Prior to December 1979, I had
been attending church quite often. This
was initially through Sunday school where we were told a lot of stories from
the Bible and later through the main adult services where we were exposed to
the preaching of the word of God. In
1977, I qualified to go to secondary school and was admitted to a boarding school,
where we were expected to attend church every Sunday. We were also expected to attend selected services
in the morning and evening, as well as other special services from time to time. This type of regime exposed me further to the
preaching of the word of God.
However, notwithstanding all this, I went on with my life as usual.
After completing senior secondary
school in 1981, I was invited to an evangelistic meeting in Chililabombwe, where
Pastor Chris Bungoma from Uganda was invited to speak. This was a follow up to my encounter with
Charles Chiwele who initially introduced me to the Lord Jesus Christ in 1979. I had also been involved in some Bible study meetings at my late elder sister’s home and other church
meetings which I attended at the Christian Fellowship in Chililabombwe.
During this particular
evangelistic meeting, Pastor Bungoma preached from the book of Romans, I think, and the central message in his sermon was the
fact that we are all disobedient and that in the same way that we disobey
our own parents, in one way or the other, we also disobey God. In his sermon, Pastor
Bungoma clearly demonstrated that when we disobey God, we sin against him and
that the consequences are far more severe than the punishment we can ever
be subjected to when we disobey our parents. We were challenged to honestly think about our lives in the light of
what he was preaching and determine whether anyone of us could confidently say
that they had neither disobeyed their parents nor God before. He further
demonstrated that despite this dilemma that we have all found ourselves in, God
had provided a way out for us through the Lord Jesus Christ and that he stands
ready to receive anyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of their sins.
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| Gladys with her children, Malanga (standing) and Chisha |
As I sat in the congregation
listening to Pastor Chris Bungoma dividing the word of God, I felt like the
sermon was directed at me because I was able to identify myself with a lot of
aspects that were covered in the sermon. But further, this was the first time
ever that I seriously thought about what was being preached. Despite having sat under the preaching of
God’s word at different fora, the word came to me in a way that it had never done before in my life. It was very obvious from that moment that I
needed to do something about my life. Later that day, I gave my life to the
Lord Jesus Christ and from that day onwards my life has never been the
same.
Despite the hills and valleys, I
may have passed through in my life, or the different circumstances that have
come way, I have over and over again proved the fact that God is gracious and
that his grace is sufficient for me.
If I had to make a choice once again over
these matters, I would like to put it on record to the rest of the world that I
would still choose the Lord Jesus Christ as my God, Redeemer, Saviour, Provider,
Protector and everything else that I can think of to describe my Lord, and I
make no apology for the choice that I made that day.
