My name is Lovemore Sianyama from the southern part of Zambia, at a place called Kalomo, and I am a Tonga by tribe. I am a first year student at African Christian College (ACC). My story with this institution began a while back when I was told about ACC by my brother who desired to come himself but could not, so he recommended the college to me. I also had talks with two alumnus, Abson Mumba and Matthew Musanda, who fervently encouraged me to come here.
In 2015 I applied to be enrolled the following year, and the response I got came as disappointing at that time but today I am happy that I managed to rise above that hence I am here today. When I applied I was told that I did not meet the entry requirements because I did not have enough grades. I did not give up hope, so I worked hard to raise funds in order to rewrite two subjects. Through God’s grace I passed them and I applied again the following year. I received the news of my acceptance with great joy because I saw it as a step towards achieving some of the goals I have for my life.
Preparing to come here was not easy though. As alluded earlier that I had to raise funds in order to rewrite two subjects, I also had to raise additional funds to come to Swaziland once I was accepted. These two tasks were very difficult since I had no stable income I could rely on. However, things went well for me and I was able to see myself through all those challenges.
I would say that the fuel behind my eventual coming to ACC is the passion I have for serving people and bringing meaningful and lasting change in my community. As an African, I have noticed that we as a continent are faced with many challenges which can be reduced to one: lack of sound leadership. The people we call leaders are not performing according to the way they should and this is taking a toll on the development, peace and security of our beautiful continent.
I do acknowledge that there are great leaders who are doing extraordinary work in various fields and I praise God for that. I, however, am still convinced that we need to groom more leaders for our society to grow and flourish. These beliefs, and more, are what led me to choose to come to ACC to be prepared for excellent service in God’s Kingdom. I have a strong willingness to serve God and people and I believe that being here is the best place for me to be trained for that.
I am planning to major in Organisational Leadership in order to join the work of rebuilding and restoring our African societies, starting with my own community. My main goal is to be a responsible, honest and productive person willing to fill in the gaps where others have failed. I also desire to portray a good image of Jesus Christ through having good morals and leadership qualities.
I came to ACC with high expectations and I can safely say that I have not been disappointed in the month I have been here. This is the best institution for any person who wants to acquire balanced knowledge in order to be relevant in the world today. The past month has not been void of challenges too. I am still learning to live with people from very different cultures, and get used to Swazi food. I am a Shima (porridge) person and I am adopting to eating rice here. I look forward to a fruitful three years of study.