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.