Report from BHW Zambia Partnership Facilitator

Key person: Peter Chila (on right in photo)

Recent Events

Activities

Bethesda continues to be a safe place for disabled children to be educated and cared for and currently they have 85 children they are assisting. They also focus on community sensitization to show people that these precious children are in fact not cursed but loved by God.

They have continued to run the sports camps now called “Lesa Mukulu abilities support group”. There are often over 150 participants at these sports camps who receive a lot of love, which helps to transform lives. The sports camps are key for opening doors into the community and helping the team to identify more children with special needs that might need their attention. 

They are reaching out into churches, to make them aware of disabled children in the communities, to teach the leaders of the churches how to care for the children, and make sure the church facilities have capacity to not hinder them.

Peter now also travels to many places to work with communities. In April he was in Tanzania for three weeks running programmes. He has just returned from the northern province of Zambia where he ran workshops for disabled sports ministry and the making of tools and equipment that can help people. They were also able to distribute some materials to help the children with their spiritual journeys. 

Lesa Mukulu Abilities Support Group

The story of Lesa Mukulu support group is equally an inspiring story of how God is transforming lives. They have been working with the support group since 2016 through the wheelchair sports camp. The group has over 150 people with disabilities as members and was called Lesa Mukulu disabled group before transformation took place. After attending a few wheelchair camps and the workshops aimed at discovering their identity in Christ Jesus, the group changed its name from the Lesa Mukulu Disabled Group to Lesa Mukulu Abilities Support Group. The group has seen the hand of God over them through the introduction of DBS groups and through the application of spiritual disciplines which they apply every Wednesday when they meet. 

The members always testify that the reason why they named the group Lesa Mukulu disabled group was for the people to pity them, so that they can always be asking for things from the churches, the government and organisations. 

Such was the mindset of the group when they first heard of Bethesda Ministries. Through the patience of the able leadership of Bethesda they have discovered the abilities that they have and the value of their lives in God.  

Training

The ministry continues to grow and over the past 11+ years they have trained over 90 church leaders in Transform Disability, a training programme that focuses on equipping the church on disability awareness and church leaders to make the church disability friendly. They also offer all-ability sports training to coaches who will in turn make disciples through the world of sport. 

Nakoli

OM Zambia is involved in managing community schools in Nakoli and Makululu, and through this ministry have built relationships within the community. Their vision is to equip and empower people with disabilities holistically, and to bring God's hope and truth through partnering with different churches.

Bethesda Mercy Ministry is committed to serving people in these communities especially those living with disabilities. They are seen as outcasts and there is a negative stigma around them. God has put it on their hearts to change this. After much prayer, they decided to start ministering in Nakoli which is one of the biggest compounds in Kabwe. The living conditions are poor, with bad sanitation and health problems. There is a high rate of HIV/AIDS victims, and therefore a high number of orphans.