The Call into Ministry

BORN in Buhera on 2 August 1968, in the village of Chiputu in Nerutenga, Apostle L Bwanya comes from a family of six, and is the fourth daughter of the late Mr and Mrs Mandipaka.

She attended Nerutenga Primary School, but later moved to Harare after the passing on of her mother and went on to attend Mbare High School in Harare till she completed her Ordinary Levels.

God called her into Ministry in 1988 and the absence of female preachers at the time coupled with the absence of mentorship made her ignore the whole thing altogether. She avoided and did not accept or embrace the call but instead got married to the late Phillip Bwanya and had four children, Millicent, Vincent, Phillip Jr and Marshall. Fifteen years later in 2003 the call into Ministry came back again and this time around it was intense and she could not contain or control it without responding.

One night while sleeping she had a dream praying for people, and in the dream many people were being healed and delivered. Initially she did not understand what it all meant, till one day the meaning of the dream manifested into reality. During a time when she was a Cell Group Leader at Llewelyn Barracks now known as Imbizo Barracks, where she resided, there was a manifestation of the call. Many people started coming to her house for prayers as it was the venue for the Cell Group meetings. It is here that she ministered healing and deliverance long before she started going to the Theological Seminary. This is when Apostle L Bwanya began to understand the call she received in 1988 by what was happening in her Cell Group.

Attempts to get mentorship were all but in vain as she could not get anyone who could guide and mentor her. Determined to try and understand the increasing number of gatherings during Cell Group meetings at her house and to understand her call she began studying the Bible; reading the book of Exodus and more was revealed to her and this enabled her to have a better understanding of the calling.

She read Exodus 4 where Moses asked God, “How do I know you have called me and when I go there who shall I say sent me?” With this she prayed to God asking, “I want to see you,” and God responded “I am a God who cannot be seen, whoever sees me shall surely die. As Exodus 4 continues God asked Moses what he had in his hand. With the staff in his hand God revealed himself and the staff changed into a snake, a wonder known to many.

“As the conversation with God continued I was holding a Bible in my hand and the Bible suddenly became an electric gadget, I was slayed down to the ground and I threw the Bible down. I called the maid and my friend the late Mrs Madhuku, they both came and tried to touch the Bible and no one could withstand the power that God was manifesting through the Bible. Just like He had demonstrated his power through the staff in Exodus 4 God did the same with my Bible. It is only around 4pm that the Bible became normal again . . .”

She later had a dream though she confesses that to this day she is not sure if it was a dream or a vision, she had an encounter with Jesus dressed in a white gown with a red belt around His waist, and as He was descending from the sky and on his left arm He had all her clothes. It seemed like all her clothes had been removed out of her wardrobe and were all on His arm and the Man in white spoke out and said “You must go there, and the next thing she was standing along a fence, in her spirit she could feel that she was talking to Jesus and the next thing He handed her the clothes that were on his arm. She then started walking along the fence, she walked along the fence for a while troubled and wondering what was happening till she got to a gate and there was a sign written “Living Waters”. Like many she had heard of Living Waters Theological College but had never been there physically. But upon seeing the sign at the gate she realised that it was the Bible School she had often heard about.

Though the meaning of the dream or vision was clear she didn’t take action immediately but carried on with her life of looking after and raising her children. However, life became very challenging and she realised that the hardships she was facing were because of being stubborn and being disobedient to God regarding the call, as the call into ministry had started way back when she was still a young girl. When she mentioned her call through the dreams that she had been having as a young girl, many people ridiculed her about the call by asking her if she knew any woman who was a Pastor.

After the many challenges she encountered because of not taking heed to the call she eventually mastered the courage and left Bulawayo to go to Bible School at the Living Waters Theological Seminary in Harare.

During her first year while she was in the chapel praying she suddenly found herself surrounded by a cloud which she describes looked like mist and within the cloud she heard a voice that said that she was not going to struggle with her school fees from that day moving forward.

Some time after this visitation she got a call that there was a lady who had come looking for her at her home and wanted to see her. So she returned to Bulawayo but at first was not able to see her but was told that there was a lady from Waterford who had brought two suitcases full of clothes all of which amazingly were a perfect fit and were all the right size and also there was a brown envelope with money that was enough to pay fees for the whole term. The lady from Waterford had apparently pledged to pay Apostle Bwanya’s fees till she completed her studies. In her own words the lady said that an angel appeared to her in a dream and she was given a name (Bwanya) and was directed by an angel in the dream to look for Bwanya and fulfil the instruction she had been given by the angel and that was to pay her fees till she completed Bible School. The lady looked for Apostle Bwanya, found her and fulfilled the instruction to pay for her fees till she finished her studies. This was a strange and an unusual miracle as many people often struggled with paying their fees, an issue she never encountered. God did not stop there but sent more people over and above the lady from Waterford who were sent to confirm the word of God she heard in the cloud of mist that she shall never struggle with school fees from that very day.

ACROSS

1 Board game (5)

6 Fruit (5)

9 Model (7) 10 Well-dressed (5) 11 Utopian (5)

12 Exists (5) 13 Defamation (7) 15 Ocean (3)

17 Nuisance (4) 18 Tension (6)

19 Foreign Agents (5) 20 Large boxes (6) 22 Refined (4)

24 Vast period of time (3)

25 Ship (7)

26 Repasts (5) 27 Heavenly body (5) 28 Walk cockily (5) 29 Learned person (7) 30 Collide violently (5) 31 Expiring (5)

ACROSS

2 Meek (6)

3 Fast run (6)

4 Perched (3)

5 Step (5)

6 Clergymen (7) 7 Finishes (4)

8 Irritates through

friction (6)

12 Jumps (5)

13 Piquant seasoning (5) 14 Trembling poplar (5) 15 Medicinal fluid (5) 16 Flower (5)

18 Chairs (5)

19 Elongate (7)

21 Good reputation (6) 22 Pie (6)

23 Come back (6) 25 Sailing vessel (5) 26 Disorder (4) 28 Unhappy (3)