30 Years of Organizing Crusades in Africa | Nicholas Mavondo

Learn more about the ministry of Christopher Alam: www.pentecostalfire.com

Transcript: 

Evangelist Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus. Today I have a very special guest with me, Brother Nicholas Mavondo.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (00:12):
Yes, sir.

Evangelist Daniel King (00:12):
Thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (00:15):
Thank you, sir.

Evangelist Daniel King (00:16):
Brother Mavondo is the crusade director for Christopher Alam, the missionary evangelist. And for many years you have been helping to organize crusades. And right now we are in Chamoio, Mozambique. And tonight is the last night of our crusade here. It has been a very good crusade. The first two nights, it was raining, which was very unusual for this time of year.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (00:49):
Very, very unusual.

Evangelist Daniel King (00:50):
But it rained a little bit, so we had to cancel the first two nights. But then on the third night at 5:00 PM, the rain stopped and we were able to preach the gospel. And then last night I preached and tonight Brother Christopher Alam will preach. And last night we saw so many miracles. Lots of people came up, their eyes were open, their deaf ears were open. Okay. So you have been with Brother Christopher Alum for many years now. How many years have you been working together?

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (01:26):
I first met Evangelist Christopher Alum in 1991. I was just coming from Bible school after I’d finished my three years of Bible school. I met him the first time he came to Zimbabwe in Gueru, in a city called Guero.

Evangelist Daniel King (01:43):
Okay. I’ve been there. I did a crusade in Guero last year.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (01:48):
Wow.

Evangelist Daniel King (01:49):
Okay.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (01:50):
We were in Coba. So that’s where I met him, 1991. Ever since I met him, I’ve been attending his crusades. And working full time, I started working for him in 1996 full time as the crusade coordinator. And that time the director for Africa missions was a Swedish guy called Mats. He’s the one who was living here in Zimbabwe. And then that’s the time he came to Zimbabwe, 1991. His first crusade in Zimbabwe was in 1991. And since 1996, I’ve been organizing for his crusades here in Africa.

Evangelist Daniel King (02:35):
What a great blessing. So now that’s 30 years now.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (02:39):
30 years.

Evangelist Daniel King (02:40):
Wow. And one of the things that I really want to honor you for is your faithfulness. Amen. You have been very faithful to serve the Lord and to organize many crusades and every year, eight to 10 crusades organizing, working very hard to put them together. So in 30 years you have done many, many crusades here in the southern part of Africa. And you’re from Zimbabwe,

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (03:12):
Right? I’m from Zimbabwe.

Evangelist Daniel King (03:14):
And where do you live?

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (03:15):
I used to live in Harare, and then I started a small church in Chinoi,

Evangelist Daniel King (03:23):
Which

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (03:23):
Is 120 kilometers from Harare. In fact, many, many years ago we used to do 12 crusades in a year.

Evangelist Daniel King (03:33):
Wow.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (03:33):
So then we came down to 10, then we came down to eight. All these crusades, I’m the one who was organizing them and putting everything together, bringing the pastors together. I mean, just to make the crusade a success.

Evangelist Daniel King (03:50):
Yeah. And it really is a team effort because having a successful crusade does not only depend upon the anointing and the call that is upon the evangelist, it takes a team to organize, to put it together. In fact, when I work with crusade directors, I tell them the number of people who come on the first night is your responsibility. And then if I preach bad, the number that come the second night is my responsibility. But for the first night – First night, yeah. It is the responsibility of the director. And so a lot of work goes into organizing to build relationships with the pastors, to put up posters, to get the permissions from the government. Talk about the process that your team goes through in order to do a crusade. How long in advance do you begin and what does that look like to… So like this year, for example, evangelist Christopher Alum decided to focus on Mozambique.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (05:03):
Mozambique and Zambia.

Evangelist Daniel King (05:04):
In Zambia. And so you did six crusades here – In Mozambique. In Mozambique. And so you have to bring the sound system into the country. Yes. You have to get it through the border and then go city to city. So when does that process begin after you decide to focus on a place like Mozambique, and then how much in advance do you begin planning? And then what does that look like throughout the year as you organize these events?

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (05:35):
Well, the preparation of the next crusade begins a year in advance. Like now, we are planning to go to Zambia next year.

Evangelist Daniel King (05:47):
And

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (05:48):
Already this month of October, I will be going to Zambia to make sure all the places where we are planning to go, I go to those places, meet pastors, share the vision, show them our intentions of coming to their city so that we don’t clash with other people that might want to come and

(06:14):
Maybe to do conferences or to do something for as long as a Christian event. So at least we are in their mind and in their planning before the following year, we plan a year in advance. That’s the first thing. I go to a particular town or that we have decided to say next year we are going to do crusades in this town and this town. I go right around those places, meet the pastors, gather the pastors together, have a meeting with them, share the vision. Once the vision is shared, they have the dates already to know that we will be coming to their city. That’s number one. Number two, there are certain places where there are no pastors fellowships, no fellowship at all. Each pastor lives on his own, doing his own thing, pastoring exchange. So I go door to door visiting those pastors, bringing them together, then have a meeting with them, then a fellowship is established.

(07:15):
So that’s the preliminary thing that we do. Then the second thing, before we move, we start moving, that is after all the meetings that I’ve done, we secure the ground. We get permission from the local authority to be allowed to use their football ground or whatever ground we have chosen, get permission from the police because it involves security. So we get permission from the police, get permission, look for a house for the team where the team will be staying because the team will be staying in that place for five weeks. We have to look for a house. I mean, all these things.

Evangelist Daniel King (07:59):
How many team members do you have right now?

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (08:02):
We do have 60, full team members.

Evangelist Daniel King (08:04):
And so you’ll actually rent a house nearby?

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (08:07):
Yes.

Evangelist Daniel King (08:07):
And the team will stay there for how long before the crusade?

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (08:12):
It’s three weeks before the crusade. We do the preparations of three weeks before the crusade.

Evangelist Daniel King (08:16):
Okay. And one of the things that I really like about your ministry is that you do the Mobile Bible School. Yes. Can you explain what is the Mobile Bible School and how does that help the churches?

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (08:27):
Right. The Mobile Bible School, it’s a training that we offer to believers and pastors, which will affect the follow-up after the crusade because people sometimes don’t know what to say to people when they’re making a follow-up. They really don’t know what are we going to tell the new believers when we make a follow-up or what we do. We train them on how to do street evangelism. That’s number one. We train them how to pray through to praying for sinners to come before we go out to witness to them. We train them to pray. We train them on how to share Christ, how to give a testimony in three minutes, how to witness, how to pray. We do all these things. There are so many parts of things that we do. I also teach on leadership training, training the leaders on not training them how to run their churches, but training them on how to submit.

(09:37):
Believers, sometimes they can be very rebellious. Sometimes some of them don’t listen to their pastors. We train them to say, look, the pastor is the person that is called into this area. So we teach them all those things. And then this is during three weeks of training, we do intersession, we do street evangelism, we do first steps with Jesus, the booklet that Pastor Christopher has written.

(10:02):
We give the believers that first steps with Jesus so that they can use that same booklet to go out and witness. So that is the three weeks of training. And also it helps the believers to do proper follow up. Sometimes a person can, like some of the things that the believers find when they go out to witness or people give their lives during the crusade, a person can think, okay, I don’t need to give my life to Jesus. I’m already a Christian. So they write a name of someone who has not even come to the crusade, maybe a house of prostitutes. They write the name, the address of the house of prostitute. One pastor was given that house number in the name of a person like a brother. And the pastor went there and said, “You came to the crustu said, No, none of us came to the crusade.

(10:55):
These prostitutes actually thought he is our client. We have never had a client of a pastor and the pastor is visiting them. And because of the training, the pastor knew exactly what to say to them and he shared the word of God with them and eight people got saved.

Evangelist Daniel King (11:12):
Wow. Praise God. Eight people

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (11:13):
Got saved. Yes. What

Evangelist Daniel King (11:14):
A blessing. And

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (11:15):
During this same period of time, on a Saturday, we do three hours of training. One hour of training, one hour we send them out two by two to go out and witness. And sometimes we witness, we see, like one town where we went only on one Saturday, we had 52 people who got saved in 45 minutes.

Evangelist Daniel King (11:38):
Wow. So

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (11:38):
During this three weeks of training, when we send out people to go and do street witnessing, we see results before the crusade. The effectiveness of our training, we always tell them the success of the crusade is not during the crusade. It is after the crusade. We begin to see results already even before the crusade. So that’s when we say the crusade is successful.

Evangelist Daniel King (12:03):
And so those who go through the mobile Bible school, then they help to become the ushers and the counselors during the crusade. Yes. And then afterwards they help with the follow-up.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (12:15):
With the follow-up, yes.

Evangelist Daniel King (12:16):
So explain how you do follow-up in the whole process for the decision cards and how that works.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (12:24):
What we do, let’s say we come to a town and the pastors and their church members participate during the crusade. We separate the two groups. Ushers are people who stand in front to control the crowd. Counselors, it’s not the meaning of the word counselor. It’s just for us to differentiate between an usher and that one who writes the decision cards. To us, a counselor is a person who just writes the decision cards and at the end of writing the decision. And this is one thing that I really want to make it clear. When we say those people who want to give their life to the Lord, lift up your hands, they lift up their hands. And then we say those ones who don’t have a church, who don’t go to a good church, like what we explain what a good church is, please go to the counselor and give your names to the counselor.

(13:21):
It reduces the number of people, only those who are serious.

Evangelist Daniel King (13:25):
So you are specifically collecting the names of those who do not already go to church. Exactly. And you’re only counting those decision cards. So that it’s easier numbers wise for people to follow up on those who don’t already have a church. And I think that’s actually good because you don’t want someone who goes to one church to be contacted by a pastor from another church because then it just creates confusion.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (13:53):
And sometimes you would see even during the crusade, you’ll see some pastors, they lift their hands up and they give their lives to the Lord. So even Christians, the ones who go to church, sometimes they can be convicted by the word of God and then they feel like, “I’m not a Christian.” So they rededicate their lives to the Lord. So we want to avoid that scenario to say, “This person is already going to church and then is contacted by another pastor from another church. It’ll bring confusion in the board of Christ.”

Evangelist Daniel King (14:25):
So

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (14:25):
Specifically during the crusade, we make sure that only those ones who don’t go to a church, who don’t go to a good church according to what would have explained. Those are the ones whom we encourage to say, “You can go now to the counselors and give your name to the counselors.” And by so doing our assessment has been over 88% of the decision cards that pastors get after the crusade, those people end up in their churches.

Evangelist Daniel King (15:00):
88%? 88%. Wow. That’s amazing.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (15:04):
Yes.

Evangelist Daniel King (15:05):
What a great statistic. All right. Let’s talk about the different countries that you have organized events in. Right now we’re in Mozambique. Mozambique. You’ve also done many crusades in Zimbabwe.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (15:17):
Zimbabwe, Botswana.

Evangelist Daniel King (15:19):
Botswana.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (15:20):
Zambia, Congo.

Evangelist Daniel King (15:22):
Congo.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (15:23):
Tanzania.

Evangelist Daniel King (15:24):
Okay.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (15:24):
So we have been –

Evangelist Daniel King (15:25):
So this entire region. And

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (15:27):
Malawi.

Evangelist Daniel King (15:27):
And Malawi.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (15:28):
Yes, sir.

Evangelist Daniel King (15:29):
Yeah. And over the years, you’ve been doing it so long, there’s not many places you haven’t done at least one crusade. Yeah,

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (15:36):
That’s true.

Evangelist Daniel King (15:36):
And sometimes you go back 10 years later and do a second crusade.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (15:40):
Yes.

Evangelist Daniel King (15:41):
Sometimes

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (15:42):
We can even do, not yearly, but maybe this year we go there, the following year we skip. The other year we go back. The reason is that people in cities, they travel. They

Evangelist Daniel King (15:58):
Move

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (15:58):
From city to city. There will always be new people coming into the city and also those young ones would’ve grown. There’s a lot of movement.

Evangelist Daniel King (16:08):
Yeah. And then sometimes you’ll do two events in the same city, but targeting different townships. Why do you do that?

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (16:18):
Right. You see, our mode of operation is like this. We would prefer to be where the people are than to say, let people travel to come to a crusade, which is far from their location. Why do we do that? You would find that people would do citywide crusade. Most of the people that attend in that crusade are believers.

(16:43):
But if you go to a township where the people live, where people can hear the gospel whilst they’re in their homes. I remember in Blawai in a township called Kulomani 12, we went there and we had a crusade and there was a lady who was sick and disabled. And this lady requested her children to take it from the bedroom and make it to sit outside. And she was listening to the preaching of the gospel. Once she was listening, when Pastor Christopher Alam said, “Let me pray. I’m going to pray for you.” He started praying and he said, “I command those legs to be strong, be healed by God’s mighty power.” That lady who was in her own house, she got healed and she rose up and the following day she came and she testified, “This is why we go to where the people are. Even those people who have not come to the crusade, they can hear and receive from the preaching of the gospel.

Evangelist Daniel King (17:43):
Amen. What do you see the spiritual climate is in each of these countries? Where do you think people are extremely open? Where do you feel like maybe it’s hard ground to plow?

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (18:01):
Countries like Tanzania where some… Firstly, Tanzania, you are not allowed to preach after 6:00 PM. So they say you can only do your crusade in the afternoon during the day. When you look at that, you see that during the day, a lot of people get work. So it’s restrictive. And secondly, Muslim dominated areas like northern part of Mozambique, Nampula where we once went, you find it’s not open. The gospel is not open, especially in areas where the Muslims are dominant. In Zambia, the atmosphere is very open. Once you call on the crusade, I mean, you are rest assured something big is going to happen. So in these countries, Malawi, it’s also open for the gospel.

Evangelist Daniel King (19:00):
What about Zimbabwe?

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (19:02):
Zimbabwe, of late because of difficulties in the country, political climate. But these days, Zimbabwe used to be very open to the… It is open to the gospel, but the challenges, life’s challenges, people are spending lots of hours trying to work hard so that they can earn a living.

Evangelist Daniel King (19:24):
Last year I went to do… We were in Bulawayo in Guero, and then I took one day to go up and see Victoria Falls. So I was there at the hotel near Victoria Falls, and I was talking to one girl working at the hotel and she said, “Oh, what do you do for a living?” I said, “I’m an evangelist.” And she said, “Oh, you are an evangelist. Are you like Christopher Alum?” I said, “Yes, exactly. I am an evangelist just like Christopher Alum.” So when I said evangelist, immediately she thought of Christopher Alum and she said, “I went to one of his crusades and I got saved and now I am part of my church. And he is a very great blessing.” And I know you’ve gone there many times.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (20:08):
Many times, yes, yes.

Evangelist Daniel King (20:10):
We are

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (20:10):
Actually planning to… We are just discussing today talking about going back to Victoria Falls because there is need there. There is need. Victoria Falls is growing. The town itself is growing. So many people, new people are coming into the city. So because of that, we will always go back even if… Being in one place, for example, I used to think at first, maybe why should we go back to the same place? Because we have been there. People come in, people go, people transfer.

Evangelist Daniel King (20:46):
And people are growing up. If you go a few years later, there’s a new generation that have maybe never heard the gospel. That’s very

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (20:55):
True. That’s

Evangelist Daniel King (20:56):
Very true. What are some of the biggest challenges of organizing crusades? Where have you had difficulties?

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (21:05):
Well, organizing crusades, sometimes the most difficult part is convincing the pastors

Evangelist Daniel King (21:13):
That

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (21:14):
Crusades are very fruitful. Pastors have got different… When you meet pastors in a meeting, some pastors, when they know that this is an international organization that is coming in, some already think about money to say, “Well, this is an opportunity to line our pockets because –

Evangelist Daniel King (21:37):
And of course, money is not our motive. Our motive is souls.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (21:40):
Souls, yes. Then sometimes you hear, like in Congo, I was being asked,” What are we going to get if we do the followup? When you give us decision cards, how much are you going to pay us to make a followup? “It’s like you are coming to do your work. And some people say, especially pastors, they will say,” These evangelists, they come and take pictures, they take videos, they go out there, they raise money for themselves, and yet we are not benefiting anything. “All these things, these are the challenges that I meet and I have to answer them and to convince them that the crusade is very… It’s a worthwhile. Because within their group, you would find one or two pastors who got saved in a crusade, in either one of our crusades or one of the

Evangelist Daniel King (22:31):
Crusades

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (22:32):
Or an evangelist who came

Evangelist Daniel King (22:33):
Into

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (22:34):
Town and they got saved there. Then we say,” If this one got saved in a crusade, then crusades are very effective. “So somehow those ones who want to line up their pockets, they end up walking

Evangelist Daniel King (22:47):
Out. And I like what you said the other day to me. You said that you’d sometimes tell the pastors that when someone gets saved and starts coming to church, they bring their wallet with them.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (22:59):
Yes.

Evangelist Daniel King (22:59):
Because their wallet gets saved too. Their heart gets saved and their wallet gets paid. Their wallet gets

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (23:04):
Saved.

Evangelist Daniel King (23:04):
Yeah,

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (23:04):
That’s true. Because that’s where they’ll get their

Evangelist Daniel King (23:07):
Money. And then they think, oh.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (23:08):
Yes. They see the value of the crusade.

Evangelist Daniel King (23:10):
Wow.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (23:11):
Yes. They see the value. But some of the challenges besides the pastors, it’s getting permission from the government.

(23:20):
It depends who is in power. If the government is run by Muslims, you’ll definitely get into big challenges to get permission. But because we work with different people, you know how to get around certain situations. And also the border, because we’ll be carrying a lot of equipment, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment in the truck. And then the government says, “We don’t know whether you are going to come back with your equipment or you’re going to sell it into our country. We want a deposit.” Let’s say, for example, if the equipment is worth 150,000, they say we want 20% of that as deposit. And then when you pay the deposit in US dollars, you get the deposit back in their currency, so you lose a lot of money. So those are the areas where when you are coordinating for crusades or directing for crusades, you have to really know which button to press, which office to go to, how to get a rebate just for the government to allow you in without paying anything and then come out and they check again.

(24:38):
In some countries when we were trying to get into Tanzania, it took us 21 days for us to get clearance from the –

Evangelist Daniel King (24:45):
Sitting at the border for 21 days.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (24:47):
For 21 days, the truck

Evangelist Daniel King (24:48):
Was

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (24:48):
Stuck at the border. But this part of Africa, Zambia, Mozambique, because over the years you develop relationships

Evangelist Daniel King (24:58):
With

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (24:58):
Government officials. They’ll tell you leeways and loopholes just to make sure your equipment comes into the country. Within four or five days, the truck gets into the country. This is over many years of experience and also contacts

Evangelist Daniel King (25:18):
In and

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (25:19):
Around the countries.

Evangelist Daniel King (25:20):
That’s wonderful.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (25:22):
The challenge of taking through the equipment into the country is one of the challenges. Police clearance is not an issue, but border issues because if

Evangelist Daniel King (25:33):
It’s

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (25:35):
One country to another, you have to prove that you are not going to sell the equipment or whatever you have into their country, but you’ll bring it back to the country of origin.

Evangelist Daniel King (25:47):
What are some of the victories that you celebrate as an organizer?

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (25:55):
You see, when you see a crusade, for example, for two days it has been raining and you have spent thousands of dollars in preparation.

Evangelist Daniel King (26:10):
It’s kind of sad. The rain is coming down and tears are coming down.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (26:14):
Coming down. We are praying, Lord, help us. Lord, we ask you to stop the rains. So once it stops and something happens and you see miracles… I remember there is a trip I went with Pastor Christopher Alam to Dubai, and then a Muslim couple was invited to the meeting. And then this Muslim couple… And the Christians never believed because where we were holding the meeting was next to a mosque.

(26:48):
So the Christian said, “No, no, no, you are not yours is this side.” Then said, “No, no, no. I want to come here.” So that couple came to the meeting and the husband, I think he was deaf in one ear and God touched him and healed him and he gave his life to the Lord. Some of these things that we see, especially the miracles, after seeing challenges, you see these miracles, God touching people, God healing people. It’s like miracles becomes our daily bread. And you say, “Lord, thank you for honoring us by the things that you do.” This keeps me going. This becomes an encouragement for me and also an encouragement for the team. Maybe they would have met a lot of challenges on the road as they were traveling. But when we begin to see these things, these miracles, one of the amazing miracle, Brother Daniel, is the one I saw in Argentina.

(27:53):
We went to this conference with Pastor Christopher. He called me to join him, and we were sitting in the pastor’s lobby, just having tea before the conference. Then there was a woman who brought this boy who was paralyzed. He was 12 years old. This boy was on wheelchair and he was told by the specialist that this boy is not going to walk because the disease that is affecting him is a rare disease which is eating up his muscles. So he couldn’t stand. So because of my many years with Pastor Christopher, he looked at me

(28:36):
And I knew, I felt like I heard him loud and clear to say, “Is it going to happen?” Then I nodded my head. Then I went into the camera bag, took the camera, ready to take pictures of the boy who was still on wheelchair. And then he looked at the boy and said, “Do you want to stand with me?” The boy said, “Yes, I want to stand with…” He said, “Stand with me.” And my camera was on, ready to take pictures, but I couldn’t take pictures because I was shocked. I was in a shock. I said, “What is this? Is this real?” It was like a drama. “Do you want to stand with me? Stand with me. Do you want to walk with me? Walk with me. Then do you want to run with…” I was just right there with my mouth open, shocked. Then the boy left the wheelchair, went into the church, the whole church was charged with the presence of God.

Evangelist Daniel King (29:30):
Wow.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (29:30):
This was amazing. This is one miracle that I will never forget in my life.

Evangelist Daniel King (29:37):
That’s awesome.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (29:37):
And the other one was of a boy, this is the hand?

Evangelist Daniel King (29:44):
The wrist? The wrist?

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (29:46):
No, this.

Evangelist Daniel King (29:46):
Oh, the hand.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (29:47):
The hand.

Evangelist Daniel King (29:47):
Yeah.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (29:48):
This hand was like something here.

Evangelist Daniel King (29:52):
Nothing else

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (29:53):
Besides the hand was a flap on the shoulder.

Evangelist Daniel King (29:56):
Okay.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (29:57):
And then we saw the hand coming out like It was like it was hiding

Evangelist Daniel King (30:02):
Somewhere

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (30:02):
Inside.

Evangelist Daniel King (30:02):
Wow. The

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (30:03):
Hand came out. And then the other one, this is the last one. We went to Tanzania. The crowd was very small, very pathetic. I mean, it was terrible. And then there came the Maasai guy with a hole, no eye, nothing. Just a hole. Empty.

Evangelist Daniel King (30:25):
Empty socket.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (30:26):
Empty socket, nothing. So Pastor Christopher prayed. I’m the one who checked him. I said, What do you mean you can see? I said, cross this one. He closed the one with the eyeball. Then this one, empty socket. I said, do what I’m doing. He did exactly what I was… I always remind him to say, sometimes the smaller crowds mean nothing, but –

Evangelist Daniel King (30:53):
God is still

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (30:53):
Working. God is still working in the crowd. Sometimes as evangelists, you get discouraged maybe because of the small crowds or you say, I’ve wasted so much money. Look at this small crowd. But sometimes God will be doing greater and mighty things in that small crowd.

Evangelist Daniel King (31:12):
Amen. So those

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (31:12):
Are the victories that I’ve experienced.

Evangelist Daniel King (31:14):
Amen. One of the things that I love about you is you’ve been serving God very faithfully for many years now.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (31:21):
Yes,

Evangelist Daniel King (31:22):
Sir. But it has not become stale. You still have the fire of God burning inside of you. Yes, sir. What advice would you give to young people who maybe want to be used by God? We need more crusade directors here in Africa. And so a young man who wants to be used by God, what would you say to them to help them to keep the fire?

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (31:46):
There are two things that

Evangelist Daniel King (31:48):
I – Don’t go too far that would come this

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (31:50):
Way. There are two things that I’ve learned. Pastor Christopher doesn’t change his scriptures that he preaches in all our crusades. He uses the same scriptures. And I asked him –

Evangelist Daniel King (32:01):
The other night he preached on John chapter three, the serpent that was lifted up in the wilderness. In the wilderness. He does that all the time.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (32:09):
All the time. And then I asked him, “Why don’t you change your scriptures?” This is what he said. He said, “If it is working, why should I change it? If it worked here and working here and continues to work,

Evangelist Daniel King (32:23):
Why should

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (32:23):
I change the scriptures?” So sometimes what makes people feel called, they say, “We are doing the same thing again and again and again.” But if you can see the hand of God in it, rejoice. If you see signs and wonders taking place, rejoice and continue. It doesn’t matter whether you are… It’s like you are repeating the same thing again and again. So that kept me going. And secondly, Pastor Christopher advised me, don’t take yourself serious.

Evangelist Daniel King (32:58):
We do serious work for God, but at the same time we can laugh. We can

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (33:03):
Laugh. We can

Evangelist Daniel King (33:03):
Enjoy life.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (33:04):
Yes.

Evangelist Daniel King (33:08):
I think that’s true that sometimes people think, oh, I’m the man of God and they get so puffed up. And really you are like the donkey that carried Jesus into Jerusalem. You are carrying Jesus. The crowd is not cheering for you because you are special. No. They’re cheering for you because you are carrying Jesus with you.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (33:32):
Exactly. So because of all this, I’ve learned to say to myself, okay, this is time to do ministry. When I’m preaching, I preach as though this is my last sermon. When I’m home, I’m relaxing with my family, enjoying life. When I’m doing God’s work, I’m busy. I

Evangelist Daniel King (33:56):
Focus.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (33:57):
I concentrate on that.

Evangelist Daniel King (33:59):
And

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (33:59):
The fire never… And I look forward all the time. I look forward to see God doing great and mighty things. And even in my life, I look forward. I expect great and mighty things. I expect God to bless my family. I expect God to be with me, to strengthen me. And I mean, just that, a life of expectancy all the time

Evangelist Daniel King (34:24):
Looking

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (34:24):
Forward. During hard times, I always say, if God met my needs last year, surely this struggle that I’m going through, it’s just short-lived because that same God who performed, who met my needs is going to surely meet my needs even this time. So just a life of expectancy from the Lord all the time.

Evangelist Daniel King (34:49):
Amen. Amen. That’s powerful. Those are some great thoughts. If you’re watching and you want to help to support the ministry of Evangelist Christopher Alum, you can go to their website. It is pentecostalfire.com, I believe, pentecostalfire.com. And you can learn all about the ministry of Brother Christopher Alum and with Brother Mavando and all of the crusades that they do every single year. I encourage you to go into support Evangelist Christopher and help them. This ministry is doing a very effective work here. I really want to compliment you and your team. Thank you. I have seen many different crusades in many different places and I’ve seen many things organized and your team does a wonderful job of organizing the crusade. You do everything with excellence. Thank you. I can see even the stages put up with excellence. The sound system is maintained with excellence. The truck is clean.

(36:05):
The posters are up all over the place. The organization is very good. The ushers are well trained. The system is… Everybody knows the system and everyone works the system and the system works.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (36:18):
Works,

Evangelist Daniel King (36:19):
Yes. And so this is very special. I’ve seen some crusades that are chaos the entire time, but you have done such a wonderful job – Thank you, sir. Organizing everything. And I know it comes from 30 years of experience and figuring out exactly the right way to do everything, but I really compliment you. Thank you, sir. You do it with great excellence. Thank you, sir. And because of that, God is using your team in such a powerful way. Thank

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (36:47):
You very much, sir.

Evangelist Daniel King (36:48):
Thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (36:51):
Thank you. Thank you, brother. Thank you. God bless you.

Evangelist Daniel King (36:54):
Thank you. Thank you

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (36:54):
For having me here.

Evangelist Daniel King (36:55):
Yes, sir.

Crusade Director Nicholas Mavondo (36:55):
Thank you, sir.