A few months ago, Pastor Ndhlovu met ‘Beatrice’ while evangelizing in the community. He shared the gospel with her and invited her to church. She has been attending church meetings regularly since then, and shared her tragic story with him:
“My name is ‘Beatrice.’ I am 26 years old and recently moved to Kitwe. My parents died when I was very young and I was raised by my grandmother. Due to these challenges, I failed to finish my education. I met a man in my grandmother’s church, we were married in 2009, and soon had two children. He worked as a security guard and life was fine.
Five years later, we both became very sick for a long time and my husband lost his job. Life became very difficult because neither of us was working and we were not providing for our children. Eventually my grandmother took our children to care for them. After a year, we finally got better. My husband returned to his security guard job, and I worked for the town council, sweeping the roads and marketplace.
But something changed in my husband at this time. He became more secretive with everything, changing passwords on the phone and keeping the phone on silent so that I wouldn’t hear it ring. This upset me because I knew he was having some girlfriends.
During that time, I got drunk one day and while I was drunk I bought a spray can of mosquito repellant. While going home from the market, I visited my friend’s house. I found her cooking outside on a charcoal fire. I sat next to the fire and the heat caused the can of repellant to explode. My legs and my friend’s legs were on fire, and my friend’s younger brother was burning. A neighbor came with water to put out the fire, and we were all rushed to the hospital.
My friend survived, but after three days her brother died. I cried and truly wished that I had died rather than that little boy. The boy’s family took me to court and I was sentenced to ten years in prison. Thankfully, I was never beaten or abused in prison like many others, and after a year and a half I was pardoned for my good conduct.
To add to my grief, my husband never showed any concern for me. He never supported me when I was in court and never visited me in prison. I only heard from people that visited me in prison that he was planning to marry his new girlfriend. In 2017 I was released from prison and moved to Kitwe to stay with my aunt.”
Pastor Ndhlovu tells us ‘Beatrice’ has not yet been born again. She blames her husband, not her sin, for her problems. Please pray that she will find forgiveness, healing, and hope in the Lord Jesus Christ who was slain for sinners.
