My name is Emmanuel Njobvu.

I come from a beautiful family of five children – three boys and two girls. I am the first born which makes me a pillar of my family. I started my education in 1996, and mother told me to always say that I was going to complete my education and go to University.

My first few years of school were so great, and I really enjoyed them. I was doing well and was always coming first in class at Lilanda Primary School. My parents used to work and I had the best toys a child could eve have. My friends would come and play with me and my toys. I was always given pocket money to buy myself something during break time at school.

Suddenly, things started to change when my parents stopped working and the number of children increased. They did their best to provide food at home but it became hard for them to provide other needs of the family. They stopped giving me money when going to school. Sometimes I would spend 30 minutes saying goodbye before going to school thinking it would remind them that they had not given me pocket money for my break time, which never helped.

Then, when I reached sixth grade, my parents were unable to pay for my school fees, which made the situation even more difficult. I was dismissed from school, as were my young brother and sister.

For three years I did not attend school, and all I could do was sell corn fritters and work other small businesses so that I would have something to eat. When I understood that this business was what kept us going I began to give the business my best effort so that I could help my parents.

I used to sell more corn fritters than my cousin or other guys who were working for my parents, and this was because I understood what this business meant to my family. During rainy season, sometimes the rains would go nonstop for two to three days, but that did not stop me from going out and selling fritters without an umbrella or rain coat. I would get soaked just to make sure that all the fritters made on that day were sold. I met different people, some were kind while others could beat me up because I asked them to pay for the fritters they had eaten.

I grew up in what I would call survival mode. When you are in survival mode your focus is on getting through the day in one piece. When you are in that mode for a long time ,there is no space for words like community, us, and we. There is only space for I and Me.

One day I saw one of my friends coming from school and I was selling fritters, and I hid myself from him in shame. My heart was broken each time I saw other children going to school when I could not.

The words of my mother always rang in my mind and I spoke those word over my life ( that I was going to complete my education) Then, for some reason, my parents stopped doing the fritter business.

I had started saving to buy a pair of shoes, and for a long time my saving had not been increasing. I had saved 13000 kwacha by then (which is 13 kwacha in our current currency, or roughly 2 American dollars) so I thought to invest it in a business. I started my own business selling eggs and in two weeks my business was doing great. It was giving me 50% profit every day.

One of my friends advised me to go and talk with the Headmaster at her school. This was really out of my comfort zone at that time. Finally, I gathered courage and went to the headmaster at Chunga Primary School and talked with him about me starting school again.

I wanted to start sixth grade but the headmaster said they only had places for seventh grade. With the business I was doing, I managed to buy myself a uniform, books, and shoes, and paid for my school fees. My parents only came to know what I was up to on Sunday the day before I started going to school, which my father didn’t really like because he felt that he had been left out of the equation.

So my father talked about this school issue with our Bishop , who later talked with me and promised me that I should keep this in mind. If I would pass my 12th grade exams, that he would sponsor me to go and further my studies in South Africa. I started seventh grade and worked so hard knowing that I was going to be sponsored. For five years I kept this goal in my heart. I passed my Seventh and ninth grade exams with flying colors.

In my high school years from 2006 to 2008, things got even harder. I was at Arakan Barracks High School, and I had to take two separate buses to get to school. That meant I needed 10000 thousand kwacha just for transport and another 5000 for food each day. This was an impossible amount for me, so I found another way to get to and from school.

We had a tenant who was working as a bus driver and his bus route was from town to Woodlands, which passed by my school. When I spoke with him about my situation, He told me that he always leaves home for town at 4am, and if that was ok with me then it was fine with him.

My days started at 3am. I would prepare myself, and at 4am we would leave for town. In town we had to wait from 4:30am to 6:10 am until he got the first passengers on the bus. At 7am I was already at school, and lessons went from 7:10am to 1pm. Then I had to wait till 5pm for trucks carrying soldiers from our school. They brought them near where I lived and I had to walk for 30 to 40 minutes more to get home. Sometimes I would wait for the truck till 9 pm which would get me home at 10:30 p.m. I normally went to sleep at 11:30pm, which only allowed me to sleep for 3 hours before a new day began.

In High school you have different people coming from different backgrounds. So when people were eating I would always go away from them because I had nothing to eat. Some of my friends laughed at me because I had nothing to eat. In school I think people assume everyone comes from a rich family, and they don’t even pay attention to what their friends are going through.

I remember one day, I got into a conversation with my Uncle. He was asking me why I was going to school if my Dad was not going to be able to pay for my school fees to go further. My Uncle was the only one in the family who went as far as university in his education. He told me that my parents could not pay for me, and no one from my church would help me either. I told my uncle that God was going to pay for my school fees and that I was going to go to University. (Sometimes we need to speak to our enemy voice and say what God says about us)

During those days I had no pocket money to buy myself textbooks, or even something to eat. Those were the moments when I would cry out and wonder why I had been born into this family, and not into one where they had everything they needed and their children had more than enough. I knew my parents loved me a lot, and they did the best they could for me as a child, but it was just not enough. God spoke to me and told me that I was born into that family to be a sign and wonder to it. In Isaiah 8:18 He told me that He was with me and that He was going to do great things through me.

I had sI did not understand why things had happened like that, and I had a lot of questions in my mind. On the way that day I felt like I needed to stop and sit down. It was a perfect spot because it was not a busy road. With all those questions going on in my mind, I could not help but cry out. I cried hard and at the top of my voice. In the midst of my cry, God reminded me of a verse in the Bible.

Jeremiah 1:4-5
Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you [and approved of you as My chosen instrument], And before you were born I consecrated you [to Myself as My own];
I heard God saying to me that I was not born by mistake or by accident, but that I was from God , and that He had plans for me. I was born for a purpose, and God is with me and for me.

Jeremiah 29:11-12
For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call on Me and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear [your voice] and I will listen to you.

He also told me that He watches over His words (Jeremiah 1:12) Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am [actively] watching over my word to fulfill it.”

Until that moment my trust had been in what people had promised. This was because I was brought up with a mentality that you need to be connected to someone to get something or somewhere. But it’s different from God’s point of view. God told me that Jesus and I were the majority. All I needed was the word of God.

Matthew 6:31-34
“Therefore do not worry or be anxious (perpetually uneasy, distracted), saying, ‘What are we going to eat?’ or ‘What are we going to drink?’ or ‘What are we going to wear?’ For the [pagan] Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; [but do not worry,] for your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But first and most importantly seek (aim at, strive after) His kingdom and His righteousness [His way of doing and being right—the attitude and character of God], and all these things will be given to you also.“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

At that point I took my eyes off of people, and it was just God and I . During this period I was working at my business with a goal of saving for university. I was working as a photographer, and my business was doing very well, making more than most people made in a month. I was taking care of my family. During that period God was showing me steps to take, and I started visiting different foreign embassies in Zambia seeking a scholarship to study abroad. I visited places which were out of my comfort zone and met people I never thought I would meet. I also submitted my application to one of our state committees for a scholarship even though it was widely known that they only chose students with good connections.

Matthew 7:7
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

Jeremiah 33:3
“Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.”

At that point my brother and sister were out of school because of finances. My brother eventually lost interest in school, as did my sister. Then God spoke to me that it was not good for my sister to be out of school and that I was to keep her busy by being in school. I thought she might get pregnant or get herself into some bad stuff. So the money I was saving for university, God told me to use to pay for her school fees, her uniform, and all the materials she needed for school. I trusted God, took my eyes off myself, and put my sister first. A few days later, I received a call and was informed that I had been selected to study abroad in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and that I was supposed to report the following Monday to start the process. My visa and that passport would be ready in 5 days.

Here’s the thing. When I took my focus off myself and put helping my sister as a priority, I received a call that changed the course of my life. I think sometimes the best way to receive what we want is to start giving to others. If you need healing, begin to pray for other people who need healing. As God is healing them through you, you are getting the healing too.

Matthew 7:12
“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. The very thing I needed someone to do for me I started doing it to someone.

God supernaturally provided for my passport and other things that I needed to pay for. When I told my relatives what was happening, they thought I was crazy. They didn’t see how that could happen to me because my family was the poorest among the poor. I had one of my relatives tell me why go to school if my parents were unable to pay for my fees, and that no one from our church could pay for me. I did not know how to answer him, but the one thing I could say was, “GOD WILL PAY FOR ME.” God is the source of everything we need. He is the great I AM.

I came to Russia in 2010. God paid for my studies every month. I completed my studies in 2015. During the same period, God was ministering to me through Charis Bible College. I also met my beautiful wife at Charis Bible College, and God has since blessed us with a son. There God deposited in Me the Vision to reach out to people who are going through the challenges I went through, to help them discover who they are in Him, and to help them finish their education. To help them have something to eat. To help them have a family. I have been there, and I know what it’s like. I know how it feels when you have no food. I know how it feels to be rejected when people cannot visit your house because you have nothing to give them.

There are thousands and thousands of Children going through the same things I went through. I know that some are in even worse situations than I was, and God has called me to be the instrument to tell them that they can do it. I am committed to doing what it takes to make a difference and meet the need.

There is a great need for schools for children whose parents are unable to pay. Right now I personally know of more than 30 children who are out of school because of finances. I have received more then 20 letters from these children. As I read through these letters tears ran down my face because it reminded me of my own childhood . I saw myself in them, in the middle of my worst nightmare and I remembered how much I wanted it to end.

This was the start of the vision“ My Father’s House” I thought, “Let me be to someone else what no one was to me – let me send a message to that kid, maybe in Zambia, maybe some place far overseas. Maybe somewhere deep inside a kid who needs help at home or at school or on the streets. Let me help them to know someone is watching and listening and caring. That there is an us, that there is a we, and that child or teenager or adult is loved, and that they are not alone.”