Found, Held, Sought: A Year of Life Groups in Zambia

Twenty areas visited. 126 people met. Four new events, and friendships between churches that never used to happen. Here is the story of the last twelve months, told from alongside the Zambian team.

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At the start of the year, the Zambian team had four aims: grow the pastoral and pioneering teams, improve access to resources, reconnect with groups that had drifted out of contact, and introduce Life Groups to six new areas. We have had the privilege of helping them deliver those plans.

This is how the year went.

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‍Growing the teams

‍The team hoped to grow both the pastoral and pioneering teams to six members each. Both are growing, at different speeds.

On the pastoral side, a training event in September brought together nine people. Five have continued and are now shadowing Festus and Miyambo as they visit groups.

On the pioneering side, growth has been slower and less formal. But Miyambo has joined Royd on some visits, and Steward has been out with him too. These are early signs of a team taking shape. Read about one of their visits here.

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Found: Milumbe. One afternoon, a group visiting door to door in their village knocked on a house that seemed empty. After several knocks, a man came out. They shared the love of God with him, and he invited them in. He told them he had been about to take his own life, and that their timely visit had stopped him. He is now part of the Milumbe Life Group.

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‍Getting resources into people's hands‍

Books remain expensive and hard to distribute widely, so the team has adapted. Where people have no smartphone, the team carries books and materials with them. To help, we have customised the Discovery Bible Study, a simple one-page study that can be used with any Bible passage, and have begun translating.

For those with smartphones, resources are now shared over WhatsApp. To support this, we have reorganised our website library by language, so English is no longer needed, and simplified the download process. You can visit it here.

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Reconnecting with groups

The team has established a regular rhythm of visiting groups. In the last 12 months, they have visited 20 areas and met and encouraged 126 people representing 116 Life Groups.

Two threads run through the feedback. The first is challenge: harvest, drought and heavy rains disrupting meetings, and books still in short supply. The second is fruit, sometimes remarkable.

The most striking fruit is unity. Denominations that never worked together are now sharing funerals, food and worship. Groups describe this, unprompted, as something that began with Life Groups.

Held: A lady had lost every relative who had cared for her and had reached the point of planning to end her life. Through the encouragement of her Life Group, she is alive and serving the Lord. She asks for continued prayer.

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Life Groups in new areas

The team aimed to introduce Life Groups to six new areas. They have led Everyone Everywhere Everyday events, which share the idea of Life Groups and ways to pioneer them, in Milenge, Mkushi (in partnership with YWAM), Chilubi Island and Mazabuka. For some of these, they were joined by volunteers from the UK.

There has also been organic growth. Life Groups in Kakumbi have planted four new groups. Ovana moved to a new area for personal reasons and carried the idea of Life Groups with him, starting a group in his new community.

Sought: Mbala and Musombizi. When word reached these communities that the team was coming, people arranged their own transport to meet them. It is a small but telling sign of how much the visits mean, and of the need to return.

Looking ahead

The last 12 months show that visits matter, that simple tools travel well, and that when people are given the idea of a Life Group, they run with it. The challenges of hard seasons, scarce books and long distances remain, so please pray for the team and the groups.

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