Chris Mnguni has pastored a church in Daveyton, a township of Johannesburg, South Africa, for several years. They recently celebrated the baptisms of 5 new members. Equally exciting for Chris is the fruit of grace that he sees growing in the lives of members. He shared 2 encouraging examples in his latest update:
“Doing school ministry can at times feel like a waste of time. But clearly the Lord is the One who grows planted seeds while we are not even aware. It was a blessing to officiate and preach the wedding of a young man that the Lord saved through our school ministry. Zamokwakhe heard me preach at his school five years back. When he got home, he told his aunt that he met someone who preached the gospel with boldness.
After describing me to his aunt, she said, ‘That must be Pastor Chris.’ His aunt knew me from the door-to-door evangelism we had done in her area. She directed Zamo to our tent by the soccer field, where we used to fellowship. The young man came to our church and never went back. It has been an honor discipling him and doing premarital counseling with him and his fiancé. And it was a joy to see him making the big step of marriage.
In his community, many people cohabitate and never get married. In his family, he was the first man to get married. His wedding was such a testimony to his community. Many attended and we had an opportunity to preach the gospel. His father-in-law said he loves Zamo because he loves the Lord and told him that he wanted to marry his daughter because he wants to be pure.
Another highlight of our ministry is brother Nkululeko. Brother Nkululeko has been one of the brothers attending our church the longest. He has been struggling with smoking dagga (marijuana) for a long time. He was so zealous to serve the Lord in some form of ministry, but we could not allow it. The fact that he was still a slave of this particular sin was not being a good testimony for the church to our community, since many young people are slaves of this sin.
He was so discouraged to the point that he left the church and we had to discipline him. But as the Apostle Paul says, those who are truly saved will realize their sin and come back to the Lord. He came back, told us he is willing to overcome this habit, and was assigned to my discipleship group. I became his accountability partner and prayed regularly with him.
After 3 months, I was interviewing him for membership and asked about this habit. He was so happy that the Lord has delivered him, and he wanted to share a testimony to the church. It has been such a joy to see God grant him victory over a habit he has struggled with for so many years. We have rejoiced to see him growing and serving the Lord with a clear conscience. He was beaming with joy as he was baptized.
He also has a desire to study theology online. We have asked Simeon Trust and they have accepted him. He is so happy to be studying now.”
