By Mwangala Mundia Kapandula
International Women’s Day was officially recognized by the United Nations in 1975. Since then 8th March is a day that is marked on the global calendar to celebrate the monumental impact that women have made across the world.
According to the United Nations more than 80 countries worldwide celebrate this day which has also become a major part of the women’s rights movement and helped create conversations about gender biases.
As Zambia celebrates International Women’s Day under the theme ‘’Invest in women, accelerate progress’’, this article looks at the role of the church in supporting women in the collar to accelerate development, with particular focus on Bishop Lizzy Muzambalika from The Holy Ghost Arena church.
We look at her achievements and the challenges that women in the collar face and how best the challenges can be tackled.
Reflecting on her life, Bishop Muzambalika realizes the grace that God has placed upon her life as she wears many hats from being a mother to being the Lead Pastor at The Holy Ghost Arena to the Programme Director at Family Liberty, to being the Pioneer of Ideal Woman, Ideal Men & Rescue Hour platforms.
“My career and spiritual paths were flourishing but not my social life, especially marriage. I divorced in December 2004 because I could not handle my circumstances anymore. I am convinced beyond reasonable doubt that between my husband and I, one would have died if I hadn’t made that move as it was a severely abusive marriage both emotionally and physically,’’ she lamented.
“I was battered every two weeks and if I rested it was just a month. I must hasten to say I am not a proponent of divorce, so do not get me wrong. I am not here to divorce people,” she added.
After the divorce she focused on her career and remained a devout Christian that continued to take up significant roles within the church. Being in her mid-thirties, having a relationship and eventually getting married was still a priority yet she still failed lamentably.
She then sought to understand the unique area of life both spiritually and physically and by 2006 was convinced beyond reasonable doubt that her purpose on earth was to help women with various challenging situations of life.
From her struggles and those of others, the Bishop learnt that God was using her to help troubled marriages. In some cases, she did not succeed but in most she succeeded.
“In 2014 God led me to start an online platform via WHATSAPP and it did very well until about mid 2016 when I lost my first-born son (MHSCTRIP) and got pretty much disoriented. Efforts to revive it proved futile as I had become emotionally distorted,” she said.
After seven years, she pulled herself back on her feet and came to complete what she termed, unfinished business. She recalls how ‘’ Ideal Woman ‘’ was a great platform that birthed a lot of results in terms of people getting married. In some cases, troubled relationships were restored.
“In the last seven years God has taught me more things that I want to offload to willing souls like you so that we can make the world of a woman a better place to be. I have now called the group REBRANDED because we will now discuss a lot of more topical issues surrounding women apart from relationship and marital issues because an ideal woman must be complete in all areas,” she said.
“I love the pulpit ministry and I know some people have been positively impacted by my preaching and teaching; let alone the demonstration of God’s power and love through deliverances from different bondage and sickness,” she said.
In interpreting the theme, “Invest in women and girls, accelerate progress” Bishop Muzambalika said women should not be left behind in the empowerment process as empowerment is a human right adding that everyone must be involved and promote inclusivism in all aspects.
“Women have a right to protection, equal opportunities, business, leadership positions, when we empower a woman we would have accelerated development. Women are able to do a lot of things and what has been lacking is women to express themselves and maximize their potential,” she said.
She added that meaningful change cannot take place without the involvement of women, while adding that both men and women have abilities that God has given them in life hence the need for them to work together.
On the role of the church to invest in women in order to accelerate progress, Bishop Muzambalika said the church must come to the realization that a woman has a lot to offer and must be able to recognize the deposits that God has given in women.
Bishop Muzambalika argued that God values a woman more than the way the church is valuing her while observing that women are not being valued as co-workers in the work of the Lord.
The church as a whole needs to recognize women as equal workers in the kingdom of God. Secondly the church should create systems and policies that promote women participation not only at lower levels of leadership but also at the high level.
“There must be policies, processes and procedures that will elevate women to positions of relevance, to positions where a woman can meaningfully add her voice in the church and the society,” she said.
She said the theme is timely as it shows the recognition that the government has, in the role of women in society and that men and women should work together to govern the earth as this was initiated by God at the time of creation.
The Bishop is also the Author of the book “From the Throne “.
We celebrate women in the month of March as they are indeed catalysts to national development.
