Report from BHW Zambia Partnership Facilitators Following Visit

Key person:     Melvin Chiombe – Africa Team Leader
                          Dan Bullock – Zambia Team Leader
                          Peter Chila – Bethesda Coordinator

Recent Events

Africa Area

We met with Melvin to discuss how OM is impacting Africa as a whole. Currently their vision is to reach the unreached people in the Sahel area, in Northern Africa.

They have started a base in the Sahel area in the last two years, with Ken and Susan from Zambia moving there to help set up the base. Susan can be there because of her medical background. There is a big need in this area for people to hear the good news and it to enable them to change very deep cultural mindsets. (Note names changed due to security.)

There is still a push for the OM missionaries to be moving towards being more sustainable through income generation or local home church supporters rather than rely on western funding. Currently the funds provided by Bright Hope World go into a National Workers Fund, which is used each month to top up some funding when the team leaders assess which missionaries are struggling the most. Sometimes this is also used as an emergency medical fund for serious cases. There are some cases where the missionaries are looking for a business and skills that they already have to see if any help can be given to push these skills up and create some income.

In August the Love Africa Conference will be held with the theme being “his story, your story”. The aim is to remind the missionary people that they need to be able to tell the stories of impact in the mission fields, to be used to encourage others in the ministry.

After the conference, 20 of the missionaries are going to attend a Foundations for Farming course at GLO Zambia, funded by Bright Hope World, to empower them with farming techniques to help them to better provide for their needs while in the field. There was a discussion around how best to follow-up and mentor the trainees after the training has taken place.

We discussed with Melvin regarding one of the local missionaries in Chad, who we have had contact with over the last year since meeting with him at the OM Love Africa Conference. This missionary is one of the local converts to Christ, after a long period of the African missionaries to Africa programme from OM. They have a great ministry that involves a bore hole and gardening, in a very dry area. The country is very Muslim and difficult to evangelize.  As the people come to collect water and garden, they hear the word of God through bible readings in the background which opens opportunities to tell people about Christ and what he has done for them.

Currently they are having some issues with the garden as it is not fenced, and many animals are coming and destroying crops. There is a request to fund the wire fencing of the garden, that helps to grow groundnuts, okra, maize and other vegetables, to sustain the believers in the area. The picture is of the ground nuts planted.

OM Zambia

The Impact Multiplied flat that Bright Hope World funded in 2009 at the Aroha block of flats is still being rented out and the funding used for Makawati School. The school is overseen by Rachel Shopopa, who works for OM, and she has a great relationship with the government appointed Headmaster of the school. There are 14 OM teachers at the school who went through the OM teachers training and have gained qualification certificates from the government.

OM Zambia has been split up into different branches:

Equip Branch: A lady called “mama” Isabela has been setting up programmes for OM that aim to change the mindset of having the hands out in a begging position, to turning over and working hard to be faithful and use what you have. She started with a fishpond that was donated to OM to help with income generation.

She is also leading a cooperative group of 10 missionaries who contribute a small amount of capital to start projects. Currently they have planted maize and avocado trees plus other agricultural initiatives. The maize will be harvested soon. They use the profits to input into other activities and excess funds are put into the National Workers Fund to support missionaries. 400ZMK (US$20) was given last year, which is a great start.

Inspire Branch:  Pastor Waddi involved with local Zambian church mobilisation

Connect Branch: Gerard - administration and connection of missionaries to the fields

Engage Branch: Any area of ministry run in Kabwe, Zambia where the OM base is located

Personal Stories

Gabriel Ngulube

Gabriel is a children's ministry leader in Kabwe area. He was brought up in the local area of OM, Kabwe. He was raised by his grandmother after his parents died. When he was going to his local church, he realized his passion for children and wanted them to grow up with a mission mind and felt called to this generation. 

He was organizing a children’s conference at his local church, where he met some OM students, and they told him about OM and helped him with his programmes. He was able to be sponsored to do the teachers training at OM and then taught at the community school that OM was working with at the time. He has now moved to the OM base as the children’s ministry team leader.

With this role he has a team of 4-5 people who help run different programmes that are focused on reaching children. Each week there is an afternoon programme on a Monday and Wednesday set up for teaching children. This has also evolved to a teen programme as there was nothing for the kids to be involved in after they grew out of the initial programme.

There are also three conferences each year for children. At these conferences they teach the children about how other children around the world are living and teach them to pray for these children. He has been touched that there have been times when the children have been in tears as they realize how other children are living. They also of course play games that children love.

Gabriel wants to see kids having a good foundation so they grow up well, and even if they do turn away from God, they will always eventually turn back.

Tionge Nyasulu

As a child Tionge moved to Kabwe. He did the Discipleship Course in 2016 and then started working with OM in media and communication and the teen street ministry.

In the media work he writes up stories and videos for the people involved in different ministries around OM. These are then used to keep their supporters updated with what is happening.

Tionge recently got married to Vanessa who is a teacher for the disabled ministry of OM Bethesda.

He sometimes can support himself through doing wedding videos and photographs outside of what he does with OM. He also does the live streaming for his church. 

Katie and Costa

Katie and Costa have three children. Katie is working with a team that is updating the curriculum. They want to improve what is already there and standardize the courses throughout all the OM bases. They want the curriculum to be in the context of Zambia and keep it up to date with the way the world is changing.

Costa works in the finance team and fundraising for OM through the local Zambian churches. The challenging part of this role is that normally when people hear about a missionary coming, they think about what they could get; this needs to change to what they might be able to give in support of local African missionaries.

A while ago Katie did a business course and got a grant to set up a small local shop with hair products. After a month of being open, the shop was burgled, and the thieves stole everything. This has been very disheartening for them, and they are still working on paying back the loan. The shop is still running with supplying other goods. The only good thing that has come out of it is the relationship they have been able to have with the shopkeeper they employed. They have been able to disciple her, and she has become involved in the sewing ministry.

They also do seasonal trading to help support themselves, like buying and selling fish and dried fish.

Amos Sakulanda

We met with Amos in Chipata, where he travelled to meet us at Rosemary Daka’s place as he had heard we were in the area. We interviewed Amos in 2022 at the Love Africa Conference, which is where we first got to know him.

Amos has a wife, Elizabeth, two children and one dependent who lives with them. They rent a small house in town. He has continued with his ministry in the Chipata hospital, where he has established a great relationship with the administrators of the facility. He can visit people in their hospital beds, pray for healing and present them with the gospel. He thinks that over 200 people have accepted Christ over the last two years because of this ministry. He would like to be able to provide some mattresses and fluids to the hospital to keep up the good relationship, and to help out the hospital where they are having challenges.

He has also started a school ministry, where he goes into schools to mentor and disciple young children in the word of God, through the Scripture Union programmes. Many of the children are having a hard time at home, with parents or guardians who are not present very often, or who are drunkards.

His cry is currently for personal support as he only receives 1,000ZMK (US$53) per month from a well-wisher. That doesn’t even cover the monthly rental of the property and he is unsure how he will be able to carry on like this. He would like to start a business of a motorbike courier, which would enable him to continue the ministry work for three days a week and give rides to people when not doing ministry. People he knows with motorbikes are earning 50 to 100ZMK per day.

Comments

We recommend continuing with the same level of funding for the general missionary support. In addition, there may be opportunities with some individuals to help empower them to increase their own sustainability as per the above. We will continue to correspond with both OM and the individuals themselves regarding these possibilities.