ITMI’s Johan and Lesley Leach have been called to bring the Gospel to people living on the Luvale plains in Zambia. The plains are cut off from the rest of Zambia by the Zambezi River to the east and the Angola border to the west.

Johan and Lesley started their outreaches to the least-reached people in these isolated villages from their ministry base in the remote Chavuma, Zambia and have been expanding outward to impact more and more remote villages with the Gospel as the Lord provides and allows. 

One of the facets of their ministry is to visit indigenous churches on the plains and provide training in discipleship and church planting. There are over 95 churches that have been planted through Johan’s ministry throughout an area that is geographically thousands of square kilometers.

To train and disciple these churches, Johan relies heavily on his mission vehicle to carry him over the miles to make the important discipleship visits to these isolated believers. 

The flood plains are remote areas with primitive roads, but they are filled with villagers who need to hear about Jesus. They also need churches to be planted so they can grow in Christ.

The terrain on the flood plains is rough and difficult.

A field vehicle is essential to reaching these remote villages.

But reaching them is crucial to Johan's mission to saturate the flood plains with Christ and His church.

The mission vehicle transports teams to the village locations.

The mission vehicle helps Johan and his teams visit churches planted on the remote flood plains. 

Recently, the 1997 Land Cruiser that has been indispensable in transporting Johan and his teams and supplies to these ministry sites blew a head gasket, resulting in a cracked head and other collateral damage. The whole engine needs to be overhauled.

Because of Johan’s remote location, the vehicle also needed to be transported about 450 miles to the nearest qualified repair shop. 

To get back to visiting villages, Johan is praying the Lord will provide $5100 USD for the repairs and transport to and from Kitwe. Getting the vehicle up and running will also allow Johan to take an additional ministry opportunity.  

Equipping Evangelists Beyond Chavuma

Johan has the opportunity to make a ministry trip to the Lusaka area, and a small village outside Lusaka called Chongwe. The journey is about 500 miles and, depending on road conditions, an investment of 12 hours.

Johan’s purpose for this trip is two-fold. He plans to equip a Kitwe-based evangelist who wants to share God’s Word but lacks the resources to do it. To aid this evangelist, Johan needs to transport a batch of Bibles to the Kitwe area. 

The second purpose of this trip is to further the development of another evangelist and pastor in Johan's tried and tested training and equipping program for evangelists, pastors, and leaders. Ruben Mwale lives and ministers in the small village of Chongwe, about 25 miles outside of Lusaka. 

Over the years, we’ve seen Ruben’s dedication and faithfulness to serve Jesus and share Him in the impoverished village of Chongwe, and on mission trips to reach Portuguese-speaking people groups in Malawi and Mozambique.

Recently, Ruben shared with Steve Evers how the Lord worked in his church in Chongwe.

Because of our long-standing relationship with Ruben, ITMI helped Ruben with some funds so his church could build a structure where they meet each Sunday. With the funds, the church needed to make bricks for walls, lay them, and put a roof on the structure.

Due to inflation and instability, there were still bricks to be laid when the funding was gone. The church leadership, including Ruben, volunteered to help lay bricks. 

To understand the gravity of this statement, you need to know that it is rare and counter-cultural for an African pastor to understand the Biblical principle of servant leadership. It’s not uncommon for even sincere pastors to expect others to serve them because of their position.  

After the bricks were laid, it was time to weld the steel roof panels to the supporting beams. A church member who is also a welder volunteered, at great sacrifice, to serve the rest of the church by performing the welding. He specifically told Ruben he did it because of the leadership’s example of humbling themselves to lay bricks. 

This is the kind of leader Ruben is and how his faithfulness to Biblical living influences this village church. 

However, being from a remote village, Ruben only attended a few primary grades of school, and his ministry will benefit from the Harvesters training, which Johan has been using for quite some time to train leaders. 

Ruben teaches God's Word in his village.

With all the gasoline inflation plaguing the world right now, this impactful trip is looking like it will cost about $500 USD for Johan in Zambia. 

If the Lord lays it on your heart to help Johan fund the transportation to Lusaka and Chongwe, the impact will be significant.