Testimony from BLCC Australia

Mr Fidelis and Mrs Salome Chifamba started a prayer group at Port Pirie, Australia, two or three years ago. From time to time, they have been holding healing services after Mass at the Catholic Cathedral and they have passed on this testimony for posting on the blog.

Hi I’m Evi, and I thank you for coming today.

I’d just like to share with you a little of my faith journey and my personal experience of healing prayer.

On October 8 2006 the first healing prayer service was held right here.

I had been a regular 10am mass goer, so I didn’t need to go out of my way to attend. I’d been invited by a close friend and I went more out of curiosity and to keep my friend happy. To say I was a sceptic was an understatement. I considered myself too practical – scientific even- to believe that anything would happen as a result of people praying over me. If I was wrong – bonus!

So what did I bring for prayer – well nothing much, I thought. After all I was doing quite OK, thanks. I went to mass, was even a reader!

There were just one or two things that were a bit of a problem in my life– but God wouldn’t be interested in these little things – would he?

I was pretty stressed out, tired, always rushing never enough time for anything but the essentials and usually running late. I found it hard to get going most mornings, and usually had to have a few drinks at night to “unwind”. Didn’t sleep that well – after all I had a lot on my mind - my work and all that. Oh and then there was the weight – well that was just middle age, over work and no time or energy to do something about it – probably the junk food too, but I’d get around to fixing that. Should mention the asthma - mostly seasonal but gradually spreading from spring through the rest of the year and needing more time off, more treatment. (At its worst 25 mg prednisolone, 2 puffers, the nebuliser and occasional antibiotics). The smoking contributed but that was a habit I’d get around to changing.

I wouldn’t even mention my blood pressure except that I’d spent a bit of time in the Emergency Department at work when it was way too high – but that was probably because of the asthma playing up, and the stress. (Actually I’d been scared to go home that day because I live alone and I was afraid I’d have a stroke or something.)

Oh there was also this skin cancer thingy on my hairline that the hairdresser had been hassling me to get looked at but I hadn’t had time.

I also took along the notion that my life was my problem and my business. I had to go it alone. As a single parent I’d come to believe that I had to rely on my own resources for everything – no one could or would help - not family, not friends. After all you shouldn’t owe people, and who could be relied on? What about God? – Well, God is only interested in the big things like peace in the Middle East.

My notion of God was that He was far off, and He loved us as a group in a sort of philosophical way. Salvation came with baptism, and I was baptised. The rest was up to me.

So, as I came to the prayer team that day – I didn’t have any thing much that God would be interested in.

Then I sat down, and out of my mouth came so many things that I hadn’t even thought about – my Dad and my brother mostly and what they needed.

Suddenly good old logical me was so overwhelmed by emotion. I can’t even tell you what emotion, but it involved a lot of tears and sobs. Nobody was more surprised than me!

As the team began to pray I heard someone ask the Lord to “lift these burdens” from me.

I don’t have words to describe what happened after that except that, like St Thomas in the upper room, I knew that Jesus is alive, knows me personally, loves me personally, no matter what, and had somehow been waiting for me to ask Him to help. The only prayer I could manage was the shortest one I’d ever said - “My Lord and My God”.

That encounter has changed everything and that’s no exaggeration.

I have discovered that the promises in God’s word are true and apply to me, to you, to anyone who comes to Him.

1 Peter 2: 24 “by His wounds you have been healed.”

I don’t have asthma at all, any season; I am over 30 kg lighter; my blood pressure is well under control and that skin cancer, by the time I got around to seeing the specialist it had vanished!

John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, do not be afraid.”

My stress levels are much less – no more drinks after work and I eat food that’s healthy.

Proverbs 3:9,10. “Honour the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops. Then your barns will be filled to overflowing”.

No more rushing about and still being late for everything, – I sleep well, rise early and spend the first and the best of my day in prayer and reading His Word - just because I want and need to spend that time with Him.

Matthew 28:20 “And surely I am with you always even unto the end of the age”.

But best and most amazing of all I don’t have that feeling it’s all down to me, and all about me. I am not alone, my Father in heaven loves, hears me, comforts me; my saviour forgives me, strengthens me, changes me, the Holy Spirit teaches me, guides me, nudges me to do what is right, points my attention to Jesus, and what pleases Him.

I joined the Praise and Worship Group that day – after telling my friend that sort of thing just wasn’t for me – I’m much too practical and scientific? I discovered the joy of praising God, the wonder of reading his word and the encouragement of sharing faith with others. Since then I have attended Life in the Spirit, and Alpha and I will tell anyone who will listen and those who won’t about the grace and love of our Lord. He knows me and I really want to know Him.

I am only just beginning to understand grace - I have been given peace, joy, healing, forgiveness and so much more – salvation and eternal life. The sacraments of the church have come to mean so much more. I am sorry to say that in the past I have taken for granted the gift of the Eucharist and I positively avoided reconciliation. I now experience these sacraments as the greatest of gifts to us. He offers the same to all of us, we just don’t always realise that it’s a personal gift from Him to each one of us.

A wise young man of faith told me that when Jesus moves in He doesn’t just shift the furniture around he tears down the house and sets about building Himself a mansion. I know this is true – I’ve been a counsellor, I know about behaviour modification and I am not this good at it! What I have experienced is His personal transformation. So I guess that this sign around my neck means “Under Construction” and hopefully it will be a long project - the rest of my life.

Oh and although I’ve been talking about my experience, this is not my story. It is a story of our God, His love, His grace, His amazing, unmerited favour.

The gospel of John says it best (3:16) “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.”

1

Hurungwe Discipleship, Feb. 2008

We have listened for a long time to a report from a discipleship visit to Hurungwe, but I can only pick out one or two things here. The team was Manners Sheshe, Catherine Maisiri, and Mrs Melania Mabvira. They set out early on the morning of Thursday 7 February, and returned on Sunday evening, 10 February 2008.

Mr Freeman Mupunga (see post for 9 December, ‘Freeman Mupunga in Hurungwe’) attended the weekend and reported that he is going ahead with ministry, not just in his home area, but also in other places of Hurungwe.

He has recently given a Seminar to an SDA church, at their request. During this Seminar, their leader received the baptism in the Spirit even before they had reached the teaching on this subject. This gave freedom to the others so that, when they arrived at the teaching on baptism in the Spirit, people were open for the Spirit to work in them and they were all baptised in the Spirit and began to pray in tongues. Some of them also attended this weekend of discipleship.

The way God works is sometimes surprising. While it is good to hear this news of SDA members being baptised in the Spirit, nevertheless, they are going to meet with opposition when their fellow church leaders hear about this. I think we can say, however, that God’s purpose in working with them in this way is to lead them and their church to a fundamental renewal and bring a blessing to many people.

We thank God for sending the Holy Spirit and we trust God that He knows what He is doing and that He will help us cope with the reaction of those who do not appreciate the way the Lord is working in his church these days.

The meetings went well over the weekend and people grew as they responded to teachings on various topics. However, on Saturday afternoon heaviness came upon the meeting with the arrival of some new people who did not really come for discipleship but rather to receive prayer help for their various problems. The team discerned the need for deliverance ministry and interrupted their programme to include this ministry, which went on for over three hours.

To give just one example of the fruit of the ministry, there was one woman there who had a problem with her back; she was walking with her back twisted and bent backwards. When they prayed for her, she manifested a spirit and they cast it out. After that, she said she felt free from a pressure that had been upon the area of her waist and she was walking normally, jumping up and down, and rejoicing.

Visit to Trojan Nickel Mine

This report is from Mr Liberty Zinhara

A team of three, Mr Liberty Zinhara (leader), Mrs Gumini and Mrs Mandeya visited Trojan Nickel Mine, Bindura, on 25^th-27^th January 2008.

The BLCC group at Bindura had fallen apart and they had stopped having prayer meetings since various things had affected the whole group. This weekend was a genuine revival as we did point-of-need ministry, going from house to house. We visited over ten families and most of the people we met were between 20 and 40 years old. It was interesting that most of them asked us to minister to them as married couples. Normally men are fewer, but men love to be a part of this group and were even ahead of their wives.

During our ministry, most of the people in the houses we visited were slain in the Spirit when we prayed for them. Some were asking good questions in their keenness to understand. Inner healing was at the top of the ministry since some were in heart-rending situations. Although most were accepting the word of God, at one house the mother tried to resist, but when God visits us, as he did the Israelites in Egypt, He leaves no one out. The Lord took her by surprise and ministered to her and we encouraged her to be one with the rest of the group.

God healed some of the sick and surprised those who were shy by ministering to them in miraculous ways. For example, one woman was on her way urgently to see her son who was dying. The team was not free right then but they anointed her hands and told her to go and pray for him. He was not speaking or even moving but when she prayed for him, he moved in some way, which suggested the Lord was working with him. When the team arrived later, they also prayed for him and he sat up and spoke.

Another woman was shy to speak of certain things but when she did and they prayed for her for inner healing, the Lord brought healing to her heart.

Mr Longwe, at whose house we were staying, had received baptism in the Spirit long ago but had never spoken in tongues. As he was ministering to another man, together with the team, he began to speak in tongues for the first time.

Saturday evening we gathered for a revival meeting. Mrs Mandeya gave a teaching on ‘praise’, Mrs Gumini gave a teaching on ‘revival’, and Mr Zinhara gave a teaching on ‘baptism in the Spirit’. In the ministry that followed, the Holy Spirit was working with people afresh with baptism in the Spirit and new tongues.

On Sunday morning, we visited a few houses. People called us to visit a sick man; he could not walk or do anything but when we prayed for him, God healed him immediately.

We also met with people who were previously leaders of the group and encouraged them to give sufficient time to prayer. We emphasized that leadership was about seeing something from the Lord happening in their prayer meetings, not just boasting that they were leaders and holding soulish prayer meetings. We also encouraged them to see that their meetings offer solutions to the problems of members so that they continue coming to the meetings.

Recommendation

There is need for seminars and for regular visits to this place.

Looking to the Lord for 2008

With the present situation in this country, we decided to go for grass roots ministry this year, rather than for big meetings or conferences.

This was at a Leaders’ Meeting, which we held on Monday evening, 17^th December, to discuss the coming year and try to get the beginnings of a Calendar for 2008. Not all were free to attend but we had Father Michael Hood, Mr Linus Nyakuhwa, Mrs Pelagia Masuku, Mrs Sesedzai Makaure, and Mrs Emma Muvirimi.

We will not exclude big meetings, especially Leaders’ Training Weekends, and perhaps a Community Day. However, there are many people with big needs these days, even in every family. We want to have Saturday training for point-of-need ministry, and we will encourage the Oldies, as well as the Newbies to be there.

We will have another Saturday afternoon session for Seminar training. It will help us to take a fresh look at the Seminar and share our experiences. Bringing people to baptism in the Spirit is something basic to which the Lord has called us and we want to see it happening all over Harare and Chitungwiza.

For a long time, we have neglected discipleship here in Harare, even though we give it when we go out to other areas. We decided to have discipleship at the Community House, every first Saturday of the month, for supportive group leaders, who can then give the same in their own areas. They can come with one or two others and work as a team. We will have to decide with those taking part whether once a month will be enough.

It will be good for supportive group leaders to meet regularly. Besides discipleship, there will be other topics, and they can share experiences and help one another.

People in supportive groups can contribute to transport costs of the leaders and to the cost of photocopying discipleship papers, (we need our own photocopier).

Next meeting will be with Mr Innocent Zininga in early January, on BLCC youth.

This was a good meeting with everyone showing leadership by sharing openly and in a good spirit. It set an example for the whole community. If we all pull together in this way, we will increase our effectiveness for the kingdom of God.

BLCC Calendar for 2008

First Saturday of the month, starting 2 February – Discipleship

Saturday 23 February, 1:30 p.m. – Point-of-need training

Saturday 15 March, 1:30 p.m. – Seminar Training

25–27 April – Leadership Training at Community House

29–31 August – Leadership Training at Community House

5–7 December – Leadership Training at Community House

That is what we have so far.

CHRISTMAS

See http://thegodbox.blogspot.com

Immanuel – God with us

Happy Christmas!

Learning from experience at Chikwaka

Visit to Chikwaka, 7th to 9th Dec. 2007; team: Liberty Zinhara (leader), Ms Viola Motsi, and Colin Makeche.

They say that it is hard for a man to cry, but in Chikwaka, when they gave a Seminar this weekend, they gave the teaching on repenting and believing in more of a preaching way, and men and women cried.

As God is touching people’s lives and meeting their needs, more people are coming to the BLCC Community at Chikwaka to ask about this Jesus.

Those who came at the start and then disappeared are coming back. They are admitting that they cheated us before and pretended to praise God but now they are repenting because they see God is answering the prayers of those who believe in Jesus.

At the last visit, the team prayed for one woman who was disabled and using crutches for eight years. This time they found she had put the crutches aside and she is walking normally.

They had also prayed for a broken marriage. The father had left, and for twelve years was not looking after his family. The team found this time that the man is providing clothing and school fees for the children.

There was also a woman with a hysterical pregnancy. She had consulted n’gangas (witchdoctors) and diviners and this had caused her stomach to swell as if she were pregnant. When she found she did not give birth to a baby, the doctors told her there was no foetus. Nevertheless, she remained with this swollen stomach for twenty-two years. After prayer, she returned to normal.

Recommendation: next time we need a team to continue with point-of-need ministry while others help the people at Chikwaka to give a Seminar.

Based on a report from Mr Liberty Zinhara

COMMENT

There seems to have been some superficiality in our ministry at Chikwaka, when we thought things were going on well, and we have to develop our approach.

Originally, we used to give a Seminar on a weekly basis with one teaching per week; that is probably the best way to give a Seminar. But it is difficult to do it this way with out-going ministry, and we rarely do it that way even in Harare.

Nevertheless, it might be better, especially in a new place, not to give the whole of a Seminar in a single weekend, but to give only two teachings in a weekend, on different evenings, while carrying on with point-of-need ministry during the day. In this way, we will complete a Seminar over three visits.

This will give time for the teachings to sink in, and it will give time for the people to adjust their lives and to grow. It will also encourage the people doing the Seminar if the team visits them in their homes and prays for their personal and family needs.

This could result in a deeper change in a person’s life and a better Seminar.

Discipleship at Fourwire

A team of three gave a discipleship weekend, from 7^th to 9^th December 2007, at Fourwire, in Hurungwe. (The name ‘Fourwire’ comes from when there used to be a game reserve in that area and part of it was fenced with eight wires while another part was fenced with four wires.) The team was Mr Shadreck Makore (leader), Manners Sheshe, and Catherine Maisiri.

Due to funerals in some places, a small group of just over 20 people attended, coming from seven different places. However, it was a Spirit-filled weekend with everyone very much involved. The team gave teachings on private, personal prayer, praise, nine ministerial gifts of the Holy Spirit, tongues, prophecy, and singing ministry.

Mr Makore reports that Manners is a good teacher who teaches with strength and authority; Catherine is also a good teacher though she moves into a preaching style when she gets going.

In discipleship, a practice session always follows the teachings, and we often find that the Lord works in the group according to the subject matter. Manners gave the teaching on the nine ministerial gifts of the Holy Spirit, and one of these gifts is the gift of miracles.

In the group, there was a woman with a problem. She had already shared with Catherine that for three years her breasts had been running continually with milk and even with blood, since the time she had weaned her child. She had been to clinics and to herbalists, to diviners and to independent apostolic churches but had found no help. She had also attended various Pentecostal churches, but her problem persisted.

In the practice session of this teaching, the discipleship group prayed for her as part of the practice. She then went outside with Catherine who confirmed that the flow of milk had dried up. In the evening of that day and at the end of the weekend, she testified again that she was having no problem at all.

There was also a man who had bought a car in the 1980s. The first time he had driven this car, he was suddenly afflicted with a pain in his leg, right up to the hip, and was unable to continue driving. He also had looked everywhere for help without finding any.

When the group prayed for him, he became possessed and began to contort his face, manifesting various creatures, which indicated a number of spirits within him. When the group prayed for deliverance and these evil spirits left him, he found that the problem he had borne all these years had disappeared.

At the house where they held the discipleship, one of the sons and his wife were sitting in the kitchen not taking part because they thought it was not for them since they attended an independent apostolic church. However, the ministry going on in the lounge affected this man and an evil spirit began to afflict him. Mr Makore said he must join the group, not sit in the kitchen. The group prayed for him and set him free. He stayed for the rest of the weekend and said afterwards that he wanted to be there next time they came.

The Lord’s work may sound good in the telling of it, but in the doing of it, it is hard work. Even afterwards, on the return journey, the team had to wait four hours in rainy weather for a bus without seeing one, and then had to take an expensive lift to Banket and boarded a bus for Harare from there, arriving late on Sunday evening. In spite of all this, we thank God for this good weekend.

Freeman Mupunga in Hurungwe

We are finding more and more that people from various churches are interested in what we have to offer in BLCC. It has always been a mark of the Renewal that the Holy Spirit is working in the whole of God’s church, wherever people are open and seeking God’s blessing. It is a simple exercise of discernment to see how the Spirit is working and from that, to find what seems to be God’s way.

When Mr Freeman Mupunga learnt about Jesus and witnessed the power of the Holy Spirit at work in the BLCC group at Marere, in Hurungwe, he said goodbye to Zion, an African Independent Church, to which he had belonged. He joined, instead, the AFM (African Faith Mission) because their way of praying was close to how he had learned to pray in the prayer group. He might even have become a Catholic, but his marriage situation made this difficult.

Soon after this, Freeman moved from Marere to Muzilawempi, an area where there is a big, new Seventh Day Adventist church and where most of the people are SDAs (Seventh Day Adventists).

Freeman is a member of BLCC and he felt within him that he wanted to do the Lord’s work, as he had seen people doing at Marere, so he wanted to start a BLCC group where he was living. The question was how to get these SDA people to listen to him. He found that they wanted to teach him their doctrines rather than to listen to him telling them about Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.

He managed to start a small prayer group when the Lord healed a certain man there of a problem with his legs and he was then able to walk. Jesus healed the sick in the context of preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and it is the same today.

Freeman had many discussions with a woman living next door, but she only wanted to share the issues of her church and did not want to hear his message. One day, however, someone sent a malignant spirit against this woman, which caused her baby to become seriously sick. She had been to the n’ganga (witchdoctor) to no effect and the baby was in danger of dying.

When Freeman came home, he heard the noise going on next door and he started to pray. Eventually, they sent someone to call him to come and help, and he said to the woman, ‘How come you ask me to help? All this time you have been rejecting the Jesus that I pray to?’ The woman knew the baby was in a crisis and she said, ‘Please, pray for my child’.

Freeman went ahead and, in the name of Jesus, came against the spirit that was troubling the child. The child returned to normal, he gave it to the mother, and it started to breast-feed. The woman stood there and started to shake. From that time on, she began coming to the prayer meeting, and others came with her.

There are by now two BLCC prayer groups in that area with around 30 people in each. One of the groups has mainly SDA members while the other, in a different area has people of various churches. Freeman is working to strengthen them with Life in the Spirit Seminars and Discipleship Teachings.

As the prayer groups grew, the leaders of the SDA church came to Freeman with their questions. They especially wanted to know if he planned to take away the members of their church.

He assured them that it was not his plan to take people away from their particular churches, so long as they are good Christians. He explained that BLCC is not a church, it is a Community, and it holds prayer meetings to which any people can come. If this helps them to be more committed to Jesus and to value the work of the Holy Spirit, this can only improve their church.

It seems, then, BLCC includes a group, most of whom are Seventh Day Adventists, with a leader who belongs to African Faith Mission. I would never have planned or even imagined such a thing, but if this is the work of God, let it go ahead and let the gospel be a blessing in people’s lives. We are not trying to take over their church or to take over their people; when God works with people, they become God’s people, whatever church they attend.

It is good to see leadership in Hurungwe; the Holy Spirit and leadership go well together. We expect to hear more reports of how the Lord is using Freeman Mupunga to bring people deeper into God’s kingdom in the Hurungwe area.

The adventures of Sister Epi

From the time she first arrived at the Community House, it was plain that Sister Epiphania was very much a Sister. We used to joke with her and with one another that she saw all the young men in the community as fit material for the seminary, and she was never shy to tell them so. She had come to us in an emergency and we gave her refuge for two or three months while she sorted out her life.

She was the sort of Sister that, if she went to town by bus, in her grey habit and white veil, someone would always stop and give her a free lift. Even if she was accompanying another to the bus stop and was not going anywhere herself, cars would stop and people would try to insist that they give her a lift.

One day she went to town and this big posh car stopped for her. When she was inside, a man in the back spoke to her and said, ‘Are you not going to greet me, Sister?’ It was only then that she realized that Mr Gideon Gono, the governor of the Reserve Bank, was the one giving her a lift.

He joked with her on the way, asking her questions like what she thought was the solution for the economic situation, and what she thought of the President. Sister responded in a similar joking manner, ‘The President? Ah, yes. Who is the President, by the way?’ When she alighted, he said he would have liked to give her a gift but he did not have any money in his pocket, only foreign currency.

Sister had a great gift of ‘helper’, and this was very evident as she made herself useful in different ways in the house. What she lacked, however, was the gift of tongues, and this she very much wanted. We did try to help her with this but we could see she was not ready and so we decided not to hurry but to give her time.

Eventually, we were having a Seminar at the Community House and I said to her, ‘Sister, you are taking part in this together with everyone else.’ She did not seem too happy about that but seemed to think that, as a Sister, she should be helping to give it, not to take part. However, when the time came she was there, in humble obedience, sitting on the carpet together with the others.

When we reached the time of preparation for baptism in the Spirit and people were praising God aloud, Sister Epi was quiet and ‘in her place’. I started to move her around a bit and prevented her from returning to her usual place. I have to confess that I took her by the shoulders and shook her and shouted in her ear that she should forget for now that she is a Sister and open her heart up to the Lord and praise Him right out loud. Did I overdo it? I felt I had, but Sister accepted it and responded. Anyway, by the end, we were all happy that Sister was praying in tongues along with everyone else.

Sister Epi would go occasionally to Archbishop’s House seeking help for her problems. When she did this, she would always have two or even three bishops, as well as one or two priests, listening to her and giving her advice.

She was coming one day from such a visit and mulling over their advice as she walked through town when she suddenly realized she was in the midst of lots of expensive cars and police and soldiers. Sister Epi realized she was in the midst of government ministers and even the president, as she could hear the voice of president Mugabe calling out from his car, ‘This is my Sister; she is a Sister from my church’.

One big police officer, with buttons and badges on his uniform, came up to her and told her she was not supposed to be in this area. Sister began to apologise and wanted to leave but he said, ‘No, you must stay and say a prayer for us.’

She said she would pray for them as she went, but the officer said, ‘No, you must pray right here’. She was shaking as she prayed aloud there for all those big people, for wisdom for the President, and whatever else, but they were supporting her with big ‘Amens’ and other encouraging comments.

What plans does the Lord have for our Sister Epi’s life that He puts her through such experiences? Sisters and priests can be the most difficult people to help. Many of them seem so fixed in their way of life that they are not very sensitive to the wind of the Spirit. Yet they are God’s servants and the Lord is with them.

Anyway, Sister Epi is now in Zambia for a while. She was in tears when she left us, and I knew we would miss her too. We wait to hear what other tales she will have to tell us when she gets back.

BLCC November Report - from Tafara/Mabvuku

INTRODUCTION

Men were given the floor to lead the Sunday prayer meetings for the whole month of November. This was done to encourage men to fully participate in the prayer meeting. Usually men prefer to sit at the back and interact with only a few people after the meeting. New male members are sometimes left alone, with no male counterparts to help them understand the proceedings of the prayer meeting.

This really worked out so well because each and everyone tried hard to participate throughout the prayer meeting. Some members, who have never participated, were motivated to participate.

LEADING

The following members led the sessions throughout the month, Richard Vheremu, Nomore Mahovo, Derek Nyakupinda (2 sessions), and Sekuru Chiwaura. It was first time for Derek to lead any prayer session, but people were blessed on both occasions. Nomore, Richard, and Sekuru Chiwaura were also known preachers. One person was leading every week though he was free to nominate anyone to assist him, for example, greeting visitors. Team attendance also improved from average of 3 people to about 6, with men dominating the attendance. The above indicated that individuals can be multi–talented, meaning one person can sing, preach and lead, though people had a tendency of concentrating on one gift only.

PREACHING

Regarding preaching, the people who usually preach, preached, these are the likes of Alois Mahovo, Nomore Mahovo, and one week we had to accommodate a visitor as a way of welcoming him – Baba Bwanaisa. The following week Charles Mahovo preached. It was his first time to preach but again people were blessed.

Men could however not give testimonies. This has been a standing problem for sometime. They only give testimonies once in a while and average one person over a long period like a month. The other reason could be that most of them do not attend supportive group (cell group) prayers due to various commitments which range form work to study, unlike most women who are not employed who try to spend as much time as possible meeting and praying. Men are generally shy to stand before a congregation.

SINGING

Singing was another area which lacked something, though they tried. I would say this “awakened” them as they felt the responsibility was in their court. At least those who could not sing would agree by clapping hands etc.

ATTENDANCE

Attendance in number did not change but intercession improved. People have a tendency of coming to intercede when they have been given something to do. This motivated them as they also felt that they are equally recognized in the group.

CONCLUSION

As much as possible men should be given the floor to participate. They have the gifts but lack motivation. There is room for the group to grow if men continue participating fully in the group. New members who may be men would feel encouraged to come to the sessions, currently the perception is that the group is female dominated and somehow, they think it “a women’s group”, but if they see men being active they are bound to be convinced that it is for everyone.

Men tend to be more gifted in preaching and teaching above everything else.

Notes:

1. This report has been compiled by one individual.

2. It is purely based on personal observations.

3. I did not manage to comment fully on week 23.11.07, as I was attending a conference in Chitungwiza.

4. By men I referred to both men and boys.

5. Verses preached were not included due to time limitations but may however be given in due course.

6. The practice did not end on men; December has been given to girls only, women excluded.

7. The whole aim it to try and make every member recognize their potential and ministry should grow to the fullest.

By Evelyn Mahovo