Report from BHW Zambia Partnership Facilitator Following Visit

Key Person: Oliver Mulenga

Recent Events

General

Food stuffs and prices for goods has really shot up over the last year. Most things are around 30% up from previous years which is really putting pressure on people to survive. 

Orphan School Programme

Eight orphans sat Grade 12 exams last year with mixed results. Half of them have passed but the other half did not do so well.

This year there are eight students in Grade 12 and one in Grade 10. The costs of increasing school fees has made it hard to continue to sort out all the requirements.  

Block Making Business

This has been gradually becoming a more difficult business with a lot of competition being set up in the area. PCM blocks do have a reputation for being very good quality so Oliver does get a lot of return business from loyal customers which means the business is still doing fine, just not as good as previously.

Saturday Morning Programme

This still carries on with the three teachers coming to help the students with extra lessons, play sports and have a bible study. The feeding programme is working ok but they have had to make cuts some weeks with only providing tea and buns. Oliver hears the students complaining about this, which may sound ungrateful, but he says often they are not being very well fed at all in their guardian’s homes.

There are another 25 Grade 3 orphans that are funded into school via the PCM block making business and they also attend the Saturday morning programmes.

Oliver is thinking of ways to help raise more funds to put these orphans through school.

Church Plants

Two of the three churches planted by Oliver continue, with small congregations worshipping each week. Oliver is keen to have more input into these churches. His current church, Kankonshi, has now commended him as an evangelist to visit other churches and preach the true gospel.

Personal Stories

Oliver's Story

Oliver was born in Kalamo Province with eight brothers and sisters from his dad's second wife after he divorced his first wife. His father was a salesman in a very big shop until he retired and was given some land in the bush. Here, at the age of 15, Oliver was put to work selling beer to the villagers because he had to drop out of school at the end of standard 2 due to a lack of funds.

They used to go to church but he never heard the gospel.

Eventually he got sick of selling beer for no wage so left home and got a job driving a vehicle for CBC Company who eventually transferred him to the Copper Belt. When they first sent him he was married but his wife Emily did not come with him for 6 months. He was attending church but in his own words he was a “very wild living man”.

He then attended an agricultural course learning much about poultry and was able to secure a 6ha block of land in 1982 which he still owns today. At this stage he entered politics and was an elected counselor of Kalulushi township. He also managed to get a plot of land in town. These were times that seemed good because he had power and they paid a good allowance to be a counselor.

One day at church a man handed out some pamphlets advertising a bible college called GLO. He was very interested because it had a picture of a big Mzungi (white man) on the front cover and he started wondering if the teaching there would be any different to what he was hearing at his local church.

So he applied, and got accepted. He then had to resign from politics and he and his wife went to GLO for a 9 month course. There were six students at the college and he said he found himself repenting about this life for the whole 9 months, God was doing a very big thing with his heart.

After finishing GLO he wanted to disciple many people so set about sending as many people as he could to GLO and Samfya Bible School, helping to fund them. He did this by setting up a block building business in Kalulushi. He built three churches from his own funds and then with his wife set up the orphan programme, funding school requirements and meeting every Saturday at his house with the orphans for bible study, extra lessons and feeding them. 

A lot of orphans have passed through this programme, some have done very well going onto university and getting jobs. His heart for these lost ones is to show them the same love and forgiveness that Christ gave him.

Prayer and Praise Points

1) Praise and prayer for Oliver’s health and mental state. He is a very strong man.
2) Pray for the ability to mentor and disciple the orphans 
3) Pray that Oliver will use his knowledge of the bible to encourage other churches where he is invited to preach

Comments

Next year there will only be one orphan remaining in the programme the Bright Hope World initially agreed to sponsor. She will be finished in 2021.

Questions arise regarding the 25 orphans that Oliver has added that we never agreed to fund. My suggestion is that we look at help fund the Saturday morning program for these children, i.e. the feeding, extra lessons and study, but not their school requirements. The Saturday morning programme is about the only reasonable experience of life many of them have.