Pastor, Chachacha Chapel in Kitwe, Zambia.

Jonathan is the pastor of Chachacha Chapel in Kitwe, Zambia. He has been in the pastoral ministry for several years, since finishing training at Toronto Baptist Seminary. In addition to pastoring the new church plant in Kitwe, Jonathan lectures at a local Bible college.

TESTIMONY OF JONATHAN M.

 Life Before Conversion

I grew up in the Catholic Church, which was the family church. Going to church was part of my life and I could not imagine myself living without a church. Very early in life I was strongly convinced that the Catholic Church was the only true church. At this time the only other sects I was familiar with were Jehovah's Witness and the S.D.A. I longed to draw close to God, and my only model was a priest. This made me aspire to become a priest one day.

I did my primary school at a mission school and went to another mission school for my secondary school. This helped to open my eyes to see how corrupt those priests were. I also started seeing how idolatrous the mass was but there was still a lot which I cherished. The biggest struggle I had was with my thoughts. When I read from the Bible "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only continually. " I thought this was my true description.
My life was characterized by total devotion to Mary, the rosary and the mass. I believed that God was helping me in everything I did, especially academically, but I failed to serve Him well. I never learnt anything about providence, but I knew God was actively involved in my life.

My Conversion

The turning point came when I went to the University of Zambia. I wanted to do medicine and the only way I could do this was by giving myself fully to studies. I resolved to stop going to church until after completing my studies. This could not work for me because I was sharing a room with a Christian by the name of Conrad Mbewe. I was amazed by his life. I did not expect a young man at the university to be so serious with God. I had admired the priests but Conrad's life was more than a priest could attain. I was compelled to start attending the fellowship (U.C.F.) he used to attend. I learned from him to have my quiet time and also started going to the same Baptist Church he was attending. I was still not saved. One day in the evening as I was having my quiet time I read from I Peter 2:24, "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed".

I had heard a lot about Jesus dying for our sins but it never made any sense. During this particular evening it was like my eyes were opened. I realized that Jesus as a sinless Man would not have died. My own sins needed to go into His body to kill Him. This troubled me greatly. For the first time I saw myself as a murderer who was responsible for the death of Christ. I grieved and confessed my sins before the Lord.
This experience did not solve my problem but made it worse. From that time I became too conscious of sin and this made me very miserable for almost fifteen months. I hated life and even school. Now, I thought this problem was caused by my new church, so I thought of going back to the Catholic Church. When I went there my problem even intensified. All I saw in the church was the idolatry which I had never seen before. This was my last time to go to a Roman Catholic Church. By and by my burden was lifted and I could rejoice in the Lord.

Call to Ministry

After a break from studies I had to go to school. This time I was quite mature spiritually having gone through a rough time for almost two years. At this particular time the thought of going into full time ministry started becoming strong, though it scared me. I was convinced that even I was studying agriculture my future had nothing to do with agriculture. What was in my mind was a pastoral work, but upon completion of my studies I was called to go and work for a Christian organization (Zambia Fellowship of Evangelical Students). I worked there for seven years, but I still felt as if I had not answered the call yet. I feared to go into pastoral ministry without any training. Most of my work mates used to tell me that my call was either into pastoral ministry or lecturing at the Bible College. Providentially the Lord opened up a door to go and study at Toronto Baptist Seminary and Bible College. From there I came straight into pastoral work.
The walk has not been easy but grace as always been sufficient.

A debtor to mercy alone,

JONATHAN M.