“I humbly look forward to this great responsibility and am deeply comforted that God will take care of me!” This was District Apostle Shadreck Lubasi’s reaction to being made District Apostle for the newly established district of East Africa. Chief Apostle Jean-Luc Schneider, who retired him in 2015 after nearly thirty years as a minister in the Church, experienced him as a “diligent and wise servant of God. Under his leadership, the new District Apostle Area developed very beautifully,” he writes in his obituary notice.

A foreigner in East Africa

District Apostle Shadreck Lubasi was not born in Kenya, but in Zambia. He was born into a New Apostolic family on 22 July 1948 as one of thirteen children. On completing his schooling he worked for the Zambian Air Force for one year. Then he started his training at a state insurance company. During his studies, he got around: he attended advanced training courses in Great Britain, Ireland, and Germany.

He made his first preaching experience in Germany after having been ordained a Deacon in 1986. “I was a Deacon in a congregation in Munich and was called to serve one day. When I heard my name, I almost fainted. I think I stammered more than I spoke and was happy when the congregation said ‘Amen’,” Shadreck Lubasi reported later. Further ministries followed. In Charlestown in Zambia then Apostle Maxwell Maimbolwa assigned him as a District Evangelist.

Once he had attained his licence as an insurance broker, he moved to Kenya with his wife-to-be, Juliet Marylin Makala Mweemba. They married in 1977 and had four children together. He worked there as a senior director for a large insurance company. In the church he gladly took over tasks in the area of music and was entrusted with other ministerial tasks. In 2002, Chief Apostle Fehr ordained him as an Apostle during a divine service in Johannesburg in South Africa. A year later, Shadreck Lubasi’s wife died suddenly.

He remarried and actually wanted to go back to Kenya with his new wife, Rael Adongo Opeyo, but God had other plans. “Since I have always felt the Lord’s hand in my life, it was easy for me to change my plans and align them with His will,” he wrote in his biography. In November 2007, Shadreck Lubasi was assigned as a District Apostle Helper and supported the American District Apostles Richard Freund and later Leonard Kolb with their work in Africa then. Two years later, as District Apostle, he took over the newly established District Apostle Area East Africa, comprised of the countries Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Great responsibilities

“It was not an easy task,” the Chief Apostle writes in his obituary notice, “since there are nearly two hundred different ethnic groups in the three countries of his working area. He was greatly loved by the brothers and sisters—they appreciated his closeness and his willingness to sacrifice. Visiting the small, remote congregations was also very important to him,” the Chief Apostle wrote. It had also been important to District Apostle Lubasi to promote music in the district, which he accomplished successfully. And he founded KUMEA, an NGO affiliated with the New Apostolic Church East Africa. It launched fifteen successful aid and development projects until his retirement.

He had been spending the last years of his retirement in Zambia. Shadreck Lubasi was 74 years old when he died on 23 June. The funeral service took place on 27 June in Lusaka. District Apostles Kububa Soko from Zambia and Joseph Opemba Ekhuya from Kenya as well as other Apostles from his former working area paid their last respects.