Raise, Train, Equip and Release!

As we dropped Percy Muleba off at the Charlotte airport, we couldn’t help but smile at how productive his recent visit had been. He made use of his newly granted R-1 Religious Workers visa, the first ever granted to a Zambian, welcomed friends old and new at our open house, trained with us a small group of worship leaders from seven churches, and we solidified our future plans. And, of course, it was a pleasure having him in our home to talk and share meals and build our friendship.

Sometimes it’s only by looking back that you can make sense of what the Lord has done. Sixteen years ago, Percy Muleba and we hung a white board in a tree with brown twine and began training mission-minded students in Zambia. We had no grand plan. We just wanted to build up pastors and leaders who wanted to learn and put what they had learned into practice. And we especially wanted to answer their burning questions about discipleship and mission.

Over the years, the Lord’s grand plan slowly developed one course and one class at a time. We learned by doing, and we learned from both our successes and our failures. Today, we have a full outcome based curriculum with which we train small groups of pastors, chaplains and leaders, both men and women, in a four phase process encompassing about 120 hours of classroom time. We now use this approach in person and through live-streaming, and the fruit has been incredible.

Churches have been planted, ministries launched, schools developed, and five generations of students trained. What began under a tree in 2010 has now become Biblical Worship Training Centre - Africa (BWTC-Africa) which multiplies the Gospel through three academies: the Biblical Worship Academy, the Biblical Entrepreneurship Academy, and the just launched Church Planting Academy.

The Biblical Worship Academy trains students in person and online from twenty African countries in a sound understanding of worship. The Biblical Entrepreneurship Academy trains single mothers and others in business as mission, has started a medical school entrepreneurship club, and has developed a Kingdom Fund to grant loans to civil servants in partnership with the Zambian government. The new Church Planting Academy will be led by one of our early students, Bosco Kutoma, who has overseen the planting of thirteen healthy churches since 2012.

In addition, just last year, we established BWTC-USA with the goal of bringing Zambian trainers to the States by 2031 to add value to our churches and leaders. Our vision has always been for two-way mission. As Percy often says, Zambia is no longer a mission field, but is now becoming a mission force.

To say we’re amazed by what the Lord has done and is doing would be an understatement. We’re reminded of Paul’s words to the Ephesians,

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Well, what does the future hold?

In the short term, we fly to Zambia on May 27th for an eight week mission. Accompanying us will be a dear friend, Laura Rumple, a gifted musician, recording artist, and talented voice coach and therapist. This will be her first visit to Zambia where she will work with both individuals and praise teams. Later in the trip, our Global Training Network (GTN) colleague, Michael Brogna, will help us train our Namibian students. We have been anxious to partner with Michael for several years and are excited that he will bring his unique approach to the Old Testament to our students.

We ourselves will be training as well in Namibia, and of course in Zambia. We’re especially excited to have the opportunity to train a new group of rural church planters who will gather in Livingstone, and to partner with the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) for training in Lusaka.

And, drum roll please…Abby will be ordained by the CCAP on July 5th, becoming the first non-Zambian and the first white to be ordained in that historic body. They and we are very excited about this, not only for the doors it opens to train their pastors, chaplains, and leaders, but also to work with their Chasefu Theological College in the important work of preparing new pastors for ministry and mission.

In the long term, we anticipate making one eight week trip each year to Zambia, and while we are home training students online for several weeks each year with both BWTC and the CCAP, and welcoming Percy twice per year to develop BWTC-USA and train students here. In addition, we will be developing new curriculum for the Church Planting Academy, and Doug will be writing a series of short books at Percy’s request, two of which have already been finished. More on that later.

As always, we look forward to seeing our mission partners whenever possible, and adding value to our supporting churches in whatever way we can.

Here’s our basic itinerary:

May 27: Depart for Livingstone, Zambia

May 30-June 11: Training in Livingstone

June 15-24: Training in Katima-Mulilo, Namibia

June 29-July 3: Training in Livingstone

July 4-12: Training in Lusaka

July 5: Abby’s Ordination

July 13-14: Debrief in Livingstone

July 15: Depart for Charlotte, NC

July 16: Arrive Home

As always, never forget that when we go, you go with us. We are forever grateful for your prayers, partnership and encouragement, and your friendship!

Below, we thought we’d share a few African wildlife images Doug has created with the help of Ai using his photos as a starting point. Let us know what you think.