Report from BHW Zambia Partnership Facilitator Following Visit

Samfya Bible School Key People:
Wathabu Simfukwe
Cephas Mwewa
Alinani Simfukwe (sports outreach)

We visited with Wathabu Simfukwe the school principal at the bible school.

Recent Events

Covid

Covid had quite an impact on the bible school as they had to close the school in the middle of the 2020 intake due to government restrictions. Since they have been able to reopen there have still been restrictions on the people who can come with babies, as this then exceeds limits allowed for social distancing requirements. Covid has also influenced the amount of funding they receive from outside which has meant a lot of juggling of resources to keep the school going. 

Training Programmes

Currently they have 23 students that are doing the one-year Discipleship course.

The church extension programme has been going very well. Currently they are involved with 23 programmes in six districts. This two-year course is having a big impact in the local churches where normally there is a lack of bibles and a lack of knowledge about what the gospel is. Currently around 300 people are directly impacted by the teachings. A benefit of the programme is seeing a greater intake of students who want to come to Samfya to do the discipleship course, and by the time they come they already have a good understanding of the bible to build on. 

The struggle with the extension programme is the funding of the trainers who are often past students from the college who give their time to help the local communities where they have come from. Wathabu says it is hard sometimes to see these past students sleeping on the ground or trying to travel on a broken bicycle to attend the extension programmes. 

Sports Ministry

The sports youth ministry programme is carrying on with the funds BHW sent through the bible school being used to buy some uniforms and boots. 

The youth ministry currently is mostly run outside the bible school, as they have no official staff who are running these programmes. Alinani, who is Wathabu's son, is filling the role as a volunteer at present, but he is not officially part of the bible school.

We met with Albert who is involved with the sports ministry and manages the two football teams. The focus is not just on the football but making sure the players hear the gospel and the word of God to impact their lives to make better choices of how to live. There are seven members on the committee of the sports ministry who meet every two months to discuss how they can continue to impact the youth in the area.

The car wash income generation idea previously submitted to BHW for consideration, is still being discussed by the bible school. They have land available that could be used, but currently they are hesitant as they have no official staff member to link to this ministry.

Alinani is in discussions with the members of the group in regard to being more officially tied to the bible school. Currently they are having some struggles with the new season commencing, having costs of registration for the team, and having to pay referee fees.

They have another IGA project to help with some of these costs. There is a mobile money business that people can run in Zambia that they are investigating to see if it can provide income for the ministry activities. The commissions received are based on 1% to 3% of the amount of the transaction depending on the size of the withdrawal and deposit. It means they would have to complete transfers of between 100,000 ZMW to 250,000 ZMW per month (US$6,200-$15,500). 

Personal Stories

Cephas Mwewa

Cephas is currently one of the teachers at the Bible School. He is married to Prudence and has one daughter, 3-year-old Karis.

Cephas was born in 1991 in the Chindonwa area, which is next to Kaishe. His father was a fisherman and a farmer who struggled to support the family of 8 children. The father was married with two wives.

Cephas attended primary school until 2007 and achieved very high marks at school. When it came to attending secondary school, the father was not able to afford to send him to school. His father knew Charles Chibale from Kaishe Orphanage Association (ZAM14a) and approached him in 2010 to see if any support could be given. After considering, they helped with school fees and uniforms and sent him to Mulenga Secondary School, where he had to rent a house and provide for himself.

The father was able to help with paying for the rental accommodation and was able to bring some food. In 2012 Cephas graduated with very high marks again. In 2013 he wanted to learn more about God and had a passion for reading God's word. He approached Samfya Bible School and was able to secure a place to achieve a Certificate of Biblical Studies.

In 2014 he moved back to Chindonwa and was involved in the local church, leading youth, and helped in the Kaishe Orphans Association after school extra lessons programme. Later that year, Samfya Bible School had approached Teka University about the need for more local people to become teachers at the school. Cephas was picked as one local who could help achieve this. His father only agreed to this if he did a double major including a secondary school teacher qualification with the missions training.

Teka sponsored 75% of the fee, with Hope Africa Mission topping up the remaining 25%, but this all depended on Cephas remaining top of the class throughout his studies. He achieved this, but says it was very hard work. He graduated in 2018, and then went back to Samfya Bible School and has been teaching the bible since then.

One of his main roles has been to teach the church extension programme, and he was funded through Hope Africa Mission to run an extension programme in his home area of Chindonwa and Kaishe. Every two months he and other trainers travel to the area for one week to train the churches in leadership and how the bible affects the way people should live. The main difference from traditional leadership means that instead of the leader being served by the community, the bible teaches that the leader should serve the community.

The advent of Covid has meant the church extension programme has stopped, and Hope Africa Mission has now disbanded due to a lack of funds.

The Chindonwa and Kaishe area finds development difficult due to the Batwa people having a history of being fisherman. The adults see no point in education as they just want their children to carry on fishing. Now with the fishing being nearly non-existent due to overfishing, they have tried to farm, but due to lack of fertility from constant burning of the land that also proves difficult. So, they are left with little hope for the future and poverty remains.

Cephas believes that from people looking at his and other examples of what could be achieved through education, over time people could start to see things differently. He believes any economic development should start with what they are already doing, i.e., farming. His desire is to restart the programmes they had previously started, but this will take some funding through the bible school. In the programme they also teach other topics relevant to the area, such as entrepreneurship and farming.

Plans for the Future

Sports Ministry

Currently we have funded US$375 into the sports ministry through the bible school. We are waiting for them to come up with a proposal for the car wash income generation activity that would be able to fund all activities. We note that this may depend on the ability of the bible school to find a staff member who will be involved.

We recommend funding the mobile money booth, as this is an easier business to set up for little cost (US$400).

Church Extension Programme

Cephas has put a proposal to us to help restart the church extension programme in the Kaishe Chindonwa area where he is from. The training is for 50 people for 2 days every month. The budget for the first year of this two-year course would be US$3,638. The BHW Executive will consider this proposal.  

Comments

It was great to finally met Cephas who we have heard of for many years. The passion that he has for his local community is very evident.