Key People: Melvin Chiombe, Oscar Mwelwa
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OM are pushing a strategy to expose the missionary students to Foundations for Farming. Oscar is very keen on the idea that they restart the demonstration garden area at Maplehurst, and they have Moses Chongo (see personal stories) to run the demonstration farm. Currently Moses has already cleared the area and is preparing vegetable and green winter maize beds.
The plan is to set up the demonstration farm, so it is self-sustaining to pay the salaries of Moses and one other worker, by growing vegetables, crops and some chickens. The market is quite easy as OM will buy from the plot rather than other places as they do currently. Plus, they can sell at the very nearby roadside market.
The missionary students will receive theoretical training in Foundations for Farming as well as having practical sessions to show them how to farm. This will be a big help for them to live sustainably as the go out and enter the mission field.
OM will prepare a budget covering the initial capital expense to set up the few projects, plus an amount to pay for the workers for the first year only until the demo plot is established.
OM is trying to get people to understand about caring for God’s creation through recycling and reducing waste. An example of this is Christopher Kasali who is at the OM base at Lake Tanginika. He has been promoting tree planting and also using the plastic scraps that people can pick up to make “village soccer balls”.
His message to the chat group they have created:
“Yesterday we had a great time with 14 pastors representing churches. We presented creation care in the way that pastors realized it was a missing point in the way they manage the churches. We emphasised creation care as a value.
One pastor commented that it was his first time to see the fresh tree (seedling) on the pulpit and maybe it is symbolising new life (era) in the church.
The goodness is that pastor realized that being a good steward of the earth is part of the Gospel.
Pastor JB Kabwe of the Methodist church organised the youths to clean the drainages around his church. He is also planning to have trees planted around the churches. He is also ready to have his Sunday messages focus on the full Gospel that included the environment.”
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In the last year OM has sent out three couples and three single missionaries to the African Sohail region. They have been praying to create a strategy of where they should be putting their focus, which they have decided is the poorest places of the unreached people groups in the Sohail region of Africa. In some of these countries there are less than 0.5% Christians. There is a nomadic group called the Fulanis who are covering many places in these countries.
The countries they are focusing on are Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana, Gambia, Senegal and Niger. When missionaries are trained, they discuss this strategy with them, ask them to pray about it, and if there is a good fit that is when people are sent.
There are two plans for the students who come. Those who do not have a qualified skill are normally sent to local mission work within Zambia. The second group are those that do have a qualified skill who are able to apply for work visas to countries enabling them to travel there. Even with these work visas, the missionaries are not usually able to find actual employment but will volunteer to help the people of the country. In their day-to-day life they are then able to have conversations as to why they are there and then sharing the gospel.
The land around the base in Kabwe that was previously owned by a local farmer, has been sold to a German man who is wanting to use the land for OM in whatever way will help them.
The Fig-tree café has been going very well, and Melvin says they will continue to rent the land and buildings to the Staals long term as they are doing a great job, and the income is very passive for OM.
They also have been given a 100ha property in Kasama where they are currently growing bamboo and have plans to set up a commercial farm in the future. There is also a piece of land in Mukishi which they have the rental of for 15 years.
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Since last year, the two main leaders Dan Bullock and Gerad have left OM Zambia. They have been replaced by Oscar Mwelwa who is the new OM Zambia director.
Oscar was born in Mansa Luapula and then at some stage moved to the town of Luansha where he attended the local CMML church. He attended the discipleship training at GLO Bible College. While there his interest in missions was ignited so after finishing, he went to ProCristo (now OM) in Kabwe to study missions.
He is married to Christine who has also been trained at GLO and OM.
After training he went to be a missionary in Malawi for one year but had some issues with his back which meant he came back to Zambia for treatment. He had to have three months lying on his back to help with a disc problem. This is still giving him some issues today. From there he spent some time in Zanzibar working with Muslem groups evangelising them. He ended up back in Ndola, Zambia managing the OM base there that were working with the Somali refugees.
Joseph Okello
Joseph has had a lot of leadership exposure having been on the Logos missionary ship for the past two years. He is currently aiming to come back and help Oscar with the day-to-day running of the OM Zambia base.
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Moses is the younger brother to Amon Chongo who used to work with Jerry and Hayley Field when they lived in Zambia. Amon was an amazing man who we thought would become something in the future, until he sadly died from meningitis in 2016.
Moses has been with OM since 2016 and was trained in Foundations for Farming with Franz. He also completed the discipleship programme at OM. He is now married to Cyntia, and they have four children of their own. The first born is 7 years old. There are three girls and one boy, they called Amon.
Amon's wife has now moved on and has remarried so Moses and his wife are the guardians of Amon's two children Rachel and Moses. They are in grade 7 and grade 6.
Melvin has had is eye on Moses for some time now because he has seen the work that he has done, working for various people. He is a very hardworking man and has many skills. He is currently clearing the land in the old demo garden at OM, storing up mulch material and creating beds for vegetables and green winter maize.
He is also able to train people because of the teaching he received in the discipleship programme at OM.
On some land that he rents near his house in the mine compound he practises Foundations for Farming and achieved 20 x 50kg bags of maize from ½ lima. That is 8 ton per hectare equivalent - a great result!
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One challenge OM is facing is the new government regulations where the term "volunteer" is not allowed. For many people who have been receiving “appreciation payments” while serving God in His calling, things will have to change. The government is saying everyone should be paid salaries and at least yearly contracts given with a “gratuity payment” given at the end of the contract, which is like a pension payment. For OM this could be for 200 people and if they cannot sort out how to do this the government could potentially shut them down.
The main thing here is establishing the Foundations for Farming demonstration plot and as part of this we are keen to send Moses to the Mukushi Foundations for Farming Centre for a refresher training course.
OM are to send through the budget for the capital startup required to establish the plot plus one year’s salaries for Moses and maybe a worker.