Report from BHW Zambia Partnership Facilitators Following Visit in March

Key people: David & Nanna Lukama, Antony, Samuel, Maria

Recent Events

GAP Year Course

This year there are 30 students in the GAP year course. A lot of students are being sent by parents because they need help. Some of the students this year have come because they are having issues with drugs and alcohol, which they are being helped with on the course.

We sat with the students and as usual they were able to ask us any question that they wanted too. Some very interesting questions came about which shows the level of searching and thinking these young people are doing:
• “If there was no promise of heaven, would you be a Christian?”
• “If there was no Christianity, what religion would you be?”
• “Why did you become a Christian?”

One activity that the students told us about was when they went into the village of Kaniki to help some older widows for a day. One lady had to walk about 5 km return each day to collect firewood so a few of the students went with her to collect. They laughed as they realized an old lady of 80 could carry more wood on her head than they could combined! They went back to her house, cleaned her house, made her a meal, and got water from the local well. The old lady was teasing them saying “that’s right, get smoke in your eyes” as they cooked her food. It was a real eye opener for some of the more well off Zambians who are on the course. 

(Note: about 50% of the students are well off and pay their own fees and the remainder are from poorer villages and Bright Hope World sponsors all or part of their fees) 

New Leaders

Nkhonda Phiri, who we interviewed last year, and Emmanuel Chindela (2010 Discipleship course) have volunteered and are like the house parents of the GAP year students, being with them for all activities.

Levi Kosama has now been appointed the new principal of GLO. He is very supportive of the GLO Alive programs and is keen to start up a church extension program where GLO would go to a group of churches for one weekend every month for two years to help train the leaders there.  

Extra Lessons

On average 20 children from the village are now being taught every Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons. There has been a change as last year they taught every day of the week and this has been interesting as the children are still turning up on Tuesdays and Thursdays anyway, just to hang out with the GAP year students.

Anthony is the one heading this up with help from the GAP year students. The main focus is on English and maths as these are the two subjects students are struggling with. 

Young Women’s Ministry

They have seen the need in the local Kaniki community to help young mothers by teaching them a skill. Many of the young mothers have been getting involved in prostitution because they have no other way to support their families. They are currently running some sewing courses to help and encourage these people.

Boy Scouts Club

The twins we interviewed last year, Prosper and Progress, after completing the GAP year course have been wanting to give back to the community. So they have started a boy scouts club to help teach some of the local boys some skills, and to hang out with them. This program has just started.

Sports Ministry 

This is still going on with the village of Kaniki playing football against the GAP year students every Sunday afternoon. 

They also have a younger team coached by Chisenga Nkausu (Chisenga did the GAP year course in 2012 and is currently on a BHW scholarship to study mechanics).

David and the leaders say this is such an important time to get into the lives of the local people and they find this a great way to “break the ice”.

Mission and Outreach

Anthony is taking teams of youth, mostly ex GAP year students, to villages to run outreach programs. They are aiming to do this about three to five times each year. It has helped the ex GAP year students keep engaged with GLO Alive as well as being an effective ministry. 

Personal Stories

Chikumbi

Chikumbi is a young man who got married earlier this year and invited David Lukama to attend the wedding.

He was one of the first boys in 2010 who came to GLO each day to start to learn how to garden. He and his friend did very well in that first year and were able to increase the business the following year by having their own portion of land.

Eventually Chikumbi managed to set himself up with a small shop that supplies groceries to the community.

He has never forgotten GLO Alive and the team there, how they welcomed him into the Bible college and helped to train him in farming. 

Humphrey Katongo

Humphrey was born in Chingola 25 years ago and moved to Kasama for his primary education. He then went to Kabwe for his secondary school education.

He heard about the GLO Alive course from Isaiah Chalwe in Kasama CMML church. When he arrived at GLO he had no idea what it would be like and was expecting a Bible college training, being stuck inside all the time.

He has found the course very useful and has learnt a lot about interacting with his friends and also different types of people. He says it is hard to get to know people on the course at the start, but after spending some time together they are becoming very close. He feels he is learning a lot about how to be a contributing member of society.

He has also learnt a lot about theology, and what he thinks about God and His attributes. His mentor group is run by “Uncle David” and they have some very long deep discussions. 

He finds some of the physical activities like rise and shine (4am get up and exercise) and Mwela time (the local policeman who comes on Fridays to take them for a boot camp) very challenging, but he is getting better at them.

Partnership's Influence within the Community

There are many churches supporting GLO Alive in what they are doing, seeing this as the only ministry of its kind in Zambia. Even some of the government agencies are hearing about the course and wanting to send youth to the programs.

There are over 300 applicants waiting to be on the program.

Current Issues and Challenges

Sustainability

We discussed the empty chicken house with Levi and David. Currently there is no one with the skills necessary to run the chicken layers but they are very keen to get this up and running again.

Levi used to be the principal of Samfya Bible School and has seen the benefits there of having a sustainable income stream.

Prayer and Praise Points

1) Pray for Levi and David to continue to work together well and achieve the vision of GLO Alive and the church extension program
2) Pray for the right person to come and manage the chicken project