MOURNERS at a funeral wake of a 15-year-old-boy in Gweru
were left speechless when a team of pastors stormed the house and started
praying over the body in a bid to resurrect him. The incident occurred in
Southview suburb on Monday at the funeral wake of Tatenda Dick, an Ordinary
Level pupil at Chaplin High School, who had died the previous day from a
terminal illness.
Witnesses said Tatenda’s body was brought home for the
wake before burial the following morning. They said three pastors from the
local Christ Embassy Church came and conducted prayers meant to bring Tatenda
back to life as had happened to the Biblical Lazarus.
A close relative of Tatenda said the three pastors came
into the lounge where the coffin was and started sprinkling water on mourners
in the room while speaking in tongues.
“One of the pastors opened the top half of the coffin and
placed a cellphone that was playing a sermon by the church founder, Pastor
Chris,” said the relative.
The pastors removed the body from the coffin in front of
the stunned mourners. They said the “resurrection” prayers were conducted with
the blessings of the boy’s mother, a member of the same church. The witness
said the pastors intensified their prayers, commanding Dick to rise and walk.
After praying for about three hours without any sign that the boy would come back to life, the witness said, the leader of the team ordered all the mourners, except Christ Embassy members, out of the room.
After praying for about three hours without any sign that the boy would come back to life, the witness said, the leader of the team ordered all the mourners, except Christ Embassy members, out of the room.
Eventually, only the three men were left with the boy’s
mother and a few close relatives. The Christ Embassy Church members claimed
Dick would resurrect in a couple of hours if they were left on their own.
“Curious mourners who were failing to come to terms with
the goings on, however, refused to disperse as they wanted to witness every
part of the unfolding drama. The ‘men of God’ went into ‘ecstasy’ while one of
them held the corpse upright. What surprised the mourners most was that even
the now deceased boy’s mother, Ms Germa Machingauta, pleaded with the mourners
to disperse as she also believed that her son would resurrect,” said one
witness.
Some mourners said they now suspected the whole incident
to have been an act of Satanism. Due to numerous bizarre incidents happening in
Zimbabwe, people are quick to link any inexplicable happening to Satanism or
juju (use of magic powers). The witnesses said as the drama unfolded, some
curious mourners peeped through the windows of the room where the prayers were
taking place.
One man who appeared to be the leader of the group is
said to have blamed the delay of the boy’s “resurrection” on “demons” which he
alleged were possessed by some mourners. The church crew later ordered the
close relatives to also leave the room and leave the mother behind.
“They then closed all the windows and the curtains of the
room before they ordered Ms Machingauta to touch on the chest of her son’s body
before they continued to pray on top of their voices,” said the witness.
He said some disgruntled mourners, including the elderly,
later dispersed dismissing the prayer sessions as a farce.
“The church members, including Ms Machingauta, prayed for
the resurrection of the boy until Tuesday morning. By then only a few close
relatives were still camped outside the house while the majority of the
mourners who could not understand what was happening left the residence. The
boy, however, did not resurrect and there were some clashes among the relatives
themselves on Tuesday as they accused Ms Machingauta and her church members of
making fun out of a funeral. The boy was later buried on
Tuesday afternoon but
by then, there were only few relatives as the majority of mourners and other
distant relatives had left.”
Ms Machingauta, a nurse by profession, confirmed the
incident when contacted yesterday. She said she had no problem with her church
members’ attempts to raise her son from the dead.
“I have no problems with what happened. This is what we
believe in our church. Actually, the Christ Embassy Church members had come on
my invitation. I was satisfied with what happened. The resurrection failed
because God had already spoken to my child and decided to take him into his
care,” she said.
When she was asked why they decided to conduct the
resurrection prayers after the boy’s body had first been taken to the mortuary,
Ms Machingauta said: “That doesn’t matter. Lazarus was resurrected when his
body was about to rot and this could have happened to my child but God had
spoken to him,” she said
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