Testimony of Conversion

My name is Ngulube Mtimba. I was born on December 25th, 1966, and so far, the Lord has blessed my wife and I with six children.

Back in 1976, before I was saved, I joined a church called Wambalwa Baptist. The music ministry of the church choir attracted me to join; the way their voices blended together exhibited a unity among them. I was baptized near the end of that year, and was considered a member of the church. I joined the choir, and sang.

In 1987, I became attracted to a young lady by the name of Maureen Mumba who was worshiping at the Reformed Church of Zambia. When I asked her to marry me, she refused. After months of convincing on my part, she accepted, and we got married.

Before long, I began to lose interest in my wife, and I started mistreating her. It is only God who preserved our marriage from disintegration, and we’re still together to this day.

In 1988, a pastor visited our church. This servant of God taught a series of preaching on the second coming of Christ, and the things that would foreshadow his return. The text he focused on that day was Hebrews 9:28. 

“…so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”

The Spirit of God came to me with such force, convicting me of my sinful life.

I returned home after the sermon, and tried to brush these feelings away.

After three days, I had a dream.

I dreamt that the same pastor who had visited our church had come to me with the same message about the second coming of Christ. I couldn’t escape. I brushed it aside once again, thinking that this was just a dream.

One year later, the same visiting pastor appeared in my dreams a second time. It was bizarre, and not at all like the first one had been. I saw the moon moving from west to east, and the sun moving from north to south, creating what looked like a cross. I heard a voice call out to me.

“Mtimba,” the voice said, “you need to repent and be saved. You have a problem with your wife, you hate her, and do not display love.”

After hearing this, I was filled with terror and sorrow.

The dream wasn’t finished.

My wife was seated beside me as I watched all of these things, and I wept with great bitterness. I started confessing my sins to God, asking the Lord of glory for his mercy and forgiveness.

I awoke.

It was still night.

My wife was awake.

I started to plead for forgiveness, and with a sorrowful openness, confessed the harshness with which I’d treated her. She told me that I had been mumbling the things I saw and what I’d said in the dream.

That very night, I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ. I received Him as my Lord and Savior. This marked the turning point of my life; I promised to serve and follow the Lord of hosts, to love my wife, and to treat her as the precious companion of life that she was.

We have been living together with great joy for the past 33 years. 

Call to Ministry

After I was saved in 1989, I continued serving the Lord by singing in the choir.

Due to my commitment, I was singled out by Pastor Kalito to be a youth Bible study teacher. This motivated me to devote myself to the study of God’s Word. I had the privilege of ministering the Word of God to youths, and this enhanced my spiritual growth; creating an insatiable appetite for the things of God in my life. 

In 1992, my pastor asked for my services to be used as an Associate Pastor in the church. I accepted the offer, and started serving in that capacity. Before long, people started calling me “Pastor Ngulube.”

I wasn’t comfortable with that title yet.

In 1997, Petauke Baptist Churches Association wrote me a letter, and asked if I would be an evangelist in the various chiefdoms in the district. There were 125 churches, but I accepted the challenge. The work was immense, and required a lot of time and increased study for me. 

After working with Petauke Baptist Association for three years, I came back to my church. My heart bled when I saw the spiritual state of the youths I had left behind. I organized some evangelistic meetings to win them to the Lord. By God’s grace, some of them were converted, and were discipled. This is what persuaded me to go to Bible College for theological training. I wanted to serve the Lord in a more effective way, and figured that this was the best way to prepare for it.

In 2001, I applied for theological training at Covenant College Zambia Trust. I was accepted in the same year, and graduated on October 23, 2003 with a degree in Theology.