New Frontiers

Why New Frontiers? Well Pastor Crispin Kazaka, Alison and Norman Amey, pictured above left to right, are all involved with Newfrontiers ‘a worldwide family of churches together on a mission’ – Crispin through his church The Jubilee Community Church in Dambwa, Livingstone and Alison and Norman through their church,The Community Church, Honiton in Devon, UK.

All three came together to appear as Guests on the most recent edition of our weekly Sunday night radio show – The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela. Alison and Norman were visiting Livingstone, and staying at Chanters Lodge, with a view to helping Crispin firmly establish his church in Livingstone, not necessarily through financial donations. They also told listeners that they were involved with Sikanzwe Village near Kazungula on the Zambezi, organizing loans for small scale fishing businesses. They had returned to Zambia to assess progress.

Our weekly radio show is a lively combination of chat and music and the latest programme celebrated five years of broadcasting every Sunday night between 20.30 and 21.30 hrs on Zambezi 107.7 fm! We featured tracks from Swedish House Mafia, Taylor Swift, Petersen and Scarlet, as well as Ty2, Ke$ha, Cover Drive and Owl City. Our closing number was from Kelly Clarkson. Each week we give away a dinner for two with drinks at Chanters Lodge to the first listener to text us telling us who’s singing our oldie of the week, and this week the track was by Zambia’s very own sensation Ty2. The prize was quickly snapped up. “I wonder how many dinners we’ve given away in the past five years?” I speculated. “Hundreds” replied George “but not to us!” Ah….

Crispin told listeners he had been a pastor for 14 years and that he was widowed with five children to raise on his own. He bought and sold commodities to help ends meet. Norman had served in the British Police force for 30 years retiring in 2011  having risen to the rank of Inspector. He told listeners he did miss his job, but was happy to have more time to devote to community service through his church. Alison told listeners that she is a tutor of mathematics teaching students having difficulty with Maths. “You’d be busy if you lived in Zambia” said Milli Jam “we Zambians are not very good at Maths”!

Norman and Alison told listeners that they would be leaving Livingstone the next day, heading for Chikankata near Mazabuka, to check out a new church that had been established there. They had not been there before and they were looking forward to the trip. Asked about their musical tastes Norman said he liked Bruce Springsteen and U2 whereas Alison liked listening to Christian music. Crispin liked Zambia’s Sakala Brothers, finding them inspirational.

Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing in ten years’ time, Alison said she would like to be a grandmother, Norman that he would like to see Crispin’s church firmly established in Livingstone and Crispin that his church would have started a rehabilitation centre for people having problems with alcohol and drugs.

We wished them the best of luck.

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Lucas and Liz Messick

“What a happy loving couple!” I hear you say about the picture (above) of Lucas and Liz Messick, and you’d be right! This young duo from Pennsylvania, USA appeared on the latest edition of our Sunday night radio show – The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela. The show airs every Sunday night on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s firmly established local radio station and streams live on the internet too! Lucas and Liz were hoping their families back in the States would be tuned in! “How long have you been married?” Milli Jam wanted to know at the top of the show, “just eight months” they replied. “Awwwww”! We said!

Lucas and Liz told listeners that they’d been in Zambia for the past five weeks volunteering at Macha Mission Hospital – Macha Mission is a mission station in the Choma District of the Southern Province of Zambia. The hospital has 200 beds and is a vital service in this rural area. Liz is training to be a physician’s assistant and is doing a two year Masters course at Lock Haven University for her qualification – this stint at Macha formed part of her course. Lucas is an accountant in the family business back home, the family has five stores selling ‘farming implements’ – he admitted that Bruce Springsteen, who has a ranch in Pennsylvania, buys tractors from his company – farming implements indeed! Nothing like hoes and rakes! Whilst in Macha Lucas had been helping with the books at the Mission.

The music on the show was the usual great mix. Tracks from The Wanted and Amelia Lily started us off, then George played Ozzy’s ‘You’re The Reason’  and Ty2’s ‘Spotlight’ as his local Zambian choices. The latter was the oldie of the week, and the prize we give each week to the first person to text us telling us who’s singing our oldie, was quickly snapped up! Great! Milli Jam dropped Chris Brown’s smash ‘Don’t Wake Me Up’ and we followed with latest tracks from Carly Rae Jepsen as well as Psy’s Gangnam Style – over 200 million hits on YouTube for Korean Psy!

Liz and Lucas told listeners they’d loved their trip to Chobe in Botswana that day and had been lucky to see lions, as well as hundreds and hundreds of elephant. They had enjoyed Victoria Falls and had been to see them from the Zimbabwe side as well. Liz was rather disappointed that there was not more water going over, due to it being the dry season, but thought it a good reason to come back to Zambia again after the rainy season. She had learned some Tonga while in Zambia and she and Milli Jam started chatting away in his language. He loved it!

Lucas expressed a great love of TV show Top Gear and sport – especially American Football – he had even been following a game between Philadelphia Eagles and Baltimore Ravens that day on the internet at Chanters! He also revealed that he plays the french horn in an orchestra back in America and is into classical music. Liz is more into Christian music and was happy when I told her that Lecrae’s new album ‘Gravity’ was high in the US album charts as we went on air. We give listeners chart and social media news every week on our show.

Saying that they were flying back to America the following day, and asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing in ten years’ time, they said they hoped to have two children, to be following the Lord and to have great jobs! We wished them well.

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The Alpha Experience!

Abi Kajumba (above left) and Erin Winfield were the latest Guests at Chanters Lodge, Livingstone, Zambia, to get roped into appearing on our Sunday night radio show on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. The show is called The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela, and airs between 20.30 and 21.30 hrs every Sunday night – it streams live on the internet too!

Why ‘The Alpha Experience’, well Abi and Erin both work for Alpha. Erin told listeners that the Alpha course is a course which seeks to explore the basics of the Christian faith, described as “an opportunity to explore the meaning of life”. Alpha courses are currently being run in churches, homes, workplaces, prisons, universities and a wide variety of other locations. The course is being run around the world by all major Christian denominations. The girls were spending a few days in Livingstone before moving on to Lusaka to attend an Alpha training workshop at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, being attended by delegates from more than nine other African countries. They were much looking forward to the experience.

Erin originally hails from Arkansas, USA but has lived in England for the past seven years, she’s married and her husband is training for the priesthood in the Anglican church in UK. Abi is still single, has a Ugandan dad and an English mum and has spent years of her life in both countries – she described her mum as ‘brave and adventurous’ – we got the impression on the show that these girls are too, as they described the activities they’d undertaken while they were in Livingstone! They’d walked out to Livingstone Island and jumped into the Devil’s Pool, right on the edge of Victoria Falls. They’d enjoyed a sunset cruise on the Zambezi, as well as undertaking a one day safari to Chobe National Park in Botswana. They’d also taken the flight of angels in a microlight over Victoria Falls! Brave and adventurous indeed!

The music on the show was right up to date as usual – we opened with Little Mix and ‘Wings’, back to back with Fazer’s ‘Killer’. George chose hot Zambian tracks from Roberto and JK, while Milli Jam chose songs from Taio Cruz, and up and coming R&B star Jeremy Greene. Our oldie of the week was from Beyonce and Jay Z, and the prize we give every week to the first person to text us telling us who’s singing our oldie was quickly snapped up by a certain Felistus. She won a dinner for two with drinks at Chanters Lodge! We closed with Cover Drive’s latest UK hit, ‘Explode’.

Erin told listeners that her musical taste leans towards acoustic jazz as well as more popular artists such as Jason Mraz and Mumford and Sons – in terms of sport she loves to swim. Abi favours pop and gospel music and loves to play tennis. Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing ten years from now. Erin said she hoped to be living and working in an Anglican parish with her husband the priest, travelling and changing lives. Abi would like to be married with children, still involved with Alpha, as well as having become a successful author of novels for children – travelling on the royalties earned! We wished them the best of luck and thanked them for appearing on the show.


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The Salvation Army March to The Experience!

We were delighted to welcome Ken Hawkins and daughter Emma (above) on to the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela last Sunday night. ‘The Experience’ is our regular Sunday night radio show airing between 20.30 and 21.30 hrs on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. Ken is the Principal of the Salvation Army Training College in Lusaka, a post he has held since February this year. He has been with the Salvation Army for some 20 years and the Army has been in Zambia for 90 years! Emma, and her brother Paul were on a visit to Zambia, Emma is special educational needs teacher back in South London, UK. Ken and his family were staying at Chanters Lodge for a short family holiday, wife Ann, mum Alice (84) as well as Paul were back at the lodge listening to the show. Given the Olympic Games in London and the final of Big Brother Africa in Johannesburg being broadcast at the same time as our show, our listener numbers were down. Shame!
Ken explained to our audience that the Salvation Army is a Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that works in over 120 countries and has been described as a ‘Christian church with its sleeves rolled up!’ The Army is also known for its music and Ken said that he already knew of four Salvation Army bands in Lusaka which he described as being of ‘varying quality’. He and Emma are both musicians, Ken plays tuba and piano while Emma knows the cornet and horn. Ken said his musical preferences were jazz and orchestral, Emma that at the moment she just loved Carly Rae Jepsen! She’s not the only one….

Ken’s wife Ann is also a minister in the Salvation Army and teaches in Lusaka. Ken said that he and the family are very happy in Lusaka, loving the life style and the weather.

The music on our show was pretty far removed from gospel. We opened with the latest UK smash hits from Wiley and Example, followed with Zambian offerings from Petersen and Chilu Lemba. Petersen’s track ‘Ama Kwebo In Church’ George explained was saying that there are many things going on in church other than worship. I asked Ken for his opinion on these lyrics but he refused to be drawn! Milli Jam dropped tracks from R Kelly and Madonna. Our oldie of the week was Michael Jackson’s ‘Man In The Mirror’ – the weekly prize went unwon! My pick of the week was The Killers ‘Runaways’ and we closed with Example’s super ‘Say Nothing’.
Although Ken and Emma said they were not much interested in sport they had all the latest news from TeamGB’s sterling, or should I say golden, efforts in the London Olympics including the latest medals for Andy Murray and Jess Ennis! Ken admitted to watching Spurs in his youth but said these days it was very expensive to watch football in UK. The family had greatly enjoyed their one day safari to Chobe National Park in Botswana during their visit to Livingstone, as well as their trips to see the Falls.

Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing in ten years’ time, Ken said he hoped to still be working in Zambia with his great team, Emma that she would like to be a trained minister in the Salvation Army, still able to visit her parents back in Zambia.

It’s interesting that the international Guests we have on our programme all love Zambia! 
No big surprise there – great country, great people! Great show!

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Ephraim!

George da Soulchild Kaufela, co-presenter of our weekly Sunday night radio show on local radio in Livingstone, reports on a piece he found in the Zambia Daily Mail:

Son of Africa, Ephraim, is on a four-month musical tour in Europe and United States of America. His first stop is the UK for a series of shows in different towns from 7 to 27 July, before connecting to USA, where he is booked from August to October.
Ephraim said he will perform in a number of states in the USA, especially those states where he has performed before, as he is in popular demand.

Ephraim has held international shows in African countries, America, Europe and Australia. This trip is a continuation of his dream to perform on international platforms. Meanwhile, Ephraim has said his movie titled ‘Story of My Life’ is meant to share with, and teach people, the difficulties of his life journey.

The movie will bring out highlights of what he has gone through in difficult times during his life. Ephraim wants to show and teach people how to control their lives. The movie will show how people can find comfort in the Lord when they lose hope in their lives. Ephraim, who has been at the helm of Zambian gospel, has several albums to his credit. Among them is ‘Limo Ndanaka’, which brought him to fame, ‘Temba Baby’, compilation ‘Six Years of Ephraim’, ‘Worship and Praise Volumes’ and ‘Lekeni Iloke’, currently on the market.

Ephraim is also expected to engage more artistes to his label, Ephmutang Glory Music Studios, so that they benefit from his skills. Ephraim, a composer and producer, has already engaged his sisters (calling themselves “Ephraim Sisters”) to the label. Ephraim’s music is promoted and distributed under Doxa Music. The artiste has won awards which include Ngoma Awards, Christian Arts Promotions and the Copperbelt-organised Mukuba Awards. He has topped the Sounds Investment sales charts too.






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From Oklahoma, USA to Livingstone, Zambia

Meet Staci and Lance Norton (standing, left to right) as well as Mackenzie and Madison Gillham (seated left to right) from Oklahoma, USA, our recent Guests at Chanters Lodge as well as on the most recent edition of The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient, featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela. That’s our regular Sunday night radio show on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s popular local radio station. The lodge sponsors the show, which is a mixture of music and chat – popular locally due to the fact that we give away a weekly dinner for two at the lodge to the first person to text us telling us who’s singing our ‘oldie of the week’. This week George chose a track from Zambia’s popular Sakala Brothers and the prize was quickly snapped up by a lucky listener!

The Nortons and Gillhams told listeners that they’d arrived in Zambia on May 23rd primarily to visit and participate for a while in the running of The New Day Orphanage in Mpanza in the Southern Province of Zambia, some one and a half hours from Choma. Lance is Youth Minister at Union Hill Baptist Church in Oklahoma and New Day Orphanage is sponsored and run by the Baptist Mission in Zambia. The orphanage is still small with about 14 children aged between 4 and 8 years. They had enjoyed their time in the ‘bush’ helping to teach the children religious studies, as well as basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills. Staci and Lance Norton had visited Zambia last year, but for the girls it was their first visit. Milli Jam was delighted to be able to talk briefly to Lance in the Tonga language!

Madison, the older of the two sisters explained that she was a third year student of early childhood education at South Western Oklahoma State University, and Mackenzie that she is at the same college as her sister studying first year pre-veterinary medicine. For once, when we had girls on the programme, Milli Jam forgot to ask them if they had boyfriends waiting for them back home! The girls told listeners that their dad was a farmer and their mum a beautician back in the USA.

The music on the show had a distinct African flavour with tracks by Exile and Judy from Zambia, Diamond from Tanzania and Naeto C from Nigeria. We also played Loreen’s Eurovision Song Contest winning ‘Euphoria’, as well as Philip Phillips’ ‘Home’ – the girls were happy to hear that Philip had recently won the American Idol show – news they had missed while they were deep in Southern Province, Zambia!

Lance and Staci told listeners that they’d been able to fit in quite a lot of tourist activities since they’d arrived in Livingstone. They had taken the one day safari to Chobe in Botswana, and had been delighted to see a wide range of animals including lion, giraffe and elephant as well as a whole host of birds. They’d taken the helicopter flight over Victoria Falls – the girls admitted to being ‘a little bit scared’. They had seen the Falls from the Zimbabwe side as well as from here in Zambia. They had ridden elephants, walked with lions, encountered cheetahs and the next day were scheduled for a game drive to try and see rhino. They had not done the bungee jump – ‘not brave enough’ they said! Quite a package anyway! They described Victoria Falls as ‘amazing;.

Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing ten years from now, Mackenzie calculated that at that stage she would be two years out of vet school and practicing her profession. Madison hoped to be pre-school teaching and raising a family. We wished them luck with their ambitions.

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‘The Experience’ is Mission Possible!

Meet Ruth and Richard Wallis from Cambridge, England, guests on the most recent edition of ‘The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela’, our weekly radio show. ‘The Experience’ is a great mixture of local and international music, as well as lively and interesting conversation with our guests. Chanters Lodge sponsors the show which airs live every Sunday from 20.30 – 21.30 hrs on Zambezi 107.7 fm. The programme has been a popular regular feature on local radio more or less continuously since October 2007. The station reaches an audience within a 75 km radius of Livingstone and also streams live on the net. The links are on the station’s site here, and on the lodge site here.

Richard told listeners he’d worked in Zambia for ZCBC (Zambia Consumer Buying Corporation) between 1972 and 1977 and explained that ZCBC were the stores in which Zambians shopped before there was Shoprite! The company was a parastatal (quasi Government) organization. He must have shocked our audience telling them there were so many shortages in those days, that when the stores were due to receive a consignment of cooking oil, sugar or other essential commodities, the first thing management did was to call the police, asking them to come and control the inevitable crowd who would flock to the store the moment they heard that a commodity was back in stock! Long queues and rationing were the order of the day.

After Richard returned to UK amongst other positions held he was the managing director of Scripture Union‘s chain of retail book stores. Ruth had been working for the same chain. Steven told listeners his first wife Susan had died in 2005 and in 2007 he and Ruth had married. In the same year Richard established Mission Possible with a mission to advance the Christian faith by serving the poor, forgotten, and marginalised by serving children and families at risk, training Christian leaders and distributing Christian literature. Mission Possible works in Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda as well as Zambia in Africa, and in some European countries too. While back in Zambia Ruth and Richard would be conducting leadership training for upwards of 100 interdenominational pastors in Livingstone. “Great stuff!” We said, and meant it!

The music on the show was right up to date. We opened with Jesse J’s UK number one ‘Domino’ back to back with ‘More Than This’ from One Direction. George’s Zambian selection promoted CQ featuring Exile with ‘Ndekeleni’ and ‘Ikashishita’ by Pilato featuring Chif. Milli Jam dropped ‘Losing’ by Joe Thomas and ‘Try’ by Frank Ocean. We usually give away a prize of a dinner for 2 at Chanters Lodge every week to the first person to text us telling us who’s singing our oldie of the week, but this week no-one listening knew it was Paul Simon singing ‘Boy In the Bubble’, so no prize! Sometimes I do make it tough! My pick of the week was Madonna’s ‘Masterpiece’ and we closed with hot Nigerian Davido’s hot ‘Demi-Duro’.

We wondered whether Ruth and Richard would have time to do any of the tourist activities during their week in Zambia with daughter Anna and grand-daughter Beatrice. “Well” said Ruth “we’ve already seen, heard and felt the Falls!”. “Felt the Falls?” I wondered. “Yes” said Ruth “I’ve never felt so wet in my life!” We laughed. “Do you work?” I asked Ruth and she explained to listeners that apart from helping Richard with Mission Possible she drives a mobile post office for Royal Mail back in England. Richard also revealed that he chauffeur drives for a limousine company to help meet the expense of running their NGO. “Any famous passengers?” I wondered. “Sometimes” he said “recently Ken Clarke”, explaining to listeners that Clarke is currently Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice in UK.

This Christian, engaging and loving couple told listeners that when they left Zambia at the end of the following week they would be proceeding to Rwanda for more missionary work. Their answer to the inevitable question? In ten years’ time they hoped to be still fit, strong and fulfilling Mission Possible’s mission! Bet they are too!

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Chibwe Chibwe Katebe – Comic

 
 
Chibwe Chibwe Katebe – Zambian Stand up Comic

Finalist in the MNET talent show “Stand up Zambia” Chibwe is no stranger in the international spotlight. He has performed at different forums locally and internationally. Chibwe is also the founder of YORA drama and he is currently working with the Comedy collective Natuseke Comedy.

Chibwe is currently starring in a TV comedy show on Muti TV called Shoti Culture and is one of Zambia’s favourite Master of Ceremonies for corporate, social, civic, government and religious events. Chibwe’s ability to handle and connect with a wide range of people from different cultures, racial and social status strongly puts him above others in his field.

Born on 18 January 1976 he is married and has two children a girl aged 5 (Joy Mwila Katebe) and a Boy 5 months (Chibwe Joel Katebe). He has certificates in video production, purchasing and supply and a Diploma in theology. When he is not busy entertaining others he enjoys watching documentaries and listening to Music (slow Gospel Rhumba). And as for his favourite dish he enjoys fish!


Thanks to George Mukwita for the piece






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Kirk Franklin In Lusaka Tomorrow!

 
 
George da Soulchild, co-presenter of our weekly Sunday night radio show reports:

 

Organizers of this month’s one-off concert by US gospel artiste Kirk Franklin have described the event as a great development for the music industry in Zambia. Christian label Doxa Music has facilitated the December 5 concert which will be held at the 8,000-seater Blessing Centre in Lusaka.

 
Daniel Mutale, Doxa Music’s finance and administration director said it was an honour for the label to host the ‘Stomp’ star. “From a Christian point of view, we feel very blessed to be given such a privilege of hosting him. And then from the music fraternity, as you may be aware, Kirk Franklin was the first gospel artiste to sell a million records. So it’s such a great privilege for the music industry and for the development of our music industry in Zambia. We can get inspiration from such a person. We just feel we are contributing to the well being of the music industry in this country” he said.
 
Mutale expressed delight at the partnership Doxa has entered with mobile service provider MTN and Sounds Investments in promoting Franklin’s visit to Zambia. Multiple Grammy, Stellar and Dove-award winning Franklin, 41, will lead a 17-member team of singers and musicians in what is already expected to be one of the most highly anticipated concerts in Zambia. The concert marks another feather in the cap for Doxa Music, whose other notable exploit was the successful hosting of Australian rock and worship band Hill Song United in Lusaka three years ago.
 
The concert has been organized by The Relay, a company that’s using hip hop to take the Gospel around the country. “We emphasise on bringing people like these hip hop guys from the US because they are very gospel-centric, very Christian oriented, which is what our organization is all about,” said Chilufya Mulundu, one of the lead organizers.

 

Mulundu added that the group would be performing in Zambia as part of its Unashamed Africa tour. The concert will also feature local acts Tio, D-tour and Abel Chungu Musuka.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Ephraim Mutalange


Zambian renowned Gospel Musician Ephraim Mutalange last Saturday 24th September enthused London based Zambians and other nationalities that congregated at the Rock House, in Tufnell Park. Christians travelled from all over the UK to London to listen to Ephraim’s triumphantly praise and worship concert. During the concert he sung some of his Bemba lyrics in English while the audience joined in and danced incessantly.

Much more the spirit of God hovered on the building as God was truly praised. The ministering of God’s word was so vivid. Ephraim cut himself as a truly International gospel artiste. The ever busy Ephraim returned to Zambia on Wednesday 28th to fulfil his concerts responsibility lined up for this Saturday weekend.

However, before leaving for Zambia, he did recordings in London with famous gospel artists from different parts of the world. He promised his fans in the United Kingdom to return for Easter Concerts next year when he intends to tour the United Kingdom and spread the Gospel through his music.

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