Zambia Churches Launch My Hope

Matthew and Friends Sunday Brings Hope to Congregation

October 7, 2011 - Months of casting a vision and training pastors culminated with Matthew and Friends Sunday, where as many as 4,000 churches across Zambia rolled out the My Hope vision to its congregations with thousands committing to become host Matthews.

“It’s the moment where the project truly becomes a national project.”
— Joe Mott, My Hope Zambia deputy country director.

By Trevor Freeze

If My Hope Zambia were a movie production, the clapboard would have sounded across this African country on Sunday with the director yelling, “Action!”

With more than 4,000 churches across this land-locked nation the size of Texas trained for My Hope Zambia, pastors everywhere were casting the vision of this World Evangelism Through Television project to their congregations on what’s called “Matthew and Friends Sunday.”

“It’s the moment where the project truly becomes a national project,” said Joe Mott, My Hope Zambia deputy country director.

And Roll 'Em

“The purpose of Matthew and Friends Sunday is to launch the project in the local church,” Mott said. “Up to that point, the pastor has attended some meetings, received training and received materials.

“But in many cases, the pastor hasn’t taken the concept to the church yet.”

But on Sunday, the vision that the district and regional coordinators have been canvassing the country casting since May, was rolled out to local church bodies in every corner of Zambia.

“We’re currently getting reports back from the coordinators,” said Mott, who visited four different churches on Sunday. “And we think it went very well.”

As Mott stepped into the fourth and final church on Sunday, the pastor had just begun preaching and his entire sermon was based squarely off of the My Hope Zambia teaching materials.

“He preached out of Matthew 9,” said Mott about the passage where the Apostle Matthew invites his friends over to hear Jesus. “The purpose is to share the vision and share about what Matthew did. That was encouraging, that the training had been received well.”

At the end of that service, 25 people committed to be Matthew hosts.

Premier is Near

With less than two months from the broadcast weekend, the My Hope project is nearing its final push, and regardless of where you live in Zambia, the Gospel presentation will be heard.

On Dec. 1-3, a specifically-produced 30-minute My Hope program — consisting of music videos, testimonies and classic Billy Graham and Franklin Graham messages — will air at both 6:25 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. nationwide.

At 6:25 p.m. (18:25 local time), ZNBC will air the program in English on its channel that covers all of Zambia, and depending on the regional dialect, the program will air in four other main Zambian languages as well: Bemba, Nyanja, Lozi and Tonga. There are 72 known languages in Zambia.

Radio Christian Voice, a big My Hope Zambia supporter, is also carrying the program at 6:25 on shortwave (nationwide) and on FM (Lusaka, Copperbelt region).

At 7:30 p.m., Muvi TV will broadcast to a majority of the country, including the capital Lusaka and Copperbelt regions in the densely populated north, and the program will also be distributed through local pastors to local radio and TV stations on CD and DVD.

“We’re hoping the local radio stations will air in the local vernacular,” Mott said. “Pretty much everyone will speak one of these five languages and will be able to understand the program.”