Report from BHW Zambia Partnership Facilitator Following Visit in July

Key person: Isaac Ngombe

We just had a quick meeting with Isaac (2nd from right), Melvin, Lamach, and Kelvin one afternoon as they were right in the middle of preparation for the Love Africa conference.

Recent Events

Missionary Support

There are currently 35 missionaries sent out by OM to various African countries that Bright Hope World financially supports. OM says that for many of these missionaries the support provided can be the only income they have.

There are also another 35 missionaries who have been sent out by OM who are not receiving financial support from Bright Hope World.  

Nakoli School (ZAM25)

The government has decided to “gazette” all the community schools in Zambia, meaning they are taking over the running of the schools but still want NGO's to fund them. Currently the headmaster at Nakoli is government placed.

OM are meeting on Thursday 8th August to discuss what they will do. The main issue they face is that they can no longer run the school as a mission outreach to the community. 

Bright Hope World still funds Nakoli through donations and also the rental income from the IM flat that was built. 

Isaac will contact us with the outcome of the meeting. 

Personal Stories

Lamach

Lamach and his wife are missionaries in Chipata. They were trained by OM and are now focused on reaching Muslims in the Chipata area. There are six people on the team.

They have a few different programs to help them connect with local Muslims:
- Day to day visiting and making connections
- Prayer – On Tuesdays there is a prayer group which Muslims are able to come to in a way they are comfortable with and pray together with the team.
- Testimony group – There is an encouraging group that meet on Thursdays to share their testimonies and what they are learning. This is for all people.
- Conversion group – On Saturdays there is a group who meet to encourage each other. This is for people who have converted to Christianity from Islam. The team encourages them to now reach out to their families.
- Safe house – A safe house has been set up for people who have converted and then have nowhere to go or are living in danger.

Lamach shared a story…

A woman who was a very zealous Muslim such that she would even preach Islam on the buses and taxis she was riding in, was doing this one day and Lamach was able to ask her some questions which she couldn’t answer and which stopped her in her tracks. He then asked if she wanted to talk about it more, she agreed but then each time it came to meeting up, she would cancel.

Two years later she saw Lamach again and said that she would like to meet up and talk about a dream that she had. The meeting still never happened. Then one of the team found her and she explained that she had had a dream about Lamach preaching the truth her. She had converted and was being abused by her husband because of that conversion. She went to the Muslim council and told them that she had decided to turn to Christ. Her husband kicked her and her four children out of home and they were living in a very rough place with no windows. The team then brought them all to the safe house and will now find ways of supporting them to be able to look after themselves.

Lamach’s wife Joanne has been wanting to train to become a nurse. For the past three years they have been saving the money that Bright Hope World has been giving them. They were able to save 70% of the fees and now Joanne is in nursing training.

Melvin

Melvin and his wife Racheal are missionaries sent by OM to Lake Tanginika. There is a school there that they are involved in where Racheal is preparing a curriculum for Grade 0.

The team there are allowed to work with a refugee camp in the area. The refugees usually walk from the Congo and then come on a boat to the camp. When the number of people in the camp reaches 100 the government then sends them to be processed in Solwezi.

There are a lot of Muslims that come and they are wanting to build a mosque in the area. On Sundays the Muslims fast and pray. The team goes and preaches to them about Jesus and encourages them in their situation. Sometimes the people who come are just children, they have no parents and they wouldn’t know how to find their home if they went back.