Report: Gokwe

The Spirit blows where He wills in Gokwe

Mrs Anna Tsanga was a victim of the tsunami. This was not the tsunami that the whole world knows about, but the tsunami that Zimbabwe knows about. Here, ‘tsunami’ is a nickname given to the clean up exercise in which many people lost their homes and sources of income.

After struggling for a long time to find new accommodation, Mrs Tsanga eventually made a firm decision that she must return to her rural home in Gokwe, a remote area about 300 kilometres from Harare, rather than be a burden on her daughter and son-in-law. We did not want to lose her since she was a BLCC leader in Chitungwiza, a place just outside Harare, but eventually we had to accept that God had his own plans for her.

After some months she returned for a visit and gave a testimony at the Sunday prayer meeting that showed us that the Lord is ready to do something at Gokwe. We decided to send two people to support her and to get people ready for a Life in the Spirit Seminar. We call it ‘kugobora’, this means to dig out the tree stumps. You cannot plough virgin land until you have first got rid of the stumps, and you sometimes cannot give a Seminar until the ground of people’s hearts is prepared in some way.

So, last weekend we sent Mrs Sharai Chanetsa and Lazarus Kudiwa to Gokwe. Mrs Chanetsa works at Kingdom Bank as an item processor, and Lazarus is a young man that was working as a salesman but is now out of work. He spends most of his time visiting people with problems and meeting them with prayer at their point of need, either individuals or families or groups. Both of them have experience in the Lord’s work and together with Mrs Tsanga they made a formidable trio.

It soon became clear that Mrs Tsanga had been putting her leadership qualities to work in the parish there. Gokwe is a place where the people seem to know nothing of the Renewal God is bringing about in His church. When Mrs Tsanga prayed for sick persons in the parish and they saw they were healed, they thought she must be a Satanist. (That word gets bandied about too much these days.) They were happy to learn from the people from Harare that these things are happening these days, both in their church and in other churches.

They had no chance to visit people in their homes. Instead, a small group of 20 or 25 people assembled at the house of Mrs Tsanga, and they were hungry to learn all they could. The team taught them about Jesus and what He could do for them. They taught them about the Holy Spirit and about the Charismatic Renewal and about BLCC (The Blood of the Lamb Christian Community). We did not plan to give them a Seminar this time, but they brought in the teaching of the three hearts, which comes in Seminar One, to give them some homework while waiting for our next visit.

They also taught them to praise God all together in a word of praise and they responded wholeheartedly. The team were surprised and delighted to see the Spirit come upon them during this praise. Many of them were slain in the Spirit and a number of them were baptized in the Spirit and praying in tongues.

The Lord does not wait for us and our plans. He does not wait for our Seminars. When He sees people’s hearts are ready for it, He can and does pour out His Spirit upon them as they are. God’s love is going out to people these days and He wants to work in their lives with His divine power. It is as if God wants to bring as many people as possible to salvation, or deeper into His kingdom while there is still time.

The people in this group were from various churches and some of them were asking, ‘What about us? We see this is good. Are we allowed to come and pray in this way?’ Mrs Chanetsa replied, ‘You must stay where you are in your own churches. You can come and pray and make the Seminar when we come again. What you learn there, you can go back to your own churches and teach them about it. God’s church is the whole of Christianity and God wants all people to be saved and to receive the baptism in the Spirit.’ The people were pleased to hear this.

Something is growing at Gokwe and next time we go there we expect to see many people ready for a Seminar. It is clear that Mrs Anna Tsanga has been praying at Gokwe. All leadership in the kingdom of God starts there. Without prayer we will be only following our own plans. When we pray we give God a way in and allow Him to bring His own answers to the problems in people’s lives.

Apologies for all the religious jargon here. We hope to provide links to explanations of some of the words and phrases as soon as we can manage it.