By Charles Kidwell
During 1955 my wife, Nora, and my daughter, Eleanor, moved from Port Elizabeth in South Africa to Lusaka, Zambia, (at the time known as Northern Rhodesia), as I had taken up an accounting position with the Motor Firm, Duly & Company Ltd, the then Ford Dealers in Zambia. Lusaka was at that time described as a "one horse town" but soon was to flourish into a pleasant Capital City. We soon linked up with the Methodist Church and I taught in the Sunday School, as there was no Baptist Church in Lusaka at the time. Duly & Co. gave us a warm welcome and housed us in a flat owned by the firm. After a few months I decided to advertise in the newspaper to locate any other Baptists who may be living in Lusaka. A Mrs Bain, originally from England, responded and also a lady from Durban who was teaching in the same Methodist Sunday School as I was. During this time my wife and I adopted a little girl, Zoe, making us a family of four.
It was during 1956 when the President of the Baptist Union of South Africa, Rev R H Philpott, was passing through Lusaka en route to the Copperbelt, that we four adults and two baby girls were formerly set aside in the presence of the Lord to form the Lusaka Baptist Fellowship.
Towards the end of 1956 I accepted the position of Assist¬ant General Manager with the firm Wilfrid Watson Ltd in Ndola on the Copperbelt and lived there for about a year or more. However, things did not work out satisfactorily for me and I rejoined Duly & Co Ltd in Lusaka. We were very blessed as the firm allocated us a large house in the suburb of Woodlands. The lounge was big and, after contacting more Baptists in the City, we commenced a midweek fellowship meeting which was held in our home and Sunday services were held in the local school hall. It was during this time that a Reporter from the local newspaper telephoned me to enquire if we Baptists planned to establish a Baptist work and build a church in the city. I replied in the affirmative and, to my astonishment, big headlines appeared in the local news¬paper stating "Baptists plan to build". Needless to say I had to act promptly!
Despite not having the necessary funds, I approached the Municipality and applied for a plot on which to erect a church and we were allocated a site in Argyll Road, (now Lubu Road) Lusaka. God graciously met our needs and by the time I was called upon to pay the required £200 our Fellowship was able to supply the funds.
As a Fellowship we were under the oversight of the Ndola Baptist Church and we were part of that Church's membership. The Ndola church had a change of Pastorate during this time, the Minister, Rev. Basil Medgett, having joined the Fiwale Hill Mission Station to head up the Bible School there and the Rev. Walter Maasch from Boksburg, South Africa, took over the Pastorate of the Ndola Church.
The Lusaka Fellowship grew in numbers. The services were led by local lay preachers, by missionaries of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Africa Evangelical Fellowship and by other visitors; once a month by one of the Baptist ministers came from Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). During the year 1958 the Fellowship grew sufficiently to invite as a student pastor Derek Harris and his wife Barbara to be our first pastoral couple. They accepted the invitation.
At this time work began on cleaning up the plot for building purposes. This wasn’t without incident and one Saturday a casual worker who had been employed to assist with the work complained that he had hurt his finger. On my way to get medication I was prompted to take him to hospital and it was discovered that he had been bitten by a snake. He was admitted to hospital and remained there for some weeks. The poor fellow almost lost his finger.
Pastor Derek Harris was duly inducted and services continued in the school hall and mid-week meetings in our home. The Fellowship was motivated for building the church and plans were, drawn by Lusaka architects, Dor and Hutt. As soon as the church members had accepted the plans we commenced building; the plot of ground had been paid for, and we had £400 in the bank. The Rev. Derek Harris led the congregation in a dedication service at the site before excavations began for the foundations. My employers, Duly & Co., loaned me a big truck and three or four labourers were employed to assist me in getting building sand. Some we obtained from a site in the country to the north of Lusaka and some from a dry river bed connected to the Kafue River. In addition, quarry firms gave stone and we bought cement to enable us to pour the concrete foundations. A builder loaned us a concrete mixer and 30 to 40 labourers were employed to assist in this task.Onthe day when the concrete was to be poured our Pastor, who had previously been involved in the building trade, was called away urgently. Everything was ready except that we had no-one to supervise the work. Fortunately a man from Umtali (now Mutare), Zimbabwe, walked into my office regarding his account on the day before the concrete was due to be poured. In the course of conversation I told him of my dilemma. Being an ex-builder he offered to supervise the pouring of the concrete into the excavations for the foundation footings the next day. When I arrived to ensure that everything was in order I found the volunteer foreman, the labour and equipment, etc. ready to commence work. I had to return to my office but when I returned to the site at 4.30 pm. I found the work had been completed and the man had left. All I had to do was to pay the labourers for the day's work. I was unable to thank the man for the work he had so willingly done and I have never seen him again. Surely the Lord's hand was in this arrangement. Later the Rev Basil A Medgett came from Ndola to unveil the foundation stone.
As' time went by others became involved in the building work which our Pastor was well able to supervise. We employed bricklayers and labourers to get the project to floor level. I was in charge of the concrete mixing while others, more knowledgeable in the building work than I was, laid and levelled the slab. We had just sufficient funds to lay the slab and the Lord provided all the money and materials as this was needed. The work was supervised morning and evening to ensure that everything was up to standard. The vestries and rooms at the back of the church were built first, enabling us to hold our midweek meetings there instead of in my home. The people were enthusiastic about building the church property and gave of their time and resources enabling us to proceed with the project.
During this period the economy of the farming community and businesses was in a very poor financial state. Because of the nature of my work I spent many hours and days on debt collection which necessitated frequent visits to the bank. Being on good terms with the bank manager I told him of our problem regarding lack of finance to complete the church building and it was arranged that the bank would loan us £1000, with five members of the church standing as guarantors, which made it possible for us to proceed with the building work. This loan, together with gifts of cash and in kind, enabled us to hire bricklayers and materials etc. When the time came to install the windows we found that we had insufficient material: it was discovered that the Architect had made the church longer than had been planned. However, the Lord knew best because in later years, after we had left Zambia, the church had to be enlarged still more to accommodate the growing congregation. Who has despised the Day of Small Things?
The bricklaying took a little longer than anticipated. The plastering was done by contractors, who did a magnificent job. Having completed the plastering of the walls our funds dried up, but the Lord continued to provide. At this particular time the Secretary of the Baptist Union of South Africa came from Johannesburg to pay a visit to the Copperbelt churches and mission stations. He was known to me from the days when I lived in Gweru, Zimbabwe, and so he called on us when passing through Lusaka. After hearing of our predicament, when he returned to Johannesburg he arranged a loan of £1000 to the church to repay the bank loan. God was at work again.
On the Saturday of Easter weekend the Pastor and I were on site putting the finishing touches to the trusses when I remarked that it was hopeless for us two to try and lift these huge wooden rafters onto the walls. Just at that moment a car drew up and out jumped four Christian young men visiting Lusaka from Salisbury (now Harare). They spent the rest of the day helping us raise all the rafters into place. Was this coincidence or God's timing? His help came at a critical moment - I know what I believe!
The structure was now completed but we had no ceiling or lights. God again came to our rescue and a member of the congregation who was a qualified electrician did the wiring and supplied all the light fittings at his own expense. Who prompted this service? We know that it was our great God. A dear elderly member of the congregation was given a contract to demolish some houses and he gave the brandering and the better sheets of ceiling board to the church and so the erection of the ceiling was completed by members of the congregation. The scaffolding was none too safe, we were novices; but the work was finished without serious mishap.
Eventually the great day of opening arrived. Fellow Baptists from Southern and Northern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia) were present. The President of the Baptist Union of Central Africa officiated at the service and it was a time of rejoicing as with grateful hearts we gave thanks to the Lord for providing this lovely building and had only a debt of £1000 owing to the Baptist Union of South Africa. For the opening we were able to borrow an
organ from a musical firm in town and also more chairs as we only possessed 60 of our own at the time. A small organ was ordered from Italy, and the ladies of the congregation worked hard using their talents to raise funds to pay for this. They also raised the money to purchase the material from a firm in Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia, to make the curtains behind the pulpit which covered the alcove surrounding the baptismal tank. The Rev. Basil Medgett contributed greatly to raising funds for these projects by writing and printing a short history of the Early Church and these were sold to the congregation and anyone interested for ten shillings each and quite a substantial amount of money was raised through the sale of this booklet.
Pastor Derek Harris and his wife, Barbara, were called to a church in Stirling, East London, and left in May 1961. The Rev. Basil Medgett and his wife and family accepted the call to the pastorate and arrived in Lusaka later that year.
We now needed to provide pews for the church and Rev. Basil Medgett contacted the Chief of the Lamba people, who had known him when he ran the Bible School at Fiwale Hill. The Chief donated tree trunks from trees of the forest and these were cut for us by a timber merchant in Lusaka. Members of the congregation used the planks to make our own pews on site.
The local Rabbi, who had watched the progress, said to Rev. Medgett "This is the Church that love built". I would prefer to say "This is the Church that God built, through His loving people."
This is the story of the building and establishing of the Lusaka Baptist Church which has grown into a thriving church family of God's people.
During 1955 my wife, Nora, and my daughter, Eleanor, moved from Port Elizabeth in South Africa to Lusaka, Zambia, (at the time known as Northern Rhodesia), as I had taken up an accounting position with the Motor Firm, Duly & Company Ltd, the then Ford Dealers in Zambia. Lusaka was at that time described as a "one horse town" but soon was to flourish into a pleasant Capital City. We soon linked up with the Methodist Church and I taught in the Sunday School, as there was no Baptist Church in Lusaka at the time. Duly & Co. gave us a warm welcome and housed us in a flat owned by the firm. After a few months I decided to advertise in the newspaper to locate any other Baptists who may be living in Lusaka. A Mrs Bain, originally from England, responded and also a lady from Durban who was teaching in the same Methodist Sunday School as I was. During this time my wife and I adopted a little girl, Zoe, making us a family of four.
It was during 1956 when the President of the Baptist Union of South Africa, Rev R H Philpott, was passing through Lusaka en route to the Copperbelt, that we four adults and two baby girls were formerly set aside in the presence of the Lord to form the Lusaka Baptist Fellowship.
Towards the end of 1956 I accepted the position of Assist¬ant General Manager with the firm Wilfrid Watson Ltd in Ndola on the Copperbelt and lived there for about a year or more. However, things did not work out satisfactorily for me and I rejoined Duly & Co Ltd in Lusaka. We were very blessed as the firm allocated us a large house in the suburb of Woodlands. The lounge was big and, after contacting more Baptists in the City, we commenced a midweek fellowship meeting which was held in our home and Sunday services were held in the local school hall. It was during this time that a Reporter from the local newspaper telephoned me to enquire if we Baptists planned to establish a Baptist work and build a church in the city. I replied in the affirmative and, to my astonishment, big headlines appeared in the local news¬paper stating "Baptists plan to build". Needless to say I had to act promptly!
Despite not having the necessary funds, I approached the Municipality and applied for a plot on which to erect a church and we were allocated a site in Argyll Road, (now Lubu Road) Lusaka. God graciously met our needs and by the time I was called upon to pay the required £200 our Fellowship was able to supply the funds.
As a Fellowship we were under the oversight of the Ndola Baptist Church and we were part of that Church's membership. The Ndola church had a change of Pastorate during this time, the Minister, Rev. Basil Medgett, having joined the Fiwale Hill Mission Station to head up the Bible School there and the Rev. Walter Maasch from Boksburg, South Africa, took over the Pastorate of the Ndola Church.
The Lusaka Fellowship grew in numbers. The services were led by local lay preachers, by missionaries of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Africa Evangelical Fellowship and by other visitors; once a month by one of the Baptist ministers came from Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). During the year 1958 the Fellowship grew sufficiently to invite as a student pastor Derek Harris and his wife Barbara to be our first pastoral couple. They accepted the invitation.
At this time work began on cleaning up the plot for building purposes. This wasn’t without incident and one Saturday a casual worker who had been employed to assist with the work complained that he had hurt his finger. On my way to get medication I was prompted to take him to hospital and it was discovered that he had been bitten by a snake. He was admitted to hospital and remained there for some weeks. The poor fellow almost lost his finger.
Pastor Derek Harris was duly inducted and services continued in the school hall and mid-week meetings in our home. The Fellowship was motivated for building the church and plans were, drawn by Lusaka architects, Dor and Hutt. As soon as the church members had accepted the plans we commenced building; the plot of ground had been paid for, and we had £400 in the bank. The Rev. Derek Harris led the congregation in a dedication service at the site before excavations began for the foundations. My employers, Duly & Co., loaned me a big truck and three or four labourers were employed to assist me in getting building sand. Some we obtained from a site in the country to the north of Lusaka and some from a dry river bed connected to the Kafue River. In addition, quarry firms gave stone and we bought cement to enable us to pour the concrete foundations. A builder loaned us a concrete mixer and 30 to 40 labourers were employed to assist in this task.Onthe day when the concrete was to be poured our Pastor, who had previously been involved in the building trade, was called away urgently. Everything was ready except that we had no-one to supervise the work. Fortunately a man from Umtali (now Mutare), Zimbabwe, walked into my office regarding his account on the day before the concrete was due to be poured. In the course of conversation I told him of my dilemma. Being an ex-builder he offered to supervise the pouring of the concrete into the excavations for the foundation footings the next day. When I arrived to ensure that everything was in order I found the volunteer foreman, the labour and equipment, etc. ready to commence work. I had to return to my office but when I returned to the site at 4.30 pm. I found the work had been completed and the man had left. All I had to do was to pay the labourers for the day's work. I was unable to thank the man for the work he had so willingly done and I have never seen him again. Surely the Lord's hand was in this arrangement. Later the Rev Basil A Medgett came from Ndola to unveil the foundation stone.
As' time went by others became involved in the building work which our Pastor was well able to supervise. We employed bricklayers and labourers to get the project to floor level. I was in charge of the concrete mixing while others, more knowledgeable in the building work than I was, laid and levelled the slab. We had just sufficient funds to lay the slab and the Lord provided all the money and materials as this was needed. The work was supervised morning and evening to ensure that everything was up to standard. The vestries and rooms at the back of the church were built first, enabling us to hold our midweek meetings there instead of in my home. The people were enthusiastic about building the church property and gave of their time and resources enabling us to proceed with the project.
During this period the economy of the farming community and businesses was in a very poor financial state. Because of the nature of my work I spent many hours and days on debt collection which necessitated frequent visits to the bank. Being on good terms with the bank manager I told him of our problem regarding lack of finance to complete the church building and it was arranged that the bank would loan us £1000, with five members of the church standing as guarantors, which made it possible for us to proceed with the building work. This loan, together with gifts of cash and in kind, enabled us to hire bricklayers and materials etc. When the time came to install the windows we found that we had insufficient material: it was discovered that the Architect had made the church longer than had been planned. However, the Lord knew best because in later years, after we had left Zambia, the church had to be enlarged still more to accommodate the growing congregation. Who has despised the Day of Small Things?
The bricklaying took a little longer than anticipated. The plastering was done by contractors, who did a magnificent job. Having completed the plastering of the walls our funds dried up, but the Lord continued to provide. At this particular time the Secretary of the Baptist Union of South Africa came from Johannesburg to pay a visit to the Copperbelt churches and mission stations. He was known to me from the days when I lived in Gweru, Zimbabwe, and so he called on us when passing through Lusaka. After hearing of our predicament, when he returned to Johannesburg he arranged a loan of £1000 to the church to repay the bank loan. God was at work again.
On the Saturday of Easter weekend the Pastor and I were on site putting the finishing touches to the trusses when I remarked that it was hopeless for us two to try and lift these huge wooden rafters onto the walls. Just at that moment a car drew up and out jumped four Christian young men visiting Lusaka from Salisbury (now Harare). They spent the rest of the day helping us raise all the rafters into place. Was this coincidence or God's timing? His help came at a critical moment - I know what I believe!
The structure was now completed but we had no ceiling or lights. God again came to our rescue and a member of the congregation who was a qualified electrician did the wiring and supplied all the light fittings at his own expense. Who prompted this service? We know that it was our great God. A dear elderly member of the congregation was given a contract to demolish some houses and he gave the brandering and the better sheets of ceiling board to the church and so the erection of the ceiling was completed by members of the congregation. The scaffolding was none too safe, we were novices; but the work was finished without serious mishap.
Eventually the great day of opening arrived. Fellow Baptists from Southern and Northern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia) were present. The President of the Baptist Union of Central Africa officiated at the service and it was a time of rejoicing as with grateful hearts we gave thanks to the Lord for providing this lovely building and had only a debt of £1000 owing to the Baptist Union of South Africa. For the opening we were able to borrow an
organ from a musical firm in town and also more chairs as we only possessed 60 of our own at the time. A small organ was ordered from Italy, and the ladies of the congregation worked hard using their talents to raise funds to pay for this. They also raised the money to purchase the material from a firm in Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia, to make the curtains behind the pulpit which covered the alcove surrounding the baptismal tank. The Rev. Basil Medgett contributed greatly to raising funds for these projects by writing and printing a short history of the Early Church and these were sold to the congregation and anyone interested for ten shillings each and quite a substantial amount of money was raised through the sale of this booklet.
Pastor Derek Harris and his wife, Barbara, were called to a church in Stirling, East London, and left in May 1961. The Rev. Basil Medgett and his wife and family accepted the call to the pastorate and arrived in Lusaka later that year.
We now needed to provide pews for the church and Rev. Basil Medgett contacted the Chief of the Lamba people, who had known him when he ran the Bible School at Fiwale Hill. The Chief donated tree trunks from trees of the forest and these were cut for us by a timber merchant in Lusaka. Members of the congregation used the planks to make our own pews on site.
The local Rabbi, who had watched the progress, said to Rev. Medgett "This is the Church that love built". I would prefer to say "This is the Church that God built, through His loving people."
This is the story of the building and establishing of the Lusaka Baptist Church which has grown into a thriving church family of God's people.
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