Kingfisher International Family News - August 2020

KINGFISHER INTERNATIONAL FAMILY NEWS

AUGUST 2020

ISSUE 13

International Day of Prayer: saving lives, bringing hope On Sunday, June 28th, we held our sixth International Day of Prayer. This event has grown from an initial idea to pray for Malawi, Mozambique and India, to a multi-national event with each country in the growing International family praying for each other - a true partnership in the Gospel.

This year, the dominant theme was praying for each country as it has been affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic. The death toll now stands in excess of 500,000 people, with many millions of people infected around the world. Truly we are in the End Times, but as the Church has not yet been raptured (caught up to Heaven in ‘the twinkling of an eye’ - 1 Corinthians 15:52) we are called to ‘stand in the gap’ and pray fervently for this world.

This was the motivation behind this year’s IDOP and it saw National Directors and Ministry Partners from Malawi, Zimbabwe, Spain, Northern Ireland, the Philippines, the UK and Macau leading us all in prayer for each others’ countries.

Reports are beginning to come in of the impact of these prayers - for example, from Zimbabwe: Thank you pastor James and the Kingfisher family international church for generous donations which has helped us to have acts of compassion by delivering food to the hungry and vulnerable during the lockdown and global pandemic. Your financial response was overwhelming for which we are so thankful. Because of your faith seeds many families were fed. I praise God for the steady generosity that you have shown. These are some of the photos of the beneficiaries. Food hampers and winter clothing.

(Pastor Joseph Maravanyika)

Pastor Joseph further reports: We gave 100 face masks and food hampers mostly to the elderly. I thank God for the seeds of generosity that you have sown. Above all six people accepted Jesus Christ as well their personal saviour!

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A message from Pastor Andrew - Malawi

Dumagat Education Program update

Gift Day news and online resources

KINGFISHER INTERNATIONAL FAMILY NEWS your love and generosity towards us. Yes we will use it for those who have been badly affected by this pandemic crisis that we are all facing, kindly send my appreciation to all that made the love gift for us here!

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In Malawi, Pastor Charles Mithowa is planning a trip to Mozambique to deliver the money from the Gift Day that we have allocated to that country. He reports that Mozambique were able to participate in the IDOP and that our National Director there, Fuloresi Dempster, is continuing to grow the ministry. He says: ‘She is training more groups and more leaders are working good with her. Also she has reported the growing network of Churches in Mozambique. She has asked me to pass her greetings to you and the Kingfisher family.’

All of this reminds me of the following Bible verse: “If one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?” (James 2:16, NIV) We believe that the International Day of Prayer is changing lives through our prayers and through our practical acts of giving. The stories above are just the tip of the iceberg - there will be much more to report back on in the coming months as we see the impact of brothers and sisters joining together in prayer and impractical action around the world.

In all, we have so far been able to send £440 to each of the following countries: India, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Macau, the Philippines.

From Macau, Pastor Edwin Alfaro writes: Praise be to God pastor! I’m so overwhelmed by

A message from Pastor Andrew - Malawi As a pastor, I thought it wise to prioritise the lives of people in promoting preventive measures against Covid-19. The affected people who may die due to the pandemic are the same people that we need in our fellowships. Many here seem to be living in fear, but we are bringing hope to them by encouraging them to fix their eyes on Jesus only. Last month we sat down as a church, discussing the ways to reach out to our community members. We found that according to our church financial capacity, we can manage to buy plastic tap buckets, soaps and hand sanitiser for every individual person to use when attending the fellowship service at any particular time. Second thing is to buy a plastic tap bucket for every poor individual in our community who can't manage to buy it, because of higher cost during this tough time. Thirdly to provide our community members with soap to be used when washing their hands at home. With these three things, the church thought it to be good, as we shall mitigate the spread of corona virus in our churches attendees, and in their homes.

So with our financial capability here at Kingfisher Center, we have started our journey by buying two plastic buckets, soaps and hand sanitiser for the gathering saints who come in mid week and Sunday worship services to use. Secondly, we have managed to buy 12 plastic tap buckets for each poor family and two cartons of soaps to be used when washing their hands. We distributed the buckets and soap to 12 families, which has encouraged us to do more.

I pray that you will put us in yours prayers, that we could reach many more poor households in our villages with plastic tap buckets and soap so that we mitigate the spread of corona virus in their homes.

In this we believe, that it will assist much and improve the lives of poor people during this tough time of Covid-19 pandemic.

Please, pray for us! We appreciate much for your prayers, Pastor Andrew

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KINGFISHER INTERNATIONAL FAMILY NEWS

Update from the Dumagat Education Program The Dumagat students and their families all went back to their village in the mountain at the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis. Both the schools closed at the beginning of March and will not be open until August at the earliest.

Most of the students are now helping their parents in the fields.

The Dumagats are planting root crops and rice so they have something to eat, as the local government are discouraging unnecessary visits to them to protect the tribe from contracting the virus that could eliminate the whole village. Because of this, we weren’t able to send the regular monthly supplies in June, but the families have received financial support from the government, with food parcels and supplies being delivered to them on a scheduled basis.

A member of Kingfisher church Tredworth in the UK very kindly gave a love gift towards food parcels for our Dumagat friends in the mountain. At the beginning of July Pastor Noel took a team up there to distribute the gift bags of rice, sugar, coffee, salt and bread.

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KINGFISHER INTERNATIONAL FAMILY NEWS

International Day of Prayer - Gift Day Alongside the powerful Day of Prayer that was held on June 28th this year, we held a Gift Day with the aim of providing finances to help in countries that have been badly impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic but that lack the infrastructure to provide for the the most vulnerable members of society.

for distribution, because they have finished buying all the bags of maize.”

Charles has arranged to meet the church leaders of Kingfisher Mozambique at the boarder to hand over the financial aid to them so that they can buy food and other basic items to help them. It is good that he has been able to make contact with Fuloresi (the National Director in Mozambique) and that they are so grateful for the financial gift.

The great news is that we have so far been able to raise over £3000 which is amazing. We have so far distributed funds to: Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, India, Macau and the Philippines.

We have already seen in the lead article of this newsletter some of the other feedback that is beginning to come in and we shall have more in the coming weeks and months.

Each of those countries have received £440 which will enable much needed relief to be brought to those who already have a hand-to-mouth existence and who, because of the pandemic, have seen even that taken from them.

Thank you so much for taking part in the Gift Day your generosity has impacted lives in significant ways, not only in providing financial aid, but in demonstrating that people who feel overlooked and uncared-for are in fact loved, noticed and not forgotten. That is such an impactful realisation and will have an impact that lasts for all eternity.

In Malawi, the Centre at Mulanje, Charles Mithowa reports that the people “are in critical hunger situation. So they have decided to use the money to buy more food to distribute to the needy. As I am writing they have called me to go and take photos

Kingfisher Family website www.kingfisherfamily.org

Kingfisher Family Facebook page The wesbsite and Facebook page are updated regularly with lots of news and information from Kingfisher churches around the world. Like the page or log on to the website to keep abreast of all the exciting things God is doing worldwide through Kingfisher!

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