Plenty of people take short-term ministry or mission trips overseas. What isn’t as common are short-term trips that are part of a long-term partnership, but this is what has developed between Sydney and a school in Zambia – a partnership that has now grown to include three Sydney parishes and two Zambian churches.

“We’ve been in partnership for more than 10 years now and I am very thankful for the opportunities that have arisen since then,” says the Rev David Mears, rector of Christ Church Gladesville. “It’s been a delight to team up with other Sydney churches and organisations as well, working together for the cause of the gospel.”

The partnership began in 2012 when Mr Mears was still rector of Minchinbury. One of his parishioners, Julius Mumbi, asked if there was any chance the parish could send a short-term team to the Hope and Faith school his mother Rosemary had begun in a shanty community in Zambia’s capital, Lusaka. 

The following year, Mr Mears led a team of 28 – including Mr Mumbi and his wife Malina – and during that trip began to develop additional connections at Lusaka’s Anglican cathedral. By the time of trip three in 2019, the evangelical Foxdale Baptist Church had been established close to the school, seeking to reach the same area, so it is now part of a ministry that includes members from the parishes of Gladesville, Minchinbury and Turramurra.

We’re very conscious of being sensitive in how we do this, and part of that is asking the Zambian leaders to volunteer areas where we might be able to serve.

“I’ve been keen to make sure that it’s not just helping a bunch of people to go and work in a school or a church – it’s what strategic direction this is going in,” Mr Mears says. “We’re very conscious of being sensitive in how we do this, and part of that is asking the Zambian leaders to volunteer areas where we might be able to serve.

“We can’t underplay the real impact just being there has on them and us – it really does testify to our fellowship in the Lord Jesus. The more we go over, the more the trust builds and the possibilities of what we could do next are thought of, because they know us and we’ve shown that we have a real commitment to them.”

This year, nearly 30 people from the three Sydney Anglican parishes travelled to Zambia for ministry trip number four. They ran kids’ and youth programs, taught the PTC Ephesians course and a Youthworks youth ministry course, and provided 300 MegaVoice bibles in local languages. They worked with local women, preached when asked and were even on hand to witness the birth of a new church in the south of the country.

It was the first trip to Zambia for the Rev Steve Calder, a member of Turramurra’s Bobbin Head congregation, who went with his wife, son and daughter-in-law. He helped teach the youth ministry course and was struck by participants’ enthusiasm and hunger to grow in their faith and skills.

“Every weekday for two weeks people would come, often straight from work – one guy rode his bike a long way each day to be there,” he says. “The passion of these 10 to 12 people was really inspiring and just the way that they were keen to learn, keen to discuss and keen to apply what they were learning. We not only saw their passion but the trials they face with joy, which is encouraging as well as challenging.

“I think whenever you go into a space that isn’t where you normally work, live, play and minister, you’re out of your comfort zone and it forces you to be more reliant on God. To have an opportunity to grow and serve and use your gifts is a great thing, and to just see what God is doing in other parts of the world is a huge blessing.” 

Our good teaching equips us

Julius and Malina Mumbi, who still attend church in Minchinbury, organise logistical aspects of each trip such as accommodation and transport. They also took their three children with them to Zambia, where Mr Mumbi was part of the Ephesians teaching team and Mrs Mumbi co-directed the children’s program.

Mr Mumbi says something he recognised from the first ministry trip was how much benefit he had received over the years in Sydney from weekly, faithful Bible teaching – and that in Zambia this was much less common.

“There is a real lack of clear and good Bible teaching that is accessible to anyone in the pew,” he says. “There is a lot of the prosperity gospel, and many churches aren’t teaching the right thing, so with their limited resources there are not a lot of people who would be trained to that level and have the gospel taught well on a bigger scale.”

He challenged church members in Sydney to realise how much they had to share with others, simply because they had sat under good teaching. “It’s something that anyone in the pew could really get involved in and not feel like, ‘I need to be a minister to do this’,” he says.

Mr Mears encourages other churches that have the opportunity to foster a similar long-term partnership to take it up.

“Apart from God using this partnership to lead many people to Christ, the way that the connections and networks have grown beyond just the school – and the insights and experiences that we’ve been able to both gain and share – have been so valuable,” he says. 

“I hope it has been as helpful and encouraging for the growth of our Zambian brothers and sisters as it has been for each of us who have the privilege to partner with them.”

Photos: Justin McLean.