With the dust barely settled on a 3-weeks “Gospel invasion” in South Africa’s third biggest township — Motherwell, Gqeberha (PE) — local pastors are taking the baton from Christ for all Nations (CfaN) which led the evangelism initiative.
Apostle Zola Moses, leader of the Motherwell Ministers Fraternal, who mobilised local pastors to partner with the CfaN initiative, said he believes that God sent the crusade, in part, to help them pursue their plans to tackle spiritual issues that are fanning crime and social evils in the area, amidst the rapid growth of informal settlements.
During the three weeks the Gospel invasion team and local supporters did 77 school visits in Motherwell and within a two hours’ radius where they reached 44 530 scholars and recorded 31 171 salvations. During a 4-day crusade in the heart of the township last week, several thousand people heard the Gospel, 246 salvation decisons were documented and 19 people were baptised. There were possibly 100 to 150 more undocumented salvations at the crusade said CfaN School of Evangelism graduate David Raphunga. “And those people represent families. So, in the long run, families will get saved because of that one person that has brought Jesus — the presence of God –into their household,” he said.
David said there were eight to nine evangelists in the team at the start of the campaign and that number grew to 21 over the three weeks. They came from all over SA, Zimbabwe and Germany. He said that from the start it was apparent to him that “the Harvest is ripe” in Motherwell and that the local church should continue to evangelise and disciple after the campaign.
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He said that during their first outreach — in an informal settlement across the road from the crusade venue — “everyone we ministered to just had an encounter with the Lord and they were crying”.
“We could really feel the brokenness in the community. But those who encountered the Lord — we believe that something changed in their lives.”
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He added: “Wherever the team went to schools, the kids would have encounters with the Holy Spirit. There is so much brokenness in the schools — even amongst the teachers. One teacher that I ministered to was just in tears. The Lord restored her that day from something from her childhood.”
Calling for local pastors to continue the work at the schools, he said: “There’s a harvest there that has been reaped, but the kids are waiting to be discipled. They’re really hungry to grow in the Lord.”
At one school “the Holy Spirit just poured Himself out and the team was were there for three hours ministering and laying hands and praying for the kids,” he said.
David thanked the SA Police Services for their wholehearted support throughout the campaign. “Even when it came to outreaches, they’d have a patrol car patrolling the area to make sure that we’re safe.”
Police members also attended crusade events and Nelson Mandela Bay District Commissioner, Major General Vuyisile Ncata actually responded to an altar call, going forward for prayer for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, said David.
“A video of that was circulated amongst the SAPS groups. So, for the people under him to see that is really inspiring and we hope that it will influence others to make a decision for Jesus.”
David also expressed thanks for the involvement of Motherwell pastors who “were on board from day one”, undergoing discipleship training to support new believers and partnering with the campaign in different ways.
Apostle Zola Moses told Gateway News that about a week before the start of the Gospel invasion local pastors had blown shofars in the four corners of Motherwell in an act of declaring that the township belongs to Jesus and to launch plans they have to take spiritual ground there.
He said that the physical and spiritual conditions in Motherwell were aggravating poverty, crime and violence, teenage pregnancy, HIV and many other social ills. With the muncipality failing to assist with development and solutions it was up to the Church to become the vehicle for change and healing, he said.
He said they had a plan to take down ungodly altars that had been erected in the four corners of Motherwell and to replace them with altars “to the glory of God”. He said Word of Faith Church in Gqeberha was assisting them in this campaign by sponsoring four, 3m crosses that would be raised in the four corners at a special event on October 5.
“We don’t just want the crosses to be visible. We want them to be seen by people as monuments that they can actually be proud of. So we’re going to build a platform in all those four corners a week before [the crosses are erected].”
He said they have many other plans, including holding a number of smaller crusades. Zola says that more than 400 pastors are actively involved in the Motherwell Ministers’ Fraternal. There were still a number of pastors who they hoped to recruit.
He said he hoped to inspire more of their active members to join him and others in discipleship ministry, including working with schools. “Because we have seen Jesus touching students in our schools. We have seen the Holy Spirit convicting students. Because there are serious challenges there in our schools.”
Zola said he believes that “the prayers, prayers, praises, singing, declarations and everything that took place” on the crusade ground in the centre of Motherwell “has made our work easier” because “as it was going up to heaven it overflowed to all the corners of Motherwell.”
In a follow-up event this weekend CfaN evangelist Nastassja Kotze is leading evangelism and discipleship training sessions in Gqeberha.
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Wow Andre welcome back. and what an amazing first story. How very encouraging. Praise God for willing pastors and evangelists….Jesus gave them to build His Church and that is what they are doing. may every seed sown bear much fruit. Having prayed for SAPS for many years my heart just leapt when i read about the police. I still pray for a police service on fire for Christ.
What a blessing. Thank you.