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Leroy Dzenga Features Writer—
Identifying a child’s talent at an early age is every parent’s dream. The feeling is even better if there are resources to hone those skills to perfection through guided training.A Chitungwiza family decided to guide its child towards a path it felt he was passionate about, taking a stretch of faith in the process.
Enrolling a nine-year-old child to study for a diploma is never an easy decision, but Praisegod’s unusual enthusiasm in Christianity left his family with no choice.
Praisegod Kiwiti (11) recently graduated with a Diploma in Biblical Studies and Christian Leadership from the ZAOGA-run Africa Multination for Christ College.
The Herald caught up with the Kiwiti family to discuss the young preacher’s remarkable achievement.
His father, Pastor Virimayi Kiwiti said since Praisegod’s birth, there was always an element of peculiarity in him.
“Praisegod was different from preschool, when he was four years old he would wake up talking about intense spiritual dreams, talking about things like meeting angels,” Pastor Kiwiti said.
The recurring dreams, coupled with his behavioural patterns showed them that their child had a ministering gift.
“He would mimic church services and create imaginary church services where he would draw posters on a piece of paper. He christened our living room the Kiwiti Stadium. After dinner he would gather the whole family around to preach to them,” Pastor Kiwiti said, describing his child’s love for preaching.
Besides preaching, Praisegod also showed signs of prophetic gifts with predictions which came to pass as the family observed.
“One time he woke up saying that he did not want to go to school because there would be an accident. We insisted on him going and he was involved in an accident.”
Pastor Kiwiti believes the accident and other close incidences which Praisegod survived was God shielding his son from the claws of the devil, who did not want to see his ministerial talents flourish.
“The second time, the commuter omnibus he was travelling in caught fire and most people were affected by the fire, but Praisegod escaped unscathed. The devil was trying to snatch him away from us.”
With these signs in mind, Pastor Kiwiti and his wife decided to approach AMFICC to guide and harness their child into learning the ropes involved in active Christian ministering.
“At first when I approached AMFICC they refused to enrol him saying he was too young and they did not know if he would handle the content involved in the diploma programme,” said Pastor Kiwiti.
They had to show a bit of stubbornness to get their child a place at the college.
“I took him there with the tuition money ready and left him there. The administrators said they will allow him to sit in on a few classes to see if he has the aptitude to be admitted into the institution,” he said.
Praisegod showed that he has the understanding of biblical principles and the institution decided to give him an opportunity to study.
This meant that he would be in academic school during the day and at AMFICC in the late afternoons stemming into the night.
The religious boy says he did not get overwhelmed with the pressure involved with juggling between his normal school work and diploma demands.
“When I started at AMFICC I used to get around 50 percent marks in my work. This was because I did not understand some of the words which were used in the questions,” Praisegod said.
When his tutors scaled down on the technical jargon, he started getting improved marks ranging around 70 percent.
His demanding life did not affect his normal school performance as he seemed to improve with more work he had to deal with.
“During the period I was writing my final examinations at AMFICC around July, I was also writing examinations at school I took the third place prize in my class,” he said.
His leadership traits have seen him becoming a prefect at Belvedere Primary School where he is doing his Grade 6.
“I feel privileged to have become a pastor at my age. Most people have the dream to become one, but they fail due to one reason or the other,” Praisegod said with eloquence.
With a bedroom wall decorated with cut outs from Christian newspaper articles, Praisegod says he does not fancy most activities his age-mates are interested in.
“After school, if I am not doing my homework and my house chores, I usually prepare my sermons as I am supposed to write two sermons every week,” he said.
He says he derives joy from centring his activities on the bible and family.
Although he became a pastor at a young age, Praisegod has not narrowed down his vision to the pulpit only.
“My ambition is that if God stays on my side, I would like to become a marketing director or a medical doctor in the future,” he said.
He has earned quite a number of accolades in his academic life, making his ambitions feasible.
“I was also given an award by Prophetess Ruth Makandiwa as the best Grade 6 student across the whole UFI church. That was one of the best moments of my life, it was such an honour,” Praisegod said.
His journey was not without hurdles.
The classroom system at college was different from the one he was accustomed to.
“There was a difference between my everyday school and college. At bible college, you did not get a chance to play like I was used to doing,” said Praisegod.
He singled out the long lectures as the other challenge he faced in bible school.
“Most times parents prepare the future for their children but they do not prepare their children for the future, I am glad my parents had the vision to assist me realise my dream of becoming a pastor,” the young pastor said.
Seeing her child manage to juggle between his academic work and studying for a diploma for two years, his mother Loice Kiwiti was also inspired to join AMFICC to study for the same diploma.
She says she never doubted that Praisegod would last the distance in studying for his diploma as he has always been “gifted with intelligence.”
“We have videos from about five years ago when he was holding imaginary sermons, it always felt like he was destined to be a pastor,” Mrs Kiwiti said.
They expected backlash from friends and family for sending their child to bible school at an age which would be considered too early for that sort of endeavor.
“We expected criticism from people and we were ready to deal with it as we were the ones who knew what talent our child had.
Surprisingly, we did not receive any backlash, maybe this is because most people around us understand that we are an unapologetic Christian family,” Mrs Kiwiti said.
She has kind words for the leadership at AMFICC for believing in their child and awarding him the opportunity to grow under their tutelage.
“I would like to thank the AMFCC leadership for giving Praisegod the opportunity to study with them.
Had anything gone wrong their organisation’s reputation would have been ruined but they decided to believe in the vision,” she said describing AMFCC as a more spiritual than academic institution.
Despite her child`s glowing narrative Mrs Kiwiti says she is concerned that he is shy and takes his time in making decisions, something he might have to change in the demanding life of Christian ministry.
Praisegod`s elder sister Precious Kiwiti (15) says her brother has changed since attaining the diploma.
“Since he got the diploma it seems like his love for the word of God has been rejuvenated. He now prefers to discuss bible stories more than the computer games we used to play together,” she said.
His latest acquisition does not change anything on their companionship as she is also an avid bible reader although her contribution to fellowship is mainly through singing.
Coming from a dominantly Christian family unit it comes as a surprise that Praisegod Kiwiti has followed his father`s footsteps in becoming a pastor, difference being that he did at what could be a record setting age.
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