Missionary profile – Peter Vumisa

By Mercy Kambura

Peter Vumisa

Zambian Missionary to South Africa

Can any missionary go anywhere and succeed without knowledge of the culture? I and my wife, Christine, went as missionaries to a community that practiced polygamy. One of the most significant aims was to prove that I wasn’t there for a second wife, which was testimony enough. I went with one focus: to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

However, this experience might have been different if I had been a single person serving the Lord in such a community. If a single, unmarried missionary is sent into a society with such cultural practices, he might face many challenges. Sometimes the missionary may not survive!

This is why it’s paramount to understand the mission field in order to prepare new missionaries and ensure their longevity once in the field. That has been the focus of my ministry.

I grew up in a Catholic home. My aspiration was to be a priest, the religious practices and the liturgy looked heavenly to me. But I gave my life to the Lord as a teenager after I changed churches and the gospel was preached to me.

I became a priest all right – but as a priest in a biblical sense. For 20 years, I served with the Institute for Strategic Services (INSERV) in South Africa. We focussed on people group missions research providing missionaries with information for effective outreach to the unreached people groups.

As the Director for Research and Mission Mobilization, through research information I helped missionaries and mission organizations understand fields they are focussing on in order to send knowledgeable and equipped people.

In 2018, I left INSERV and founded Ebed-Melech Institute (EMI). I serve as the Executive Director, and our goal is to change the landscape of African missions to have more Africans going out as missionaries. We do this through research, mobilization and outreach.

Ebed-Melech is taken from Jeremiah 38 and 39, the name of an African believer, a Cushite, who rescued God’s prophet Jeremiah. This name is a historical reminder of Africa’s involvement in God’s work even long before the missionary movement was born in Europe and North America.

I’m also serving as an elder of our local church, Pretoria Central Baptist. As a missionary, I’m grateful to report that members of my church support our family’s mission work. More than that, I’m happier to testify that it’s not just us they support – every member of the congregation has been encouraged to support at least one missionary.

Our church has also sent missionaries to many places in the world.

We have learned that the culture of giving has to be cultivated by the leaders, and then learned by the people. The Church in Africa can train members to give towards missions, and they will.

#Pray:

For Ebed-Melech Institute to achieve its vision to stimulate the African Church to take the evangelization of the remaining unreached peoples in Africa and beyond as their primary focus of ministry.

For financial and moral support as we continue with missions and mobilization.