SPOTLIGHT ON MISSIONS: Mickeal & Sharon Quillman • Zambia

      Mwapona Buti (How are you doing)! Good evening from Sikute Chiefdom in Zambia and Chabantu Missionary Baptist Church. We want to update you on the exciting things happening here in Zambia.

         • Drought Program — Thank you for helping us during this unprecedented drought and famine. Our feeding program is still ongoing, and we have been able to provide food for 78 families, totaling around 400 people, for the past two months. Our prayer is to be able to continue this assistance through January. God permitting, January will get us to our first harvest, and life should be a little easier. We just purchased and installed a hammer mill for grinding the corn to save the expense for our families. The closest hammer mill to our church is about an hour’s walk. This will significantly impact the lives and health of our families here. We are thankful for your continued support in this effort to provide food. We suffered 11 deaths due to famine and lack of access to water before we were able to get the program going. Thankfully, we have not lost anyone since.

         • Seeds of Hope — In addition to the feeding program, we have also provided maize seeds to help families plant new crops, as last year’s crops failed due to drought. Typically, they can sell the previous year’s harvest to purchase seed, but with the widespread crop failure, there was not even enough to feed their family. Concerning the drought, we have seen a small amount of rain, with four days of rain totaling about 20 minutes each. Last night, we received the most significant rain yet! It rained most of the evening, hard at times but steady. We pray God will continue to open the heavens and bless our country with more rain.

         • Community School — We are thrilled to report that our community primary school, Chabantu Baptist Academy, has grown from 38 to 150 students in just one year. This next term, they will be adding grade 7! God is allowing us to reach these children with the gospel of Christ every single day! We continue to see doors open to entire families through the school and have seen many salvations as a direct impact of the school.

         • Church — Our church, Chabantu Missionary Baptist Church, is also continuing to grow, with an average attendance of over 100 people each week and around 45-50 children in our children’s ministry. This past Sunday, we had 108 with 54 children in service. We pray that God sends us someone to partner in ministry to work with our children and aid us in starting a youth ministry. We would love to have some interns come and stay to assist during their summer college break or even a more extended internship with us. If you know of someone in your church with a heart for missions, please get in touch with me or talk with me while we are on furlough.

         • Bible Studies — We have finished the doctrinal studies class with our men and the church leadership. We continue to meet for classes using the Bible Training Centre for Pastors curriculum. Our men and some women have completed the “How to Study the Bible” that the Baptist Publishing House made available, and we can see marked improvement during our Bible study times. We are excited to partner with the Women’s Missionary Auxiliary (WMA) for our Bible college project. Once this project is complete, we will have a permanent place to continue to meet for daily classes for our future Pastors and leaders within the church.

         • Lackson Munkombwe — Lackson Munkombwe, who I have been training and discipling since we arrived, is advancing well in his studies. Lackson is almost one year ahead of our church leaders in his studies. He is now rotating with me in preaching at the church and will be helping me coordinate things and be the acting pastor while I am away on furlough. God placed this young man in our lives, and he has become invaluable to our ministry. He is like a sponge when studying the Word of God and has a great ability to reach his people with the gospel. Lackson and his wife, Charity, welcomed a new baby girl last month, Anita Chileleko, which means “blessing.” They have two children, including a son named Emmanuel, age 6, and Charity’s little brother, Honest, who is 10 years old and has lived with them for just over a year. They took him in when Charity’s parents could not provide for him due to the drought and famine.

         • Praise the Lord! — On a personal note, we praise God for the recent improvements in our daily living conditions. The load shedding, or intentional power shutdown, has eased a bit. Previously, we were only getting electricity from 10:30 pm until 3:30 am. We are getting power for about 6-8 hours daily. Additionally, we were going several days per week with no water, but as of the last couple of weeks, we have only been without water a couple of days. We are grateful for these small blessings and pray that they will continue.

         • Furlough — We will be coming to the US on furlough for Christmas this year and spending time with our family and friends. This is our first furlough since going on the mission field, and while we are excited, we would appreciate your prayers for our Zambian family here at home while we are away. Please continue to pray for Lackson as he takes on a much greater responsibility while I am away. I do not doubt that he will do very well.

      Sharon and I are excited to welcome three (yes, three!!) new grandchildren into our family in 2025. When we first moved to Zambia, we had three grandchildren — Addi was six, Aurora was six weeks old and Isla was two weeks old. This was probably the hardest thing we ever had to do. Addi even refused a birthday party for her seventh birthday because we would not be there.

      Please pray for Papa and Nana as we are gifted with three new grandchildren, two in January and one in May. While this move was difficult, we find peace and solace knowing we are following God. While we are physically not there, we pray that our children and grandchildren are also encouraged by knowing that though this is difficult, we are following God’s call on our lives.

      We also look forward to seeing many of you who have been praying for us, financially supporting us and praying for our Bible college, church and community primary school. While we cannot make it to every church, we hope to visit several. Please let me know if your church would be interested in hosting a multi-church event during the week, on a Saturday or even on a Sunday evening. The associational meeting with churches allows us to share God’s work in Zambia on a larger scale. (Plus, there is usually a potluck… remember meatloaf is my favorite food.)

      Please join us in praying for the Chabantu Missionary Baptist Church while we are away, for the ongoing drought/famine and for safe travel to the US. We also need new suspension for Landcruiser and a ministry van. Thank you for your continued support and prayers.