Adhering to God’s call

Evangelist JOYCE NKOMO GAMA is an example of people that have faced challenges head-on and turned them into weapons for serving God. Her duties as a ward attendant at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) in Blantyre offer her an opportunity to interact with patients spiritually. In her own words, the Covid-19 ward where she currently serves ignites her zeal to preach and pray for patients after she is done with her duties. Our reporter JAMES CHIMPWEYA caught up with her to hear more about her calling to evangelism. Excerpts:

Let us start by knowing a bit more about who Joyce Nkomo Gama is.

Joyce Nkomo Gama is first-born in a family of five. I am 42 years old. I come from Lunzu, Blantyre and work as a ward attendant at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital. In relation to our interaction today, I am the founder of Chitsime Choposa Agonjetsi Ministry which was born in 2009. The ministry was born an attempt to turn challenges that rocked my family into something beneficial for the glory of the Lord.

How did that happen?

The thing is that after realising that the challenges were too much for me, I started praying over them and subsequently started sharing them with my fellow believers. The desire was to let God take control of a situation which was beyond my faith and capabilities.

Contrary to my expectations that God would sort out my family problems, He challenged me to go and sort out my family problems before He could send me on a mission to serve Him. From then on I started searching to meet God holistically. Then we were praying indoors somewhere at Ndirande-Safarao in Blantyre.

What happened after you changeed your approach in dealing with God?

After I followed God’s advice to first prepare myself, He suddenly appeared to me in a vision, assuring me that when He starts His work He finishes it. In the vision, someone was cultivating my garden which had a healthy crop, but I had told the person that I did not have money to pay him but he continued working in the field. I knew this was God Himself.

Surprisingly, after sharing my vision with those I was congregating with, most of them were indifferent and ended up asking me to leave the group. I obliged on the encouragement of some women who assured me we could continue working together. So, we continued meeting and praying at my house.

Wasn’t the break up with your Ndirande friends proof that you were destined to fail in your mission?

Not, at all. In fact, it was the beginning of a vibrant ministry in my life because God started revealing Himself to me through various visions. Since then I started seeing the mighty hand of God in the same Ndirande Township after I prayed for a mentally challenged person, and God healed him. What followed were soaring numbers of people coming to pray with me.

Who else did you pray for and was healed?

I have a testimony of a Tanzanian pastor who miraculously stopped using a catheter that had become part of his life. I prayed with him for two days. On the third day, I took him to QECH where after a CT-scan doctors wondered why he was using the catheter, which they later removed from him.

Anything else worth sharing about your miracle healings?

Apparently, after the Tanzanian pastor returned home he shared his healing experience with people; hence I was not surprised when he invited me to visit him in 2017. I travelled not knowing that there was a case similar to the Ndirande mentally challenged person. But this one lived in a village forest near the pastor’s home.

By the time I arrived, the man had not been seen in the forest for some time and his sudden appearance in the middle of prayers the night I arrived, surprised many. He sat behind me and I could hear him say ‘You were healing people in Malawi but you cannot do the same here because you don’t speak Swahili, and you can’t also preach in English’.

I braved the odds, rose to the occasion and started praying in Chichewa. And it wasn’t long, as was the case in Ndirande, before the ‘forest man’ surrendered himself to God. I instructed the pastor and the people around to bath him, cut his long hair, dress him and give him something to eat. To the surprise of al, he fully cooperated. A crusade I later held pulled multitudes that testified God’s power at work.

How did you unveil yourself as an evangelist at your place of work?

It was one Wednesday night after I had finished my duties, that I had a strong feeling of sharing the word of God with patients on life-supporting machines. I did as the spirit demanded me. Of course, I sought their consent to engage them in prayer and the answer was a resounding Amen. The next day word came to me that one of the patients whom I had prayed with the previous night, said would have loved if I shared my evangelism story with the public.

On a lighter note this patient looked puzzled when I went to give him my phone number. He admitted that he had disagreed with some patients and my colleagues that the person who prayer in the ward was a man. With the passing of time the ministry has given me a deep male voice. This was happening after I had fasted for a week at the mountain. By then God had already spoken to me that I would soon change work stations. The next Monday my superiors only fulfilled what I had already expected. I welcomed the transfer happily, more so knowing that the battle against Covid-19 is too big for any patient to win without prayer. n