By Ken Yates

I just got back from Zambia, Africa and wanted to give an update.

The trip was outstanding.

My daughter, Kathryn, son-in-law Dewey, and I were gone about two weeks.

I taught at a Bible college there. One of the professors is a young man from Zambia that I tutored in Greek while he was attending a seminary in Columbia, SC (where I live). I had given him three books by  Zane published by GES and he asked if I could come teach there.

I had 22 pastors in class for a total of 40 hours.

The class was on eternal salvation. They had never been exposed to Free Grace Theology. They were extremely interested and asked tons of questions. I gave each of them a copy of Absolutely Free! and one of the little handouts put out by Bob Bryant (Cypress Valley Bible Church and 289 Design) on the difference between salvation and discipleship.

The pastors were very receptive. At the end of the course they said it had changed the way they saw the Bible and how they were going to preach and do ministry. Praise God!

I also had the opportunity to preach at a church (Sunnyside Baptist Church) in the capital of the country (Lusaka). There is a service in English and one in the native language. It is a large church with the two services having around 500 people.

Since the clear message of grace and assurance is extremely rare in Zambia, I preached a simple message on the Woman at the Well. After the service in the native language, the translator told me that the people were very interested in what the passage taught. They were saying that nobody had ever told them that Jesus offers eternal life to them as a free gift.

Needless to say, I was thrilled. This experience confirms what I have seen in other countries. The folks are very receptive to Free Grace teaching and they are excited about how Free Grace opens up the Scriptures.

Trips such as this involves a lot of time but are very rewarding. The hard part is realizing that often there are no Free Grace teachers to build them up afterward.

I look forward to GES doing more of this overseas ministry in the near future.

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Ken Yates is Editor of the Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society and GES’s East Coast speaker. He lives in Columbia, SC and pastors Little River Baptist Church in Jenkinsville, SC.