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Farai Madondo's Testimony
BRETHREN.
I am so happy brothers and sisters in Christ to be sharing this testimony with you
about two situations in which our family saw the miraculous hand of the Lord. Our
living God is faithful and true to his word. He is the provider for those who look, wait
and call upon him.
On the 4th of August 2005, a little over two months after I had given my life to Christ,
my brother passed away in Zimbabwe but because of financial constraints not
everybody could attend the funeral. We were however planning that one person from
the family, either myself or my wife, goes for the funeral but other brothers and
sisters in the UK thought it wise if the money could be sent home instead, to assist
with the funeral arrangements and the up keep of the bereaved family. Wise counsel!
At this point I must hasten to say that this was the first death of a sibling in the family
and as such it was devastating. There is quite a few of the Madondos in the UK. It is
only my family and I who are living in the Republic of Ireland. Although the rest of the
family had met, albeit in a hastily arranged gathering in London, to console one
another it was felt we had to find some special time in the diaspora together to meet
as a family, mourn and comfort one another properly over the loss of a beloved
brother. A good day was the memorial services which we set to coincide with the
memorial service back home.
On the advice of fellow brethren and friends, my wife and I took this to be a God given
(without celebrating death) opportunity for us to share the good news of my being
saved – given I was a living epitome of the devil during my time – this was a perfect
time for the whole family to witness what God can do and that anybody could be
saved. We prayed and fasted for the day, the 15th October 2005.
As many of you would know and testify, the “king of this world” is not positively
disposed to gatherings where the Lordship of Christ is proclaimed. Everything that
could stop us from attending that memorial services happened. Even
disagreements between us were coming in droves.
As if connived to disrupt our plans to go and witness at the memorial service, all our
creditors started demanding their dues, any payments that had fallen in arrears had
prompt payment being demanded, all household bills – unusually – were invoiced
for payment at the same time (in the same month we intended to travel), everybody
but myself in the family fell ill. It was even worse for my wife who was hit by a severe
form of migraine headache. One child was done with tonsils the other with a cold
that was so severe I had not seen anything like it before. What it meant was more
expenditure. By the first week of October (remember the memorial service was due
in the second week of October) the trip was virtually doubtful.
A brethren I share the Word with every lunch time at work insisted that we keep
praying and leave everything in God’s hands. He had witnessed all the sickness in
my family. Thank God the brother himself had had encounters of his own in life as
such he was more spiritually alert than I was. God used him to strengthen me. Even
though my wife was still struggling with her headache she kept the faith that there
was nothing that was going to stop us from going for the service, even though she
knew our coffers had dried. In the end we kept asking the Lord to intervene.
Intervene He did! With a week to go and no money, I thought of throwing the last dice.
I went to the Human Resources Department at my workplace to ask for an advance
salary. I went to the person I knew to be the most helpful. Unfortunately it was not
possible for me to get an advance salary unless I was going away for at least a
month, this way they know I will be able to payback without straining myself since I
will not be there to spend any subsequent salary that goes in my account. I was
stuck at that. Then from nowhere the gentleman asked if I was a member of the
workplace benevolent fund, which I wasn’t. That also left him with nothing else to do.
Only the desire to assist me is what I could sense in him. He asked me to go away
while he looked at any options that could be there. Brothers and sisters I never told
this gentleman anything about the bereavement and memorial services. I only told
him that I had urgent issues I could not let pass without addressing them.
It is at this point that I saw the hand of the Almighty. The following day I received a call
from the chap in the HR department to tell me, WHAT!!??
Even though I was not a member the benevolent fund had agreed to clear everything
I owed on the credit card. Two thousand Euros! Isn’t it amazing? The whole thing
was made sweeter by the fact that I had to payback NOTHING!
What happened at the memorial service was to God’s Glory, brother Charles
Mapundu will testify to that.
Has anybody ever flown half a world away and back with their spouse and three
children for free!!!!!????????
Yes!!!!!! I did.
It is possible if God so desires. A little while after the above events, on the 10th of
November 2005, a dear sister of mine tragically passed away in Zimbabwe, for our
parents and us it was the second loss in two months and it was painful. Personally I
was at a loss of words. I do not know what hit me. It was probably despair more than
anything else. My wife and friends kept me going. I know I was acting strong but deep
down I was shaken.
When I heard the news on my way to work, all I could do was phone my wife and then
drove on. How I managed from then on is anybody’s guess but thank God I did. My
head was spinning. I was thinking of words to comfort and strengthen our parents
when my wife called me with what then to me sounded like a very ambitious and
impossible suggestion. That we go to Zimbabwe for the funeral. She knew that the
month before we could not even afford to take ourselves to London from Dublin. And
now she was talking of Zimbabwe.
My memory is amazingly short. God had just given us a free flight to London a month
before and there I was telling my wife how unaffordable it was to get to Zimbabwe.
She insisted and, without much conviction, I found myself, together with the brother in
Christ I talked about earlier, surfing the internet for the cheapest tickets to Zimbabwe.
Interestingly we had no more than €1000 to ourselves, a greater chunk of which was
for rent.
I love this. God is wonderful. My Christian bother, the one I always pray with at lunch,
(God Bless him) offered to assist with €2200 and all of a sudden the trip was looking
more and more possible. Immediately I hated myself for not trusting enough in God. I
began to push the travel arrangements with greater impetus.
I will not bore you brethren with much of the running around that took place later but
all I can say is there was quite some borrowing to do, and by end of day flight seats
were secured and an appoint to pay was set for the next day 12 noon. Three people
were going. My wife, our youngest child and I. The other two girls were to stay behind
on account the money we had raised was not enough.
The God we pray to is a good God brother sisters. Some time earlier, in passing, my
wife had mentioned the death of my sister to a college mate, who happens to work
for the college she does her studies. The next morning, from nowhere, we received a
phone call from this college mate, she was advising that the college had a facility to
arrange for emergency air ticket bookings since the college enrols a lot of foreign
students. All we needed to do was go with the money and get the tickets. But then we
had arranged with another travel agency. However for the sake of courtesy to the
college we cancelled the booking with the travel agency and opted for the college
tickets. Within minutes of doing so we were asked for passport numbers for the
whole family. We only could afford tickets for three members of the family. The two
older girls were going to be staying behind on their own. We advised that we did not
have enough money for five tickets. She asked us to bring whatever we had. So we
took everybody’s passport and the €3200 we had borrowed to the college travel
centre.
I love what happened next. The Lord is our real provider. I stayed in the car and my
wife went in. When she came back she was all smiles, five tickets in hand, and to my
amasement she had all (AND I MEAN ALL) the money she had taken in. What had
happened? We had been given the tickets for free and this time it was the entire
family attending the funeral and not three as previously arranged. By end of that day
we had paid back to the brothers who had lent us money and were on our way to the
funeral in Zimbabwe without paying a dime!!
I ask. Is there a more faithful father????????
BRETHREN.
I am so happy brothers and sisters in Christ to be sharing this testimony with you
about two situations in which our family saw the miraculous hand of the Lord. Our
living God is faithful and true to his word. He is the provider for those who look, wait
and call upon him.
On the 4th of August 2005, a little over two months after I had given my life to Christ,
my brother passed away in Zimbabwe but because of financial constraints not
everybody could attend the funeral. We were however planning that one person from
the family, either myself or my wife, goes for the funeral but other brothers and
sisters in the UK thought it wise if the money could be sent home instead, to assist
with the funeral arrangements and the up keep of the bereaved family. Wise counsel!
At this point I must hasten to say that this was the first death of a sibling in the family
and as such it was devastating. There is quite a few of the Madondos in the UK. It is
only my family and I who are living in the Republic of Ireland. Although the rest of the
family had met, albeit in a hastily arranged gathering in London, to console one
another it was felt we had to find some special time in the diaspora together to meet
as a family, mourn and comfort one another properly over the loss of a beloved
brother. A good day was the memorial services which we set to coincide with the
memorial service back home.
On the advice of fellow brethren and friends, my wife and I took this to be a God given
(without celebrating death) opportunity for us to share the good news of my being
saved – given I was a living epitome of the devil during my time – this was a perfect
time for the whole family to witness what God can do and that anybody could be
saved. We prayed and fasted for the day, the 15th October 2005.
As many of you would know and testify, the “king of this world” is not positively
disposed to gatherings where the Lordship of Christ is proclaimed. Everything that
could stop us from attending that memorial services happened. Even
disagreements between us were coming in droves.
As if connived to disrupt our plans to go and witness at the memorial service, all our
creditors started demanding their dues, any payments that had fallen in arrears had
prompt payment being demanded, all household bills – unusually – were invoiced
for payment at the same time (in the same month we intended to travel), everybody
but myself in the family fell ill. It was even worse for my wife who was hit by a severe
form of migraine headache. One child was done with tonsils the other with a cold
that was so severe I had not seen anything like it before. What it meant was more
expenditure. By the first week of October (remember the memorial service was due
in the second week of October) the trip was virtually doubtful.
A brethren I share the Word with every lunch time at work insisted that we keep
praying and leave everything in God’s hands. He had witnessed all the sickness in
my family. Thank God the brother himself had had encounters of his own in life as
such he was more spiritually alert than I was. God used him to strengthen me. Even
though my wife was still struggling with her headache she kept the faith that there
was nothing that was going to stop us from going for the service, even though she
knew our coffers had dried. In the end we kept asking the Lord to intervene.
Intervene He did! With a week to go and no money, I thought of throwing the last dice.
I went to the Human Resources Department at my workplace to ask for an advance
salary. I went to the person I knew to be the most helpful. Unfortunately it was not
possible for me to get an advance salary unless I was going away for at least a
month, this way they know I will be able to payback without straining myself since I
will not be there to spend any subsequent salary that goes in my account. I was
stuck at that. Then from nowhere the gentleman asked if I was a member of the
workplace benevolent fund, which I wasn’t. That also left him with nothing else to do.
Only the desire to assist me is what I could sense in him. He asked me to go away
while he looked at any options that could be there. Brothers and sisters I never told
this gentleman anything about the bereavement and memorial services. I only told
him that I had urgent issues I could not let pass without addressing them.
It is at this point that I saw the hand of the Almighty. The following day I received a call
from the chap in the HR department to tell me, WHAT!!??
Even though I was not a member the benevolent fund had agreed to clear everything
I owed on the credit card. Two thousand Euros! Isn’t it amazing? The whole thing
was made sweeter by the fact that I had to payback NOTHING!
What happened at the memorial service was to God’s Glory, brother Charles
Mapundu will testify to that.
Has anybody ever flown half a world away and back with their spouse and three
children for free!!!!!????????
Yes!!!!!! I did.
It is possible if God so desires. A little while after the above events, on the 10th of
November 2005, a dear sister of mine tragically passed away in Zimbabwe, for our
parents and us it was the second loss in two months and it was painful. Personally I
was at a loss of words. I do not know what hit me. It was probably despair more than
anything else. My wife and friends kept me going. I know I was acting strong but deep
down I was shaken.
When I heard the news on my way to work, all I could do was phone my wife and then
drove on. How I managed from then on is anybody’s guess but thank God I did. My
head was spinning. I was thinking of words to comfort and strengthen our parents
when my wife called me with what then to me sounded like a very ambitious and
impossible suggestion. That we go to Zimbabwe for the funeral. She knew that the
month before we could not even afford to take ourselves to London from Dublin. And
now she was talking of Zimbabwe.
My memory is amazingly short. God had just given us a free flight to London a month
before and there I was telling my wife how unaffordable it was to get to Zimbabwe.
She insisted and, without much conviction, I found myself, together with the brother in
Christ I talked about earlier, surfing the internet for the cheapest tickets to Zimbabwe.
Interestingly we had no more than €1000 to ourselves, a greater chunk of which was
for rent.
I love this. God is wonderful. My Christian bother, the one I always pray with at lunch,
(God Bless him) offered to assist with €2200 and all of a sudden the trip was looking
more and more possible. Immediately I hated myself for not trusting enough in God. I
began to push the travel arrangements with greater impetus.
I will not bore you brethren with much of the running around that took place later but
all I can say is there was quite some borrowing to do, and by end of day flight seats
were secured and an appoint to pay was set for the next day 12 noon. Three people
were going. My wife, our youngest child and I. The other two girls were to stay behind
on account the money we had raised was not enough.
The God we pray to is a good God brother sisters. Some time earlier, in passing, my
wife had mentioned the death of my sister to a college mate, who happens to work
for the college she does her studies. The next morning, from nowhere, we received a
phone call from this college mate, she was advising that the college had a facility to
arrange for emergency air ticket bookings since the college enrols a lot of foreign
students. All we needed to do was go with the money and get the tickets. But then we
had arranged with another travel agency. However for the sake of courtesy to the
college we cancelled the booking with the travel agency and opted for the college
tickets. Within minutes of doing so we were asked for passport numbers for the
whole family. We only could afford tickets for three members of the family. The two
older girls were going to be staying behind on their own. We advised that we did not
have enough money for five tickets. She asked us to bring whatever we had. So we
took everybody’s passport and the €3200 we had borrowed to the college travel
centre.
I love what happened next. The Lord is our real provider. I stayed in the car and my
wife went in. When she came back she was all smiles, five tickets in hand, and to my
amasement she had all (AND I MEAN ALL) the money she had taken in. What had
happened? We had been given the tickets for free and this time it was the entire
family attending the funeral and not three as previously arranged. By end of that day
we had paid back to the brothers who had lent us money and were on our way to the
funeral in Zimbabwe without paying a dime!!
I ask. Is there a more faithful father????????
| Life in Jesus Christ Ministry |
"And these signs shall accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons;
they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink
deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they
will get well." Mark 16: 17-18.
they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink
deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they
will get well." Mark 16: 17-18.