The Sunday Mail
The 2015 Easter commemorations were the most memorable for this writer. It was a time to reaffirm my faith, knowing full well that I am the reason for Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, death and resurrection.
The Lord’s outpouring love and grace was evident when He preserved my life after “smash and grab” thieves hit the vehicle I was travelling in on Easter Monday evening.
But they only managed to get away with less than $50. Thus I have every reason to proclaim that my God is “my refuge and my fortress, in whom I trust.”
It was also a season when I saw that Zimbabweans are not “too busy for God” as televangelist Pastor Rod Parsley said in his message of April 4.
He wrote, “A woman who attended church occasionally was asked by a friend from her church what she thought about eternal life. She replied, ‘Are you serious? I don’t have time for that. I have a business to run and three children to raise and believe me, that keeps me hopping.”
The countless Easter services all over the country were a testimony to that.
While I attended services in different churches, the climax was the colourful ordination of Apostle Tendai and Prophetess Sithembile Bernice Masawi of Action Family International Ministries, in Harare’s Budiriro 5 suburb. They were ordained in the evening on Easter Sunday.
The “official ordination” was conducted by Apostolic Flame Ministries of Zimbabwe visionary Bishop Oliver T. Chipunza who prefaced his sermon with remarks that the devil had weakened the church in Zimbabwe because the current indigenous men and women of God are going about the Lord’s work, without an “ordained covering”.
He also outlined the roles of an Apostle and a Prophetess.
It was the first time that this writer witnessed an ordination in a Pentecostal church.
Apostle Masawi said his ordination was a historic event since it was taking place during the “Passover celebrations in the Shemitah year (Deuteronomy 15:1-2), and coinciding with the four blood moons.”
Those who study the prophetic say that the Shemitah year’s significance cannot be underestimated, because it is “the seven-year mystery that is essential to understanding the past, the present and the future.” (Jonathan Cahn)
Next week, we bring you the interview that Tendai Manzvanzvike had with Apostle Masawi just before the ordination, including the issues that Bishop Chipunza raised regarding the importance of ordination for indigenous men and women of God, most of whom have given themselves titles, but lack the requisite covering that comes with the ordination that is performed mostly by mainline churches.
