Built to last
Yesterday, Heidi and I celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary! I am so proud to be on this life adventure with my Chisa Nkonde (my beloved banana sweet)! And we are proud our marriage is still going strong. Things that last require effort and work…but most of all they matter.
Last year, I read a great book by Donald Miller called Hero on A Mission. Miller has a brilliant business mind and couples that with a big heart and great faith. In this book, Miller describes the fact that, throughout the course of our lives, we’re all playing one of four roles. The villain, the victim, the hero, or the guide. This book is written to help people consider how they’ve been living and how they’ve been thinking. It aims to aid people in moving from victim mentalities to more heroic living. Beyond the hero is the guide who helps others become heroes.
Right around the same time that I read this book, I got news from Zambia that a dear friend of mine, who is also a hero, had passed away after a stroke. The news broke my heart. Joseph Chikumbi is someone I’ve looked up to and admired ever since we met in 2009. He lived a humble but powerfully heroic life in a very difficult place. Kazembe, Mwansabombwe District in northern Luapula Province is the seat of a traditional Chief and therefore it is a politically charged place. It’s also very remote and very hot.
Joseph and his dear wife Maggie served the church there for many years. They served as church overseers in the district for many years, too, looking after several other congregations. They were missionaries to more rural village areas in their district where they also planted churches and baptized believers. In many eyes, their crowning accomplishment was the establishment of Good Samaritan School for Orphans and Vulnerable Children. This school was reaching, educating, feeding and caring for 400 orphaned children when I met them, and the reach only expanded over the years! The Chikumbi’s along with their team of dedicated teachers, were introducing these children to love, family, life after trauma, and compassionate care.
Joseph told me he started the school after they saw two young children thrown off a bus at the Kazembe roundabout. As the bus sped off, he approached the kids and found out they had been orphaned and the uncle that was looking after them in a place far away, wanted to rid himself of the “burden” of childcare, so he bought them bust tickets and sent them on their way…alone! That was the last straw. The Chikumbi’s chose to get into the fight where children were being left alone and neglected, even abandoned. And they represented God’s heart in this area all the days of their lives, from that moment on.
Both Joseph and Maggie had physical handicaps that would have sidelined many people, but not them. They made their way through the dusty wild-west streets of Kazembe, to the ministry base from home, every morning to pour themselves out. And repeated this service, year after year.
When I would visit, the Chikumbi’s welcomed me into their home, and had prepared sleeping arrangements in what they called MY room! We laughed, prayed, cried, and worked together and they became dear and cherished friends. Joseph was so inspirational and influential, that, as soon as my first few Young Lions were commissioned for ministry after completing their Apolo Course, I rushed them to Kazembe to meet Joseph and to be prayed for by him.
Joseph is survived by his wife, Maggie and his own wonderful children, not to mention the hundreds he influenced through his life and ministry. I never heard Joseph feel sorry for himself…he was never the victim. In a place where villains were all around, he rose above the commonplace backbiting, competition, and undercutting with grace and goodness. To hundreds of children and to at least one American missionary, he became an overcoming hero, and he also served as a guide. He modeled a better, deeper way of life — steady and overcoming joy despite hardship. His heroic life bursts with a lasting legacy. That’s the mark of a true lion.
I will miss my hero, pastor, guide, and friend, Joseph Chikumbi;
but we will meet again.
We’ll have a pineapple Fanta together at the Texas Two-Step and talk about our day.