“The Lord's Suffering Servant"

We were blessed with yet another spiritually uplifting Sermon at the St.Margaret's UCZ Church in Kitwe on Sunday 16 September 2012!  

Preacher : Mr. Lovemore Daka  

Topic : “The Lord's Suffering Servant"  

Scripture Readings :- Isaiah 50: 4 - 9a James 3: 1 - 12 Mark 8: 27 - 38

The Bible is not there to prove the existence of God. He has revealed himself to us through his creation and his son Jesus Christ. One third of the book of Psalms is about suffering.

Suffering is for a purpose. 

Suffering is as a result of sin because man fell in the Garden of Eden.

There is another suffering meant for God to reshape us.

This type of suffering has the potential to demonstrate God's power.

Suffering helps us to identify ourselves with Jesus Christ.

We Christians are bonded for the sake of others.

 Isaiah 53:5 tells us that "he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed."

Suffering should not come to us as a surprise. Christ was made unjust because of us. We are servants of God as we carry out our daily missionary work. Even if we suffer we shall not be disgraced. (Read Isaiah 50) Even if we are mocked we should not withdraw. God is going to vindicate us.

In James 3: 1 - 12 we see a living style of faith. Who can tame a tongue? The tongue sets the pass of our lives and must be guarded. In Mark 8: 27 - 38 we read about Jesus instructing his disciples on how to know the things of God. What we are going through today is a cost of discipleship.

THE SERVANT'S OBEDIENCE

What sort of servants are we? How are you and me strengthened in the mission ? We should be humbled in our personalities. Let us learn to learn from others instead of teaching all the times. We minister through the tongue whilst guarding its potential destructive capacity. We should endure in all situations and wait on the Lord. If you are willing to suffer you will be a good Christian. We must continue to trust in the name of the Lord and be in His light which will show us the way to follow. Do not follow flaming torches which will soon be extinguished and burn its holders. The light of Christ lasts forever. Let us guard our tongues and allow Jesus Christ to steer us.

SMALL THINGS CAN DESTROY

The tongue is as good as a fire that can destroy. At the same time it can praise. Let us guard the tongue. We have learnt how to control animals but have not learnt how to control the tongue. We have to decide when to use the tongue. It is like a fire which can be used for cooking and for burning things. Reading James 3: 1 - 12 we are told how to be pure as fresh water and not salt. Kind words will build others and bring honour to God.

AMEN ! 

FOOTNOTE

To view the complete Photo Gallery of St. Margaret's UCZ Church in Kitwe, click on the link below :-

http://sdrv.ms/URfCCh

The photos have been taken from 2008 up to to-date. Check for more an update of photos from time to time.

Stay Blessed !

 

 

Introducing The “EASY QUOTE” System

This write up is about a system developed by the Founder and Chief Consultant at Mobritech (Z) Limited.

The system uses inter-linked Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to automatically calculate a quotation to be submitted to a customer for supplying items ordered locally and/or from overseas.

Labour and overhead costs are also calculated for installation of equipment, in case of project work.

The system has been developed from experience gain by the writer who has been a Project Engineer in the Zambian mining industry for a total of eighteen years.

The system uses executable files that generate pre-designed spread sheets which can be used for making quotations. The system may used as many times as required to generate fresh spread sheets every time a new quotation is required to be done.  

INTRODUCING THE “EASY QUOTE” SYSTEMS

I have worked as an Electrical Engineer for the Copper Mining Industry in Zambia, at six mining operation areas, for a total period of 33 years, before my retirement in January 2010.

One of my duties as an engineer, which I have done for close to 18 years, was to invite suppliers and contractors to quote for the supply of equipment to be used in the Mines.

An invitation to tender would inform interested parties to submit their quotations by a given closing date. Before any invitation to tender was given, I would get information on the prices of the equipment to be supplied from the manufacturers or from records of past projects and those kept by the supply department of the Mine.

Installations that involved a variety of equipment would require a preparation of a detailed Scope of Works. A Bill of Quantities and a Bar Chart would then be prepared for the installation of the equipment.

The Bill of Quantities would show the description of equipment, quantities, unit and total cost of the equipment. The cost of labour and other costs such as overheads would be included in the Bill of Quantities.

The preparation of these documents would involve several departments such as the engineering design, quantity surveying and the supply departments. A provisional Budgetary Price for the installation would then be calculated and used as a yardstick for determination of which supplier or contractor would be awarded the contract. The budgetary price would include a profit margin for the contractor.

Once the deadline for closing of tender submission was reached, opening of tenders would then be done by a committee of Mine officials from the contracts office, the supply department and the user department. The committee would then decide who gets the contract. The criteria used for awarding the contract were the submitted tender price, the capacity and past reputation of the contractor. From experience, the lowest tender would necessarily be chosen to do the job.

However, there were cases where the lowest tender price was not chosen because of glaring anomalies in the quoted prices in the Bill of Quantities. There were cases where a supplier or contractor would fail to meet the obligations submitted in the tender.

In order to avoid such a situation, the engineer in charge of the project from the user department was expected to submit a budgetary price for the contract. The engineer from the user department prepared a provisional budgetary cost for the contract.

This would then be checked by other departments such as the finance department with the help of the quantity surveying department. One of the challenges that I faced as a project engineer in the earlier years on the job was the preparation of a budgetary price for a project.

With the help of experienced engineers and other departments one was able to prepare a budget for a project. Large capital projects, involving multi skills, would involve consulting companies outside the Mine to prepare the tender documents.

After my retirement from the Mines, I found myself with the task of working with suppliers and contractors to the Mines to prepare quotations for tendering purposes. When I was working for one company after retirement, I had one assistant who used to prepare quotations. He had been doing the job for close to eight years.

One setback he had was that he used to take an average of two shifts to prepare any quotation. After enquiring from him why he took that long to submit a quotation I learnt, with astonishment, that despite having a desktop computer in his office, he had been using a desktop electronic calculator to do the quotations!

Over the years he had become very proficient and he had mastered on how to use this calculator very well. He was able to add up figures faster than I could do with the machine.

At one time there were five enquiries from one of the newly formed mining companies whose closing date for the submission of tenders was seven days! This was a very big challenge for the assistant. At his rate of preparing previous quotations, it was going to take him fifteen days of continuous work. For him to beat the deadline it meant long hours of work of more than fourteen hours per day. After the quotations were submitted, at the expense of the assistant’s comfort, it was decided at a Management meeting that all personnel in the Sales Department should be trained on how to prepare quotations.

The training did not go very well because most of the personnel were young people who were used to working with pre-prepared Computer spread sheets in order to input data rather than using manual input electronic Calculators.

After studying the method that was used by the assistant, I came up with a system that could do the same calculations on a single Microsoft Excel spread sheet. The only setback was that it took me sometime to have this method to be accepted by the Management, most of who were not very familiar with computers and are jokingly called BBCs (Born Before Computers)!

I managed to teach two young technicians who found it very helpful. The assistant, who is a BBC, continued using the electronic Calculator!

After I left the services of the company I had a closer look at the system and realised that the reason for not accepting it by my previous employers could have been that a lot of people, who were not used to work with spread sheets, would not know how to read information stored in an Excel Workbook in multiple tabs.

I therefore modified the system so that each stage of preparing the quotation is stored in single tab spread sheets whose calculating formulas are related via links. This gave birth to what is called the “Easy Quote” system, which is the subject of this write up.

I have developed four systems as follows:-

1) The Easy Quote Forex – This is targeted for suppliers whose main business is to import goods from overseas suppliers using foreign exchange for selling to their customers in Zambia.

 2) The Easy Quote Local - This is targeted for suppliers whose main business is to purchase goods from local suppliers using Kwacha for selling to their customers in Zambia.

3) The Easy Quote Deluxe - This is targeted for suppliers whose main business is to purchase goods both from overseas and local suppliers using Kwacha and foreign exchange for selling to their customers in Zambia. This system is really a combination of the Easy Quote Forex and the Easy Quote Local.

4) The Easy Quote Project - This is targeted for suppliers and contractors whose main business is to purchase goods both from overseas and local suppliers using Kwacha and foreign exchange for supplying and installation of equipment for their customers in Zambia. This system is really a combination of the Easy Quote Deluxe and a package that calculates the labour and overhead costs for a given project.

5) The Easy Quote Demo - This is a demonstration package that works on the principle of the Easy Quote Forex system. The system is meant to demonstrate to potential customers who would like to adopt the Easy Quote systems into their businesses. As its name implies, its usefulness is limited. It is meant to be a training tool for the other systems.

 I have prepared manuals on how to use the first three systems mentioned above. These manuals, the Easy Quote Demo and a copy of this write up maybe downloaded for review at the following link:-

http://sdrv.ms/PQTyoW

 I do not intend to prepare a manual for the Easy Quote Project system for now because it is very similar to the other three. An in-house training session could be arranged for customers interested to learn how the four systems work. As is applicable to any new product, the systems are subject to redesign and improvement from time to time. I am open to any comments and advice on how the systems could be improved.

For more information about the systems and how to purchase them please send enquiries to any of the following e-mails:-

m.nasilele@gmail.com
henry.nasilele@mobritech.com
sales@mobritech.com

Alternatively, an enquiry could be done by filling a form at the “Contact Me” page on our company website or at:-

http://henrynasilele.weebly.com/contact-me.html

Henry Musialela Nasilele (B.Eng., R.Eng, MEIZ)
Founder and Principal Consultant,
Mobritech (Z) Limited.
Nkana East Kitwe
Republic of Zambia
1st May 2012

Web Links 

http://henrynasilele.weebly.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/henrynasilele
http://chamber.com/henry-nasilele
http://www.facebook.com/hmsialex
http://twitter.com/hmsialex

Why Zambia Won The 2012 AFCOM Cup

After the dramatic win by the Zambian national soccer team over the Ivory Coast soccer team in Libreville, Gabon on 12 February 2012 several people have put forward their opinions as to why we won. Many football analysers have labelled Zambians as "underdogs" from the beginning of the tournament.

Despite all the odds Zambians carried the day on 12 February 2012. In this post I put forward my belief as to why we won.

1) We Zambians won not because of what people thought of us but because of our resolve to win. The so-called soccer analysists and specialists have been proved to be greatest pathological liars. The word "underdog" belongs to the dark world of Satan.

2) We won not because of "Good luck" but because we were destined to win. When God says YES in your life, no man can say no!

3) We won not because of the desire to have more wealth but because of our faith in the Lord. "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. " (Matthew 6:33).

4) We won not because a Sangoma foresaw it but because our God was on our side. If God is for us who can be against us ? I therefore, rebuke Satan for some nonbelievers suggesting that the South African Sangoma who foresaw be invited for the celebrations.

A Sangoma will never be a messenger of God ! He is destined to be punished by the wrath of God.

"And when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-jesus. Which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man; who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word of God.

But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him, And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?

 And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand." (Acts 13:6-11).

Our victory was prophesied by several men and women of God without the cheap publicity through the press as of the Sangoma. Some of the prophetic messages were in form of parables. No one rushed to the press to publish it, but as Christians, we kept the faith and prayed over it.

The prize for false prophets can sometimes be inflicted by the devil himself as happened to the seven sons of Sceva.

"Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded." (Acts 19:13-16).

Those who are in support of the Sangoma from South Africa to be invited to Zambia and be part of the celebrations need deliverance and prayer !

The greatest honour to Zambia is winning the Cup, 19 years after the whole National Soccer Team, Officials and Crew perished in a Aircraft crash on the coast of Gabon in Libreville where the final Match was played yesterday. May their souls rest in eternal peace.

Amen !

And Every Virtue We Possess

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The Beauty of Ashes

TEN RECOVERY STEPS: AFTER BEING BURNT IN A RELATIONSHIP.

This note is based on the message that I got from a Sermon I listened to from a Christian Radio Station during the night of 20 September 2010. I can not recall who the Preacher was, but the Sermon was entitled “The Beauty of Ashes” which is based on Isaiah 61: 1- 3 (NIV).

I may not have grasped the entire message of the sermon but I believe that some people will be assisted in one way or another. I have written it to comfort those who are burnt in life through loss, broken relationships, being cheated through broken promises and many more.

Remember what you are becoming after being burnt is more important than what you have been. Emotions belong to you and you can choose them.

 ISAIAH 61: 1 - 3 - THE YEAR OF THE LORD’S FAVOUR

1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,] 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, 3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendour.

 1) KNOW THAT YOU ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR OTHER PEOPLE’S ACTIONS When someone made a decision or taken an action that affects you emotionally do not carry somebody’s burden on your head. Stop self condemnation. Do not be a sacrificial lamb for somebody’s action.  

2) DON”T EMBARRASS OR HUMILIATE YOURSELF Do not let people to use you as their doormat. If someone has left you it is his or her choice. You need your dignity. You are a human being created in the image of God.  

3) THE GRIEF IS A PROCESS NOT A DESTINATION Do not force an emotion. Grieve as much as possible and get over it, but do not let it haunt you for the rest of your life. Pain is never permanent. A grief of 40 days is ideal and biblical.

 4) YOUR EXPERIENCE IS NOT UNIQUE There are other people who are going and have gone through the same experience. You are not the only one and do not develop the “Elijah syndrome”.  

5) THE HEALING STARTS FROM WITHIN It starts when you surrender to the Lord through the Holy Spirit. This will change your heart. This may not be so easy to some people but it is the only way of healing.

6) THERE IS POWER IN FORGIVENESS Forgiveness is a release of pain. Unless the pain is taken out by forgiveness it can not be relieved. Forgiveness is like removing a bullet from a wound in order to allow it to heal. You can not get someone new without removing the pain. If you do so it is like covering a wound whilst a bullet is still in the body.  

7) EMBRACE GOD’S RECONSTRUCTION God will use people in the healing process. New people, new places and new principles and ideas will be introduced in your life.

8) BE GUIDE BY THE WISDOM OF YOUR EXPERIENCE Be wise not cynical or sceptical about a new relationship. Do not conclude that all men or women are the same.  

9) LEARN TO TRUST AGAIN There will be doubts in new relationships. Remember life does not give us guarantees but opportunities.

10) SMILE AND CELEBRATE YOUR RECOVERY Look back at your life and smile. Laugh at yourself. Come back to your senses. Do not take your victory for granted.

Finally Read Psalms 40: 1 - 3

1 I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. 2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. 3 He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the LORD and put their trust in him.

Amen !

The Story Behind the Book called "Snares of a Deceptive Society".

In our lives we undergo so many trials and temptations. My life has not been an exception to this experience.

Before I come to the book, I would like to give you a short history of my life, where some of my experiences are narrated in the book.

I was born a first born son of five children of my parents on 18th December 1953.

This was in the village called Moonga in the Mongu district of the Western province, then called Barotseland Protectorate.

My father, was a Head Teacher at Nakato School, which is some 60Km East of the village.

I was born on a Friday, so my mother initially gave me "Friday" as my first name! However, this was changed later when, my grandfather, gave me the name "Henry" in honour of one white man at Sefula mission.

I understand this white missionary was very kind to my grandfather at the time he was growing up. (Read the previous Blog post called "Blood Lines").

In 1956 my father was transfered to Namachaha School, which was on the Barotse flood plain.

I started school proper in 1960, though I used to attend class from 1959 as a "listener" in a class where my father was teaching.

This was after I insisted that I should start school at an age of 6. During those days the average age to start school was 8 !

As a result of this, I was amongst the youngest in all the classes that I attended from primary up to university. I started to work when I was only 24 and got married at the age of 25.

In 1964 I transferred to Liunga School, which is some 4 Km south of Moonga village. I stayed with my grandparents at the village, since I had to attend my upper school classes which were not available at Namachaha, which was a lower primary school then.

In 1965 whilst I was doing my Standard 4 class, the Government announced that from 1966 there would be no more "Standard" classes.

School used to start in Sub Standard A, then Sub Standard B, Standard 1 up to Standard 6.

This meant that the primary school had 8 classes. These were replaced by the current Grades 1 up to Grade 7 classes. Which means I did Standard 4 in 1965 which was followed by Grade 7 in 1966. Our class was the first ever at Liunga School which previously had classes up to Standard 4 only. Standards 5 and 6 classes were before that only available at the Sefula mission, where my grandfather and father had attended school.

I did my secondary school education from 1967 to 1971 at Sefula Secondary School, which was a co-educational and boarding school.

I did my tertiary education at the University of Zambia in Lusaka from 1972 to 1977,where I awarded a Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in October 1977.

I joined the mining industry in 1977 where I worked at four operating divisions on the Copperbelt and one in Lusaka. I worked for a total of nearly 33 years, before retirement in January 2010.

Just after my retirement I underwent through a lot of hardships, as a result of conmen and swindlers.

My house in Lusaka, which I bought under the mine employee home ownership scheme in 1999, was almost lost to an organised group of conmen.

As if that was enough I was swindled by different individuals who cheated me that they would go into business with me or give me employment.

I wrote the book "Snares of a Deceptive Society" from March to September 2010 whilst I was undergoing torment.

The title of the book was initially supposed to be "Lamentations of Life" but this was changed after a vision was experienced in June 2010.

You may read the book online for free at:-

http://www.slideshare.net/hmsialex/snares-of-a-deceptive-society

My original idea was to have it published in 2010 but a deal with one Publisher proved to be another nightmare where I ended up losing thousands of Kwacha in revenue.This may call for writing another book !

I am praying that the book will be of some benefit to society and I am planning to incorporate it into an online community based Website and Blog where individuals will share their experiences and educate others on how to cope up in this deceptive world.

Stay blessed !

Blood Lines

Several people have asked me if I were related to a "so and so Nasilele".

I am writing this post to explain how our family name of "Nasilele" come about.

I hope it will assist to dig up some of my "lost" relatives at Mukapani and Nalunembwe villages as will soon be explained below!

I'm the first born son in the Nasilele family. We were originally five children, however, three of our sisters passed on between 1990 and 2008. Our last born is my brother Mukololo.

We come from the Namushakende area of Mongu district in a village called Moonga. (Also known as "Mbulumakanda" meaning "Tortoise of the Lakes".

The village headman's title is "Mwandawande" meaning "Foot of a Lion."

A former headman in the 1960s, by the name of Thomas Mwikisa Muwindwa , wrote a famous Lozi novel called "Imute wa Kalilo".

The name "Nasilele" is of that of our late grandfather, Joshua Nasilele, whose father was from a village called Mukapani.

His mother, Njahi (of the Subia clan from Seshele) , escaped to Moonga village whilst pregnant with Nasilele during one of the tribal wars of those days. The village was on her father's side of place of birth.

One interesting thing about our grandfather and father is that they never had African maiden names.

Even myself, I was given the name "Henry" by one of the missionaries at Sefula. The name "Musialela" was given to me by my grandmother, in memory of her brother who died as a youth soon after having one child called Uyoya. Most of the maiden names in our Nasilele family are from her family !