A LOT HAS HAPPENEND AND CHANGED……….
The year 2022 was quite an amazing and gracious time. A year of many happy moments, changes, challenges, reshaping, reflection, pressing issues and shaking off responsibilities. So quick, how times flies. On the 18th of December 2022 we were already celebrating our first wedding anniversary, having quality time together with my wife over some delicious dinner at an Indian restaurant was just a memorable moment. Many thanks to God Almighty for His grace and mercy, spending the year 2022 together with the most beautiful woman and two handsome boys has been such a great and tremendous experience of my life. Of course, I can’t rule out the fact that we are just humans with different personalities, and it comes alongside with many challenges and pressing issues but with the leadership of the Holy Spirit we are more than “Conquerors”. Spending time with these guys has been the most tremendous part of my life, thanks be to God. My lovely wife, Jannie is just an amazing team player, we do most things together. I thought at some point she would struggle with many things in my culture but that’s not the case, when we talk about the local foods she loves almost everything, imagine that her favorite vegetable is the slimy Okra!! Cooked in a Zambian style. Generally, our personal and ministry lives are part of who we are.
Ministry experiences
The last time I shared my newsletter, I was serving as a Business Unit Manager overseeing the operations of the Hammermill Sustainable Project under OM Ndola. The project is so important to the Centre, an income generating venture covering 33% of the Centre’s monthly running costs and its profits is channeled to the Childcare Ministry for a Feeding Program and pays salaries to the crew in the production section of the Hammermill and some of the other supporting staff. It also supplies Mealie Meal to our community which is Zambia’s staple food. So sad to announce that l had to relinquish the position, the hammermill demanded much time and so it wasn’t helping me as a newly married man, I couldn’t just find enough time to spend with my wife and family. This affected us so much as a couple, and as much as we had wished for me to help run the business, on the other hand it was costing us much, so we decided to seek the LORD’s guidance for the next step.
As we kept praying, we strongly felt the call for me to join the Church Mobilization and Partnership Team. With time we decided to share with the Leadership Team about our position but in turn it was heavy for them and not easy to comprehend with our decision to leave the Hammermill. However, Leadership then decided that they needed time to pray about the issue and in a few days it was decided that they felt that I could help the team with the role of PeopleCare and Personnel Facilitator and as well as being part of the Leadership team. So, since May 2022 I have been serving in the Leadership Team as well as PeopleCare and Personnel Facilitator, I deal with the administration, physical wellbeing, spiritual counseling and guidance, coordination, and harmonization of work relationships among team members. I am also part of the Muslim Evangelism team. Glad to say that this has enhanced a balance in my service, and I can boldly say that I have enough time for family and ministry. THANKS BE TO GOD!!
Married life and current family status
Our Marriage is such a blessing to us. I am so happy with my lovely wife because we love, trust and support each other, and still remain a team in almost everything like I alluded to in my introduction, we plan and do things together, COFFEE time together like always. I am also glad that she is so passionate, happy and making an impact in her ministry. This year she will be conducting Women Empowerment trainings with her team with the first one in March and she will also be setting up a new Tailoring ministry for women called Tabitha for OM Ndola. I know that we have only and just clocked a year in our marriage or better still 407 days if you may like but l must confess that she is the best wife ever and l believe even in the years to come.
I also shared in the last newsletters about our children and their education struggles, last year Our oldest son (18 years) was doing the 12th Grade and that’s the last Grade in the Zambian Curriculum and so he was sitting for final exams by end of the year to qualify for the University/College. Results just came out this last week and thanks be to God that he has managed to obtain a full Grade 12 Certificate but his grades in Mathematics are too low making it hard for him to do his desired studies in Information Technology because Mathematics is one of the key subjects in many studies or courses just like English is. So, this will require him to re-sit for the subject this year. We tried to help him before hand after learning from himself that he had challenges in many subjects by engaging extra lessons, but l guess it is as it is. Our youngest son (6,5 years) is now in the first Grade. The young man has tremendously and remarkably improved in his performance, generally he had many struggles in the beginning with counting numbers and Mathematics but glad to mention that he is putting in his best! His last grades in reception class before Grade One were just so amazing and encouraging, so he was recommended to proceed to Grade One at the same School. As for myself, I will also focus on developing our family business models for sustainability, I also applied to study a flexible Distance Pastoral Program for two years under our Church College in Zambia.
Travel arrangements for a trip to the Netherlands
The year 2022 also saw us planning to visit my wife’s home country, the Netherlands, at least for two months, September and October. Visiting the Netherlands was so important and worthwhile for both of us and more especially myself. I didn’t have much clue about my wife’s background apart from what she shared, and so I yarned so much to have an experience and feel on my fingertips where my wife grew up from, what kind of background she was coming from, the things she did, the Church, family, friends, the Village Ee’ that she highly shared about and so on and so forth.
I must mention that it was so sad that at our Zambian wedding my wife was only represented by a few of her Dutch friends serving in the Country. Her relatives and friends from the Netherlands who’d committed to come couldn’t come because of the Covid-19 travel bans. However, though our plan was to travel by early September, we were prompted to put our acts together. After our consultation with the Zimbabwean Dutch Embassy, we were advised to start making prior arrangements for all necessary supporting documents to apply for my visa. As you may be aware that we were deciding to travel during the period when the Covid-19 travel bans were being uplifted in most countries and this meant much flight congestions in the system as many people were eager to make flight bookings everywhere. Oh my goodness, what a problematic process!! The visa application process is quite stressful, can you imagine that the visa application can only be applied in person through Lusaka, the Capital City of Zambia about total 600kms away, to and from my resident town Ndola but processed in Nairobi, Kenya and whether approved or not, visa approval/disapproval comes through 15 – 30 working days. BUT it got approved! Yes! Above all, my gratitude goes to the LORD GOD for His blessings and giving us the strength during the period, the support and recommendations from OM Zambia, friends in Zambia and the Netherlands, family and not to forget my beloved wife for working tirelessly to see to it that all necessary documents were in place. I am blessed that my wife is such a detailed, task oriented and assertive person.
Highlights of the trip to the Netherlands
My stay and experience in the Netherlands was so exciting!! The warm hospitality I received from the natives was just overwhelming beyond my imagination and expectation. I must also confess that I had many fears within myself that I needed to deal with; the fear of not knowing exactly where I was going to and what kind of people I was going to face, the pain of leaving our two sons behind, the pity upon my poor mother who left her home to take care of the boys in our house, the language barrier whilst being in the Netherlands, concerns with my first son’s school performance when we aren’t around. But, all these l guess are thoughts of being human. And so when we got on the plane from Kenya to Europe, I was like, “is it necessary to travel to the Netherlands?” But somehow, it’s like my wife could read my thoughts and she would say something like, “it’s going to be fine”.
So let me get to the point, the visit in general was so great, meeting up with my wife’s relatives and friends, the church, and the community where she grew up from was an amazing experience. The quality time we had with my wife’s family members and friends in different occasions was just fantastic. The Dutch Wedding always reminds me of a sweet and memorable time, and each time I reflect on it, I do imagine being in that beautiful venue in NIAWIER and surrounded by nice and cozy people. My eyes just shed tears of joy and our special gift ‘the wedding book” which was organized by special friends fills me with more love, peace, comfort, and joy in my heart. It was so interesting for me to learn about the bigger differences and impressions in terms of Culture, Food, Infrastructure, Machinery and Equipment, Etiquette, Beautiful housing units and cities and very clean Environments, Technology, Climatic patterns, Religion, Health facilities, smooth Road Networks with non-smoking cars inclusive of the number of bicycles and their paths.
“But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him,on those whose hope is in his unfailing love“.
Psalms 33:18
A number of people from Zambia, the Netherlands and other countries have blessed us with a PERSONAL WEDDING GIFT and we are extremely grateful for that. Both on our wedding day on December 18th, 2021 and on the 2nd wedding day on September 17th, 2022.
We have thanked everyone personally, but once again we would like to thank you very much!!!
Would you wish to know what we were able to buy from our gifts, please send a personal message and we will be more than happy to share this with you!
THANK YOU AGAIN for your FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTION!!
Supermarkets with wide varieties; and the list is just endless. I remember the first time my wife took me to the supermarket with the name LIDL and asked me to grab on what I wanted to eat, but “oh……my goodness!!” I couldn’t just pick on anything; it was just too much choice beyond what I could imagine. It was just so incredible being in the Netherlands, I couldn’t just comprehend it, I was so quiet sometimes processing and deeply thinking about how the huge gaps in two places (Zambia and the Netherlands) within the same planet. Humanly speaking it pains me so much to see how we mismanage the resources in my Country. Zambia has all the resources needed to develop itself and its own people, but one wonders what is wrong with us. The Netherlands has almost everything as compared to my home country Zambia, but my resolution is that everything comes with a cost and commitment, Netherlands is where it is today because the natives have worked hard and tirelessly. This is my short summary of my visit in the Netherlands “l am still speechless” I met special, loving and kind people in the NETHERLANDS, who were really hospitable, my last word to you all;
“I love you all and you will always remain in my heart” I can’t just thank you enough. May the LORD GOD richly bless you, your families and the NETHERLANDS!! Hope to see you again!!
Sustainability
It’s not so easy to serve as a Missionary in my Country, the local Church hasn’t taken an holistic approach in supporting Missions, and so to earn a living one has to be creative to raise sustainability for ourselves and the community around us through projects. So I would like to share some of our plans
Project one
As part of the sustainable projects for the family, we have acquired a 5400 m2 plot of land where we’re planning to set up a Medium Scale Hammermill, a Small-Scale Organic Vegetable Farming, Chicken and Turkey Rearing Projects. All these will be under one umbrella which will be implemented in phases and in a long term as we raise the finances required for each one of them. Glad to announce that we have been trying and testing the Organic Vegetable growing, the Chicken and Turkey projects already on our rented residential plot and the results are promising though the current challenge we have is limited space more especially for the Chickens and Turkeys, you don’t expect much growth especially with the Turkeys which are free rangers by nature. Currently, we have two hen turkeys and a 4-month Turkey and we’re looking for a male Turkey. The one we bought was so old and was not productive enough, so we let it end up in the pot, my goodness, a tough old guy, even when cooking. We also have seven chickens; two roosters and five hens, three hens are for egg production and the other two are for more chicken production. We have 20 guinea fowl eggs that we hope to produce into chicks through the hatching process.
We are encouraged and motivated because late last year we acquired the above-mentioned plot of land so that we can effectively implement our plan. The first phase of our project is to raise funds to build a three roomed house, an outside bathroom, and a long drop toilet for the Caretaker by end of March when the rain season is stopping. The Caretaker will be a salaried Agriculturist with much knowledge to manage the crop farming and livestock, whom I will work with before we can bring in other staff to join our us.
Project two
We are also planning to invest into Estate Business with the focus on listing, property management and property sales. I have already applied for Estate Agents Training with the government regulated Board in Zambia, if accepted will do two sets of trainings early and mid this year and each training’s duration is for 3 – 4 days. On each fourth day is an Examination day. When I qualify in both trainings then we will be granted an official Estates License by the Zambian Government regulated Board as official members of the Zambia Institute Of Estate Agents. Our plan is to hire an experienced Estate Agent to manage the business and our role will be policy making.
God’s Mission and God’s Vision
Romans 10:14-15
“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!.”
PRAYERPOINTS
- PeopleCare and Personnel deals with the administration, physical wellbeing, spiritual counseling and guidance, coordination, and harmonization of work relationships among team members. Pray that the LORD GOD grants me more grace, wisdom, knowledge, insight, and the ability to connect and serve the membership well.
- Being part of Leadership means being part of important decision-making affecting OM as a movement. Pray that the LORD GOD will fill me with His Spirit and righteousness to remain faithful and focused in my duties.
- Membership and Ministry responsibilities are growing for our Centre. Pray that the LORD GOD may sent forth the right men and women with a passion to join our team in different Ministries and strategic positions.
- Missionaries live of support and at the moment I lack enough financial support for my family. Pray that the Lord may raise Financial supporters for my work.
- Glad to notify you that the LORD late last year answered the OM Ndola Centre’s prayer request for a new Medium Scale Hammermill with high production capacity. Please join us in the prayer of thanksgivings to Him for His grace, provisions, and faithfulness.
- Pray for God’s continued blessings upon our marriage and the wellbeing of our children.
- Pray for GOD’s strength, love and favor for my wife, our sons and myself.
- Pray for God’s financial provisioning for our family business projects.
- Islam is growing so fast on the Copperbelt Province where our Centre is. Pray that the Holy Spirit will grant us the boldness, strength, and grace to preach the Gospel.
GIVE | DONATE
Missionaries need funds. This also includes myself. I cannot do my work without funds and look after my family as well
There are two ways of doing this, through my own efforts, and from the help of others. Do you want to help to make my work possible? Please consider a one-off donation or a regular gift. Please connect with me through a contact message below.
When you live in The Netherlands, you can just click on the following button.
What’s my story again?
Through the mission organization Operation Mobilization I, Mobuley Shacholi, am working in Zambia to reach the least reached with the Gospel. My salary consists entirely of financial donations. In this newsletter I share with you what happens in my work and life
Address
OM Zambia
793 Maple Hurst Farm
P.O. Box 81295
Great North Road
10101 Kabwe, Zambia
https://www.om.org/en/country/zambia
Jannie in Mission 