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Natasha Sipindive, Sunday News Reporter
Monday Prayer Intercessory Group will on Saturday celebrate 50 years of dedicated intercession ministry at Word of Life Ministries auditorium in Bulawayo.
The 50th Jubilee anniversary celebration will begin with a march from Dominican Convent School to Word of Life church along Robert Mugabe Road via City Hall. Other women of faith like Mai Margaret Mamuka and her Gracious Women team together with Apostle Pretty Ndlovu of Zimbabwe Women Arise in Prayer will form part of the procession. Apostle Phillip Chisale of Dominion Life Church will be leading and directing the march.
Monday Prayer Group was founded by 86 year-old Mrs Hilda Mazabane. The celebration is open to the entire body of Christ to participate in the inter-denominational event. However, a number of churches have already confirmed their attendance, including Harvest House International (HHI), Praise and Worship Centre, Methodist Church, River of Life, Dominion Life Church and Family of God (FOG), among others.
“We always celebrate our ministry anniversary annually, now we are celebrating our 50th anniversary which is a wonderful milestone to us. This is our biggest celebration because we will go out to the Bulawayo Central Business District and have a grand march comprising some drum majorettes backed up by the Salvation Army Band. The starting point will be the Dominican Convent at 8am towards Word of Life Ministries where we will host our celebrations,” said Mrs Mazabane.
The ministry is now being conducted in three venues in the city. She said the church started off as a prayer group at her Vulindlela home with a core team of three members, a Mrs V Moyo and Mrs F Mhlanga who were her neighbours.
“The vision and assignment was divinely communicated to me through a dream. The dream said that I must start an Intercessory prayer group way back in 1973. With a specific mandate to intercede for the family unit, marriages, youths, pastors in the body of Christ and the nation of Zimbabwe’s leaders. From these humble beginnings, the group grew in its influence across the body of Christ, and various branches were established in the city of Bulawayo. The Covid-19 pandemic did not deter the group from soldiering on with intercession in homes despite restrictions, proving that prayer knows no boundaries, or distance and cannot be isolated,” she said.
Mrs Mazabane works with a number of churches in the city and has been a source of inspiration and support to a number of pastors, hence a number of churches will be part of the celebrations. Outside the church, Mrs Mazabane’s career began as a nurse with the Bulawayo City Council. She worked in a number of clinics including Tshabalala where she retired.
“I say to the youths be God loving and God fearing, it all begins at home. Parents should have family altars so that they may pray for the families and not abdicate that role to pastors and school teachers. The altar worked for me, produced and shaped the person I am,” she said.
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