The Sunday Mail
Tendai Manzvanzvike Divine Appointment —
Zimbabwean pastor Henry Madava has been pastoring a mega-church in Kiev, Ukraine, for years.
He is a man that God raised from our nation in 1986 to go and study aeronautical engineering at Kiev Institute of Civil Aviation Engineers in the former Soviet Union.
However, six years later in 1992, Pastor Madava started a church with just three people, and today, he is not only the senior pastor of Victory Christian Church in Kiev, Ukraine; he also founded Christ for All Cities Ministries.
His ministry is reportedly now one of the biggest churches in the former Soviet Republic. According to information on his church’s website, Pastor Madava “is a well-known preacher and speaker at many conferences. He has preached the Word of God in more than 46 countries”, including Asia, the Middle East, Europe, the Americas and Africa.
His mission is to assist people “find salvation through Jesus Christ and take full advantage of productive life in the society. He is working in God’s vineyard teaching and preaching the truth in Ukraine and all around the world. Consistent and explicit teaching of the Word of God makes his preaching easily understood by everyone.”
In one press statement, Pastor Madava declared, “In the 21st Century, people, as never before, are in desperate need of God. God desires for all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of His truth. – ‘How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?’” (Romans 10:14)
Charisma editor J. Lee Grady interviewed Pastor Madava a few years ago and wrote an article on him titled “America: Please Don’t Lose the Anointing.”
After talking with Pastor Madava, Grady was convinced that “God has anointed men and women from the developing world to lead the church in the 21st Century” – and advised American believers – “we would do well to emulate them.”
Grady asked pastor Madava how the American church had influenced the former Soviet Union and the Zimbabwean pastor was “brutally honest” in his analysis, saying, “You can change the world with lots of money and television, or you can use the power of God. I prefer God’s power.”
Grady also says American pastors can learn a lot from the Kiev-based Zimbabwean pastor for Pastor Madava “has been tested by fire on more than one occasion. When he started his ministry in Kiev, leaders in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church accused him of using ‘African hypnosis’ to put people under a spell.”
Pastor Madava was also called a drunk and a Satanist, and Grady says he received many death threats. “Once, someone shot a gun into his church office; another time a dead cat was left outside the door,” but all this has not deterred his resolve to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for he is a man on a mission.
At the time of the interview with Grady, Pastor Madava had planted 85 churches in Ukraine, and 23 others the world over.
He also conducts a number of pastors’ training conferences in the Middle East and is not dependent on funding from American partners saying that “he trusts God to supply” all his needs.
He also made a startling revelation when he told Grady that “the only churches growing here (in Ukraine) are the ones that are not dependent on the United States or Sweden.”
Wow! When some of our pastors would give anything to get trinkets from the United States, Pastor Madava’s lesson is that the Lord is the sole provider.
He also implored Americans not to spoil people in developing nations with money, arguing that the pastors in these developing nations need to “take ownership of their nations.”
Grady says that it’s not that Pastor Madava dislikes Americans, but his concerns are about the “superstar syndrome” that plagues US men and women of God.
“It is a virus in America. Leaders seem to forget where they come from. They are trying to get into ‘the club’, but if the spring of a river stops, the river will eventually dry up.”
This is also how Pastor Madava described their anointing: “Many leaders in America have received the anointing but they have become clouds without water. Most of them seem to lose the anointing. I wish the American church could keep the water in the cloud.”
Racism is one of the challenges that Pastor Madava has had to contend with since starting the church 25 years ago.
He told Grady: “At first I did not want to stay in Kiev because of the racism.”
He said God then showed him “that the racism was not just in them. It was in me, (and) God so delivered me that now it does not bother me at all.”
The racism was confirmed by Bishop Dag Heward-Mills of Lighthouse Church International, Accra, Ghana, when he was preaching on “Fathers and loyalty” at Pastor Madava’s church in 2012.
Below is an excerpt of what Bishop Heward-Mills said, as he rebuked the congregation about racism:
“It’s a great honour and I want to thank Pastor Henry for inviting me. He has been with us a number of times in Ghana, and he has always been a great blessing.
“The first time I met him was in Seattle many years ago, when I heard him speaking, I felt in myself that there were few people who spoke the way he spoke today. And so, I am very happy to be associated with him in any way, and I hope that those of you in Victory Church appreciate what you have.
“Do you appreciate the pastor God has given you? I want to share with you about loyalty and disloyalty. … Many people don’t understand what your father is doing for you. Pastor Madava is far more important than Benny Hinn or myself. He is the one who has led the red carpet for other people to come here. Your honour must go towards the father that God has given to you.
“Unfortunately because we are a family, many people are offended by their fathers. They walk out of the church; they get angry with the pastor; they criticise him; and, they see his faults. It is easy to turn against your own father because when you are close with somebody for some time, you see his faults, and this is what brings the greatest curses on people who could have been great pastors…
“It’s easy because you don’t know who you are dealing with. You can get angry with your friend, but not your father. Father is different. Yes, a father is different. Your father has done many more things that you don’t know about. … Ham’s curse came because somebody thought they could trifle with their father,” said Bishop Heward-Mills.
Now the rebuke: “Listen to me, those of you super-righteous people of Ukraine – Mr good man; Mr never do wrong! … Some of you have the audacity to get up and talk about Pastor Madava. Would you have been a Christian today if he had not come from Zimbabwe to spend all his life here?
“Some of you, he has been your pastor all these years, and suddenly, you realise he is a black man today. After all these years, now you are conscious that he is a black man?
“When he was preaching for you to be saved, you didn’t know whether he was black or red, now that an evil spirit has entered, you say he is a black man. Watch out!
“When he was building the arc (like Noah) to save you from the water, to save your life, to save your ministry, you didn’t know whether he was red, blue or green, but today you have a mouth, you can see good and bad. Those of you who are in this church, you must love your pastor, your father and honour him more than anybody else,’’ Bishop Heward-Mills said.
What makes Pastor Madava move on in the face of adversity? Prayer. It’s that important to him.
In the interview with Grady, he revealed: “Every three months, I go away for a week to seek God. That is the only way I can stay sharp. That way, I don’t just give off smoke, thinking that I am burning.”
Source: www.thegospeltruthministry.com Feedback: [email protected]
