Dear Brethren,

I write to introduce our college, Covenant College Zambia Trust (CCZT) and our current need for more partners.

A vision was developed between 1989 and 1999 to set up a college in the rural outskirts of Petauke, Eastern Province, Zambia.  Missionaries of Frontline Fellowship South Africa, an indigenous African mission organisation based in Cape Town, led by Rev. David Fraser and Virgil Tountas, took on this mission call. The town itself is located 400km east of Lusaka and boasts of being the second largest district of the Eastern Province of Zambia. The original vision was to further the cause of world evangelisation by missionary outreach to the resistant or neglected areas and groups in Southern Africa.  So they sought to disciple pastors and missionaries living in Zambia’s Eastern Province, and beyond into Malawi. Local evangelism also was part of their quest to realise this gospel vision. An emphasis on training indigenous local pastors thus took centre stage for the mission station.

In the year 2000, a Bible college was set up under the Trust Fund and this was done through the Rev. David Fraser as the pioneer missionary. Later on, two classrooms, a 40 capacity dormitory, a kitchen, a library, 4 chalets (for visitors) and 3 staff houses were constructed. This took a good 10 years to set up and in that period different men took up the mantle to establish and realise the original vision.

Part of the realisation of this vision was to establish a farm to support the college by providing a significant amount of the meat, vegetables and maize required to feed the students, as well as generating a modest income from the sale of some crops to local people and also by the provisions of a local maize-milling service.  For a number of years (2000-2016) the farm achieved this objective. The farm also engages in teaching pastors Farming God’s Way (FGW), a strategy designed to enable them be self-reliant through farming upon completion of their training.

Another ministry was established known as Christian Education Ministry (CEM) to reach out to the children in the communities by assisting in establishing Bible-based pre-schools and providing related teacher training. This is designed to enable the churches run by former students to reach out to children in their communities and thus realise the goal of evangelising children and adults.

The college has since its inception witnessed 15 graduations, with over 90 or so students having passed through our doors! This is a matter for thanksgiving. In January 2017 the college hired Pastor Emmanuel Sakala as Principal and during the calendar year has witnessed a substantial increase in the number of students from 9 to 22. Furthermore, we have received 44 new applications for the February 2018 intake and together with the 22 returning students; the total number on our roll would come to 66 for the 2018 academic year. We would like to take all these students but this scale of increase obviously creates a substantial demand on our finances, coming after a time of decline in donations.    This is the challenge that the college seeks to overcome by incorporating new donors drawn from local and foreign churches of likeminded brethren. We are writing you so that you can be part of the quest for the broadening of the new support base.

You can partner with our college either individually, or via a church or other organisation in the following areas:

1. One-off cash donations of any amount
2. A pledge of £5/$6/ZAR85/K65 per month
3. Sponsor a lecturer or part-time lecturers
4. Undertake rehabilitation projects such as kitchen, library and dormitory expansions, and staff houses etc.
5. Material support to students such as books, cleaning detergents etc
6. Mission trips to the college to help in the rehabilitation projects as in point 4
7. Donation of second hand clothes
8. Publicising the work of CCZT and encouraging others to support with prayer and donations

We strongly believe that with your partnership in any of the above cited areas or others that you may propose, we will continue to realise the vision to establish a wide mission station that would encompass the entire region with an emphasis not only on teaching pastors, but also promoting a Biblical worldview in all of life.

Yours in the Kingdom of Christ

Emmanuel Sakala, Principal