This week over three days, our dear brother Ephrem Bufole held a conference teaching elders and children’s ministry teachers the Heidelberg Catechism. These men are serious about the Reformed faith. They are leaving Pentecostalism behind. The pictures show the participants, the Three Forms of Unity in Swahili, and the Heidelberg Catechism in French, the other national language of DR Congo. Very soon we expect to form a federation of churches in East Africa joining an estimated thirty churches together holding to the Three Forms of Unity (the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession, and the Canons of Dort). Kenya, Tanzania, and the DRC will be represented. Currently the name under consideration is the Emmaus Reformed Church of East Africa. The Holy Spirit is opening hearts.

I’m currently going through the Heidelcast series “I Will Be God to You” series with a particular Baptist pastor in Laisamis, Kenya. We FaceTime together and he is encouraged by what we are studying.

The New Training Center Being Completed in the DRC

The organization Shadow Servants began in 2015, when David Murithi, a Kenyan pastor and church planter, and I began studying the Heidelberg Catechism together for two hours every Saturday on Skype. Since that time, we have met together in Kenya six times and over 20 churches in three African countries are now either planted as Reformed churches or are converting from Pentecostalism to confessing the Three Forms of Unity. Other pastors in the fellowship have now produced a new Swahili translation of the Three Forms. Soon, a new pastoral training center with two large classrooms will open in Meru, Kenya. Courses will be taught live and on video. The philosophy of Shadow Servants is to get behind African pastors who do the work of preaching, teaching, praying, and administering the sacraments. Those of us in the US serve in their shadow, supporting them with prayer, counsel, finances, and learning resources.

©Jim Faucett. All Rights Reserved.

Resources

• How To Subscribe To Heidelmedia
• The Heidelblog Resource Page
• Heidelmedia Resources
• The Ecumenical Creeds
• The Reformed Confessions
• The Heidelberg Catechism
• Recovering the Reformed Confession (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2008)
• Why I Am A Christian
• Support Heidelmedia: use the donate button
• The Three Forms Of Unity In Taught In Swahili, In Isiolo, Kenya
• The Canons Of Dort In Swahili
• The Belgic Confession Is Now In Swahili
• The Heidelberg Catechism In Swahili