One of African Enterprise’s strategic areas of focus is Integrated Youth Empowerment. The Foxfire training program demonstrates how this goal is being achieved in partnership with local churches and supporters all around the world.
In Zimbabwe, Foxfire teams have been deployed since 1980 and each year they successfully evangelise in word and deed. They engage in the community and culture; demonstrating a level of understanding that is greatly appreciated by those who are reached. This year, four young individuals are set to embark on this unique experience as they seek to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Nelson Thomo (Kingdom Revival Apostolic Ministries), Tafadzwa Shaani (Glad Tidings Fellowship), Tinotenda P. Masimba (Agape International) and Henry Tapfuma (Charis Missionary Church) are currently going through orientation, induction and training before their first deployment. This involves mentorship as they learn the role of Foxfire missions, church planting, evangelism, follow up and discipleship. They are also being equipped with practical life skills and the ability to prepare and preach sermons. This time of learning is a period of great spiritual growth for each individual as they explore personal devotions, prayer, fasting and other aspects of Christian living.
In the near future, Nelson, Tafadzwa, Tinotenda and Henry will be deployed according to the needs of the surrounding areas and the reports of previous Foxfire teams.
As the group moves forward, please be praying for:
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- A conducive economic, social & political environment;
- Their upkeep and good health;
- Provision for budgetary and financial resources, sleeping bags, clothing and mobile phones;
- The preparedness of the hosting churches, marketplace schools and communities.
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/
AE Zimbabwe’s mission in Bulawayo in September was in response to a city in crisis, with drought, economic carnage and significant social ills driving many of the city’s skilled workforce to Harare and neighbouring countries.
Once nicknamed the “City of Kings” due to its ancient history of raising leaders, it became a hub of heavy industry and food production, although in recent years, Bulawayo’s ability to maintain its service levels has dropped significantly. The rise in unemployment, hyperinflation, water shortage and lack of opportunity for young people has given rise to unprecedented levels of moral decline and crime.
Adding to the burden on Zimbabwe’s second-largest city is the legacy of the Gukurahundi genocide on the minority Ndebele people based in the region, which has left a deep-rooted suspicion of government officials, which to this day has not received closure from successive governments.
AE commenced mission preparation over a year ago in consultation with senior church leaders from the area, predominately from mainline evangelical protestant ministries and independent Pentecostal ministries. The objectives were to advance the Great Commission through youth outreach, reconciliation and leadership events; achieve unity of purpose and celebration of diversity in the body of Christ and; to reduce the high rate of crime and corruption.
Photo – The mission united people of all ethnicities and tribes for the Gospel outreach.
The theme of the mission that took place between 22nd – 29th September was “One city, One Church, One Gospel and One Kingdom” and AE partnered with Scripture Union, Awana Club (youth outreach), Youth for Christ, Prison Evangelistic Outreach and the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe and the mission exceeded its objectives to reach over 130,000 people (around 10% of the city population), of whom 20, 472 made a decision to follow Jesus.
During the proclamation period, over 1,000 messages were preached in factories, schools, prisons, hospitals, on the streets, in nightclubs, market places, 200 schools, seven prisons and 120 venues.
Highlights of the mission included:
Leadership event 26th September
The leadership mission event drew 89 city leaders for prayer and fellowship, and was led by the Mission Chair Pastor Trevor Masuku, Vice President of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe. The event brought together city leaders including the city mayor, University vice-Chancellors, organisational leaders from corporate and charitable groups, media, members of parliament from ruling and opposition parties and many community and ethnic groups. Minister of State, the Honourable Judith Ncube spoke about the importance of addressing crime through embedding moral values. ”The church must continue to rise to the occasion as issues of moral decadence are on the increase”, she said.
Youth outreach during mission
The mission reached out to 20 schools per day, sharing life application of the gospel message to 200 schools in total with approximately 55,000 students and youth hearing the Good News. Approximately 17,000 young people made commitments to Christ during these outreaches. One of the key issues to address amongst the youth is peer pressure leading to substance abuse and promiscuity, especially at regular so called Vuzu parties, leaving many young and vulnerable people exposed to disease, unplanned pregnancies, school and college drop outs, crime and significant mental health issues. Youth for Christ Southern Africa Director Sheneunesu Masuka spoke about helplessness in the face of youth escaping from the hard realities of life through these activities listed, and praised AE for its work toward addressing these issues in mission. “We want to be able to protect our children from this monster eating at their lives, and thanks to the Bulawayo mission for reaching out to all these schools with biblical values and life skills to make better choices in life.”
Photo – Abraham Mabhena, Scripture Union provincial director and team organised our outreach in over 200 venues in schools.
Prison Evangelistic outreach
The social action component of the mission involved gifting soap, cooking oil and large storage bins to the Khami maximum security prison. This expression of Christ’s love through deed to inmates elicited a very positive and favourable response from the prison chief, who extended an invitation to speak with inmates at the six prisons under their authority and appointed a chief superintendent to escort the mission team. Of the 4,000 reaches, 3,000 put their hand up to receive Jesus as Lord and savior, and will be followed up by the Chaplain in charge. Further needs for bibles, a baptism pool, and practical necessities were shared with the mission team for churches to follow up as part of the discipleship and ‘preservation’ process. Chief Superintendent Charge Sibanda expressed how important it was for the church community to offer hope through Christ to the inmates. “This is historic and we wish more churches and corporate organisations could emulate African Enterprise and the Bula.
Photo – AE Zimbabwe Team leader Guide Makore preaching at prison
Outreach to sex workers
An outreach dinner event for commercial sex workers attracted 66 women, of whom 50 accepted Jesus following the talk by mission leaders. AEEZ team leader Bishop Guide Makore said the women would be taught life skills so that they could start rebuilding their lives.
“These ladies are angels, you know during their dinner they were screaming ‘Halleluiah’ more than the regular church-goers,” he said.
“I am so happy to say we will help them with life skills like tailoring, baking and hairdressing.
“We want them to do things that will keep them out of the streets.”
Water and sanitation delivery
Bulawayo is in a semiarid climate, being close to the Kalahari desert in Botswana, and is vulnerable to droughts due to significant variation in rainfall from year to year. Although the quality of tap water is reasonable, its reserve dams are currently significantly depleted, and ground water levels of coliform are much higher than World Health Organisation standards due to sewerage and general pollutant contamination.
To curb waterborne diseases, access to safe water for the population is vital, and the use of bore water is an essential component of this. Whilst approval for a bore hole in the Cowdray Park area is sought from the municipal council, AE Zimbabwe has proceeded with to implement water and sanitation awareness and literacy programs to help protect the population from contracting cholera and typhoid. We thank God for the prayer and donations from AE supporters who have make all this possible.
Zimbabwe’s first national election in the post-Mugabe era will be held in July, President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced on the weekend.
“As a nation, party and government, we are looking forward to very peaceful, transparent and harmonised elections in July this year,” he told reporters following meetings with South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa on Saturday night.
This will be a historic event for the Southern African nation and the first time since its independence from Britain in 1980 that Robert Mugabe won’t be on the ballot.
UNDP Administrator, Mr Achim Steiner concluded a three-day visit of Zimbabwe on Saturday, noting that a peaceful and credible election is vital for setting the country on the right economic and political pathway.
“UNDP is committed to continue supporting the preparatory process for the election and economic recovery efforts,” he said in a statement from the UN.
The President has made promises that the polls later this year will be free from the violence that has rocked previous elections and has damaged some of Zimbabwe’s foreign relations.
Mnangagwa also plans to hold a roundtable meeting with opposing political leaders to discuss committing to a non-violent election.
Mnangagwa has previously met with many of our AE International team, including Stephen Mbogo and Michael Cassidy.
Mnangagwa spoke at AE’s National Presidential Prayer Breakfast in Harare back in 2015, which was a part of the Harare Pan African Leadership Initiative.
AE are set to run the Harare University Mission in the capital in August this year and are aiming to reach over 14,000 people for Christ.
Please be praying with us as Zimbabwe prepare for this historic election.
For more African political news from AE in March, read about the recent Sierra Leone election.
