The 2010 Sola 5 Conference was held in Harare, Zimbabwe. Each year the conference aims to take place in a different country and province. Last year the Conference was held in Johannesburg in South Africa. This year the Conference met in Harare under the auspices of the Harare Reformed Baptist Church and its pastor Joseph Soko, greatly assisted by Jeff Gage and the Free Grace Baptist Church in Boksburg, South Africa. Many of the people are unemployed and struggle to make ends meet, yet despite these challenges, this church had invited us all to meet with them. Zimbabwe, which means house of stones (the remants which are found in Masvingo in Southern Zimbabwe), is a landlocked nation in Southern Africa with a population of about 13 million.
Zimbabwe which got independence in 1980, had from about 2003 been experiencing a downward trend in the economy to a point where it had one of the world's highest inflation rates. The price of simple items such as bread was about 1 billion Zimbabwean dollars! However, from the time a power sharing Governemnt between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvingirai was formed in 2008, things have greatly improved at least economically and one would say politically, though things are still fragile. One of the measures implemented was the replacement of the use of the local currency by South African Rands and United States Dollars. Harare, refered to as the Sunshine city, is the capital city of Zimbabwe. It is a beautiful city with modern well designed buildings in the Central business district. A brother from South Africa observed about the architectural design "It's as if the architects were told not to limit their creativity when designing buildings" while a sister from Zambia commented on Harare "I love this city!"
The Sola 5 Conference was held at Louis Mountbatten School in the western direction of Harare. Sola 5 is an association of God centered churches in Southern Africa. The association exists for the mutual encouragement of likeminded churches (Baptist and Reformed), for the promotion of missions (through church planting) and theological education. The hosts of the Conference were Harare Reformed Baptist Church which meets at a primary school in Rugare. A total of about 180 delegates attended the Conference came from Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. During the 4 days of the Conference, from 2nd to 5th September 2010, the Bible was preached, mission reports were heard, ‘business’ matters were attended to and a time in close fellowship was spent.
The theme of the Conference was “God’s Grace Today” – an exposition of the doctrines of Grace. On Thursday evening, Conrad Mbewe of Zambia preached on the Sovereign Nature of God. He preached under candlelight due to power failure. On Friday morning Theo Soko of Harare Reformed Baptist Church preached on the sinful nature of man. In the afternoon Kobus van der Walt of South Africa preached on the specific nature of salvation. On Saturday morning Laban Mwashekele of Namibia preached on the successful nature of Christ’s work. Jeff Gage of South Africa preached on the supernatural nature of God’s Grace in the afternoon. On Sunday, the last day of the Conference, Victor Kanyense of Zambia preached on the steadfast nature of the Christian’s enablement.
The next SOLA 5 conference in 2011 will be held in Livingstone in Zambia. Livingstone is home to Victoria Falls, one of the wonders of the world! Make plans to be there! The 2012 Conference is planned for Swaziland.
Zimbabwe which got independence in 1980, had from about 2003 been experiencing a downward trend in the economy to a point where it had one of the world's highest inflation rates. The price of simple items such as bread was about 1 billion Zimbabwean dollars! However, from the time a power sharing Governemnt between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvingirai was formed in 2008, things have greatly improved at least economically and one would say politically, though things are still fragile. One of the measures implemented was the replacement of the use of the local currency by South African Rands and United States Dollars. Harare, refered to as the Sunshine city, is the capital city of Zimbabwe. It is a beautiful city with modern well designed buildings in the Central business district. A brother from South Africa observed about the architectural design "It's as if the architects were told not to limit their creativity when designing buildings" while a sister from Zambia commented on Harare "I love this city!"
The Sola 5 Conference was held at Louis Mountbatten School in the western direction of Harare. Sola 5 is an association of God centered churches in Southern Africa. The association exists for the mutual encouragement of likeminded churches (Baptist and Reformed), for the promotion of missions (through church planting) and theological education. The hosts of the Conference were Harare Reformed Baptist Church which meets at a primary school in Rugare. A total of about 180 delegates attended the Conference came from Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. During the 4 days of the Conference, from 2nd to 5th September 2010, the Bible was preached, mission reports were heard, ‘business’ matters were attended to and a time in close fellowship was spent.
The theme of the Conference was “God’s Grace Today” – an exposition of the doctrines of Grace. On Thursday evening, Conrad Mbewe of Zambia preached on the Sovereign Nature of God. He preached under candlelight due to power failure. On Friday morning Theo Soko of Harare Reformed Baptist Church preached on the sinful nature of man. In the afternoon Kobus van der Walt of South Africa preached on the specific nature of salvation. On Saturday morning Laban Mwashekele of Namibia preached on the successful nature of Christ’s work. Jeff Gage of South Africa preached on the supernatural nature of God’s Grace in the afternoon. On Sunday, the last day of the Conference, Victor Kanyense of Zambia preached on the steadfast nature of the Christian’s enablement.
The next SOLA 5 conference in 2011 will be held in Livingstone in Zambia. Livingstone is home to Victoria Falls, one of the wonders of the world! Make plans to be there! The 2012 Conference is planned for Swaziland.
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