Those acquainted with Kabwata Baptist Church will know that the fourth week of October every year is dedicated to prayer and fasting in the home groups of the Church. The home groups are scattered across the City of Lusaka. One such group is the Roma Home Group whose membership revolves around eight households. It has been the tradition of this home group to go round into the homes of its members during the week of prayer and fasting. Providentially, at the beginning of 2009, it pleased the Lord to grant accommodation to one of the couples, the Nkhomas, at SOS Children’s Village where Mr. Nkhoma is employed. Thus during the week of prayer and fasting, the Roma Home Group had opportunity to go the SOS Children’s Village Lusaka and held a prayer meeting on a Wednesday evening of 21st October at the Nkhomas. Having shared what SOS was all about and its mission, the members of the home group were moved to think about the SOS Village from the gospel point of view.

What is SOS Children’s Village?

SOS is an International non government organization looking after orphans and children who cannot be traced with known relatives. The charity began its work in Zambia in 1999 when the first families moved into SOS Children’s Village Lusaka, and was officially opened on 3^rd November 2000. It is situated about 4 miles from the city centre in a densely populated and very poor area. The 40-acre site was donated by the Zambian government. The 15 family houses have been built in groups of three in the local style, using red burnt clay bricks with green roof tiles, and are surrounded by eucalyptus trees. The grounds have been planted with ornamental trees, flowers and grass. Beside the family houses, there is a youth home and a nursery, which pre-school age children from the local community also attend and are given two meals a day, with priority given to children from the poorest families. A primary and secondary school for 1,000 children, and a medical centre, which caters for 20,000 patients a year, have since been added. A ‘Family Strengthening Programme’ (FSP), the main focus of which is a community outreachprogramme for 500 children and families affected by HIV/AIDS has been set up.

                                                 SOS Children's Village surronungs

KBC Outreach Program Commences at SOS

In December 2009 during the Christmas Evangelistic Week for the Church, another event on the Church calendar, the Home group overwhelmingly agreed to go back to SOS Children’s Village on 26th December and host an evangelistic cocktail party for the ‘children’. When news about our plans got to management at SOS Children’s Village, they received the message with gladness. So when 26th December 2009 came, brother Leo Silowa preached in English (official language) and Nyanja (a local dialect). We were overwhelmed with the attendance as over 150 ‘children’ attended including their ‘mothers’. The Lord blessed us more than we were expecting, everyone had enough food and a few pieces of ‘bread and fish’ remained. After expressing our gratitude to management for allowing us to spend time with the ‘children’ the Macedonian Call was sounded in our hearing- PLEASE COME BACK EVERY WEEK! One of the senior management staff who attended the party made a passionate plea that we should go back to Village on a more permanent basis to help the ‘children’ with their spiritual lives. We were given 2hrs and a choice between Saturday and Sunday. It was further made clear to us that they had tried other churches before but all failed in the process. The plea was re-echoed again and again in no uncertain terms. It was clear to us as Roma Home Group that this was a Macedonian Call.  That evening the news was broken to the Elders of the Church and Elder Mwamba Chibuta said in response to a phone call from the Home leader, “this is great, I am excited, we will go for it.”

Having heard the call, the Home group quickly put up logistics in place for the coming Sunday Service set for 10 00hrs. Brother Leo agreed to preach at the first Sunday Service at SOS Village. You should have been there to see the joy of the saints and the anxiety of the ‘children’ to come to ‘church’ on that 3rd January 2010 day. With the support of the Eldership, Sunday services have been held since. We have now started Sunday School with two classes and separate from the children, an adult class also meets.

Brethren pray with us in this work that God will be glorified as He saves these ‘children’ from sin.   

Wilfred Mwenya                                                                                       

Roma Home Group Leader                                                                                     Elder George Sitali preaching