Zambia Hunt

Value: Trusting in the all-sufficient grace of God.

Kaputula Kasonga was born around 1902. Very little is known about him before he showed up at the doors of the mission school in Kafulafuta, near Luanshya, to pursue his education in 1916 when he was about 14 years old. That same year, in July, he was converted as he listened to various Bible lessons. But it was not until March 1920 that he was finally baptised and given the name Paul. He went on to train to be a teacher at the mission station.

Paul’s first assignment in 1921 was to teach the African wives and coloured children of a white farmer, J E Stephenson. He soon became a distinguished preacher and Christian leader. Many people came to save faith in the Lord Jesus Christ through his ministry.

By 1931, Paul had become the distinguished indigenous leader of the Baptist work in Lambaland in Northern Rhodesia. The missionaries assigned him the task of being the main preacher during their Sunday services at the mission station. The people heard him gladly. He used many illustrations in his sermons. He also helped with translation work, including translating the first Lamba Bible. Paul was also a very gifted counselor. He saved many marriages from disintegrating even though he had never married.

One reason why Paul never married was that throughout his life, Paul suffered from leprosy. It caused him to lose many years of active service, as he often had to be laid aside due to this illness. In due season, he lost his fingers and toes. On many occasions, he was given up for dead, but the Lord, in his mercy, raised his servant up and thrust him back into active service. It was partly due to his health struggles that Paul became very strong spiritually.

Despite being incapacitated in this way, Paul Kasonga was an itinerant evangelist, preaching the gospel from village to village. When the Fiwale Hill mission station was opened, all the missionaries left to go there except for Olive Doke, and Paul Ksaonga remained with Olive. Together with Anasi Lupunga, they laboured to build the gospel work in Kafulafuta.

Paul was finally ordained into the Baptist ministry of the Baptist Union of South Africa in June 1953, 32 years after he had already begun to function as the primary leader of the work in Lambaland. On that day, he was ordained with Anasi Lupunga and Bob Litana. However, Paul only served for one year as an ordained minister. The leprosy got the better of him, and on Tuesday, August 3, 1954, he quietly slipped into eternity.

It is a real wonder what God did through his servant despite his infirmity. Today, we stand amazed that in this one life, God fulfilled what he told his namesake two thousand years earlier, “My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). God used a leper to establish the foundations of the Baptist movement in Zambia. In honouring that man in naming the library at Central Africa Baptist University after Paul Kasonga, we are simply honouring the God who used him mightily.

Often, God chooses what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chooses what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chooses what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God (1 Cor. 1:27-29). In Paul Kasonga, he proved this eloquently!

CABU Value: Trusting in the all-sufficient grace of God.

This information comes from the booklet written by Pastor Conrad Mbewe on the life of Olive Doke and Paul Kasonga.