Joseph was a womaniser and a heavy drinker until a Feba Zimbabwe programme changed everything, as Shannon June Kittlitz reports.
Joseph Mageza’s first reaction to hearing the Sunday Morning Service programme was to tell his wife Yvonne: “Lower the volume or switch off the radio.”
Joseph admits: “When Feba used to come on the radio, I did not care much about it. I was a bit confused about churches then. A lot of people had come my way: pastors, individuals, my wife, trying to lure me to go to church. And I was just not interested.”
Yvonne was going to church and praying. Joseph regularly went out drinking with his friends. During this tough time, the radio in their bedroom came to the rescue. Yvonne shares: “There was a Sunday in October last year when we were listening to Reverend Faithful, preaching about faith. That sermon turned everything around in our house.”
Hearing the truth
That particular morning, Joseph was still in bed and Yvonne had the bedroom radio tuned to the Sunday Morning Service. This time Joseph was listening. He recalls: “I didn’t know about being born again of the spirit. I knew God existed, but I didn’t know that I had to have a relationship with God.
“God started showing me all sorts of things that I had been doing … the women, the adultery, the drinking, everything. I started crying, saying to myself, ‘Wow, what have I been doing?’”
Making a U-turn
He listened to Sunday Morning Service again the following week. “From then on,” Joseph says, “I could not leave that programme, because it gave me so much faith.” Joseph decided to stop seeing some of his old friends and stopped buying alcohol. He says: “I really think that I was called by God, and God told me that we were starting a new period in my life.”
Meeting ‘crazy’ Christians
Nervously, Joseph set out to contact Feba. He explains: “I thought I was going to meet some of those crazy Christians who would do all sorts of things to me.” Joseph was warmly welcomed at the Feba office, where he talked and prayed with Farai Takarupwa, host of the Sunday Morning Service programme.
Now Joseph and his family are familiar faces at Feba’s monthly Listeners’ Day. “It’s like Feba is part of our family,” Yvonne says.
Joseph added: “Feba has made a huge difference in our lives.”
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