When the African-American Historical and Cultural Museum of the San Joaquin Valley presented its 2025 Trailblazers Awards, Dr. Nzash Lumeya was singled out for the Community Service Award. Lumeya, from Butler Church in Fresno, California, founded the Fresno School of Mission. Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and with roots in the Congo Mennonite Brethren Church, he was recognized by the museum for his work globally as well as in the local Fresno community.
Why do you think the museum chose you for this honor?
I am told the community gave our name as someone who is feeding, clothing, meeting needs. But I am just the face, the spokesperson representing many people who are putting in this good effort. When we practice what we believe, it brings glory to God. We take advantage of this opportunity to tell them that this is from God. All this is boiling down to pointing people to the risen Christ.
What does the work look like?
We are in the business of mending relationships. We are reaching across ethnic, social, linguistic, national and spiritual barriers to make disciples. My students and colleagues and I give our cell numbers to people in the community, and they call us with all kinds of questions and needs. They ask us to pray, and we pray with them and God may use us to help out. We call each other when we hear about a need in the community. Someone gave me a truck that we fill with pallets of all kind of food to give when there is a need.
Who are your partners in this work?
Some of our partners are churches like Butler which provided the hamburgers and hot dogs to feed about 350 people at an Easter event in Cedar Courts Apartments. When the barbecue comes to the people, people who were fighting can sit down to eat and talk to their neighbors. We work with churches, schools and apartment complexes. And we’re always looking for the “peace people” in the community. They’re not necessarily Christians, but they love their neighbors and tell us about the needs of people around them. We show them in the Bible how God tells us we can love him by loving others.
In 2000 you came from Kinshasa, DRC, to Fresno to teach Hebrew at the MB seminary. How does your academic background connect with serving the Fresno community?
During my graduate and doctoral studies, I was always longing to see how my academic work can make a dent in the world. The need for mission work I discovered in Congo was also here in Fresno. In the Fresno School of Mission, I’m teaching Greek, Hebrew and the biblical context, but my students and I really can’t understand what it means until we see the implications of those well-thought ideas in the life of our neighbors.
Kathy Heinrichs Wiest is a freelance writer who loves the smell of whole wheat bread in the oven, the feel of an orange being plucked from the tree and the view from her front porch in Kingsburg, California. On Sunday mornings you’ll find her in the fourth pew from the front on the left at Kingsburg MB Church, moved by the hymns and praise songs and inspired by the stories of God at work locally and around the world. She and her husband, Steve, own Dovetail Remodeling. They have two grown daughters, one son-in-law and a precious granddaughter.
