"Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein" (Psalm 146:5-6).

The verse above outlines three mighty wonders of the Lord, i.e. the heaven, the earth and the sea. For the past twenty one years of my life, I had only encountered one of these three mighty wonders, the earth. Thank God, this month I had my first encounter with another mighty wonder of the Lord, the sea.

I have spent my entire school holiday in our neighboring country, South Africa. I am sure that most of you can easily locate South Africa on the world map. This is the country where the 2010 soccer world cup is going to be held. I was staying in Hillcrest, Durban. About few miles from our home there was one of the mighty wonders of God, the sea. This maiden trip of mine to South Africa led to my first encounter with the sea. Often times I would spend my time at the beach, witnessing this mighty creation of the Lord as I swim in the salty waters of the sea.

I have always read about culture shock, language barrier and fear of the unknown when traveling to a strange country. I experienced all this phenomena during my stay in South Africa. The natives there speak several languages, including Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, Venda, Afrikaans, among other languages. The official language is English though, but most people I met could not speak it. I was used to my country, Zimbabwe, where you can converse in English with almost everyone you meet. Maybe that explains why, at some point, Zimbabwe has the highest literacy rate in Africa. I don’t know if this statistic is still so at present. Despite the language barrier, we somehow managed to communicate with each other. Some of the people speak good English. Thank God, I managed to learn some few convenient Zulu, to be able to communicate. Where I come from, I speak Shona as my first language and no one knew this language.

The distance from Harare, Zimbabwe to Durban, South African spans for thousands of kilometers, but I thank the Lord that I traveled safely, thanks to Evangelist Rai, Patricia Ayemou, Eric Aboadwe, John Stanners and other coworkers, for their powerful and effective prayers. We arrived at the boarder at around 2am and we passed through Mussina, Polokwane, Midrand, Pretoria, Johannesburg, Pietermaritzburg before we finally arrived in Durban. The bus was a double-decker and I was sitting upstairs. From there, I would see beautiful views of the land of South Africa. The country is under massive construction, in preparation for the world cup next year. The roads are being widened; new buildings are being constructed, with old ones being developed. South Africa is almost four times bigger than my country.

It took me three days to travel to Durban. I left Harare on Friday and arrived in Durban on Sunday morning. I was met by my brother, and born again saint, Maxwell, who kept me busy for the whole day. I emailed Pastor John Shin, the General Secretary, requesting him to give me some contacts of coworkers in South Africa. He responded the following day. I had contacts of three coworkers who are Zimbabwean, but they work in South Africa. I would often meet with them to share some experiences and for fellowship. The other day Coworker Naboth took me to this recording studio, where we were scheduled to do some voice translation from English to Shona. A regional Christian radio station which broadcasts in several countries in Southern Africa wanted us to do some part time broadcasting in Shona, for the benefit of millions of Shona speaking listeners in Zimbabwe.

After we finished the recording project, it was time for the Great Commission. My general assessment showed that the gospel of water and the Spirit was not very popular in South Africa, as compared to Zimbabwe. We spent the whole week with some Zimbabwean coworkers, planning on how we were going to deliver our sermon on the gospel of water and the Spirit the following Sunday. Deacon Naboth leads this congregation in Molweni and we were going to use it as a platform. I was assigned to prepare a written sermon which was going to be delivered by Deacon Naboth. The sermon was titled "God is Our Protection ." The strategy of the sermon was to go in circles, until it finally arrives at the point of launching the gospel of water and the Spirit. The sermon was assessed by the coworkers and was well delivered in simple English by Coworker Naboth. People received it satisfactorily. We promised to give them books later on. I am sure Coworker Naboth will be ordering a few boxes.

Coworker Naboth is also the Head of Publication of our church’s monthly newsletter, MICA Bulletin™, which is printed in South Africa and distributed in Zimbabwe. I am the Editor of the newsletter. We didn’t have a church related headline this month, and we decided to include an article about the gospel of water and the Spirit as the headline. The article was written by Coworker T. Mutembwa and was titled ARE YOU BORN AGAIN? MICA Bulletin is read by 7 000 readers every month. I am sure that where our voices may not reach, our texts will reach, as the gospel of water and the Spirit must be preached to all nations.

During the time I spent with some coworkers and born again saints, I learnt one great lesson. I learnt that we always have to work with each other and operate in teams, for the gospel to be spread effectively. It is much easier for people to preach the gospel of water and the Spirit when they are a time. I am sure it is much easier also for people to easily understand it that way. I encourage coworkers to always work in groups if they can, as I have seen this bringing positive results. When you are working together, all your weaknesses are turned into strengths.

The people I have met here were always talking about the 2010 soccer world cup as an opportunity to make huge business earnings. All nations of the world will be gathered in South Africa. I was telling some coworkers that, this is a rare opportunity also for us to take the true gospel to all those people from various nations. I am sure that his grace Reverend Paul C. Jong will agree with me. From what I read, he is a soccer lover and he plays too. I have been discussing with the Zimbabwean coworkers who are based in South Africa and some born again saints about some strategies which we can implement so that we can make the most out of the 2010 soccer world cup, in terms of diffusing the gospel of water and the Spirit. Surely, we the coworkers in the Southern Africa region must do something.

Sister Patricia’s text message motivated me to share this experience with you. She said “Ok brother... I believe you had great time over there. May God protect you during your return, hoping to hear from you how saints spread the word there. God bless.”

Yours in His Vineyard

Clemence T. Machadu
www.nlmbookcafe.com/blog/clemence
www.nlmzimbabwe.com