Testimony of Conversion
Zingalume Banda is my name and I got converted on the 25th December, 2000. I was according to the carnal eyes a good boy. This is primarily because I grew up in a religious family and was exposed to church life yet I did not know the reason why I was going to church.
I ‘’behaved’’ myself by not engaging into scandalous activities because of the warnings I received from my father. I now believe this was God’s restraining Grace for me a sinner. He would warn me sternly, and I would adhere just out of fear of being beaten, but my siblings were not adhering. Well this got me thinking a lot, the fact that we went to church with my siblings, received the same warnings but still my siblings could disobey our tyrant of a father. My dad and siblings never lived a life that was in conformity with the church life they championed. And this was confusing to me the fact that on one hand dad would encourage us to go to church on Sundays without fail, including himself, he was a regular church attendee. At least I could tell what the life that was expected of a church going person was, except I didn’t know how to access it.
Despite being called and known as a good boy, with a scandal free life per se, Zingalume Banda was a hypocrite at heart. I hated people, I was vengeful, I also desired some of the sins that my peers and siblings were indulging in.
I was a sinner covered in religion. And this is a very subtle combination because in my 8th grade I was appointed Scripture Union chairperson at my primary school. I was leading a group of students in the ‘’ways’’ of God when myself did not know His ways. In the year 2000, on Christmas day, after a message from Mathew 1:18-21 was preached at Reformed Church in Zambia, Kamwala Congregation, my sins where exposed, clearly I did not know what Christmas was and the purpose why Christ came. This message answered a lot of the unanswered questions I had been asking myself.
I was convicted of my sins, my hypocrisy, hatred and desire to sin willfully. I was shown how self righteousness and religion could not save me else I would have been saved or would have saved myself. Clearly the gospel preached to me that day exposed my inadequacy to save self, and revealed God’s saving power through Christ. Christ’s righteousness was sufficient for me. God convicted me of my sins, I repented of my sins that same 25th day of December, 2000 and put my faith in God.
After this I started having a deep desire for the word of God; such that I started visiting two churches just so that I could get the right meal of God’s word to help me grow spiritually and in the fear of God.
I left the Reformed Church In Zambia, Kamwala Congregation and joined my former church Flame of Fire Harvest ministries in 2003 September. I was at this church until the time I started doing my internship program in 2020 at Kabwata Baptist Church and there after I have been attending Ibex Hill Baptist Church where my wife and I joined membership full-time this year 2022.
Call to Ministry
I sensed the call to ministry when I was 17 years of age, before which I could have a desire to pastor a church but I was a pagan. I liked the work of pastoring even though I was unconverted. In fact I had suggested to my dad to talk to the Reverend by the time and the section elder of our church, Reformed Church Of Zambia, so that I could be considered for pastoral training at Justo Mwale Theological college, now University.
When I got saved in 2000, then the burning desire increased to preach to the lost, and seek ways in which I could grow them in the Lord. I remember because of my zeal, I was appointed Chief Evangelist at Libala Secondary school Scripture Union, where my duty was to mobilize my fellow Christian students for work of evangelism.
After completing my grade 12 in 2004, I just wanted to go straight up into ministry but I was asked to do some theological training, it was in the same year that I met a pastor who asked me to join him start a church and later after 6 years I became his associate, this was in a pentecostal church. He mentored me for some good years with pentecostal theologies.
I was then sent to South Africa to pursue some studies in theology but still I wasn’t feeling equipped to pastor a church. Fast forward, I met a friend in 2015 who introduced me to pastor Makashinyi who asked me to go and audit a class at Lusaka Ministerial College.I became interested in what was being lectured, and joined the college. It was during this period when my convictions changed gradually. I was a pentecostal man, and was really holding on to a number of things most of which did not have scriptural backing. But after been exposed to some good theology, I appreciated the material and it really stabilized me theological, I was reoriented and my desire to serve the Lord as a pastor now made a whole lot of sense.
In summary, I can say that I sensed the call when I was 17 years old but strictly speaking responded in 2007, then 2010 I was ordained as pastor at my former church, but still needed help with some theology on how to pastor God’s flock. I furthered my education at Lusaka Ministerial college, where I was oriented, and stabilized for the work of ministry. This made me leave the pentecostal church and after 3 years of internship in within the reformed circles, I can safely say that by God’s grace, I am ready to serve His bride.