Renowned preacher Sauti-Phiri retires after 29-year AE service

Pastor Abel Lazaro Sauti-Phiri, a renowned preacher and trainer of evangelists and disciplers in many churches in Malawi, has retired from the inter-denominational African Enterprise (AE) Ministry after a 29-year service.

The 67-year-old, who was AE Malawi’s longest serving employee on his retirement on December 15 last year, declares that although he has been spared of office and sometimes back-to-back field dailywork routines, he will use every opportunity to accomplish what he enjoys most –leading people to repentance and effective service in Jesus Christ.

Hailing from Che Ganeti Village, in Traditional Authority (T/A) Kalonga, in Salima District, Sauti-Phiri was the last born among eight children born to parents Lazaro Sauti-Phiri and Liya Nambewe. He was born in Katete, in Zambia’s Eastern Province bordering Mchinji, where his dad had trekked and had secured a job as a store manager of the Reformed Church of Zambia after working as a shop manager for Mandala Stores in Malawi from the 1940s to early 1950s.

“Right from childhood and in my youth, I felt God’s calling on my life and I even harboured the dream of later becoming a Reverend. But this does not mean that I led a saintly life—far from it!” he remarks, chuckling.

Sauti-Phiri confesses that like many young boys, he descended into a double life of being active in both church and worldly activities. For instance, he was a choir leader at both primary and secondary school levels but he also was doing his best to hide the fact that he was increasingly becoming a smoker and an abuser of a string of girls.

During his time at Salima Secondary School, from 1974 to 1978, he extorted more fees than was necessary from his parents, by making them believe the education system demanded the money over and above the standard fees.

“Armed with the extorted pocket money, I loved going out of school bounds with friends, smoking and frolicking in bell-bottom trousers and high-heeled shoes then,” he confesses.

The negative extra-curricular activities later haunted the young man, who failed to fulfill his ambition of making it to university because of a weak and basic pass in the Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) examinations.

Sauti-Phiri’s consolation was that he did not wait for a long time in search of a job. A few weeks after completing his secondary education, he secured a three-month contract as a Chichewa language instructor for the American Peace Corps Volunteers in Lilongwe in 1979, after which he moved to Chileka, in Blantyre, where he became a permanent employee as a purchasing and supplies officer for Air Malawi Limited.

It was at this point, at the age of 23 on October 10 1979, that the young man had a life-transforming experience.

“I was visited by the Lord Jesus Christ while I was alone in the sitting room and was about to retire to bed in Chilomoni in Blantyre. I was sure it was the Lord and he came to me through a booming voice.

“He said: ‘Abel, if you die tonight the way you are, as a sinner, you will spend eternity in hell fire!” Sauti-Phiri recollects.

He adds that although he was very shocked by the import of the message, he firmly talked back to the voice in his defence. “No, I cannot go to hell fire if I die today because I am a Christian born from a Christian home and from a Christian hospital at St. Francis Hospital in Katete, Zambia.

“My parents got me baptised as an infant and I was confirmed as a member of the Reformed Church of Zambia in 1972. Also, I have been singing in choirs from primary school to secondary school and at secondary school, I was appointed a leader of Scom [the Students’ Christian Organisation of Malawi] and I read the Bible daily,” he argued,

But the voice strongly countered, saying the young man was hell-bound because he was born in sin, needing redemption through the cleansing of the blood of Jesus. It also stated that he was leading a pathetic double-standard life that displeases God.

“Even from your family to date, you are a thief and a liar. You have been abusing girls and you are keeping a magic charm that you wrongly believe is protecting you and giving you luck; your pagan uncle gave you this charm and you are keeping this secretly in your bag in the bedroom.

“When it comes to stealing, you stole three books from secondary school and while working for the American Peace Corps in Lilongwe, you stole two bedsheets, one mosquito net and a pillow case. Can such a life be accepted in heaven before God? That is why you will go to hell unless you repent,” the voice boomed again.

Sauti-Phiri went on his knees and almost wept as he offered a repentance prayer to Jesus, who had revealed his secret sins. “After the prayer, I felt very light-hearted and full of joy. It was as if a heavy weight had been removed from my shoulder —and that was proof to me that Jesus had forgiven all my sins,” he adds.

The same night after conversion, the new convert threw away the magic charm the uncle had given him ostensibly for protection and luck. Next day, he wrote letters to the several girlfriends he had had, telling each one that he had become a born again Christian and he could not continue with the deceit and immorality that characterised their relationship.

He recalls that only one girl wrote back, saying she would appreciate the continuation of their friendship, adding that she would not mind ending up as a pastor’s wife. “The God who saved me convicted and convinced me not to respond to my former girlfriend’s debate, warning that the girl may trap me back to the ungodly relationship,” he adds.

Sauti-Phiri grew quickly in his Christian walk by fully embracing Bible study and praying daily and actively participating in open-air and lunch-hour evangelistic meetings, mainly under Gospel for All Fellowship and New Life for All Ministry.

Soon, he felt God demanding that he should undertake a restitution mission by returning the items he had stolen to the owners.

Using the staff privilege of an airline employee, Sauti-Phiri one day flew from Blantyre to Lilongwe in order to meet some American Peace Corps officials. He was granted his wish to offer a prayer before the meeting began,

“I have been arrested by the police in heaven. As a result, I have come to confess that as I finished my contract with this organisation about a year ago, I ended up stealing two bed sheets, a mosquito net and a pillow case. Please forgive me and I am ready to pay the amount needed for buying the items to be replaced,” he told the Peace Corps leaders.

Replied the office manager: “Abel, I am moved by your repentance and apology and willingness to pay for your thieving. But if God has forgiven you, who am I to condemn and punish you out of hand? I forgive you and you do not need to pay for the stolen items.”

From the American Peace Corps office, Abel travelled to his former school and met the headmaster of Salima Secondary School happily took back the three books. He apologised for the theft and testified that Jesus had sent him to restore the books he had stolen a year earlier. The headmaster appreciated the return of the stolen books and encouraged Sauti-Phiri to hold on to Jesus Christ.

Sauti-Phiri, soon emerged as one of the leading busy young evangelists in Blantyre as he fed off the many Gospel for All outreach ministries, annual weeklong Keswick meetings and church cottage meetings. As the joy of ministering to others grew deeper, he felt the need to go to a Bible college even at the expense of quitting his good airline job.

Sauti-Phiri tendered his resignation at Air Malawi in 1982, to pursue his wish of going into full-time church ministry when he was a beneficiary of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry offer of fully-sponsored scholarships to 13 young evangelists from various churches in Malawi to attend a nine-month course at the International Bible Institute in Lagos, Nigeria.

When he returned home from Nigeria, Sauti-Phiri did much church evangelism and years later helped planting Deeper Life Bible Church in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu cities, over and above general preaching and the training of evangelists across the country. This experience was enhanced when he joined AE Malawi, as he worked with churches in organising stratified evangelism missions in various cities and towns over the past 29 years.

He salutes the South Africa-based AE founder, Dr. Michael Cassidy, AE International President, Kenyan Dr. Steven Mbogo, preacher Maundi Chombo and late evangelists Stephen Lungu and Willy Musopole for mentoring and empowering workers, including him, in the organisation into outstanding personnel globally sharing the good news of Jesus Christ very effectively.

Sauti-Phiri thanks AE for facilitating his acquisition of a three-year Degree in Theology he attained from George Whitefield College in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2011.

As he settles down in retirement, Sauti-Phiri salutes his wife, Dorothy, and their five children—three grown-up girls and two boys—for the support they have given as he soldiered on through ups and downs in ministry.

“My wife deserves special mention, for she has been a pillar of advancement for not only my family but also of the ministry. She is a great prayer warrior and she has sacrificially offered substantial financial resources to both the family and the ministry. “Dorothy has now focused on commercial farming in Mchinji. In my retirement now, I hope to spend more quality time with my wife in farming. I also thank God for calling me into ministry and also for upholding me all these years since I gave my life to the Lordship of Christ in 1979,” Sauti-Phiri states.