Report from BHW Zambia Partnership Facilitator Following Visit

Key person:  Oliver Mulenga

Recent Events

Orphans Program

The orphans program continues on with funding of school requirements for 24 orphans in Grade 8 to 12. Each Saturday morning they come for extra lessons with the teachers who are given a small amount (50 ZMK) to give up their time. They are taught English and mathematics, and given lunch.

There are also 38 Grade 2 and 3 orphans who come for literacy lessons but who are not supported with school requirements. 

Ministry and Evangelism

Oliver had a meeting with his friend Joseph and they decided that Oliver needed to increase his ministry with the three churches (Kankonshi, Chibote, Mulenga) that they have planted. Oliver has been preaching in the churches himself, to bring the word of God to the congregations.

In the future he would like to send more people to bible school for training and is looking for the right people to send. He currently has two people in mind from the Kankonshi church:
- Collins Sashingize who currently works as a security guard in Kalulushi
- Jonas Mwandwa who works as an officer of the high court in Kalulushi

Each Wednesday Oliver attends a house group in Kalulushi with six other members of the Kankonshi church. This has been a great time of fellowship and reading the bible. They are currently going through the book of Acts.

Part of his ministry has also been to revive a bible study with all the orphans that come on Saturday mornings. He will run this himself. 

Income Generation

Oliver’s block making business has suffered a few setbacks with sales declining. Competition has started up just down the road on the corner and this has been taking new business away. However old customers are still coming to Oliver’s as they know the quality of his blocks is good.

With advice from the accountant he now has no staff to help him, other than paying for piece-meal workers who make the blocks.

He is still doing well enough to manage to cover his living costs and help out in the ministry where he can. He hopes that his example of tent making will help to show others in the church the biblical model of Paul.

Personal Stories

Loveness Masunda

Age 8
Grade 2
Loveness comes to the Saturday morning program and gets extra lessons with the teacher, eats some lunch and plays games with her friends there. 

Loveness lives at home with her mother and sister. They eat three times a day. She shares one blanket with her sister for sleeping. Her mother has taught her to write.

Prisca Mushili

Age 14
Grade 10
Prisca has been in this program for five years. This has helped her with her school fees, uniform, shoes etc and then also the extra lessons on Saturday.

She lives with her mother, sister and brother. Her mum sells cassava and peanuts at the market. She buys them in bulk and then sells along the road side. They eat three times a day, nshima or bread or rice.

Prisca enjoys school and would like to be a nurse one day because she would like to help people. If she could do anything though she would want to own her own company and be in business.

She goes to an Anglican church and knows that Jesus loves children. Prisca prays to God about her family and her mum's business.

Prisca sees that for young women like her there are big problems with girls getting married young, she sees that this could be changed by following God's word.

Barbra Mwewa

Age 17
Grade 10
Barbra is the sister to Loveness, they both live with their mother. Their father died recently in a car accident. Her mum sells vegetables along the road side. As a family of three they now have come together to look after each other. Their mother is teaching them to grow up and be able to take care of themselves, and also to concentrate on their education. Barbra would like to help orphans like she has been helped by the program because she knows what it is like and has compassion for children in the same position as her.

Barbra enjoys school, she would like be a nurse. There are 40 students in her class and just one text book for the teacher.

Barbra really enjoys the praise group at church. She knows Jesus cares for us and heals people, without Jesus we are nothing.

Barbra sees that there is a problem with young girls getting pregnant early and getting married early. Then they take their babies into the bar. She sees early marriage as being a problem because then the girl has to leave school and it stops further education.

Older Grades

We held a group discussion with all the older children, with them making the following comments:
- They are thankful for the support to help them into school
- Most of the guardians have part-time work in Kalulushi and then have a farm that is many kilometers away
- They like football and netball
- The distance to walk to school is a long way, normally about 6 km
- The main issues for young people in Kalulushi are smoking, drinking and early pregnancies. This comes from peer pressure.
- The main jobs that they want to do when they leave school is either a doctor or nurse, with one wanting to become a farmer.

Plans for the Future

The budget for 2018 will reduce as nine students will finish Grade 12 at the end of this year. The plan is to finish off the current orphans in higher grades through school but to not add any new orphans into the program.

Oliver will continue to think about how best to help people in the churches with further biblical training.

Current Issues and Challenges

The decline in sales at Oliver's block making business. 

Prayer and Praise Points

1) Praise for Oliver’s health
2) Praise for the house group that he attends
3) Pray for the direction and biblical teaching in the churches
4) Pray for Oliver's block making business to improve

Comments

Oliver was in a good head space this time and spoke with clarity about wanting to make sure that the churches were looking to Jesus as the way, the truth and the life. He has really enjoyed the fellowship at the house church and seems to have a new spark of life towards sharing the gospel with the churches and the orphans.

We talked at length about the desire to send more people away for bible school and how it had not worked so well in the past, i.e. the people he sent came back expecting to end up as paid pastors. Oliver agrees that it did not go well in the past so he has to make sure he finds the right people to send and discuss their expectations, using himself as an example of a tent maker.