I received the Lord Jesus as my personal Saviour on the 11^th July, 1984. I was a teenage boy at the age of 15yrs and still at high school. When I got born again I felt so moved by the Spirit of God to witness Jesus Christ to the youth of my age. I started sharing the word of God with my school mates to an extent that I asked the school authority to give me time during parade before school lessons to share the word of God to which they accepted. Each morning I would be given 15 min of preaching. I remember very well the school teachers questioning ability and the passion for souls that I had. They could not believe my confidence and the Power of God’s word and the touch of the Holy Spirit. The school authority later on organized a lunch hour preaching for me, where I could preach to the school staff and pupils. Some of the students gave me nicknames like Rev, Bishop, Pastor, Prophet etc, because of my zeal and commitment to the Lord.

 

In the church by then I was in the outreach team that was involved in witnessing the word of God in the community around and outside the city Harare, I got in the crusade team in 1986 which was to open some preaching points and establish new church assemblies for our congregation.

 

When I finished the academic school I started praying for God to provide a good job for me to work. It was not in me to be a pastor. I could set days for prayer and fasting and one night when I was praying in the bush alone God spoke to me with an audible voice that I would get employment for a while and then leave it for his work. The following day I went to look for employment. When I reached the gate of a certain engineering company I felt the inner spirit in me saying you will get work here. I stopped at the gate while I was speaking to the security officer and the boss of that company came by and said to me do you need some work? During my days off I would go to a different place where I would be assigned by my Pastor to go and preach. That’s when we opened Chivhu as a preaching point. I was appointed youth church leader for all our churches in Zimbabwe for the United Assemblies in Africa.

 

So in 1988 the Lord said to me I should leave my work for His work for he had many souls that He wanted to reach through me in the world over and I did not understand, since I was already involved in His work but He meant it full-time. So one day at work I felt moved by compassion for the lost souls and I was singing quietly and inwardly, the whispering voice of the Lord said it was time up. I was now supposed to go in to full time work for the Lord. That was the time I was enjoying work since I was promoted to a higher office at work.

 

The place where I was working offered me more money and better work conditions but I turned down the offer to work for the Lord. I continued with my new plan to go to bible training institute in February 1989. The opening of the bible school had begun for a week by then. So when I got to the school, the Dean of the students told me that the school had no vacancy, since that year they had the highest enrolment, but I would leave my details for the following year, and I said I did not want for the following year but that current year. So he said he would share with the principal of the college who was an American. So I was to come the following day. When I went back the following day the Dean shocked me when he said the college principal had said that the rest of the students may go home and I get the vacancy, I didn’t know him neither did he know me. So I was enrolled at the college for 3 years. The money I had saved when I was at work was not enough to see me through for the 3 years, so one day the college principal said that to me I should supervise the campers for the school holidays to see to it that no vandalism would be there over the holiday. He then said he would pay my school fees and I said God you are wonderful.

 

In the final year of my school, my Pastor advised me to pray for who would be my life wife partner - to which I shared the issue to my college friends to help me to pray, when the vision for Jane came I said Lord not Jane, and my friends said she was ok for me. Even my Pastor, but I had other thoughts “I said no” for I knew she was an orphan and I thought the burden would be too much for me. After several months of prayer I was fully convinced that I should marry her and I got married in 1991 and we have 3 children together a boy and 2 girls.

 

When I finished training I became a local pastor for a church in Harare which was growing so fast and then I was told to go and lead a church in Chivhu which was very remote and it was like starting again. I accepted and said He who called me would look after me. It had not many strong members; most of the pastors did not want to work in that area. When I got to Chivhu I started doing tent making like Paul did. I could preach and witness Christ in the community and in the same time doing craft work to keep me going with the family. It was just hard for me, but the grace of God saw us through. One day I met an Australian man by the name of Errol who was a sculpture collector, and we later did business together. He would give me orders and he turned out to be our friend in need and in deed. He had done everything to make us live and the church. Together with his help to mention just a few, we have put up a church building and the congregation is full of joy and life and is growing numerically. To us he is the vessel that God is using to spread His word in Zimbabwe.

 

May the good God richly bless him and his family and those who would be willing to be used in the same way?

 

In His Service

Pastor Makoni Goredema