“If it wasn’t for African Christian College, I don’t think that I would be in ministry full-time right now.”
Those are the words of Martin Muleya, a 2021 graduate who returned home to Zimbabwe equipped with far more than a theological education. Martin enrolled in 2019 with a passion to transform his community through preaching the gospel. Like most ministers, he had not fully thought through how he would provide for his family while in ministry. But he was confident in God’s provision and committed to the journey.
What surprised him most was the approach the college took in preparing students for ministry.
“I knew that at ACC, you work for your fees, and that was enough for me to commit because, at the very least, I was going to afford my education,” Martin recalled. What he did not anticipate was how deeply the Work Study experience would not just be a means to affordability, but would also transform his entire approach to ministry and life in general.
“The Work Study schedule required a lot of things to change in how I structured my days so I could balance and meet my goals,” he explains. Alongside that, an intentional course on entrepreneurship and business management stamped in him the value of a tent-making ministry.
I would have easily resorted to quitting ministry, but now I am able to fulfil the requirements of my ministry and provide for my family. And that’s what ACC did for me.
Martin Muleya, 2021 Graduate.
Upon returning to Mashonaland, Zimbabwe, the reality was sobering.
The pandemic and its economic aftermath had made an already difficult situation worse. “It was either you leave ministry and find a full-time job, or commit your life and family to scarcity,” Martin recalls.
Neither was an option. His passion for pastoring ran too deep.
He drew on everything African Christian College had built in him. “I remembered that I had a gift for graphic design, and that was my starting point,” he says. “I had also acquired skills that could enable me to produce food to feed my family, design when in need of income, and preach the gospel in season and out of season.”
Today, Martin is a full-time minister at Chirau Church of Christ, runs a graphic design business, and farms to provide for his family. “Sometimes what we need is not money, but an awakening to the possibilities that lie right next to us,” he reflects.
That awakening is exactly what African Christian College gave him. “I would have easily resorted to quitting ministry, but now I am able to fulfil the requirements of my ministry and provide for my family. And that’s what ACC did for me.”