RSS 2.0 FeedJanuary vol 30 2011, Featured Articles, Religion/Spiritual
Zimbabweans flock to TB Joshua
WITH little plastic bottles of mineral water in their hands, executive-looking women jostled for the few drops of what they called “Holy Water” from Home Affairs co-minister Theresa Makone.
Makone, who heads the MDC women’s assembly in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s faction, had just visited controversial Nigerian Prophet TB Joshua where she was given the “sacred” water.
She distributed the water “for prosperity and healing the sick” to her colleagues after the party’s women’s national executive committee meeting recently.
The women, who are facing a potentially explosive party election in May, believe the “blessed water” would make them excel against their political adversaries.
Makone’s spiritual endeavours are however not isolated. There has been an influx of prominent Zimbabweans, including powerful politicians, to the Nigerian prophet in the past two years seeking spiritual guidance to enable them to navigate the country’s treacherous political landscape as well as better their lives.
Among those that have set foot at TB Joshua’s Synagogue Church of All Nations (Scoan) are Tsvangirai, Zanu PF MP and Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Tracy Mutinhiri and Zimbabwe Football Association boss Cuthbert Dube.
Dube, who was ailing, sprang from a wheelchair and started walking after the prophet’s prayers.
Efforts to get a comment from the Premier Service Medical Aid Society boss, who has never been fully fit since, were fruitless last week.
Tsvangirai’s former lover and businesswoman Locardia Tembo also visited the Nigerian prophet during her brief affair with the former trade unionist.
Several African politicians have also sought guidance from TB Joshua in the past few years. In 2008 Ghana’s John Atta Mills visited Scoan to seek the “face of God” during the election in his country.
After winning the polls, he said TB Joshua had prophesied his victory, specifying there would be three elections and the results would be released in January.
Those who have visited the prophet claim that they have been healed.
But there are still many “Doubting Thomases” in our midst.
Sceptics argue that some of those who visited TB Joshua never achieved their aspirations in life while others have had their health deteriorate.
The message on THE scoan website
The Scoan website says, “Healings of HIV-Aids, cancer, paralysis, and of many other sicknesses and diseases occur every week, proving that Jesus is who He says He is, He has what He says He has, and He can do what He says He can.”
Healing premised on one’s faith, says TB Joshua
A Harare woman, who was on anti-retroviral drugs, has since stopped taking her medication after getting “divine” water from the prophet early this year.
But Aids activists this week said they feared that stopping medication and relying solely on “holy” water might precipitate the woman’s death from Aids.
In an electronic mail response to questions from The Standard last week TB Joshua said healing was premised on one’s faith and continued obedience to God’s works.
“When we are healed, we are healed for a relationship with Jesus forever,” he said.
“When we are blessed, we are blessed for a relationship with Jesus forever.
“But when the relationship is broken, we lose whatever we receive.
“Soon the relationship is broken, soon the blessing is lost.”
The “man of God” went on to quote John 5:14 where Jesus said: “See you are healed, go and sin no more or else something worse will happen to you.”
He said his church does not encourage HIV-infected people to stop taking their medication after visiting Scoan.
The church has medical doctors including some from Zimbabwe and a clinic in Haiti, he said.
“Everyone receives according to the measure of his faith,” TB Joshua said. “So we cannot ask anybody to stop taking medicine.
But Father Oskar Wermter SJ of the Roman Catholic Church said most healers can only help people cope with psychological conditions or with relationships.
He said because some diseases have psychological causes, counselling and praying may alleviate people’s physical conditions.
“But people jumping out of wheelchairs or claiming to be cured from cancer or Aids, there I am sceptical,” Wermter said.
“People making such claims should submit to a thorough medical examination.
“Healings in response to prayer cannot be entirely excluded, but they are not that frequent.”
TB Joshua said he was praying for the crisis-ridden Zimbabwe.
“We are all praying for your nation — for the unity and love of leaders so that they can be strong and steadfast in the Lord.
“The pain of Zimbabwe is our pain, and the healing of Zimbabwe is our own healing.”
It is still to be seen if the local woman, who stopped taking ARVs after visiting TB Joshua, will be healed by water alone.
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