When we moved to Zambia, starting a school was not part of our plan. In fact, when people first began asking us about starting one, our answer was pretty simple: No.
We had come to Zambia to do ministry, preach the Gospel, disciple believers, and help establish churches. Running a school was not something we had planned for, and it certainly was not something we felt prepared to take on, but God had a different plan. And looking back now, we are very thankful He did.
In January 2024, Chabantu Missionary Baptist Academy began with just 17 children and two teachers. It was about as simple as a school could be. There was no established curriculum. The teachers were teaching what they knew and doing the best they could with what they had. We were learning as we went, trying to understand what was needed, and taking one step at a time.
At that point, none of us could have imagined what the school would become in such a short time, but the children kept coming. Families from other villages began asking if their children could attend. Then more families came. Seventeen students became dozens. Dozens became more than a hundred.
Today, Chabantu Missionary Baptist Academy has 220 students enrolled.
Sometimes when Sharon and I stand on the school grounds and look at all those children, I think back to the fact that we originally said no to starting a school. God must smile at some of our plans. What began with two teachers has grown into a team of six teachers, two cooks and classroom assistants, a school treasurer, and a school administrator. The school is also guided by a 13-member school board made up of representatives from 13 different villages.
That is something we are especially thankful for. This is not simply “the missionaries’ school.” The community has become part of it. Parents, village leaders, teachers, and board members are taking responsibility for the education of their children and helping shape the future of the school. Thirteen different villages now have a voice in what happens at Chabantu Missionary Baptist Academy.
The education itself has changed tremendously as well.
In those first days, our teachers simply taught what they knew. Today, our students are learning the Zambian government curriculum. Our teachers have structure, standards, and clear goals for what the children need to learn. The students are being prepared academically and given opportunities that many children in rural areas simply do not have.
But we have never wanted Chabantu Missionary Baptist Academy to be only about academics. If all we do is teach a child to read, write, and pass an examination, but never tell them about Jesus, then we have missed the greatest opportunity God has given us. So every week, our students hear the Word of God. They attend chapel, learn scripture, and hear the Gospel. They are taught that there is one true God who created them and loves them, and that Jesus Christ came so that they might have life through Him.
For us, the school and the church have become two parts of the same ministry. On Sunday, we may be preaching to a child’s parents or grandparents at Chabantu Missionary Baptist Church. Then during the week, that same child is sitting in a classroom learning mathematics, English, science, and the Bible. We have the opportunity to walk with many of these children for years. That is something we do not take lightly.
And there is another part of the school that we are especially proud of, not because of what Sharon and I have done, but because of what the community has done together. Chabantu is one of the few schools in the area where the students receive a healthy meal every school day. For some children, that meal is a very important part of their day. But we did not want the feeding program to simply become something that depended entirely on money coming from somewhere else, so the community got involved.
Together, people help prepare and plant a field. They work the land. They grow the maize. When harvest time comes, they come together again to harvest it. That maize becomes the meal our children eat. It becomes N’shima. There is something pretty special about watching a community help grow the food that will feed its own children.
We have also been blessed with a hammer mill, which allows us to grind our own maize instead of paying someone else to do it. That helps us reduce the cost of feeding 220 students every day and makes the program much more sustainable. So when a child sits down for lunch at Chabantu, there is a much bigger story behind that plate of N’shima.
Someone prepared the field.
Someone planted the maize.
Someone worked the crop.
Someone harvested it.
Someone ran it through the hammer mill.
And our cooks prepared it.
It is a picture of what this school has become. A community working together for its children. But there is another part of this story that is just as important.
Chabantu Missionary Baptist Academy is able to continue because people pray for this ministry and because individuals and churches choose to sponsor our students and teachers each year. Those sponsorships do much more than pay a child’s school fees. They help keep the entire school moving.
Through sponsorship, our teachers and staff receive their salaries. Our students are provided food, uniforms, books, and school supplies. The everyday needs that come with educating more than 200 children are met because people many miles away have decided that these children matter.
And the impact reaches even beyond the students.
Sponsorship also helps provide college education for our teachers, giving them the opportunity to continue their own education, become better equipped, and bring that knowledge back into the classroom. That means when someone sponsors a child or a teacher, they are not simply helping for one school year. They are investing in the future of the whole community.
A sponsored student gets an education.
A teacher receives training.
A family is encouraged.
A classroom becomes stronger.
And the next generation receives opportunities that may not have been available otherwise.
We never want to overlook that.
Every uniform handed to a child, every textbook opened in a classroom, every meal placed in front of a student, every teacher standing at the front of a class, and every teacher able to continue their education is connected to someone who prayed, gave, and believed in what God is doing here.
We get to see the faces every day. Our sponsors may live thousands of miles away, but they are very much part of this story. That may be one of the things we love most about Chabantu Missionary Baptist Academy.
It did not begin with a huge budget or a professionally developed plan. Honestly, it began with us saying, “No, we are not starting a school.” God had other ideas.
Then came 17 children.
Two teachers.
A whole lot of learning as we went.
And a community that believed their children deserved an opportunity.
Today there are 220 students running around the school grounds.
There are teachers in classrooms following the government curriculum.
There are children sitting in chapel hearing about Jesus. About 60 of them are also coming back to church regularly.
There are cooks preparing food.
There are people from 13 villages helping lead the school.
There are families working together in the fields so their children can have a healthy meal every day.
There is a hammer mill grinding maize those same families helped grow.
And there are faithful people around the world praying, sponsoring students and teachers, and helping make it possible for the doors of Chabantu Missionary Baptist Academy to open again tomorrow.
When we moved to Zambia, none of this was in our plans, but that is one of the lessons God continues to teach us here:
Sometimes His plans are very different from ours, and His are always better.
We are thankful we were wrong when we said no, because today, when we look into the faces of 220 children, we see far more than a school. We see a generation being educated. We see a community taking ownership of its future. We see teachers being equipped to teach the next generation. We see children being fed physically every day and being fed spiritually through the Word of God. And we see the fingerprints of people who may never stand on our school grounds, but whose prayers and generosity are helping change lives here every single day.
What began with 17 children has become something far greater than we ever planned.
And once again, God has reminded us that sometimes the best thing we can do is stop telling Him what we had planned and simply walk through the door He opens.
