His Teaching Career, Marriage and Theological Training

In 1954, Yeremiah Chienda entered the Teacher Training College at Nkhoma and qualified as a teacher in 1956. The first school that he taught at was Kabweramchombo in Dowa west.

He became friends with a prolific man called Isaac Chintande while he was at Kabweramchombo. Chintande was from Lodzeni-Zongendaba village close by. Chintande's mother had died while he was a boy and he was raised by his mother's elder sister, or in local tradition, his "elder mother."

Chintande's elder mother had a daughter called Elizabeth who had been a pupil at Kabweramchombo but later moved to Sindeya school. It pleased Chintande to use his influence to introduce his new friend, Yeremiah, to Elizabeth and with the passage of time news was rife about a wedding between the two.

Elizabeth was the third child of her mother, the first one being a man who she never really got to know because he migrated to South Africa while she was a toddler, and never came back. The second was a woman who was several years older than Elizabeth. The father of the two died before Elizabeth was born. In her old age, the mother married Mr Kaching'ona, who fathered Elizabeth.

From her father, Elizabeth had several half brothers and sisters, among them Caleb who later moved to and settled in Southern Rhodesia, and Edward. As the wedding day drew nigh, Edward Kaching'ona was alarmed that he had not been officially approached by Chintande about it. Full of chagrin, he summoned Chintande for a discussion, and the two went into a verbal war lasting, according to Kaching'ona's own recollection, a good part of the night. His (Edward's) reasoning was, "This girl (Elizabeth) shares the same blood as me, and yet someone is marrying her off without my knowledge, let alone my approval. This is not on!" However, some settlement was reached, resulting in a truce between the two.

When the actual wedding day arrived, the dreadful happened: Mr Kaching'ona senior suddenly collapsed and died while the bride and groom were at church waiting to exchange their vows, forcing a last minute postponement of the wedding to a later date in September of the same year. It is not without a good reason that people today will stand up and say, "Rev Chienda has fought a good fight."

Mr Kaching'ona used to be very tall man. Some people who have known Rev Chienda and known his children have wondered why some of the children are tall, while the Rev Chienda himself used to be small in stature. It is the Kaching'ona genes that determine the heights of Rev Chienda's offspring. The grandchildren are getting even taller!

Following the wedding, the couple moved to Dedza, where Yeremiah continued to discharge his teaching duties with commitment and determination. One of his pupils at Kabweramchombo had been Winston Kawale, who later followed his former teacher and mentor into the ministiry and rose to become General Secretary of Nkhoma Synod in his own right. At Dedza, Yeremiah taught a pupil from Mozambique called Wallace Chikakuda. Like Kawale, Chikakuda was also inspired to become a minister in the Nkhoma Synod and in the course of time obtained a PhD from South Africa. He died while he was Principal of the Theological College in Zomba. While at Dedza, the Chienda couple had their first born daughter, Mercy.

It was from Dedza that Yeremiah obeyed the Lord's call to become a full time minister. A colleague of his, Mr Ganizani, and he were both admitted to Nkhoma Theological College. When he arrived at the college in 1957, Yeremiah was surprised to learn that his friend did not show up. He had apparently changed his mind.

During their four year stay at Nkhoma (at the Theological College) the couple had two more children, Gladys and Joshua. The latter is the one writing this blog.

The 1957 - 1961 cohort comprised Rev Sankhani, Rev Jekapu, Rev Chipeta, Rev Chinkhadze, Rev Chalungama and Rev Chienda. Mr Mwalamwaza had joined the course but did not finish it.

He graduated from the Theological College in 1961 and was posted to Livlezi CCAP in the rift valley in Ntcheu district. Livlezi was among the congregations that had developed as a result of missionary work by the Free Church of Scotland working in the Cape Maclear area. These congregations were initially part of Livingstonia Synod but were later handed over to Nkhoma Synod.