Twenty-Six Palaces in Twenty-One Days

Moses M. Phiri standing beside a mud-covered vehicle on a rural road

Northern and Luapula Provinces, Zambia · January 2026

Moses M. Phiri standing beside a mud-covered vehicle on a rural road
On the road between palaces in the rainy season.

In January our team drove more than 5,700 kilometres through Northern and Luapula provinces and sat in twenty-six palaces.

Over 21 days we visited twelve districts. We came to sit with chiefs and their chaplains: to listen, encourage, and share the gospel. Along the way, we witnessed moments that none of us had expected.

Chiefs turning to Christ

Five chiefs gave their lives to Christ during these visits.

One chieftainess prayed to receive Jesus and afterwards described a deep change: her body and her heart felt lighter. Two of her nieces, who were there with her, also chose to follow Christ that day.

In another chiefdom, the team prayed with an 84-year-old woman who had used insunko, a traditional tobacco snuff, for most of her life. Afterwards she testified that she had been freed from her addiction, and she handed over her insunko to be destroyed. Moved by her testimony, her chief gave his own life to Christ and renounced beer drinking.

A hand holding three small containers of insunko, a traditional tobacco snuff
The insunko she handed over.

A palace visit turned into a revival meeting

One chief asked our team to walk around the palace grounds and dedicate both the palace and the chiefdom to Christ. As we prayed, headmen who had been waiting to see the chief began approaching us to ask for prayer. Before long, hands were being laid on them, and the wait for the chief had become a revival prayer meeting.

A family kneeling in prayer outside their home with two ministers
A household prays to receive Christ.

Pastors seeing chiefs differently

We also spoke with around fifty pastors during the journey. Many had kept their distance from traditional leaders and felt unsure about how to minister to them. As we talked, those doubts began to give way. Conversations that began with “I can’t minister to the chief” ended with a different resolve: “I can.”

By the end of the journey, thirty-four people had come to Christ, and around ten chiefs had asked for open-air gospel crusades in their chiefdoms.

The team vehicle stopped on a muddy rural road with its bonnet raised
A breakdown on the road.

These testimonies are why we keep going, travelling long distances and driving on bumpy, sometimes dangerous roads that put us and the cars we use at risk. Yet the joy of seeing people move from darkness into God’s kingdom of light makes every kilometre, no matter how difficult or exhausting, worthwhile.

Would you like to partner with us in another way? Get in touch. We would be glad to hear from you.