From a Ghost Town to a Gospel Movement: Pastor Oscar and the Church in Zambia
He skipped class to read his Bible in a tree. He quit his engineering career the day he got promoted. And when two doctors declared his baby dead, he prayed for thirty minutes — and the boy came back to life.
Some stories you just have to sit with for a minute. Pastor Oscar’s is one of those. On this week’s episode of On the Move, Leanne White talked with Oscar, the senior pastor of Bread of Life Church in Kabwe, Zambia—and what came out was a conversation that covers every terrain of the Christian life: faith that costs something, miracles you can’t explain away, and a picture of the church that might make you rethink how seriously you take your own walk with God.
The Kid in the Tree
Oscar grew up on the western side of Zambia, the fifth of seven siblings in a family that wasn’t particularly religious. They had some gospel literature around the house—mostly from Jehovah’s Witness visitors—and a Bible storybook called The Greatest Story of the Bible that gave young Oscar his first mental images of who God was. His mother eventually started attending the United Church of Zambia, a denomination with roots in the mission work of David Livingstone, and she began reading the Bible to her children. One chapter a night, from the Good News Bible. Oscar says they weren’t interested.
That changed when he was fifteen. A revival broke out in a Baptist church in Lusaka, and Oscar heard the gospel in a way that reached him personally. On October 8, 1992, he gave his life to Christ—and almost quit school. He was so consumed with knowing Jesus that he’d show up in the morning, get his name marked on the attendance sheet, then sneak out to the bush, climb a tree, and spend the day reading his New Testament.
That hunger for the Word never went away. It just grew.
Promoted on the Same Day God Said “Quit”
Oscar’s mom talked him out of dropping everything to go into ministry right away. “You’re too young to be a pastor,” she told him. So he got a degree in telecommunications, landed a job as an engineer, and did well—really well. Meanwhile, he connected with a pastor who had planted a Bread of Life church in western Zambia and spent nine years being discipled by him. That relationship became Oscar’s only formal ministry training. No Bible college. No seminary. Just a patient man pouring into a hungry one.
By 2005, the call to full-time ministry had been burning for over a decade. But Oscar was thriving in his career, rising through the ranks, and enjoying life as a single man in the capital city. Then, on the exact day he received a promotion, God told him it was time to leave.
He laughed about it on the episode—comparing himself to Moses, who spent decades wanting to lead Israel and then, when God finally said go, suddenly couldn’t think of a single reason he was qualified. Oscar’s employer told him he’d forfeit every benefit he’d earned over ten years if he resigned. He walked away anyway. “I am willing to walk away from everything,” he told them, “to follow this Christ who died for my sins.”
Fifty-Five Kids and a Lot of Faith
His first assignment was youth pastor at Bread of Life in Lusaka. He showed up and found fifty-five young people. He’d just left a job managing 500,000 telecom subscribers. The contrast was brutal. But he did what he knew: he poured into people the way his mentor had poured into him. Same approach—no fancy methodology, just discipleship, investment, and sending young people out.
In three months, the group grew from 55 to 600. By January 2007, it hit 1,200. By 2018, it had reached 5,000. And those young people weren’t just attending—they were planting churches. Oscar trained them to start small groups wherever they went: schools, businesses, neighborhoods. Those groups grew into churches. Eighty percent of the Bread of Life churches being planted were coming out of that youth movement.
“Baby Alive”
In 2008, Oscar got married, and he and his wife had their first son. The boy was born prematurely with serious complications. One morning, they noticed he wasn’t moving or blinking. They rushed him to the hospital, where one doctor examined him and delivered the news flatly: “Baby dead.” A second doctor was called for a second opinion. Same conclusion.
Oscar’s wife was crying. He sat there, stunned, and began talking to God. He quoted Scripture. He reminded God that children are a gift, that His blessing makes rich and adds no sorrow. He didn’t understand. He just kept praying.
Thirty minutes later, the machines showed signs of life. One of the doctors screamed: “Baby alive!”
Oscar says that moment changed his devotion to the gospel in a way nothing else had. Not because God had to prove anything—“Jesus Christ, his death is enough”—but because it confirmed something deep: He who has called me is faithful.
Reviving a Ghost Town
When Oscar’s senior pastor recognized his heart for missions, he sent Oscar and his wife to Kabwe—a city in central Zambia that had been devastated by mine closures and economic collapse. People called it a ghost town. Industries dead. Railway shut down. Poverty everywhere. Hopelessness thick in the air.
Oscar found a church that had been in existence for nineteen years and had about 450 members. He did what he’d always done: trained people, discipled people, made the church more Bible-centered and Christ-centered. In four months, attendance grew from 450 to 1,500. He started a 5 a.m. prayer meeting that packed out daily. He organized prayer marches with banners reading “Revive Kabwe.” He launched a Wednesday prayer meeting for businesspeople downtown. He reignited the youth movement.
And people started coming to Jesus—hundreds of them. From there, Oscar and his team began planting churches in surrounding villages. They now have about thirty churches across the Central Province.
What the Global Church Can Learn from Zambia
Maybe the most convicting part of the conversation was Oscar’s description of what normal Christian life looks like in his church. Every member commits to three hours of daily prayer. Five chapters of Bible reading a day—enough to finish the whole Bible every year. Fasting twice a week. And sharing the gospel with at least one person every week.
He wasn’t saying it to brag. He was describing what happens when a church decides to go back to the cross and take the book of Acts seriously. “If Jesus were a member of my church,” Oscar said, “this is exactly how he would respond. He would not be consumed by what I have or what I don’t have. He would be consumed by what I must do to fulfill the Father’s purpose.”
Oscar also shared a remarkable story about one of his deacons—a prominent lawyer in Kabwe whose son had been born deaf and unable to speak. Two doctors had told the family the boy would never hear or talk. But after prayer and fasting, Oscar prayed for the nine-year-old, and the boy said “Amen”—his first word. The father screamed. And the ripple effect through the community was immediate: if Jesus could do that, he’s worth following.
In Zambia, Oscar explained, faith in the supernatural is already deeply rooted—people often weigh whether Jesus offers more than the local witch doctor. When they see evidence that He does, “they are willing to throw away their idols, their charms. Because Jesus gives them peace. Jesus gives them protection.”
One More Thing
Oscar and his wife have four children: Oscar, Shekinah, Churchill, and Abriana. If you take the first letter of each name—O, S, C, A—you’re four-fifths of the way to spelling Oscar. His wife wasn’t interested in having a fifth child, but when she later felt led to change her own name, Oscar saw his chance. He suggested Raya, meaning “mercy.” She loved it. And just like that, the family spells O-S-C-A-R.
It’s a small, funny detail in an otherwise heavy episode. But it tells you something about this man—he’s deeply serious about the gospel and deeply joyful about the life God’s given him. Both things at once.
Leanne closed the episode with a thought worth sitting with: the question isn’t “Am I called to Zambia?” It’s “Who has God placed in front of me right now to disciple?” Because the gospel moves the same way everywhere—not just across continents, but across coffee tables, living rooms, and everyday conversations. One person at a time.
On the Move is a podcast of 21C International. To learn more about how you can support the training of pastors in the majority world, visit 21cinternational.org.