Testimony of Conversion

My testimony starts like that of the Pharisee in Luke 18; I trusted and relied on my own good works for righteousness and salvation.

Growing up, I was prideful. Unlike my brothers, I was a good boy. I never involved myself in fights, and tried my hardest to be obedient. To me, all of these good works were feeding my deceptive confidence that I was on the way to heaven.

A time came in my life, some 18 years ago, when I started to feel inadequate. My heart wasn’t filled with peace. The satisfaction I had previously enjoyed in my good works was not giving me assurance. Passages I read in the Bible were causing me unease.

“We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” – Isaiah 64:6.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” – Ephesians 2:8-9.

“…yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.” – Galatians 2:16.

I was deeply troubled by verses like these, and I came to realize that I had never committed my life to Christ. I was heading to a dark place; my good works were sinking, and I with them.

On that day in highschool, while alone in my dorm room, I knelt down and prayed to God, asking that He would forgive me of the sins and wickedness I had committed over the years.

At that moment, I felt a great burden being lifted from my shoulders.

Before this, I had been baptized as a child, and had never seen a need to be baptized again. I was content with what I had received as a baby.

The more my knowledge grew of God and what He required in His Word, the more I was convicted by passages of Scripture that dealt with the believer’s baptism.

I felt wrong in my previous beliefs, and so I went and talked with my pastor. Later on, I would be baptized as a true believer. I have been walking with the Lord, and have loved to serve Him ever since.

Call to Ministry

When I was in high school, I really loved math, and figured that I would go on to work as an accountant in a bank, or at one organization or another. 

When I graduated from high school, and after having walked with the Lord for a few years, I felt compelled to join the ministry. At that time, I wasn’t sure what this was going to look like, and applied to a local Bible college. In Malawi, we have very few faithful theological institutions, and I am very thankful to the Lord that He landed me in a Bible college that I can say is foundational for me even to this day. 

When I was in my second year of college, I started teaching a children’s Sunday school at a certain church that was meeting on the campus. As I was serving the Lord there, ministry opportunities started to grow little by little. I helped lead the worship in that Church, worked as an administrator, and filed sermons for my former pastor.

Later on, after my knowledge in theology had grown, the church added my name to the approaching schedule. I worked there for about ten years.

In 2018, that’s when I started to talk with Pastor Mala. He shared with me a vision that Antioch Baptist Church had concerning a city in Malawi called Zomba. I hadn’t known, but the elders of Antioch had started talks with my church to talk about using me as a potential church planter.

Two years later, I moved my family to Blantyre to be close to Zomba for easier commutes. This is how I would summarize the Lord’s work in calling me to ministry.