the love of god
Take a peek inside our Wonderworld
In 2006 Ken Legg was invited to Zambia to conduct Grace Conferences for pastors and church leaders. He has since returned annually to Zambia with David and Ros van der Vooren who are a part of the eldership team at New Beginnings Christian Church, Reedy Creek, Gold Coast, Australia.
Before attending these conferences, many believed that they were cursed, that they must give monetary offerings to please God and that God’s blessings are conditional upon something they must do. This is religious bondage and legalism. In contrast, the message of grace sets them free! Burdens are lifted as they learn righteousness consciousness instead of sin consciousness; God consciousness rather than demon consciousness.
Ken explains. “Religion is basically what man is trying to do for God, but in the gospel of grace we discover what God has done for man through His son the Lord Jesus Christ. So … the Christian life is about discovering the riches of God’s grace available to us through His son. Many Christians don’t understand that so they live in spiritual poverty. Yet when we discover the riches of God’s grace, our lives are brought into victory and power and a wonderful sense of relationship with God”.
One pastor who attended a conference in Ndola wrote; “Our Church people are growing in the grace of God. When they give now, they give out of love and not because they are afraid of being cursed. I have seen that the Gospel is the gospel of grace”.
The conferences cast the net wide and thus introduced tens of thousands of pastors and church leaders to the gospel of grace in major cities and towns in Zambia and other African nations. However, after a few years, the Holy Spirit showed us that these people were hungry for more teaching on God’s grace and needed to be fed and discipled with more expository, consistent bible teaching.
Ken already had a huge depository of DVD teaching resources thanks to the recording of his many years of inspired teachings to the New Beginnings congregation. It was decided to make this available via discipleship schools in Zambia. The first School of Ministry (SOM) was birthed in 2012 in Lusaka with the goal of making disciples who will make disciples ~ 2 Tim 2:2
In a typical SOM class, 10-30 pastors/leaders watch a DVD teaching session, followed by Q & A and class discussion so that students are actively engaged.
Schools of Ministry have now been established in Zambia (over 300), Tanzania, DRC and Uganda. Making disciples of Jesus Christ!
In 2011 a kit church was sent in a container from Australia to Zambia and this was built in Lusaka as a New Beginnings Christian Church and grace teaching centre. The shipment of materials itself is an inspiring story and we are in awe of how God’s hand was and continues to be upon the entire establishment of His church in Lusaka.
Another major part of the ministry in Zambia is that of sharing the gospel of grace with prison inmates.
For many years Ken and team would make it a priority to visit one of the maximum-security prisons during the annual visit to Zambia. These were wonderful meetings during which many inmates came to faith in Christ.
Yet God was to open a better door, a way of discipleship that would lead to dramatic change in the prisons.
A prisoner on death row was radically saved by reading a Ken Legg publication. Over many years of internment, he continued to study God’s word, lead others to Christ, disciple them and establish churches (yes, in the prison). The impact on prison life was dramatic. Beatings stopped. Rapes stopped. Verbal abuse stopped. The prison culture was radically changed.
Such was the impact, that after his eventual release the prison authorities invited him to return and continue the bible studies. The first prison School of Ministry was thus established at Mwembeshi Maximum Security Prison in 2013.
Schools of Ministry have been now been established in 10 prisons. Many of the inmates, some of them hardened criminals, have had their lives transformed to the point where they have been granted special freedoms.
All glory to our living and powerful God who alone can transform the hearts of men and women.
A vital part of the ministry into Zambia has been the founding of a children’s home and development project, New Beginnings Children’s Village, in 2009, under the leadership of Pastor Kenny Bisha Goma. Pastor Kenny is the person who initially invited Ken to Zambia and is the pastor of New Beginnings Christian Church in Kafue.
The Australian commitment to New Beginnings Children’s Village was to seek to meet the needs of the children – physical, spiritual, educational and psychological. For some children, this is a permanent home; for most, it is a long-term home until placed with an extended family; while for some, it is only a short-term stay.
Works at the site included construction of the facility, the erection of a perimeter fence around the entire property (vital for security for our children), pit latrines, vegetable garden, chicken run, installation of a water tank ensuring water all the year round, and a hammer mill building.
To give a ‘hand up’ rather than a ‘hand out’ was always the aim of all support channelled to NBCV. Projects such as the vegetable garden, fruit orchard, chicken run and a planned corn grinding service have all helped to get NBCV self-sustainable.
We give God all the glory for what has been accomplished through the compassionate giving of His people in Australia and other parts of the world.
Ros van der Vooren, who was the Australian Operations Manager of the NBCV is delighted to say that the NBCV is now fully independent and remains a great testimony to the work of God’s people to bring these vulnerable children to a safer, more secure life.
