Discipleship at Work: Multiplication Among the Luvale Tribe
Pastor Davy Chinyundu stepped around the crutch that the village man had laid in the dirt next to the pink plastic chair he sat in. Davy reached down…
Removing Obstacles
ITMI’s Piotr Zaremba commented, “ITMI’s support removes the obstacles to ministry,” as he tried to describe the impact of your support. …
Merry Christmas from Your ITMI Partners!
We asked our partners to share some of the ways Jesus’ kingdom was advanced this year. We hope you are encouraged by their answers and the special messages they have for you!
Tragedy Strikes on the Zambezi
It was a late May afternoon when word of the tragedy reached ITMI’s Johan and Lesley Leach.
Making a Way for the Gospel – Zambia-Angola Road Improvements – Part 3 (Video)
In this conclusion of the 3-part video series Making a Way for the Gospel, Reverend Reynold Fourie of the Reformed Church Belville East in Cape Town, South Africa shares about the training his team provided, with the help of ITMI partner, Johan Leach. …
Reaching the Luvale People of Northwestern Zambia and Angola
The Luvale floodplains of the northwestern corner of Zambia are home to many of the Luvale tribe. The Luvale people in this region live in small, remote villages that dot this wild area. This corner of Zambia is cut off from civilization and the rest of the country by…
The crocodile-infested Zambezi River isolates a small slice of Zambia, just east of its western border with Angola. Because this area is so difficult to access, those who live there are cut off from most services and receive few visitors to their small, rural villages.
Due to the frequent flooding of the river, geographically, this area is a floodplain, named after the Luvale people who inhabit it.
Life on the Luvale floodplain is difficult. It's a daily battle to survive. For the daily water that they need to live, villagers dig holes in the ground or the women and girls spend most of their days hauling water.
Uncovered, these are contaminated by animals and pests.
A young village boy drinks from a puddle.
A hand-dug hole one village was drinking out of.
Animism - the worship of one’s ancestors - is prevalent in Luvale culture. If bad things happen, often the blame falls on a family member who is accused of cursing another and may be attacked, lynched or hurt.
A boy from one of the villages Johan ministers to clings to his new-to-him clothes, delivered by Johan and ITMI's Steve Evers.
A village listens to Johan share the gospel after receiving access to clean, safe water.
Johan sharing the gospel with one of the villages that received access to clean, safe water through ITMI's clean, safe water project.
A village man celebrates a gift of new used clothing from Johan and ITMI.
Johan and Lesley took everything they had and moved to the rural settlement of Chavuma in response to God's calling to share the Good News with the Luvale people. They built a garage as temporary living quarters. They cook meat on a barbecue or an open fire, they make oatmeal and maize in cast iron pots in the front yard.
They split wood for cooking, repair their own vehicles, use a generator to produce limited electricity and boil river water to drink.
Chavuma is their mission base where they could reach the forgotten villagers on the other side of the Zambezi River.
While there, they've developed relationships with local churches, built training programs and raised up leaders and evangelists to share the Good News on the flood plain. They continue to equip and teach so that healthy churches can be planted in villages where the Gospel message takes root.
A team of equipped evangelists, preparing to cross the river and visit rural villages to share the Gospel and disciple.
Johan partners with a local pastor, Pastor Teddy, to share the Gospel in a Luvale village.
7 Days of Holy Week Insights with a Bible Translator
Palm Sunday is a big thing in Poland. Just like in the Catholic church worldwide, people go to mass with palms. What palms, you could ask? No real palms to be had in Poland, surely! But Polish people are quite ingenious. They…
Evangelists Report: Exciting News from Remote Zambian Villages
I went for the Gospel outreach to a remote village on the west bank [of the Zambezi River] called Chambi. Here, a small group of eager women and men were already gathered and ready to listen to the Word of God. I…
Making a Way for the Gospel: Zambia-Angola Road Improvements (Video)
Johan Leach shows some incredible images of bridges and roads between his mission base in Chavuma and Chilombo, Angola and explains why he and a team are out in the bush rebuilding and forging roads to Chilombo.
Merry Christmas From Your ITMI Partners!
We asked our partners to share some of the ways Jesus’ kingdom was advanced this year. We hope you are encouraged by their answers and the special messages they have for you!
Stuck in Deep Mud on the Floodplains
Mid-September, ITMI’s Johan Leach updated us that the drilling team arrived in Chavuma with their heavy truck overflowing with the supplies and tools needed to drill and install 8 new boreholes in strategic locations. About a week later, he reported…
