Bus ride to Gokwe

The bus journey to Nemangwe, in the Gokwe area of Zimbabwe, turned out to be a school of patience. By 6:00 a.m., Thursday 9^th October, it had filled up with passengers at Mbare Musika and set off; it went only as far as Sunningdale, where it joined the queue for diesel. When it had refuelled, after two hours in the queue, it went to the bus garage.

There they found that the bus was in need of repair and the passengers had to transfer to another bus. This other bus had to go first to another garage for the repair of its faulty brakes. Eventually, by 12:00 midday, they were at last on their way to Gokwe.

The team we sent on this journey to Gokwe were Constantine Gomo (leader), Michael Sheshe, Charity, and Cynthia. They sang and prayed while waiting for fuel; at one point, they had their breakfast that they had carried with them, or was it their lunch?

They had boarded the first bus in good time and they had their seats. However, when they had to change buses, other people rushed in and took the seats so they were standing, or somehow managing to sit on their luggage, until the last 40 kilometres of the journey.

When they got seats again, they decided it was time to start ministering, so they preached repentance to the whole bus; Gomo started then Mike, then Charity; Cynthia gave her support where she could.

Charity had to stop in the middle of her word when they arrived at Gokwe Centre, but when they got moving again some were calling out, ‘We want the word’, so she continued.

Gomo then came in again and announced that the gospel is not only the word but also the power of God, and he asked any who were sick to raise their hands and they would pray for them. One or two mocked when he said that, but when some of the passengers claimed they were healed by the prayer, they were silent.

They arrived at Nemangwe at about 7:00 p.m. People were asking them for their addresses and phone numbers and people from two places invited them to come and preach at their places.

The team did point-of-need ministry at Nemangwe and were able to visit one of the places where people from the bus had invited them. There they taught on deliverance and on baptism in the spirit and the Lord worked with them when they ministered. They returned to Harare on Tuesday getting back by evening.

For sure, the journey had been a school of patience, but it also turned out to be a school of ministry.