Reflections from the Zambezi

On this day, exactly 100 years ago, one of the well-known Evangelical Christian leaders, John Stott was born. John Stott has been known to many Christians mostly through his books and to those that lived in the pre-World War 1 and 2 era's as well the post-world War era's through his preaching both in person and through electronic media. The Time magazine ranked Stott among the 100 most influential people in the world. John Robert Walmsley Stott was born on 27 April 1921 in London, England. His parents were Arnold and Emily Stott. Stott got converted after  hearing Eric Nash deliver a sermon "What Then Shall I Do with Jesus, Who is Called the Christ?" Nash discipled Scott in the Christian Faith as well as in Christian Leadership. Stott studied modern languages at Trinity College, Cambridge. Whilst at University he was active at the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union. In terms of Ministry, Stott was ordained as a deacon in 1945 and became a curate at All Souls C...

Today (1st March) marks exactly 40 years since Dr. Martyn-Lloyd Jones (in photo below taken from Banner of Truth website) went to be with the Lord. Dr. Lloyd-Jones or "The Doctor" as he was fondly known was the pastor or minister of Westminster Chapel in London, England for thirty years until he retired in 1969. Previously, he was minister of a church in Wales, where he hailed from. Dr. Lloyd-Jones has been described by Peter Lewis, who preached at his memorial service in April 1981 as probably the greatest preacher London had since the days of Charles Haddon Spurgeon at Metropolitan Tabernacle. I first encountered Dr. Lloyd-Jones through his books in 1985. The first book I remember reading by hi, was entitled "Authority". I was given this book by Mr. Stephen Winter, my Scripture Union Senior Friend and Housemaster. I was given this book for having served as a Scripture Union Committee.  The next books I read by Dr. Lloyd-Jones were Expositions on the books of Roman...

In September 2019, I took some time to visit old friends and relatives in the UK. This was after attending the Pan Commonwealth Forum Conference in Edinburgh Scotland. My first stop as I wrote previously was Camborne in South East England, which I have written about here. My next stop was Tetbury in Gloucestershire, the home of Oliver and Pauline Singogo. To get there, I travelled with Oliver from Camborne where we had gone to visit Mr & Mrs Eathorne. We left Camborne on 15 th September around 14 00 after attending a church service at Centenary Wesleyan Methodist Church, where Ron and Carol Eathorne worship and serve. Before heading out to Tetbury, Oliver took me to the closest beach called Gyllngvase Beach This is something that I appreciated so much for I love seeing water and appreciating God’s creation in how he has made the various water bodies such as rivers, lakes, seas, waterfalls, oceans and so on. Though we spent about 30 minutes it was just refreshing to be at the beach...

This month on 24th October, Zambia celebrated 56 years of independence. I thought of looking back to the past years by looking at every 10 years from Independence day and see at what stage of my life I was then and any things worth noting. On 10th October 1974, Zambia celebrated its' 10th Independence anniversary. At the time I was 6 years and doing my grade 1 at Northmead Primary School in Lusaka. Northmead Primary School was one of the top primary schools in Lusaka. The learning environment was very good and the teachers were dedicated to teaching. I did not experience much challenges in being enrolled as my immediate sister did and my other brother and sister did many years later. At that time as it is now not all children eligible to start grade 1 started school. I did all my primary schooling (Grade 1 to 7) at this school. My two sisters (Linda and Catherine)  and my brother also attended this school. My dad (Josiah) would drive me to school from Emmasdale where we were stayin...

The World Teachers Day that falls on 5th October of each year has been set aside by the United Nations (UN) to appreciate the important role that teachers play in society. The role of teachers in the development of various societies and nations cannot be overemphasized. Almost every person in any profession has passed through the hands of a teacher in their lifetime. For this year's World Teachers Day, I would like to appreciate Professor Dick Ng’ambi from the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Professor Ng’ambi made me enjoy learning and showed me how a caring teacher looks like and the actions they perform. Dick Ng'ambi - Image source: YouTube I took classes where Prof Dick Ngambi was the Programme convener for the ICTs in Education Postgraduate diploma in 2011 at the University of Cape Town. Prof Ngambi or Dick as he told the class to call him particularly coordinated the first to courses in the Programme. Dick handled the components that he taught with a lot of passio...

Hotel in Camborne Before traveling to the UK to attend the Pan-Commonwealth Forum in Edinburgh from 9th to 13th September, 2019, I planned my itinerary to include a visit of friends and relatives in the UK after the Forum. This visit took me to the following towns: Birmingham, Camborne in Cornwall, Tetbury, Kent, St. Neots and London. In this blog I focus on my trip from Edinburgh to Camborne via Birmingham.   I left Edinburgh at 22 30 on the evening of 13th September using a coach (in the photo above). Of the options available to me such as using a train or plane, the bus option was one that I could afford. I was supposed to leave with the 22 00 coach but because of not checking the instructions on the monitors well I missed the bus. After consulting the bus station staff, I was told that if I got the 22 30 coach, I could still manage to get a connecting bus from Glasgow. The bus ride from Edinburgh to Glasgow was smooth and took almost an hour. I enjoyed viewing the countryside a...

One year ago on 7 September 2019 I was privileged to attend the graduation of my wife Judith Konayuma at the   Zambian Open University  where she was graduated with a Masters in International Trade. I attended this graduation with our daughter Shingisai and nephew Goliath. It was a joyous occasion and a well organised event. The Zambian Open University (ZAOU) was established in 2002 as a private open university in order to meet the growing demand of higher education in the country. The vision of the university is to be   an internationally recognized Open University providing quality education through distance learning.  Judith Konayuma the graduate The Vice Chancellor during the graduation was Professor Richard Siacwena, who is a distinguished scholar and pioneer in open, distance and flexible learning. I have worked with him on a number of distance learning programmes the most dear one being the development of the TEVET Open, Distance and Flexible Learning (OD...