Katembo, Kutela

Kutela Katembo is a missionary with the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church, serving as an agriculturist at Quessua Mission in the East Angola Annual Conference. He was commissioned in late 2014.

Quessua Mission, a historical center of Methodism in Angola, was almost totally destroyed in the three decades of civil war that finally ended in 2002. The facility, which includes a church, a school, dormitories, and a farm, is still recovering. Quessua aims to produce enough food to feed its students and community. Kutela Katembo also works with the annual conference in evolving a sustainable agriculture policy that can help to overcome hunger and poverty in the region.

Kutela is from Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he is a member of the Salem Parish United Methodist Church in the South Congo-Zambia Annual Conference. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture from Africa University in Mutare, Zimbabwe in 2002. He has worked for the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) in food security projects and as an agricultural trainer and consultant. He has also been a farm manager.

Growing up in the church, Kutela took part in the United Methodist Youth Fellowship and his church’s social service outreach. He studies at Africa University in part on a scholarship from the General Board of Global Ministries and came to count himself as “being part of the church in its great mission diversity worldwide.”

“My call to mission,” he says, “basically is to serve God through my knowledge and experience by serving others who may need help in Christ-like humility. The church has been a good servant to me so I need to be a good servant with my qualifications in Christ-like humility.”

He and his wife Kutela Fatuma Olangi have five children: Katembo Makuya Kevin, Katembo Kainda Marvin, Katembo Mulasi Sonia and Katembo Fibi Samantha,and Katembo Kashala Graciela.