Report from BHW Zambia Partnership Facilitator Following Visit

Key people:  Andrew Alexander  -  Finance
                      Melvin Chione  -  OM Area Africa
                      Dan Bullock  -  OM Zambia

We met with various members of the leadership group who talked about a time of refocus of the original vision of OM. They are aiming to target unreached people groups particularly in the Sahel area, Sahara Africa, encompassing 10 countries that are mostly Muslim. They are looking at everything they are currently involved in and will make some tough calls on ministries that are not aligned to this vision. This may mean handling some ministries over to local churches, or other organizations, or finishing some ministries over time.

They are to visit the Sahel area on scouting trips to see what type of missionaries are needed to be placed there in terms of skills, support and community transformation needs.

At the OM center they are still running discipleship courses and missions training, around 100 people per year in three courses.

Recent Events

Missionaries

In total there are around 160 local Zambians involved in OM either locally at the base or out in the mission field in other countries. Note that OM is not a sending agency, it is the local church that sends missionaries, OM just helps facilitate that.

OM has a policy of wanting to empower these people in their ministries but they are not paid employees. They aim for an OM volunteer to have support of 3,000 ZMK (US$250) per month for a single person or 4,000 ZMK (US$330) for a family.  Currently 80% of the volunteers are living below this line. Most support comes from outside in the West with a little from the sending local churches. OM does have a fund that is donated to that helps support some of these people on an adhoc basis where required.

Currently Bright Hope World supports around 30 missionaries with the US$12,000 sent each year.

OM also has a branch called Global South that aims to help empower missionary workers through business. They provide business training and help develop business plans that are then assessed by a business team. If agreed they raise funds to help fund these businesses to create support for missionaries. Some examples of businesses are:
• Livestock farming
• Car wash
• Hairdressing
• Local food café 

Nakoli School (ZAM25)

OM has made the call to move away from the community school as the government has decreed to take over. They are currently phasing out of the school and aim to be completed there by the end of 2021.

Currently the funds created (US$2,351 per year) from the Bright Hope World funded flat are still going to support the school until it is phased out, at which time OM will discuss with us where these funds would be of most use. Note: Nakoli School via Bright Hope World has a 27% share in the flats.

Bethesda Mercy Ministry

We visited this ministry which is run by Peter and Brenda who were interviewed last year as they are missionaries supported by the funds that Bright Hope World donates. The ministry aims to help disabled members of the community be a part of society.

Disabled people are often an unreached people because they are usually thrown out of home due to the belief that they are cursed and will bring a curse to families. Normally the father will leave the family and the mother is left to look after these kids. They have no ability to look after them well, in terms of finance or skills, so often children are just left alone.

One part of the ministry is for the leaders to visit local churches and try to educate them on how the bible sees disabled people and to care for them that way. Unfortunately the current mindset of the churches is the same as local communities, thinking they are cursed, or that they lack faith to be healed. Last year they completed four church trainings around Kabwe.

The ministry also has a school set up with three classrooms to help with the disabled children. They are picked up around 7:30 am and stay at school until 3:00 pm. They receive breakfast and lunch at the school.

The classes are reception, elementary and secondary with a total of 44 students currently. In the classes the idea is to train the children to be able to be eventually integrated into the mainstream schools. They teach Grade 3 level math, science and also a lot of time on life skills of cooking, washing and other things that can help around the home.

One pupil called Yande last year managed to be integrated into a local school called Grace Primary into Grade 4. She is doing well and the school is accepting her.

There are currently seven teachers at the school and many volunteers from OM who also help with the children. 

For the guardians and parents of the children they run skills training in sewing to enable them to make goods for sale which will help empower the mothers to have some funds for household needs.

Personal Stories

Joshua Chishala

Joshua is a single man who grew up in the Copperbelt where his father was a miner. He attended GLO discipleship course in 2002 and then Pro Cristo (now OM) in 2003.

He then went to Malawi for five years to establish a church there. It was a bit hard he says to move to the local village from the cities of Zambia and he experienced a lot of culture shock. He learned the local language and tried to encourage education by setting up a community school. Education levels were very low in the area and the Muslim faith also thought that education was a Christian thing so were not that interested.

After leaving Malawi to other people he has come back to OM Kabwe to be involved in a leadership position overseeing sports, AIDS and HIV link, Mercy Ministry and schools.

He is a trained counsellor in HIV care and is able to administer tests at the OM base. He sees this work as very important as 1.2 million people have the disease in Zambia alone. A person who tests positive needs to be given hope that they can still have the life that they thought they were going to have, but the main thing is to introduce the hope of Christ that will change lives. They deal with health issues and practical issues, administering ARV drugs and helping with food supplements.

Joshua has been a part of the Global South business support system and keeps some goats that he breeds and sells for income.

Davis Sanyikosa

Davis has been a single parent since 2005 when his wife left him for another man. This was a very sad time for him and his two children who stayed with him. She returned eight years later and after working through forgiveness he allowed her to visit anytime to see the children.

He was involved in CMML Musenga Mission in IT and printing books, and clearing containers of goods imported for missions until 2016 when he joined with OM. He receives very irregular support as an OM worker but continues to live in faith. 

For one year he was a missionary in Chipata involved in outreach to the Muslim community. He says the strategy used to reach these people is a difficult and long process. They aim to befriend them and help in any social needs. Then they ask if they can hear about the Muslim faith and get permission to discuss Christianity with them. If someone does come to Christ it can be a hard road for them as social support of food and money is cut off.

Davis is now responsible for outreach teams and overseas short term missions. The outreach teams go from the OM base to areas where they are invited by local churches to help them run programs to spread the gospel. For short term missions he budgets and arranges all the things for the people who come to Zambia to get a taste of mission work that may mean they become interested in long term missions. He says this also involves a lot of orientation for people to what is a culture shock, what is ok and not ok. Managing expectations is a big task! 

Comments

I have asked if there are any opportunities for us to help in the Global South business empowerment program and Bethesda Mercy Ministry and will wait to hear back from them.

The funds from the flat that support Nakoli School will remain as is at the moment.