‘Our country has become a Christian nation,’ says Zambia’s First Lady

Her husband, the President, has been publicly baptized at a Lusaka Baptist church

By Dan Wooding

The First Lady of Zambia has stated that her country has become a “Christian nation.”

Mrs. Maureen Mwanawasa (mwah-nah-WAH-sah), made this statement during an interview with me for ANS and also Safe Worlds IPTV at the recent 3rd Annual Global Summit on AIDS and the Church held at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, hosted by Pastor Rick Warren and his wife, Kay.

I asked the first lady, a Christian, like her husband, President Levy Mwanawasa, what role the church in Zambia was playing in the battle against HIV and AIDS.

She replied, “The church is one of the biggest helpers of government in the fight against HIV AIDS. We have the churches association of Zambia which is looking after the interests of the church as far as AIDS is concerned. It gets support from government. The church’s organization has its own health centers which they run. So the Christian faith in the country is very strong.

“Actually our country was declared a Christian nation, so you can see how spiritual everyone is and how dependent we are on God for an answer to the challenge.”

I then asked Mrs. Mwanawasa about the scale of the HIV/AIDS situation in Zambia.

“The situation,” she said, “is still a challenge but we have much hope because we have a lot of political will and the civil society is working very hard.

“The awareness campaigns we have held have been very successful and we are talking of a reduction of new infections. Statistics before two-thousand-two we are standing at twenty-six percent, but now with our latest released statistics, we stood at sixteen percent, and I’m sure with the new statistics which will come after twenty-zero-two, we will have done even better. But that’s not to say we should sit back and relax.”

I then asked the First Lady how they had managed to bring the figures down.

“One of the reasons is that the political will has been there because our president [her husband] has taken it very seriously by ensuring that everybody hears about information about HIV and AIDS,” she said. He has created HIV/AIDS desks in all nine ministries of our government. He has also formed a ministerial taskforce and formed a national coordinating council on HIV/AIDS.

“So we are moving forward as a country and we have leadership at all levels of our community, such as NGO’s and faith based organizations.

“We are open because in Zambia there is no family which can say they have not seen one of their loved ones die from AIDS. So we’ve seen it and we’ve lived with it.

“I would urge those people that haven’t yet gotten involved in the fight because what is going on in the world with HIV/AIDS is is a wakeup call,” she continued. “The disease used to be understood as an African problem, but it is not an African problem ; it’s a world problem. The difference is that the rates of infection are different in a developing country to a developed country.

AIDS should not carry a “morality tag”

“So we need to get concerned and also realize that HIV/AIDS should not carry a morality tag because it’s not all the time that people are immoral they get infected. We have innocent men and women who have been infected. We have children who have been born from infected parents you can not put stigma on them they didn’t ask for the disease. They need our support. So the best way is to remove the morality tag and move onto finding a solution to the HIV challenge.”

I mentioned to the First Lady that Rick Warren has said, “If Jesus was alive today he’d be working with people with HIV/AIDS,” and I wondered if she agreed with that statement.

“Yes I do,” she said firmly. “We all know that Jesus worked with the lepers of his day and lepers were not liked in society. When we started finding out about HIV/AIDS, a person with the virus was like a leper and people didn’t want to touch them or to work with them. So definitely Jesus would have worked with these people.”

After a brief pause, she added, “I think he is already working in us. We wouldn’t have achieved the strides that we’ve achieved without his help. Nobody knew that one day someone could be put on a drug that would prolong your life. So it just shows God’s presence.”

The President gets baptized

The baptism of President Levy Mwanawasa (Baptist Press photo by Troy Lewis)

This was revealed in a story from Michael Ireland in ANS who wrote, “A crowd clapped and cheered as President Levy Mwanawasa rose from the water in an outdoor baptistery behind a Baptist seminary chapel building in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital.”

The event drew hundreds of people, including public officials, leaders and pastors from the area and neighboring countries, wrote Shawn Hendricks of the Southern Baptist Church International Mission Board.

“This baptism was an incredible occasion for the Baptist witness to many people who we have not had in church before,” said Troy Lewis, a Southern Baptist missionary in the southern African nation of more than 10 million people. “They heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Hendricks says on the day of his baptism, Mwanawasa shared his spiritual journey before a packed chapel service. He told listeners he had been “struck” by Jesus—similar to the Apostle Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus.

Mwanawasa, a successful lawyer and former vice president, took office in 2002. Respected for his reputation for honesty, he was known as “Mr. Integrity” even by his political opponents before his election. Now in his mid-50s, he survived a near-fatal car accident in 1992 but insists he is in excellent health, Hendricks writes.

He reported that Mwanawasa remembers attending a Baptist school as a

The President is greeted by his wife Maureen after his baptism (Baptist Press photo by Troy Lewis)

As he came week after week with his “entourage,” the church tried to maintain business as usual—but it wasn’t easy, Hendricks writes.

“All of us here were immensely excited about this,” Lewis told him. “Our excitement and prayers increased when he returned to church again and kept coming whenever he was in the country.”

Hendricks said the president began asking questions about the Christian faith and how he could join the church. Church members answered his questions and ministered to him during difficult times.

After Mwanawasa began attending the church, his mother died from injuries caused by a fire. He also lost his two brothers. One died unexpectedly of illness ; the other was murdered, said Hendricks.

Mwanawasa soon shared how Christ had moved in his life—and that he wanted to be baptized. Franklin Kilpatrick, missionary in Zambia for 35 years, helped disciple Mwanawasa during this process. Kilpatrick and his wife, Paula, are members of Twin Palm Baptist Church.

“The impact is not just in Zambia ; this could have an impact on an international level,” said Kilpatrick, who is temporarily on U.S. assignment.

“He could impact a lot of leaders. He is in a position of influence, and people need encouragement.”

The Kilpatricks were originally concerned about drawing too much attention to the event. Local missionaries tried to remain low-key about Mwanawasa’s decision, Hendricks reported.

But the news quickly spread all over Zambia—and to other parts of the world. Others have commented on how the president’s life has changed. He already has invited friends and leaders from around the world to attend church with him.

Paula Kilpatrick is excited about what God has planned for the future. “We feel like the story is not over,” she said.

Hendricks also said some missionaries believe Mwanawasa’s baptism is an exclamation point on what God is beginning to do in the country. Lewis encouraged Mwanawasa during a celebration lunch at the statehouse after his baptism.

“I shared with him that we had been praying for him after he came into office, that Zambia would have a leader who had Jesus as his Lord,” Lewis told Hendricks.

“And in him coming to Christ and being baptized, God had answered our prayers. I told him that we praise God—and will pray for him to continue to be a president who sees leadership as serving the people rather than lording it over them.”

What a powerful witness for Christ this couple has given as they serve the Lord in their positions of power in Zambia.

Note : I would like to thank Robin Frost for transcribing the First Lady interview.

Message to the broadcast media. Dan Wooding as an MP3 audio file of this interview which is available for broadcast. Send your request to Dan at danjuma1@aol.com for it to be e-mailed to you with your name and broadcast organization. (This is not for personal use, but just for broadcast.)

© Assist News Service