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 to place his hand on the man’s shoulder as he held the man’s other hand.

The village man, who’d had his left leg amputated, had listened as Davy shared  the Gospel using the “Heart of Man” chart. The “heart of man” presentation and chart explain the sinfulness of man and the Gospel through natural images instead of words. He had once been part of the village church but had not been back since the 1990s.

Davy’s presentation touched him, and he raised his hand to confess his sin and ask Jesus to forgive him. Davy took his time walking through a confession prayer with him. Davy works alongside ITMI’s Johan Leach making disciples in remote Zambia.

Johan and his teammates regularly travel to the remote villages on the Luvale floodplain to share God’s Word.

The Luvale floodplain is an isolated area west of the difficult-to-cross and dangerous Zambezi River that spans the border between Zambia and Angola.  Most of the people living in the villages that dot these plains are part of the Luvale tribe.

The area between the river and the border is particularly isolated and lacks infrastructure, goods, services, and connection with the outside world. Some villages have churches that have been there for decades, and others have newer churches planted more recently.

Johan and his team are working to reach the people of these remote villages with the Gospel, provide Biblical discipleship, and plant healthy, Biblical churches. Johan’s strategy for building healthy churches in remote villages has been training leaders, which he calls “Hub Leaders”.

These leaders attend an adapted version of seminary for about three years. They attend training, then return to the plains and implement what they’ve learned for 6 months.

They are responsible for believers and churches within a one day’s walk of their location. Hub Leader training involves planting 10 churches during the 3 years of their training.

Peter Kambulo is a Hub Leader who will have been involved in planting 40 churches by the time he is finished with the Hub Leader training through the beauty of discipleship and multiplication. Peter has identified and trained student pastors who are discipling others and helping them plant churches.

Beginning in November 2023, Peter spent three months walking to visit about 21 villages in Zambia and Angola, including Kasupa.

Kasupa is a sprawling border village that stretches over a few kilometers, and Johan estimates it might have around 1000 residents. Kasupa’s church is growing faster than Peter’s other churches. Since planted 3 years ago with 16 people, it has grown to 277 members!

Three of the leaders Peter has identified to train for leadership from Kasupa are also policemen. One of them, Ivita, was transferred by the government to a different village, Karipande. Ivita has “already planted a church in Karipande, so it seems wherever he will be transferred, he will plant a new church there,” Peter reported.    

This is the beauty of training and equipping. Once equipped, like Peter, Zambian believers have unbelievable opportunity to disciple others and keep extending the impact of God’s people in the Luvale tribe and seeing disciples made!

Your support of Johan and his ministry enables this ministry of reaching the Luvale people and making disciples who make disciples.

One of the integral aspects of reaching the Luvale people living on this isolated floodplain is ITMI’s Clean, Safe Water Project.

Not only does providing access to clean, safe water open doors for the Gospel in a new way, installing wells on the plains also help Johan’s teams extend their ministry by providing the opportunity to refill their canteens and go a little farther into the floodplain.

To date, ITMI supporters have partnered with Johan to fund thirty wells in this area, both making way for and demonstrating the Gospel and enhancing the work of God’s people in these locations!