Report from BHW Zambia Partnership Facilitator Following Visit 24th June 

Key People: Wathabu Simfukwe and Samuel Mululu (photo right)

Recent Events

Bible School

The bible school continues to provide both in-house courses for students and the ever-increasing Church Extension Discipleship programme. 

The bible school budget of around US$55,000 to run currently relies on 80% external donations, and 20% of the funds are self-generated. They are doing this thru the following programmes:
• Student fees
• Local church donations, as the extension programme has enabled churches to see the benefits of the bible school
• Maize trading
• SBS farm
• CFA partnership
• Rental of buildings on the property
• Rental of a gifted house in Kasama from an expat missionary

They are intending to create more income by developing some lakeside land into accommodation units that can be rented for passive income. 

Church Extension Programme

Samuel continues to run the church extension programme. This is seen as a vital part of the bible school as it is achieving the vision of empowering the local rural church with the word of God. Samuel currently has a group of 35 ex-students of the bible school helping with this programme.

A programme is started once there are enough ex-SBS students who are living in the area, and the local leadership of the churches request the programme. Then one weekend per month is put aside to go and train the churches, with the ex-students taking part in the training in the first year. In the second year the ex-students who have been identified as suitable take over much of the training. Wathabu describes this element as very essential for the course, as having teachers of God's word who are from the local area means people will be able to hear from “one of their own” because they have the local cultural context.

They are running around 15 to 20 courses in any given year, showing large multiplication of this programme.

One of the side effects of the programme is that it provides very suitable new students for the SBS in-house courses. The teachers can identify those in the church extension programme who are suitable and would benefit from the more extensive programmes. In 2025 there are 16 out of the 32 full-time students who have come directly from the extension programme. 

Christian Farmers Association (CFA)

In partnership with Christian Farmers Association (CFA), they have approximately a hectare of land that is used for farming and a butchery. The farm has vegetables, broiler chickens, layers, goats, piggery (holding station for the butchery), cattle and cropping.

Many trials and learnings are run at the farm, including biochar, animal and cropping rotations, hay and silage making, compost, and drip line irrigation. The produce is sold to run the farm, and any profits are shared with the bible school. Students from the bible school are able to spend time on the farm learning about how they might sustain themselves on the mission field.

The butchery focuses mainly on pigs, which are grown by local farmers in the area after training is provided. Before slaughter the pigs are held at the CFA farm piggery to meet health requirements. They are currently processing around five pigs per week. The pigs are sourced from the breeding programme at the Samfya Bible School farm. When each litter is born, a farmer who is part of a church is selected to be given 5 piglets. They are also given the feed, so in total per pig they receive a loan of 2,000zmk (US$86). They then have to sell their pigs back to CFA at 3,000zmk (US$130) so receive a profit of 1,000zmk per pig after 6 months. CFA, after butchering and selling, make an income of 6,000zmk (US$260) per pig with a profit before overheads of 3,000zmk.

They intend to expand into goat butchering as well as the demand for goat meat is high.

Currently the farm is generating around 1,000,000zmk (US$43,290) income per year, which is providing a small profit. The goal in the next couple of years is to expand operations by adding a warehouse that will be able to have a grinding mill to process maize from the area and sell machinery and feed minerals for local farmers to make their own animal feeds. This should see income reach 2,000,000zmk.

The agreement between CFA and Samfya Bible School is that all the infrastructure will be given to SBS when CFA has achieved its goals, so will help SBS to become financially independent.

Maize Trading

The second year of maize trading after Bright Hope World gave a capital injection of 140,700zmk in May 2023 to purchase maize went well until the end. They purchased maize from local farmers by the gallon for 25zmk. There are 12 gallons in a 50kg bag of maize. They purchased a total of 170,950zmk (US$7,370), the total capital they had after the first year of trading.

The main man responsible, George, was unfortunately away when a maize trader came and offered to purchase the entire stock for 100,000zmk (US$4,310). The maize was meant to be sold to local people who would be in need of it for 35zmk per gallon, achieving profit for the bible school but also providing a source of maize for the locals when maize is scarce. Unfortunately, this meant their total profit was only 185zmk. This is put down to a learning experience as the maize trader was very smart buying with cash in hand. The leadership has discussed with the workers and plans made for the future.

This year they are currently buying more maize to store, in 50,000zmk (US$2,155) lots. They have already purchased the first 50,000zmk and stored, and are aiming to use the whole 180,000zmk capital that remains from the sale last year, and possibly look to increase the fund by 40,000zmk (US$1,725) out of other SBS funds to help with this programme. 

SBS Farm 

The farm has been working well enough to break even in the last two years. In 2023 Bright Hope World gave 37,000zmk to establish the chicken broiler unit and provide wages for the manager for 6 months. 

Milton, the farm manager, has done well and managed to get the farm to employ a worker, Emmanuel. They have been farming broiler chickens, goats, ducks, vegetables, and maize. 

The main reason the farm has only broken even was because they used funds to repair the broken hammer mill. They have managed to do this and now are able to run the machine well grinding local villagers’ maize into mealy meal. 

The maize they grew in 2024 achieved a yield of 48 bags from 2 lima (approx. 5 ton per ha equivalent) which is a good result. 

The broiler chickens have expanded to having two rooms at one time, with 300 birds in each room. The market has been good, but they have learnt not to have high production from January to March as this is when people’s other expenses are high, and sales become slow. The chickens are sold 20% from the farm, and 80% in Samfya at the marketplace. 

With the farm now able to pay the wages and sustain itself, this year with the grinding mill working and other programmes they are aiming to be able to help fund the bible school from the profits. 

Personal Stories

Ronald Sikapudwa

At Samfya Bible School, they are privileged to hear testimonies of God’s transformative power. Among their first-year students in the Certificate in Biblical Studies programme is Ronald Sikapudwa, a 25-year-old whose life story reflects the triumph of faith over darkness. 

Ronald’s upbringing was marked by a deep entanglement with witchcraft. His father had been caught practicing it, his elder sister is married to a witch doctor, and his mother had previously been married to a witch doctor before uniting with his father. These influences shaped Ronald’s early environment, making his later spiritual journey all the more remarkable. 

In 2020, Ronald fell seriously ill. His family, adhering to their traditional beliefs, insisted on consulting a witch doctor instead of seeking medical care. However, God was already at work in Ronald’s life. A Christian brother courageously intervened, urging Ronald to seek medical attention at a hospital. He was eventually diagnosed with low blood pressure. Through prayer and the right treatment, he recovered physically, and more importantly, started his spiritual journey. 

On April 4th, 2020, Ronald made the life-changing decision to surrender his life to Jesus Christ. This pivotal moment was the start of a new journey; one filled with hope and purpose. Since then, he is growing in his faith and now serves as a deacon at Musende CMML Church, embodying the love and grace of Christ in his community. 

At Samfya Bible School, they celebrate stories like Ronald’s, which remind them of the power of the Gospel to redeem and restore. Ronald’s commitment to deepening his knowledge of God’s Word through his studies is an inspiration to them and they look forward to seeing how God will continue to use him as a light in places where darkness once prevailed. 

Let us all keep Ronald in our prayers as he continues his journey of faith and service. May his story encourage others to step out of darkness and into the marvellous light of Jesus Christ!

Partnership's Influence within the Community

The church extension programme has been running since 2014. Since then, there have been approximately 50 courses completed, and 20 courses are currently running. In total there have been close to 2,000 people trained in the programme since its inception.

The impact is “more than just meetings” says Samuel. Just attending meetings means nothing if there is no impact in the lives of the people and communities. When people in the rural areas start to understand the gospel of grace, rather than just attending church out of ritual, lives are changed. Samuel says that is why it is so important that the work continues to spread God's truth, and people who are in leadership in churches are preaching the word of God.

A base line study is often completed before the training in the churches where they sit individually with church members to ask them about how they are saved. On average only 14% make any mention of Jesus, the cross and grace. Usual answers relate to attending church, being part of church programmes and giving money. It shows how much these rural churches need the truth of the gospel through these programmes.

Part of the training covers teaching church members about Sunday school and youth programmes, so the next generation are also hearing of God’s grace to them.

The bibles that are being funded by BHW are a huge help to the programme, being in the local language allowing many people to read and understand.

Ideas for the Future

Samuel is thinking about how to help the 35 extension workers to be able to provide for their own livelihood. 

As part of the bible school self-sustainability, Wathabu discussed the new rental properties they are looking to build. He will send through some proposals when he has completed the work.

Current Issues and Challenges

The biggest issue for the school at present is a lack of teachers at the school. Recently Peter Chomba has retired (and had a stroke), Collins has left to take a position at Teka Bible school, and Francis is away studying for two more years. That leaves just Wathabu, Cephas and Samuel as teachers, plus a few outsiders who come now and again to help.

They are in desperate need of two or three people to join the team who have the right heart for empowering the rural churches in Zambia

Comments

To me this is a very impressive programme, and I would ideally like to put more funding into the church extension programme, as the values they have using local people and the impact of bringing truth is huge in the rural churches. (The BHW Executive has subsequently approved funding US$5,000/year to support these training programmes.)

We will also continue with the $550 we send for bibles each year.