When ITMI's Johan Leach arrived at the remote village, one of the many villages on the isolated Luvale floodplain, he and his team immediately realized their plans were going to change.

The Luvale floodplain is home to the Luvale people, who live in small villages that dot the extremely remote area. The plain is bordered by the Zambezi River to the east. The difficulty crossing the river has isolated the people on the west bank from most of civilization.

Luvale villages can be found on both sides of the Zambia-Angola border, but the villages between the Zambezi and the Angola border are particularly isolated.

Johan and his travel companions, Zea and Joseph, had planned to do some outreach in the village. But when they arrived, many of the villagers were drunk and they learned that the young men who went out two months prior on their circumcision ritual were now returning.

Realizing the Lord was changing their plans, they began to pray. After much prayer they decided to visit the village of Kawelele where a borehole had been installed in 2017, through ITMI supporters' partnership with Johan and his team. 

The existing fellowship in Kawelele is a Christians Mission in Many Lands (CMML) church plant done many years prior to our visit. Johan's team respected this work and determined not to interfere or undermine this work as a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. 

Unbeknownst to our team, the headman of the village, Jeremiah Kawelele  - who the village is named after, as it is mostly his family that reside in the village - and his wife have been praying many years for a revival in their village.

Many evenings were spent crying out to the Lord to send someone to reignite a passion and love for the Lord in their village. During the outreach Jeremiah explained that he remembers the first missionary that came to their village to bring the Good News of Jesus, many years ago.

Initially there were a few believers in the village and a formal church structure was established, but with no follow up or further teaching the structure fell apart.

Johan's team included Zea, a young woman from South Africa who was staying with Johan and Lesley in preparation for going on the mission field herself, and Joseph, a young man who served as her translator while she was there.

The team shared the Gospel with them using the Heart of Man material, which illustrates man's need for a Savior. A few gave their lives to the Lord in response. 

Zea also worked with the children in the village doing a few Bible lessons with them. On Sunday, when Johan shared a message, more individuals committed and re-committed their lives to the Lord.  

A true revival broke out and the spirit of God made an impact on these individuals' lives!

We thank God for the opportunity that installing the borehole gave us to have relationship with the headman that allowed our team to visit the village and be received so openly.  

Before our team left, they gave the leaders of the village heart of man evangelism booklets (in their language) which explains each illustration of the poster in detail and presents the Gospel to the individual reading it.

They were also given other evangelism material and encouraged to continue sharing this with others in their village and the villages surrounding them.  

The Importance of Hub Leaders

Johan is only one person. He can't disciple every new believer on the vast Luvale plain. So one important aspect of his ministry is training Zambian believers who speak the same language as the west-bank villagers, to disciple and shepherd them.

Johan and his co-workers train leaders to take responsibility for shepherding and discipling the people in a certain area. Usually, the area is about a one-day walk for the hub leader from where they reside.

Going forward one of Johan's hub leaders will be dedicated to regularly visit the village, to encourage them to continue sharing the Gospel and to help set up a church structure there.

We believe the solid foundational church planting and discipleship training our hub leaders are receiving, will assist in ensuring both a strong spiritual foundation as well as practical foundation in the believers lives.

Their passion for the Lord won’t be a dwindling flame but rather a bright burning light for others to see as there will be regular spiritual input and discipleship to come.