and planned it long before we knew that the Universal City team will be able to evangelize and share in the experience of a weekend youth meeting with the youth of Sinda! Praise the Lord for orchestrating a time of encouragement, youth to youth across cultural boundaries!
Third, during the Easter weekend meeting at Zone 1 in Nyimba, the youth decided that they wanted to organize a youth group for Zone 1, choose leaders, and plan two meetings for the year. This was an awesome thing because we had been praying that they would have a desire to meet and fellowship together and God once again orchestrated this in HIS perfect timing, without us saying a word! Praise the Lord! Last week, Kendall had a meeting with 20 of the youth leaders from Zone 1. They decided that they would have a meeting in June, when our team was here and the theme would be salvation. Each church will bring 2 songs that they have written about one passage of Scripture that is about salvation in Jesus Christ to share at the meeting. The youth from Universal City will share their testimonies in Chinyanja, their leader, Jim will teach, and we will spend two nights with the youth of Nyimba at a weekend meeting, loving them and sharing Christ with them! We are so excited! Praise the Lord for the beautiful beginnings that He has allowed in Nyimba!

Praise His Name for using the youth of Nyimba to start a fire of excitement for God's Word. In Kendall's Bible Study he is seeing more and more youth attend the meetings. Pray that God would start a revival in Nyimba and begin with the youth.  When recently asked one of our dreams for Nyimba, Kendall replied, "to see our churches doubled in size because of the youth in Nyimba". Pray with us that God would allow this dream to come true. Pray for the youth not to be discouraged by the oppression put upon them by adults in this culture. Pray that they would steer away from immorality and that we as missionaries would teach them with grace and love about living a life of purity.