Looking back at the last nine months of our lives, I'm sure we can all agree that this is a day to be grateful for and a day to be inspired by. Not only for us and everyone here, but for all those to come as well.

I remember having our Chancellor preach to us during our very first Chapel session, and how we were told how significant that occasion was, being a major landmark in the history journey of ACU. Today, I believe we make an even bigger landmark, and everyone here right now gets to be a part of it. Indeed every moment from one such as this one, to what each of us may have felt to be our most ordinary and/or insignificant day, has been bigger than we may think as the pioneering class of the African Christian University.

It truly has been a great honour to lead the upcoming students, from next year, down to the next generations in such a life-changing and God-honouring endeavour. Speaking of generations, yesterday Chilala already told us that he would have his children or his grandchildren come to ACU, hopefully both generations of Hatuleke's will be a part of it. I hope with that guarantee, he and the rest of us, including you, will take this honour personally and testify wherever you go what Christ has done for you through ACU.

Now, the last nine months have been an extraordinary experience. Getting to know new people from different places, backgrounds and cultures, being exposed to a very different kind of education system and being intentionally exposed to biblical truths by our professors and even fellow students, such as Tshepo and Koki.

No doubt, our time here has been tough and challenging, spending sleepless nights, night after night trying to beat the due dates and studying. Monday nights must have been the longest for most of us because the following morning we'd all want to make perfect sense to Pastor Kalifungwa during his session. Sir, I hope that now explains why we had so many people catching fish on those days. We really just wanted to impress you and make sense.

We also had certain weeks when it seemed like all of our professors in their meetings discussed and decided that they would all give us assignments that week and want them ready around the same time. It would even be worse if that was quiz week. We all eventually came to know who the more lenient professors were as time went by. Mr. Tembo often extended the time limit, and even though all he really wanted to do was get the marking over and done with as soon as possible, he seemed to understand the pressures of those weeks, for this we are grateful.

On the other hand, we had Mr. Paul, who made us laugh a lot and truly became a friend to many of us, but never budged a bit when it came to due dates, he must have forgotten that we were friends in those moments. But for that too, we are grateful. These two men shared an office so maybe that says something about that.

One time I was in the presence of, I think, Peter and Chisomo, as they were trying to figure out whether Mr. Phiri was a Christian or not. Normally the rest of our professors would come in, tell a joke or story and pray before the class began, but Mr. Phiri often came in and got straight to business. Especially when he'd make us stand up and answer questions on those cold mornings, he seemed so cruel, but I assure you all that he is a Christian. His classes seemed to have encouraged many of us to experiment with our kindles until they got deregistered and lost all of our books, and in those moments we realised that the skills we'd learnt could only take us so far at that point. We thank God for Mr. Thakkar (the real computer geek) who was always there to get them back up and running.

Many of us came here dreading and hating mathematics. The first term was a little bit hilarious and confusing because we often wondered why this man called Mr. Hoffman, who often told jokes we didn't get, was telling us that God and math have some business together, really? He just sounded silly at first, but now I believe that all of us have broken the sacred and secular divide and sincerely fail to see anything outside of God. Some of us even came up with a mathematical equation to explain the trinity (1 x infinity + 1 x infinity + 1 x infinity = 1 infinite God in 3 persons). See how good mathematical theologians we are now?

We also had Mr. Chakonta, who was basically like a prefect and a big brother to us, always making sure we were doing the right thing at the right time, and giving us advice whenever we asked for it, and of course Mrs. Turnbull as well, who taught and encouraged us to think of others as we do our work, to do it as unto the Lord and take care of the school campus like it was our own home.

A few times we were threatened by Dr. Baucham to cut off our heads with his sword which only he can carry and is just about the size of some us. This was only at the beginning though, eventually we got to know him, and he could no longer hide his gentle and loving heart with his gigantism and the scary looks he sometimes gave us.

And of course, Mr ACU himself, Dr. Turnbull, for making this a reality on the ground with the help of many others, and for keeping us all in check, making sure we keep the vision in mind, Christ at the centre and that we're all headed towards the same goal.

There are many more names I can mention, many more memories I can share and a multitude of feelings I can express, but I hope this does even a little bit of justice to what it's been like for us this year.

As I bid farewell to my fellow graduates, some of you for only a moment, some for a longer time, and maybe some even for good. I encourage you all to stay in touch, to be intentional about maintaining the relationships you've built here, to practice, live and preach all you've learnt at ACU, and most importantly to be the salt and light wherever you go from here. Truly, we have all grown in much grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.