Zambia Hunt

A Tribute to Saidi Francis Chishimba – 22 August 1973 – 16 July 2025

On Wednesday morning, my friend Saidi Chishimba was called to be with the Lord.

I first met Saidi in 1996 when he was a first-year student at Copperbelt University. I followed him up in his dorm room after he visited Faith Baptist Church. He began to attend regularly. During our first mission conference, the Spirit of God moved in conviction upon him, and he sensed the call of God to ministry.

Saidi would eventually come on as youth pastor, then as an assistant pastor. When I resigned as the missionary pastor of the church, the members called Saidi to shepherd them. He was gracious enough to welcome Lori and me as members of the church, and he became our pastor as I labored to establish Central Africa Baptist University. Saidi would graduate from CABU in 2011.

In 2014, when the Lord was burdening me to start a Bible study targeting unreached/unchurched people in our city, it was Saidi who defended this effort to the church, and eventually led the congregation to send us with their blessings. That Bible study would become Kitwe Church in 2016.

Saidi was called by Evangel Baptist Church in Lusaka to pastor their congregation, and so he moved away. But we always stayed in touch, and we would see each other whenever we were in town or at conferences. He was also a regular adjunct faculty at CABU during those years.

In 2023, Saidi answered the call to return to Kitwe to lead Imbila Publishers, a start-up company with a mission to provide affordable theological and ministry resources to the church and to support African Christian authors in publishing their works.

In January of this year, Saidi and I traveled to Dubai for a global training conference for Christian publishers. We traveled and lodged together; it was a wonderful time.

Three weeks ago, Saidi went into the hospital with what doctors said was a lung infection. On Wednesday morning, he was medevacced to South Africa, but passed away en route. Our hearts are broken, and we grieve the loss of our brother… but we do so with hope for the coming resurrection.

MEMORIES THAT TELL A STORY

I have too many happy memories to share them all, but I’d like to reminisce about a few. 

After Saidi began to follow his call to ministry, he left Copperbelt University to pursue ministry. Around that time, he landed a job at HiFi Corporation, a South African company that had recently entered the Zambian market. He worked for HiFi and served at Faith Baptist Church. Somewhere in this period, he met Maureen, and their interest in each other grew. Saidi was then promoted to manager of the Kitwe branch. Before long, Saidi came to tell me that the company wanted to promote him to Lusaka, his salary would be considerably more, and he had been promised a company vehicle and a house. I listened and suggested that we pray until God gave him clarity about whether to accept this lucrative offer. There were a couple of weeks of intense struggle before Saidi came in to inform me that he could not accept the offer because he was certain that he was called to the ministry, and that this offer would take him away from that calling. It was at that moment that I knew God was going to use this brother in a special way.

In 2003, Saidi and I took a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo in response to an invitation from a brother who had attended Faith Baptist Church. Our purpose was to conduct a survey in Lubumbashi to understand the needs of the gospel in the city. We stayed with a local family in the city, who provided us with wonderful hospitality and sleeping quarters for the two of us on one double mattress. It was all good, and if Saidi felt uncomfortable about it, he never let on. That night, the mosquitoes were terrible, and we did not have a net. He often joked that we became blood brothers that night as the mosquitoes moved back and forth between us.

Saidi took an interest in our children, but it was a blessing the way he discipled my boys. He taught them how to play chess, showed up for birthday parties, graduations, and other special events. Earlier this year, he was the speaker at Corban’s high school graduation ceremony. My children had an example to follow in Saidi, and I am grateful for that.

His interest in writing and publishing goes back to our time together in the early days of Faith Baptist Church. He reminded me a couple of months ago that when he was the youth pastor, he led the publication of “Campus Connection,” a soft-cover magazine that we created to influence and win students to Christ at Copperbelt University. The effort was costly, and we only produced two volumes; however, Saidi handled the editing, layout, and ensured the printers were able to pull it off.

We also published a small write-up each Sunday, called “From the Pastor’s Desk” and the “Youth Corner,” which Saidi wrote. I would get so aggravated at him because instead of just writing the “Youth Corner,” he tried to be what he called “poetic”. It wasn’t… so I ended up doing way too much editing. But it was practice, and seeds were planted that would bear fruit years later with Imbila Publishers. 

When the church called him as their shepherd in 2007, Saidi led the church with grace and patience. It was not always an easy task – he was constantly compared to me, at times suffered from the African “you are too young” mindset among the membership. Under Saidi’s leadership, the church continued to leverage for church planting, and Faith Baptist Church School began to grow.

Although we mourn Saidi’s passing, I am encouraged that his legacy will live on in the countless lives he has touched through his ministry, the messages he preached, the books he published, and the men who serve the Lord today because of his influence. Would you pray that God will raise many men like Saidi? Men who will fearlessly serve Christ the King and labor for the advance of the gospel across this continent.

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If you would like to give to the Saidi Chishimba Memorial Fund, please click the link below. On the memo line, write: SAIDI. All donations will be directed to the family to assist with medical bills and funeral expenses. May God be glorified.