A Story We Never Could Have Written Ourselves
If you had told us when we were teenagers that one day we would be living in Zambia, driving dirt roads into remote villages, helping start a church and school, and preparing to build a Bible Institute in the African bush, we probably would have laughed.
But God already knew.
Our story isn’t really about two people who decided to become missionaries. It is about a faithful God who spent decades preparing us for something we could not yet see.
God Builds a Family
Our story together began long before Zambia.
We met in high school and eventually married, beginning a life together centered around family, church, and ministry. Over the years, God blessed us with three children, and our family grew through all the normal seasons of life – raising kids, working, serving our church, navigating difficulties, celebrating victories, and learning to trust God along the way.
Looking back now, we can see that even those ordinary years were preparation.
God was teaching us how to love people, how to serve when no one was watching, how to trust Him when we didn’t understand what He was doing, and how to follow Him one step at a time.
We just didn’t know where those steps would eventually lead.
Years of Youth Ministry – Learning to Love, Walk and Lead
For many years, our ministry was centered around serving teenagers and their families through youth ministry. Those years taught us quickly that ministry is about much more than planning events, teaching Bible lessons, or keeping a room full of teenagers entertained.
It is about relationships.
It is showing up.
Listening.
Encouraging.
Correcting when needed.
Walking with young people through difficult seasons.
Celebrating their victories.
Helping them navigate questions about faith, family, friendships, and the future.
And sometimes simply being there long enough for them to know that you truly care.
Youth ministry also taught us the importance of discipleship. We saw that people do not simply need someone to tell them what the Bible says. They need someone willing to walk beside them as they learn what it means to actually live it.
Those years helped us understand the philosophy of ministry we carry with us today:
Love. Walk. Lead.
Love people where they are.
Walk alongside them through life.
And lead them toward a closer relationship with Jesus Christ.
At the time, we thought God had called us to invest in young people in our own community.
Looking back, we can see He was also preparing us for ministry thousands of miles away – where relationships, discipleship, patience, and simply being present would become some of the most important parts of everything we do.
2021 – A Trip to Zambia Changes Everything
In 2021, we traveled to Zambia. We thought we were taking a mission trip. God had something much bigger in mind. During that trip, something happened that is difficult to fully explain. Zambia wasn’t simply another place we visited. God began placing the people here deeply on our hearts.
We returned home, but Zambia came home with us. The conversations continued. The prayers became more serious. And eventually the question changed from: “Could God be calling us to Zambia?” to: “Are we willing to go?”
The answer became yes.
2022 – Moving to Zambia
In 2022, we packed our lives into tubs, said some incredibly difficult goodbyes, and moved halfway around the world. We arrived in Zambia knowing that God had called us here, but not knowing exactly what the ministry would eventually look like.
There was no Chabantu Missionary Baptist Church.
No Chabantu Missionary Baptist Academy.
No Bible Institute property.
There was simply a calling and a willingness to follow.
So we began doing what we knew to do. Meeting people. Building relationships. Learning culture. Learning language. Serving wherever God opened a door. And praying that He would show us where He wanted us to invest our lives.
Then He led us down a dirt road.
2023 – God Opens the Door at Chabantu
One of those relationships brought us to a rural community we now call Chabantu in the Sikute Chiefdom.
There wasn’t a church building waiting for us.
There wasn’t a ministry complex.
There wasn’t even a meeting hall.
There was a tree.
So we gathered underneath it. What began as simple Bible teaching under a tree became something much larger than we ever expected.
Relationships grew.
People continued coming.
Families invited us into their lives.
The Gospel was preached.
And God began building a church.
Chabantu Missionary Baptist Church was born. That tree will always remind us of something important: God does not need a building to begin His work. He simply needs people willing to follow Him.
2024-2025 – Church, School & Discipleship
As the church grew, another need became impossible to ignore – the children.
Education is one of the greatest challenges facing families in rural Zambia, and God opened the door for us to become involved in the lives of the children of Chabantu. What began simply continued to grow until Chabantu Missionary Baptist Academy became an important part of the ministry. Today, over 200 students are being educated while also hearing the Word of God.
They receive a full meal each school day. They participate in regular Bible teaching. Older students are being intentionally discipled. And we have watched students who once faced enormous educational obstacles begin succeeding academically.
But the school has never simply been about improving test scores. Education gives us the opportunity to invest in children.
Children connect us with families.
Families connect us with communities.
And through those relationships, doors continue to open for the Gospel.
At the same time, Chabantu Missionary Baptist Church continued growing and becoming increasingly rooted in the community. What started underneath a tree was becoming a lasting ministry.
But God wasn’t finished opening doors.
2026 – Expanding Deeper Into the Sikute Chiefdom
In 2026, God opened one of the largest doors we have seen since arriving in Zambia.
Chief Sikute granted our ministry 7.7 hectares of land near the palace and the new Sikute Secondary School.
That land represents far more than property.
It represents access.
Trust.
Opportunity.
And the possibility of reaching communities much deeper within the Sikute Chiefdom.
We are already beginning Bible studies in villages where many people have had little or no opportunity to study the Bible. At one of our newest locations, we drove beyond Chabantu and farther into the chiefdom to meet people we had barely encountered before. When we arrived, more than 60 people were already waiting for Bible study.
Our meeting place?
Once again, underneath a tree.
It felt strangely familiar.
And it reminded us that God often begins something big in very small ways.
Through medical missions, evangelism, village Bible studies, relationships with local leaders, church ministry, education, and simple everyday acts of service, God continues moving us deeper into communities where the Gospel is desperately needed.
What’s Next?
We believe the next chapter is one of the most important yet.
Our long-term vision is the development of the BMA Global Zambia Bible Institute in the Sikute Chiefdom.
Across rural Zambia, many pastors and church leaders have a genuine desire to serve God but very limited access to biblical training. Some are leading churches without ever having the opportunity to attend Bible school. We want to help change that.
The Bible Institute will provide practical, biblical training for pastors and Christian leaders who can then return to their own villages and churches better equipped to teach God’s Word and disciple others.
The goal is not to build something impressive.
The goal is to build something useful.
Something that remains.
Something that equips Zambian believers to reach Zambians.
Something that can continue long after we are gone.
Love. Walk. Lead.
When we look back over our story, one thing becomes very clear: We could never have planned this.
God took a teenage couple who met in high school, gave them a family, allowed them to spend years serving in local church ministry, sent them on what seemed like one mission trip, and eventually planted their lives in rural Zambia.
And the story is still being written.
Our mission remains simple:
Love the people of the Sikute Chiefdom.
Walk alongside them through life.
Lead them toward a closer relationship with Jesus Christ.
Love. Walk. Lead.
And wherever God opens the next door, we want to be willing to walk through it.