Report from BHW Zambia Partnership Facilitators Following Visit in July

Key people: David & Nanna Lukama, Maria, Geoffrey 

Recent Events

GAP Year

The course had just completed when we visited with 35 students completing the GAP year. The input and discipleship for these young Zambians has again been life-changing for them. 

There have been 10 young people sponsored on the program by the GLO scholarship program for poorer youth. 

A local farmer who has an area with a dam offered GLO the use of this as a boot type training camp. The students have to live in the bush and experience a range of outward bound type activities from night solos to team bonding by raft building and moving across the dam. There are two army commandos that help to run these programs, giving each activity a spiritual analogy. 

Some of the other programs that the students have been involved in include:
- Volunteering for the council to help with road clean up
- Cleaning hospitals
- Farming labour 

Community Youth Programs 

The extra lessons and sports programs for the youth in the community have been running well. Due to high demand GLO has decided to focus on 50 youth who have extra lessons on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and then a sports program of football and netball on Tuesday and Thursday.  

Leadership

David Lukama has now been appointed principal of GLO. He continues to develop a team of people around him.  

Geoffrey has been added to the team to help with the accounts and projects. 

Dick Mumba (a BHW partner - ZAM11) has also been offered a position.  

Yvee has been trained in Foundations for Farming at FCE for 16 months and then did his placement in rural Zambia but is committed to youth work and hence has come to GLO.

Advanced Leadership Program

This program focuses on teaching servant leadership as shown by the example of Jesus. Every three months the students come for a block course of 1 week. The students are mainly already leaders in the church.

GLO is partnering with North Rise University who are helping to confirm a curriculum that can be officially accredited as a university course in Zambia. They are also helping to send lecturers to teach in the one week block courses.

Church Extension Program

Timothy is running this program that is being run in local CMML churches in Ndola. There are currently 115 people attending the program. Once a month for a full weekend GLO organizes training for a gathering of local church leaders to give them a real biblical basis for running the local church. Many times ex-students of the GLO discipleship course are used to help facilitate the trainings, getting a small allowance. The churches are providing the venues and other items as their contribution to the trainings.

New courses in Kitwe and Chingola CMML are to start within the next year.

Personal Stories

Madando Area

One of the previous GAP year students, Gertrude, brought this area of Ndola to David’s attention. She has a passion to bring some hope to this area.

David was asked to go to the court rooms by a judge to advise on two youth from the Madando area who were arrested for stealing a solar panel. They were very young and the judge didn’t want to send them to jail for two years. David and Gertrude visited the home of the boys and found that they lived with their grandmother. The mother had left them there and had become a prostitute, and then passed away. The dad was a drunk who also had passed away.

They had no food and nothing to do as they couldn’t afford school nor did they have anywhere to play in the city compound. It was no wonder that they had stolen the solar panel to sell to buy food. 

They started talking with the boys, sharing about Jesus, and brought them some mealy meal. Now one of the boys has started a small business, going to the river to collect bags of sand that he then brings into town and sells to the builders. 

He now has some hope.

Geoffrey Mukwala

Geoffrey is married to Chitimba and they have one young daughter born in 2013. He grew up in Kasama and Isaiah Chalwe is the pastor there who has mentored him, teaching him to live for God and giving him opportunities in church to teach others.

He met David in 2010 at a youth camp run by GLO in Kasama. At that time he was working with an NGO called Zambian Scholarship Fund where he kept the accounts. That NGO would adopt a school and help train the teachers. Geoffrey was inspired to see young people at GLO moving through the programs and then finding employment.

He is currently still studying accounting part time at ZICA and will finish in three years. He knows God has called him to GLO because of his love for youth work. 

For his personal support he has a farm in Kasama with some fish ponds and vegetable garden beds that he is still developing. There are reliable people there to help him. He also is trading in rice, buying in bulk from Tanzania and splitting into smaller packs, but this has been slow due to his work at GLO taking priority at the moment. 

Partnership's Influence within the Community

Zesco Football Team

One of the students that attended the GAP year was the son of the manager of the professional football team in Zambia called Zesco United. The boy was very troublesome, in fact was nearly expelled from the program, but the leadership thought if he has no hope here where else can he go. So they persevered with him and at the end of the course the boy had changed. His parents were very grateful to see him find Jesus and change his heart.

The Zesco football team were having many behavioural issues and the manager then contacted GLO because of the change they saw in the son. David started to attend the team trainings to provide some counselling and ministering to the team. Now he is seen as the team pastor and is always asked to go to the team games when he can.

GLO received funding for some bibles and gave one to each of the players. The team also had three Muslims from Kenya who play. These players have now given their lives to Christ and the team itself has been very vocal on TV and radio about bringing glory to God through the way they live their lives.

Football in Zambia is the thing that people love and many young people look at the team members as role models and heros so the influence of this program has a massive impact on the youth of Zambia.

Sakania Village

The local village where GLO is sees GLO as a place of hope. With the extra lessons and sports programs, plus the Agape ladies who meet at GLO to sew, and the advocacy in the local clinic GLO is impacting the community.

This year the community leaders came to GLO with a sad story of a 16 year old girl whose parents had taken her out of school to marry an older man as they couldn’t see how education would help her but the older man would supposedly look after her. GLO got involved and now the girl has been released from the engagement and is back at school. The old man has been jailed as it is illegal to marry a girl that age.

Ideas for the Future

Income Generation

Chicken Run
Geoffery is working on a budget for the chicken run, focusing on broilers for meat. 

House rentals
They are exploring the idea of purchasing a flat/house in Ndola that they can rent out for passive income. One of the board members currently is involved in this business and is willing to help. 

Camp Reality
One of the local private schools, Nchanga Trust School, has heard about the way young people's lives have been changed through the testimony of ex-students and parents. They have asked GLO to take the Grade 11 students for a week on their programs. They are willing to pay well for these services. The first course will be held later this year and GLO are very keen to make a good job of this so as to ensure they come back. There are also other schools who are keen to do the same.

Expat Volunteers
They have had some Western volunteers come who pay a fee for being at GLO to help out throughout the programs that are run. This year they have had 3 people come. 

There are some real potential income generating activities here which are either passive or they are part of what GLO actually does, i.e. youth camps. There is a desire to use the school camps as income generating activities which then creates income to be able to use the facilities for helping the poorer youth in Zambia to come and participate in courses at GLO.

Conference

David has requested some funding to have a conference for all the past GLO GAP year students from the last five years. There are a total of about 200 people. The conference will be aimed at giving many young people the chance to say how their lives have been impacted by the GAP year course in order to help continue to build better leaders for tomorrow, to look at how the mindset of the community can be changed, and bring hope to the nation.

Maintenance

Some of the buildings at GLO are in need of maintenance. They have recently harvested some of the big pine trees that were on the plot to make timber to help with the maintenance.

They are also looking at trying to upgrade some of the accommodation with tiles, ceiling and painting. GLO has completed one of the block units this year. They estimate they need approx. US$4,000 to finish off the last four block units. This will help them as they start to use the facility to create income out of what they do, such as Camp Reality, where if the accommodation was suitable they would be able to charge out at a higher rate.

Prayer and Praise Points

1) For new leadership and people joining GLO
2) For direction on income generation that is passive enough to allow for the staff to still focus on the ministry
3) For the Zesco football team ministry