Testimony From John Tembo
Mozambique – Missionary Julius Phiri 2019

My name is John Tembo and I am 74 years of age. I live in Phiya (Fiya village) in western Mozambique. I was not happy to see these religious people coming into my village. I told the headman of the village that these were evil people and that they would bring death to the village. I even thought about killing some of them to discourage them from entering our village. Everyone in the village and even surrounding villages knows that I am a bad person and they know to stay away from me. These people were different from anyone I had ever seen. They did not seem to be afraid of me, even though I cursed at them and talked very bad to them. In spite of my bad words, they continued to go door to door praying for people and inviting them to something they called the Jesus Film. As evening neared, I began to hear music such as I had never heard before. I was very attracted to it and began walking in its direction. Almost all of the people in my village were standing around a large white sheet listening to the music. Soon after I came, this white sheet was filled with pictures of people speaking words that I could understand. As I watched and listened, I was attracted to this story and before long it seemed as if this story was sent just for me. The pictures stopped with this man named Jesus being nailed to a wooden cross. A preacher began to explain why Jesus had been nailed to this cross. I began to understand that because of the many bad things that I had done, Jesus had died for me. Finally he led us in prayer and asked us to come to stand close to him. I had many questions, so I came quickly. After asking many questions, I wanted to receive Jesus. The next day, I brought all 23 of my family members to the preacher so he could tell them the story of Jesus. A church was started in my village that day and all of my family have joined Maseka Baptist Church. Please pray for our church. We do not have a building and the rains are coming soon.