adminStanely Mushava Arts Correspondent
An upsurge of evangelically-themed literature is fomenting a revolt in the book sector. With traditional genres lapsing into obscurity, stockpiles of motivational and faith-based titles are rolling off the press to plug the void.
West Africa has been at the forefront of this new phenomenon, with the emergence of signature authorities such as Matthew Ashimolowo, E.A Adeboye, Mensa Otabil and Chris Oyakhilome.
Locally, Tudor Bismark, Ezekiel Guti, Milton Kamwendo and, more recently, Nelson Bhero and Rabison Shumba have established themselves as versatile repositories of this stream of inspiration.
Jacqui Ndongwe has no apologies invading this predominantly male territory of gospel-oriented literature, with remarkable versatility, if her recently launched three titles are anything to go by.
Ndongwe is the founding director of Dynamic Skills Foundation and member of the UK-based Writers Bureau. She has three booklets to her credit, “Mother: The Destiny Connector”, “Unstrangling the Soul: Fleeing From Sexual Immorality” and “Escaping the Curse of the Thief”.
The author, who is a skills developer for budding writers of faith, uses her masterly facility in prose to propel her readers to confidence with a sound application of the Bible.
“Mother”, her debut offering, draws richly from the Bible to help mothers align their children’s destinies according to the grand design that God deposits into their hearts.
The book emphasises the inestimable value that children embody for their parents and urges mothers to be gatekeepers for their children against challenges threatening their destinies.
“Your children go through massive warfare, they enter into battles that they neither know nor understand. Your knowledge of your family and community history will assist you to pray for your children and become a spiritual anchor and lighthouse in their lives,” writes Ndongwe.
Creating open relationships, standing in the gap against impediments, keeping doors open, seizing unforeseen opportunities, showing the way and interceding for God’s involvement are cited as key responsibilities mothers owe their children.
Ndongwe explains that the role of mothers as “destiny connectors’’ is incepted right from gestation when the mother’s thoughts, feelings, hopes and aspirations for are shaped into the life of the child growing in her womb.
“Unstrangling the Soul” is a useful guide for handling the problem of sexuality which is currently facilitating countless deaths and incurable infections. It is written in an engaging and poignant way evocative of Dr Creflo Dollar’s “SOS: My Flesh Needs Discipline.”
The book exposes fatal spiritual verities associated with pre-marital and extramarital sex, chiefly that it gives demons a legal right to operate in one’s life, leading an individual from “on” one cliff to another till they seal his or her ruin.
Ndongwe lists a litany of disasters facilitated by sexual immorality including an abortive lifestyle where victims of soul ties, that is the unhealthy spiritual bond created by adultery and fornication, between the two offending parties, are slowed down, sapped of progress, chained or pulled back from fulfilling their aspirations by unseen spiritual forces given a legal rein by the contravention of God’s law.
Sexual sin also turns fornicators into idol worshippers, whereby they begin to worship their need for physical gratification and become hostage to insatiable desire with seared consciences till the devil accomplishes their total destruction.
Infidelity and fornication also kills God-inspired ideas, douses the influence of the Holy Spirit, deactivates the fear of God, creates an outlet to leak away zeal for spiritual thing, kills spiritual senses and spreads personality disorders and “Spiritual Transmitted Disorders!”
Whereas the sin is viewed lightly by the ostensible gateway of consent, Ndongwe demonstrates from the Bible that God makes no such distinction but equally abhors fornication as homosexuality, murder and robbery.
Ndongwe commends the reader to repentance and warns the reader: “Never find the need to negotiate your freedom away to the enemy. Remember, his mission is to steal, kill and destroy.”
“Escaping the Curse of the Thief” sheds light on a subject shrouded in misunderstanding. Ndongwe notes that leaders are confronted with an uncomfortable dilemma when speaking about the tithe for fear of being misconstrued as inspired by self-interest.
The book highlights the benefits of tithing including activating the blessing of God, clarity of vision, heavenly refreshment and revival, illumination of purpose. It explains the purpose of tithing, which is replenishing the storehouse God for the substance of His ministers; and equates evasion of the tithe as robbing God, an act with grievous consequences.
While this particular genre of writing has been rapped for flouting standards and being lax in commitment to quality, Ndongwe escapes the censure with well-executed delivery remarkable for clarity and compulsive readability.
Online Reporter