Surrendering ‘Hands Down’ to Christ’s Lordship

[This is the fourth in a series of blog posts that I have entitled “Tales from the Mission Field.” It was submitted by Pastor Curtis Chirwa, who was sent to plant a church in the northern part of Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia. He has now been there for five years and a lively church has since been planted from scratch. In this blog post he tells us of the joy of being a fisher of men and shares with us the testimony of one lady who got converted after one of his evangelistic visitations in the area. May we hear more and more of such testimonies in years to come!]

Pastor Curtis Chirwa with his family

Church planting ministry is very exciting. You would want to go on without resting, winning souls for the Lord. Before long, you have many exciting and encouraging testimonies, such as seeing hard-hearted lost souls turning to Christ for salvation through the power of the gospel. As an indigenous missionary family, sent by Kabwata Baptist Church to plant Faith Baptist Church, in Kabanana Site and Service, we have witnessed many life-changing testimonies.

One such testimony is the conversion of Mini Onalenna, who surrendered ‘hands-down’ to the Lordship of Christ in 2011. Mini grew up in a syncretistic African church in Botswana. She now admits that she was very far from evangelical Christianity. Evangelical Christianity made no sense to her, until she relocated to Zambia in 2011 and met me during one of my evangelistic door-to-door visitations.

Mini Onalenna

Here is the testimony she handed in to the church when she asked for baptism:

“It was Saturday morning in May 2011, when Pastor Chirwa passed by my house and inquired if I was a Christian. As far as I was concerned, I was a Christian. When he read some Bible verses to me, it began to dawn on me that I most likely was not a Christian. I told him that I wanted to be a Christian.  He took his Bible and read some verses that clearly said if I admitted that I was a sinner and confessed my sins to God, if I was willing to repent and turn away from those sins, and if I accepted Jesus as personal Saviour, I would be saved. He assured me that this could be done anytime, anywhere.  I asked, ‘Even in the house?’ He said, ‘Yes, you can go in your room and ask God. It does not have to be at church.’

“After he left I started thinking about everything he said.  The thought continued up to the following day.  When I was alone I went in my bedroom and prayed to God for forgiveness.  I repented of my sins and accepted Christ as my Saviour. After that I felt different. On Sunday, I went to church. After the church service I told the pastor that I had repented of all of my sins and I was sure that I was now born again.

“After I was saved I started reading the Bible and having devotions every day. Now that I am a Christian, I am involved in church activities and I talk to people about God. I also pray for my family in Botswana because I want them to also be saved. I want to be with them in heaven.”