This Sunday, we are excited and extraordinarily privileged to welcome a special guest speaker, Barbara Nkala all the way from Zimbabwe. This is one Sunday you will definitely not want to miss. To learn more about her, read the brief biography below.
After the service, Charlene Neuman will be hosting a casual lunch for Barbara. If you would like to join them for lunch, contact Charlene directly at charleneneuman@westheights.org.
About Barbara
Barbara is the (volunteer) Mennonite World Conference Regional Representative for southern Africa, connecting with six different national member churches in the region. She also is a frequent public speaker, and an Elder and Sunday school teacher in her Brethren in Christ congregation in Harare, Zimbabwe. She has sat on a number of humanitarian boards.
Barbara is married to Shadreck Nkala and they have three adult children and five grand children. She first obtained a Diploma in Education with the University College of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), then a Bachelor of Arts in English and Communication with the University of South Africa (UNISA), and a Master of Arts in Leadership and Management with Africa Leadership and Management Academy (ALMA). She taught in various secondary schools in the country before joining publisher Longman Zimbabwe in 1981, where she rose to commissioning editor for humanities texts.
In 1991, she left Longman and worked with her husband in the family company, for five years before being invited to head International Bible Society Zimbabwe (IBS Zimbabwe) as National Director, in Zimbabwe and Malawi. She coordinated the translation and publishing of the new IBS Shona and Ndebele Bibles; as well as a Chichewa New Testament.
She left IBS Zimbabwe in 2005, and is the founder and Managing Editor of Radiant Publishing, whose vision is to publish for transformation. Barbara is an author of fiction and non-fiction titles, published in both Ndebele and English.
In 2015 she received an honorary degree from the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Bulawayo.
More about Barbara:
- Barbara and her contribution to the growth of indigenous languages, particularly Ndebele: Nkala: A Loved Elder of Literature
- Barbara visited Kitchener many years ago: African Leader Joyfully Shares Gifts
- After the dramatic events in Zimbabwe in November 2017, Barbara wrote this post: The Unseen Hand of God