Testimony from Rwandan prison.
The 6th of April 1994 was a fateful day in the history of Rwanda, to be remembered as the day that the genocide began. In the devastating 100 days that followed, an estimated 800 000 Rwandans were killed. Most of those killed belonged to the ethnic minority group, the Tutsi’s.
Today, Karuanda prison in the Huye district of Rwanda is home to many genocide perpetrators. During the Huye mission, Evangelist Albert Mabasi, AE Rwanda Mission Director, went to this prison to follow up with some inmates who had responded to the Gospel earlier in the week. Himself a genocide survivor, Albert was shaken by the experience:
“I am a genocidal survivor, and for sure it is my first time going in there… I immediately think of my family that I lost during the genocide against the Tutsi’s in 1994. I was so scared standing in front of them, imagining if they all wanted to tear me to pieces! But within that scary mood, I felt that compassion that Jesus had when he saw weary people, and the Holy Spirit told me to love them like Jesus. I took a breath and felt the spirit of love in me towards them, because they also needed the Gospel to set them free even though they were enclosed in prison. I thought of the scripture found in Matthew.9:36. ‘but when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd’. Therefore, I started preaching to them freely with much compassion but surely it was not easy.”
At AE, we are so grateful that Christ died to save sinners, and we are humbled by the willingness of evangelists like Albert to carry His love into the most difficult of places. Praise be to God that He “uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of Him everywhere” (2 Corinthians 2:14).
AE team leaders can tell many amazing stories of redemption, and it’s not often that we have an opportunity to hear about their own journey, and what underpins their life-long commitment to evangelism. In this article, we cover the early life of African Enterprise’s Bishop Guide Makore and his pathway to evangelist and team leader of African Enterprise Zimbabwe.
Guide Makore was born on the 14th of November 1967, in the city of Gweru in Zimbabwe. Born third of five children, Guide’s earliest memories are of the care of his maternal grandmother, who raised both him and his siblings while his mother was a resident house carer on a nearby homestead. His father lived apart in a distant village, and rarely came to see his children and did not provide financial support.
To help earn money for his family, which was largely living in poverty, Guide’s grandmother would brew traditional beer to sell at the markets. Not wanting to waste any of the bi-products of the brew, she’d mix in the leftover fermented home-brewed traditional beer with his lunch, served in a disposable plastic container, “I remember that cup so well,” Guide reflects. “I didn’t realise that at a young age I was basically intoxicated as a result of these fermented herbs and I was constantly sleepy.”
At the time, people in his village were also under threat from guerillas and national forces fighting the Rhodesian War. For his own protection, his mother’s employer, who served in the airforce, invited her family to live at the homestead with his wife and children.
The location of the homestead also happened to be the home town of his father, and as a result of the new close proximity with his dad, he started to form a relationship with him and miss him greatly when he was away. To satisfy his yearning, he pleaded to be able to travel to be with his dad, and after a couple of years of this, his dad decided that Guide could come with him.
However, the idyllic perception of being close to dad did not come close to reality. On his first trip away, he was left to live with his paternal grandmother and did not see his father again for almost a year. As a result of inter-village family issues, he also did not see his mother or maternal grandmother again for the next 6 years.
Understandably, the situation came as a complete surprise to Guide, being abandoned for the second time by his father, but this time it was a far worse situation, now being raised by a new family and without contact of his mother and grandmother. “I thought my father was hiding somewhere in the house at first,” Guide said. “But as the weeks went by I asked my grandmother if he was coming back, and she said that he wasn’t.”
As months went by, his new grandmother enrolled him in the local school and life started afresh as an eight-year-old. In his new home he had access to more food, and a slightly better quality of life. However, the situation eventually took its toll on the young Guide, and he found eventually that he was crying day and night over his situation. It was his constant distress that eventually came to the attention of villagers, and through their intervention, his father eventually visited on occasion, but did not reconnect him with his mother.
Around 6 years later, Guide moved into an apartment his father owned in the capital city Harare and he finally made contact again with his mother during school holiday periods. Aged 14 at this stage, Guide started to become influenced by drinking and escaping the daily grind with his friends. However, God soon intervened in his life to prevent further escalation of his issues.
Coming across a tent crusade in the city, Guide finally heard about the loving fatherly nature of God, who’d come to save him through His son Jesus Christ. The words affected him powerfully, and at that meeting Guide accepted Christ into his life. Following the meeting, all the new converts met weekly at the tent church, and they were provided with a minister.
Sadly, the small group couldn’t raise enough to support the minister. When he left, they continued to gather, singing songs, praying and waiting for breakthrough to come as well as adding donations to a locked box the former pastor had left behind.
Then, some ladies in the church asked Guide to preach. Somewhat forthrightly they announced that they had tasked him with preparing a sermon for the following week. Somewhat taken aback by this ‘request’, Guide told them he didn’t have a Bible. The retort from the ladies was “That’s why we asked you a week early!”.
There was no getting around this, so taking up the challenge, Guide joined the local scripture union to find inspiration for his message and was given a Bible by one of the members. After preparing a sermon based on material he obtained, he found that he actually had a gift of preaching. The congregation were thrilled by his message! There was no going back from there, and Guide became the preacher over the next two years from age 15.
Two years after the tent crusade had completed, the original minister who preached there came to visit the village and was astounded to see that the group was still meeting! He wanted to know who was preaching, and they invited him to hear Guide speak. He was sufficiently impressed to endorse Guide’s role as a preacher. As a gift to the visiting minister, he received the original locked donation box the small church had been contributing to over all these years.
Guide continued to lead the church, and was eventually heard by a visitor from African Enterprise called Sheke Masila, who happened to run the youth evangelistic program. Recognising Guide’s ability to reach to younger people, Sheke invited Guide to join the Foxfires.
Guide became one of six Foxfire leaders, preaching in farms, cities and border towns. He was then accepted into a Pentecostal bible college.
The Principal accepted Guide in good faith, recognizing that Guide had no financial support but would pay colleges fees when he could, and he offered every service he could including food and board until Guide could achieve this. “God will provide”, Guide told the Principal, and indeed that came to pass, with an anonymous donor taking care of all his costs over three years.
With support funds received, he was able to assist not only his fellow students, but his sisters who needed assistance to attend school. After all the challenges, he reconciled with his dad and family and finally his dad provided some support and a new suit for his graduation day!
Guide’s ministry progressed as an evangelist and church planter, and he planted new congregations in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and even in the UK. He took on other roles with Bible Society (as Chairman) and leadership roles within the church and faith-based organisations, before finally being appointed Team Leader of African Enterprise in 2011.
Through his varied life experiences, in obedience to the Great Commission and Great Command Guide retains his passion to see every believer have their own bible, for lives and communities to be transformed through Jesus. He wants to encourage all of us to stay strong in the faith and reach others for Jesus. Who knows if there is another budding evangelist like Guide, just waiting for the opportunity to witness to hundreds of thousands of people and bring many into the kingdom of God, through Word and Deed.
For those of us reading his story, Guide provides with some final encouraging words. “God does not call the qualified but he qualifies the called”, he said. “Do not be limited by your background, upbringing or past experiences. Like in my testimony, God can turn your trials in triumph, your testing into a testimony, your rags into riches, stumbling blocks into stepping stones, your bitter lemon into lemonade according to Ephesians 3:20. I therefore challenge you in your sphere of influence to seriously consider giving chance and opportunity to those budding, passionate, gifted and talented people, quite promising, but lacking the means and encouragement.”
More details about AE evangelists and their countries of operation are found here: https://africanenterprise.com.au/our-locations/
Ethiopia is a rugged, land-locked country, rich in ancient history.
Home to the powerful Aksumite trading empire for over 800 years, the region is littered with the ruins of rock-cut churches from the 12th and 13th centuries. Currently, nearly half of Ethiopia’s population are members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.
In order to empower the Christian leaders of the future, African Enterprise once again hosted their Students Discipleship Program (SDP) in schools during 2019, offering young people a chance to gain a better understanding of the Bible and the Christian faith. Over the last two years, tens of thousands of students have taken part in the Program, and the results have been encouraging.
Dawit attended the program as an 18-year-old and described how “the SDP has helped me grow as a young Christian believer. In the consecutive years of my attendance, I learnt that God is the creator of the universe, that Jesus Christ died for me and I am saved through faith in Him… Because of this program I now am able to explain the Biblical worldview to my classmates.”
16-year-old attendee Eden said, “One of the most important lessons I have learnt through SDP is reading and understanding the Bible. Though I have the Bible I was not reading it. But now I have learnt the ‘keys’ of studying the Bible. Now I have started to read daily. I have also started to share what I have read to my friends in school. I have also become a youth fellowship leader in my church. I want to go deeper and higher.”
Not only does the course offer students confidence in their school years, it imparts life skills that serve them well into adulthood as well. Marine Engineer Anteneh Demissie was among thousands of attendees who took the course in 2003. Now spending most of his time on the high seas of Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean, Anteneh expressed that: “The training was a ‘turning point’ in my life. Though I was a young boy with Christian orientation I had many spiritual questions for which I was seeking convincing answers. In the SDP training, all my questions were sufficiently answered. I consider that moment as a ‘Reference Point’ in my life. For me, the training was like a city gate – a doorway to abundance. Because of it I have entered into an abundant life in Jesus that is full of joy and enthusiasm. I am so happy.
One of the many benefits of the program was helping me understand the worth of the Bible as the word of God and igniting the love of reading it. Since then I have developed the practice of reading the Bible on a daily basis. The program has also made me become passionate about Christian spiritual matters.
I am now a marine engineer travelling around the world staying in high seas for many days and weeks. But my inner-self stays cool and tranquil even when the outside is extremely violent. This is because of the Rock Jesus, the foundation of my faith, whom I came to know better through the SDP training.”
Meet Mary, one of the incredible mission volunteers who served on the recent Cape Town Mission in November.
For the past five years, Mary has dedicated herself to AE mission outreach with the support of friends, family and church. Raised as the 8th of 9 children, Mary grew up in a God-fearing household led by her mother after her father passed away when she was only 4 months of age. From the age of 16, Mary’s work consisted of cattle grazing, picking coffee for the market, carrying fertiliser and general housework.
She felt the call of God powerfully in her life at the age of 17 through the Christian Union at high school, where she truly felt a personal relationship with Jesus. By 18 years of age, she had already completed her first open-air preaching event, organised by an interdenominational fellowship group. Over the next 15 years, she was called to evangelise, and every Christmas she would raise enough funds, clothing and food to undertake door to door evangelism and distribution of aid in a remote village in northeastern Kenya. At 35 years of age, she was commissioned by her church to plant a new church in Embu, east of Kenya, several hours away from her home village.
For several years she grew the church before pursuing her passion for full-time evangelism. As time went by, doing mission on her own became too risky, and in 2015 she joined with African Enterprise to pursue citywide evangelism in various countries. “I found it important to network rather than doing it alone, as this is building the body of Christ,” shares Mary. “Through Christian outreach, many will be saved from an eternity of darkness, and due to your support, we are liberated to work in the vineyard without constraint. We appreciate your effort, contribution and generosity and may the Lord increase His grace to you in doing good as you continue your support and may the Lord bless you greatly.”
It’s not often one meets one of Cape Town’s most notorious gangsters, appointed to one of the highest ranks in the criminal world through his gang, with worldly power to control the toughest prison environments in the region. So why was this gangster, Denzel, at the AE/Palau Love Cape Town mission festival, talking to missioners?
A couple of months ago, Denzel had an incredible revelation as a result of a family trauma that turned his world inside out. He turned to Christ 4 months ago when he realised that despite all the power of the criminal underworld and connections, it was not enough to stop the shocking abuse of his nine-year-old daughter, and a sudden realisation that his entire life has been built on a complete lie. At incredible risk to himself, he gave up all his wealth he had accumulated through crime to preserve his life by exiting the gang, and gave himself over to the church to find what this new pathway in Christ now means for him.
His first request to the church was to open his heart to feel love, which was so hardened by crime. In a short time, he began to repent for all the hurt he’d caused, particularly relived by remembering all the tears in the eyes of so many parents whose children he’d impacted.
Reflecting on his life, he realised that seeking protection of the gang for the constant bullying he’d experienced was the wrong choice. A ‘soft’ and small-statured target at school, his entry into gang life stopped the immediate problem, but very quickly took him many miles away from the care of his mother’s arms to a new city and complete criminal life at only 12 years of age.
Somehow he survived the next 19 years, which he believes is now for a higher purpose. “I’ve only been stabbed but never shot”, he said. “I’ve had a pistol pointed at me several times and the trigger pulled, but each time the gun jammed or misfunctioned.”
After a life, most of which has been spent in jail, God had finally woken him up to what his true role needed to be, which has not been without its costs. “My gang just cannot understand what has happened to me and normally I would be killed”, he said. “They even offered me money to come back. However I cannot go back. God knew me from within my mother’s womb, and after 19 years I have finally reconciled to my mother and daughters. That is the true power I have now, to be a proper parent. Now I am looking forward to becoming a father to my daughters and to start making up for the most important things in life that I lost in my life of crime.”
Incredibly, his mother never gave up praying for him during this time. Members of his old gang have also been observing closely the transformation that has taken place in his life since turning to Christ. One gang member has since said that he would like to have the power that Denzel now has.
There is now a very long road ahead of repentance and growth in his knowledge of Jesus. However, Denzel hopes that he can show that turning to gangs is not worth it, and will rob people of the very things that are most dear to them. True power is not in controlling the criminal underworld and the chains that it brings. It is only found in bringing life to others through Jesus, and in Denzel’s case, opening his life to the love of Christ and understanding what is like to be a true father. Please pray that youth in Cape Town will stay away from gangs and for God’s mercy on this city.
As the year begins to wind up, it’s good to remember some of the wins along the way.
In June, we introduced our clean water campaign, wanting to bring safe drinking water to communities living in poverty. Jesus’ love continues to be experienced in action through life-saving clean water and sanitation facilities. This continues to be significantly important due to the impact of cyclone Idai and the terrible impact of typhoid and cholera.
Just recently in the Tabora Tanzania mission, a 30-year-old businessman Hatma had an opportunity to ask the questions about Jesus he’d been holding on to, and found the answers he’d longed for. Hatma had long been conflicted by the variety of religious ideologies followed in his culture, at one point deciding to combine them instead of choosing one.
“I looked at Jesus from the perspective He was like any other prophet,” said Hatma. “I was neither Christian nor Muslim, but believed in both. I had many questions about religion and never had the opportunity to ask anyone about them.”
After hearing the Gospel from the AE team, Hatma understood the connection between Jesus and salvation, and made the decision to follow Christ.
As we near Christmas, African Enterprise International Team Leader Stephen Mbogo, believes it will be different this time for all of those who’ve been affected by AE’s missions throughout the year.
Pastor Stephen said, “Thousands of people in Africa have discovered the true joy of Christmas this year. They now understand what it means for God to have sent Jesus into this world for all of us.”
That includes another local Tabora man named Manoah.
Before hearing the Gospel, Manoah was trapped in witchcraft and alcoholism, until an African Enterprise evangelist met him in an outdoor market meeting.
“As I listened to the Word of God,” Manoah said, “The preacher said I can get hope in Christ. This is the reason why I never hesitated; I walked forward without fear and invited Jesus into my heart. I thank God for the open-air meeting and the message that came in time, eradicating my fears, worries, bitterness and tears. I am delivered, I am free, and I have hope.”
Thank you for being part of giving new hope to Manoah this year and many like him.
Find out more about African Enterprise’s upcoming missions here: https://africanenterprise.com.au/missions/
