Malawi
(MNN) — Grace Ministries International's Sam Vinton says Pastor Kennedy
Simtowe (sim-TOE-ee) is in Malawi
heading up "Harvest Time Mission," which is involved in expanding GMI
ministries into the neighboring countries.
This came in the years following dedicated work in Zambia. According to GMI, in 1997 Simtowe was
working with another GMI team, Dan and Tina Moyer in Zambia. Together, they started Zambia Grace Bible
Institute as the training center for the GMI churches.
Then in 2005 came another vision and another call to train
leaders and plant churches in the country of Malawi. Simtowe, together with his
wife Sofia and their four children, left their work in Zambia and moved to Malawi.
Vinton says Simtowe holds seminars for the area church leaders
and then takes them out to witness in the villages, resulting in a kind of
revival. "He's also moving into
going with a team and doing open air meetings in villages. At the end of July, in the southern part of
the country where he did this for two weeks, he had over 2,000 people
who attended and close to 600 who made professions of faith in Christ in the
various villages."
All the new converts of each village are brought together,
and grace church leaders from the area were appointed to teach each new group.
Vinton explains, "The thing that he has done is to establish what he calls
'preaching points.' So when he gets a
number of people to come to Christ, he will put them all into a Bible study,
get an elder, and then his job then becomes following up on them by teaching
them and preparing them and getting the group to grow."
GMI reports that the training center in Lilongwe is offering module programs for the
leadership of the churches. Two Malawians are studying at the Zambia Grace
Bible Institute in Kabwe, Zambia. Several churches have been
planted in Lilongwe
and several elsewhere plus 20 preaching points which will eventually become
church plants. Praise God for the power
of the Gospel and the Simtowes' evangelistic zeal.
