Keith and Ida Waddell Reflect on Three Decades of Mission Partnership

As Keith and Ida Waddell conclude their time as Mission Partners of the Methodist Church in Britain and Church of Scotland – Ida to continue as a Mission Partner with the Church of Scotland and Keith into retirement - the couple reflect on more than thirty years of ministry, learning and deep community belonging in Zambia.

Building Education and Opportunity Together

When the Waddells moved to Zambia in 1994, Keith began as Deputy Head at Chengelo School before he and Ida were “called… by the UCZ to go to Mwandi Mission.” There, he helped oversee the construction of a secondary school so local children would no longer need to travel “70 kilometres away for boarding.”

Later, as Education Secretary, he travelled the country supporting “20 schools, 12,000 pupils and 500 members of staff.” Returning again to Mwandi, he helped develop a sheltered workshop for vulnerable young people, creating income‑generating opportunities through “the brickyard… the chickens that lay the eggs… and also a fish pond.” Though formally retiring, Keith adds with a smile: “I’m retiring now but I’m not stopping.”

Transforming Community Health Systems

Ida’s work developed in parallel, shaped by deep immersion in local realities. She first notes her formative years in Zimbabwe. As Ida recalls, “I learned so much from a Zimbabwean doctor on how to look after patients without using expensive drugs… I learned to diagnose people by just looking at them and checking them.” This early apprenticeship in resourceful, people‑centred healthcare shaped everything she carried into her later work.

At Chingelo she helped strengthen school nursing and partnered with the Ministry of Health to prevent “polio coming across the border from Congo.” In Mwandi, she held a long‑held dream: “to move [the hospital] from primary care to general hospital… able to give them the care on the ground.” Her later role as Health Secretary saw her driving across Zambia to support clinics and hospitals.

Finding Home in Mwandi

For both Keith and Ida, the heart of their mission has always been relationship. “It’s really been a privilege and an honour… becoming part of that community… supporting them in their joys and their sorrows,” Keith reflects.

Ida—who grew up in rural Scotland—felt at home in Mwandi in a way she never did in Lusaka: “To be in Mwandi, it’s just like being at home… you’re allowed to take on the culture, understand the culture, and help keep the culture of a community.”

Mutuality in Mission

For Keith and Ida, partnership has always been reciprocal. Ida articulates it most clearly:
“It’s not just Scotland helping Zambia, it’s Zambia helping Scotland.” Churches visiting Mwandi returned home with renewed energy; Scottish congregations were inspired by the music, movement, and warmth captured in the choir recording Ida brought back—“not because it was different, but the warmth that it was bringing and just the way of worship.”

Keith situates this experience in wider changes in global mission. Keith and Ida plan to visit Zambian ministers working in British churches during their furlough and celebrates that there are now 16 mission partners from the United Church of Zambia in various countries all over the world. Rather than one-directional movement, the everywhere-to-everywhere model reflects a global church with a circulating movement of mutual learning, ministry and accompaniment.

Although ending their time as Mission Partners, Keith and Ida will return to Zambia, a place that has become their home.