1000+ Churches Planted!

Oct 2004. Another amazing year of church planting! Harvesters International Ministries has experienced once again what can be done when national leaders take up responsibility for their own people. Our Hub Leaders have proved faithful in multiplying their churches again and again.

In Mozambique we have seen an explosion of churches. In the central region we have seen some hub leaders plant over 20 new churches. In most cases the Model is being followed where each hub leader plants 10 churches and then helps them plant churches. Many of the Mozambican hubs have several level two churches and in some cases even level three. This is particularly exciting as it means that the method is being taught to the daughter churches. They too are excited about planting churches.

We have seen wonderful growth in Mozambique this year. After launching the 1,000,000 Disciple Project at our 500 Celebration in the USA in April 2004, we have seen exceptional growth in the Central region spanning Messica, Guro, Tete, Nhamathanda, and Chimoio. The Lord has blessed us with a group of devoted pastors under the leadership of Pastor Quenha. His committee has grasped the vision of HIM and is energetically planting churches in the area. Two leadership training seminars were held in the area this year where both Hub Leader Training as well as Pastoral training was done. We have again seen how much sponsorships from individuals and churches can do to increase the rate of church planting and the training of pastors for those schools.

Work in the Southern DRC ( Democratic Republic of the Congo) has been slower than we hoped because of the civil war there, however the size and growth of individual churches has been stunning. Many newly planted churches this year grew to over 300 members within months of being planted. We are still seeking support for this area and for the French training material needed there. The DRC has the potential of thousands of new churches and despite the war and suffering, this work could be speeded up significantly with additional financial support.

The work in Malawi continues to grow, although this year many of the hubs consolidated their work and gave special attention to discipleship. We expect exciting growth in 2005.

The number of Zambian churches almost doubled in 2004. Our leaders in Zambia have done a great job this year and are expected to do so again during 2005.

Our desire to expand the ministry into Zimbabwe has not materialized in the way we desired. Political difficulties and a lack of funding for this specific project has delayed a planned, organized project getting underway. However, several churches were planted in Zimbabwe this year. Pastors came across the border into Mozambique for training and then went back and started using the HIM Hub Church Planting Model. We constantly receive pleas to come to Zimbabwe to train leaders in church planting. Perhaps in 2005…

We are currently exploring the possibility of expanding the work into Tanzania in 2005 as well. Pray for the work of HIM during 2005.

Over 1000 churches are now reporting! We hope to reach the 1500 mark soon. Churches are being planted at a rate of about 2 per day. Praise the Lord!

Steven Loots