HAS it ever struck you to research, even cursorily, the birthday and death dates of members of your family? You could find striking coincidences as puzzled TIMOTHY KAMBILIMA found out when curiosity drove him to think about the subject. Read on

WHEN I was a small boy in Chililabombwe, I only knew death through movies watched on either the small black and white television set or the big screen at the once –upon- a- time Vega Cinema.
The Cinema hall which is today used as a Pentecostal Church was every boy’s favourite from the late 1970’s through the 80’s and late 90’s.
I still remember being among hundreds of boys on the long queue every Saturday afternoon.
We had boys who came as far as Lubengele and Mine Townships just to come and watch Chuck Norris, Bruce Lee, Jim Kelly and Arnold Schwarzenegger movies at Vega Cenema hall, which later changed to Curp Cinema.
The new proprietor Curp Mwaba later became mayor for Chililabombwe during the reign of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) under the late president Fredrick Chiluba.
We were used to watching people ‘die’ in movies which, I later discovered, was not true as it was mere acting when I grew up.
I hope we all remember how mothers  used to tell us that they bought the ‘baby’ from ZCBC or hospital and how we all believed without questioning them.
Our parents would also say they had gone for funerals either within or outside Chililabombwe.
I also remembered how heavy it was for a boy to see an ambulance or a hearse, let alone viewing a dead body.
I don’t know with others, but we religiously followed instructions from elders and parents from the time my father Zedi Kambilima and other close relatives died, I have been trying to look at the various birth and death dates.
I have been very curious and sometimes I ask myself, “why such coincidences in birth and death dates of my relatives?”
To start with my late father Zedi Kambilima was born March 15, 1932 and painfully and mysteriously answered the lord’s call on June 15, 1991 at Konkola Mine Hospital, in Chililabombwe.
That was the first direct funeral in the Kambilima family. It seems like it just happened recently.
The second funeral was when we lost our dear second born sister Alice Kambilima on October 14, 1993.
My nephew Kelvin who was the son of my late sister was born on October 14. What a coincidence!

• MOTHERS used to tell us that they bought the ‘baby’ from ZCBC or hospital.

On the third occasion our first born Mary or Bana Mack was born on May 8 and died on May 8, at Kakoso hospital in Chililabombwe. That was the birth date for my niece Memory Kayambi.
Furthermore, my immediate elder sister Selestina Kambilima who used to work at Kakoso Hospital answered the Lord’s call on July 21, 2014 and my own first born child Matildah was born on July 21, 2002.
By the way, Selestina was born on June 15, the day my dad Zedi Kambilima died.
Last year on  July 16, 2013 my father in law died in Chingola’s Kabundi South and on July 16, 2014 my wife gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl.
The girl is Trithel and the boy is Timothy (Junior). Having looked at the mystery in the birth and death dates in the family, I am  puzzled by  the frightening coincidences.
I was born into the family of Christian Mission In Main Lands (CMML), but in the year 2006 I made up my mind to quit CMML at the height of the wrangles that had rocked the church. Upon leaving CMML, I joined United Church of Zambia (UCZ) which was my grandfather Mundu Kamuchacha’s childhood church. After undergoing all the necessary church procedure, I together with all the family members were officially confirmed as full time members of UCZ by Reverend E.N Ng’oma on Saturday August 11, 2007.
Despite the frightening death and birth date coincidences in my family, the book of Revelation 2:10 that is quoted on the certificate of confirmation gives me hope and it says “Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee the crown of life”. Indeed, I will remain faithful in the Lord for the rest of my life. Let us all put everything in our living God.
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