German Banda is pastor of John Laing Reformed Baptist Church in one of the poorest sections of Lusaka, Zambia. He recently shared a sweet story of God’s relentless grace:
“Joyce Zulu (not her real name) is married with two daughters. I don’t have the details on how old is each child is. In 2014 one of our ladies invited her, as a friend, to attend our Sunday worship service. Joyce had expected that at the end of the sermon the pastor would call all those who had different physical and spiritual problems to the front to be prayed over for deliverance and blessings before they left the church building. Joyce was frustrated because what she was expecting did not happen. She confronted the young lady who had invited her, rebuking her for taking her to a church where there were no deliverance services but only services which merely involved preaching. She vowed never to accept another invitation to our church again for she had a number of problems which she had hoped she would be delivered from by the pastor. She had tried buying anointing oil and holy water from other pastors but instead of reducing her problems, they only increased.
We decided to take another step to visit her when we learned about her decision never to attend our church services. We decided to visit her at her home. Things didn’t work out as we had hoped. Each time we visited her we were told she was too busy to see us. We decided not to force her but continued to pray for her and her family during our weekly prayer meetings. To our surprise, early last year things began to turn around. It was a Sunday in February, 2015 when I saw Mrs. Joyce Zulu in the pew as I was in front preaching. I did not immediately recognize her but I was gradually recalling her face. As I was concluding and applying my sermon, I became certain it was her as she was nodding her head and smiling. I thought to myself that morning,
“FATHER YOUR GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR ALL SINNERS”.
German Banda
Just after we came out of church, I wanted to know who it was that had gone to visit and talk to Mrs. Zulu the second time. I was sure that when I asked this question, it would be her friend who had first invited her. On the Monday that followed, her friend (who had first invited her) called me on her cell phone and wanted to know who had talked to Mrs. Zulu the second time. We went to visit her again and that’s when we got the full story of what had happened. No one visited her after her first visit to our church, but the sermon she heard on that first visit in 2014 gave her no peace for one solid year!! That’s what made her come again. In 2015 she finally decided to join us and be part of us. Please pray for Joyce. GOD IS GREAT!”
