Conman masquerading as a prophet

In 2013 I wrote a piece called lord-graciously-hear-us which was a cry that God hears his children especially our women who have become more and more susceptible to the whims of conmen, masquerading as pastors. Ideally, I prefer to stay away from two things which are religious topics and main stream politics. However, it is always difficulty to stay away from religion and politics as these are the main stay of our societies. Certainly, the happenings of Sunday 15th May 2016 were too outrageous to ignore.

Truth is I am a big critic of the new breed of ‘superstar’ preachers who I say are nothing but conmen at the pulpit. I do try not to question these men and women. As one who was raised on Christian beliefs, it is actually preposterous to indulge in discourse that borders on questioning the legitimacy of ‘men of God’. Sadly this is the reason most of these conmen get away with it, they know most of us are not ready to question them; hence they ride on this predisposition to hoodwink the unsuspecting flock. To make sure they are not brought to question, they use excerpts of scripture especially 1 Chronicles 16:22 Saying, “Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.”

This lot of preachers wants the glory to themselves and not God. They have gaudy titles such as ‘papa one’ or ‘general’ all of which give them some superstardom status of some kind. They may quote the bible every now and then, but their ways are definitely not in line with biblical teachings. Sadly, a lot of people are fooled, and this is simply beneath any basic morality to con people from the pulpit. I have no kind words for such decadent demagogues fooling the gullible souls by performing fake miracles. Theirs are fake miracles because these are properly stage managed for the sole purpose of deception as I will reveal in this blog.

The battle between evil and good is now inside the churches

Phony prophet - My encounter

On Sunday 15^th May 2015, I went to Kamwala at a wall-fenced location just behind Kamwala School. The location houses virtually finished modern buildings that I concluded according to my first instinct was a school. The reason I was at this location was that my mother-in-law had invited me to attend church service at this location. She had been to the church for a few Sundays, maybe two. I accepted the invitation even though I didn’t know the name of the church. The fact that the invitation came through my mother in law made it all the more difficulty to decline. I had snubbed invitations to visit certain charismatic churches before and at times it didn’t go well with my wife. The reason I had declined such invitations is simply that I don’t agree with their doctrines and how they conduct business.

On Thursday 12^th May 2016 my wife and my mother-in-law went to privately see this ‘man of God’ who I have come to learn is called ‘Prophet Lenga’. He is apparently the head pastor (not that there was any other pastor there), of Salvation City International church. After a long discussion in his office between my wife, mother-in-law as well as the ‘pastor’ and his wife, the ‘pastor’ suggested that my wife invites me to church on a Sunday. My wife had gone to see the ‘man of God’ for comfort after experiencing extreme emotional and physical pain(I have decided to share this pain below).

So there I was on the fateful Sunday, sat next to my wife in the pew four rows behind the front. On the way to Kamwala we had to pass through Mumbwa road to collect something hence we had arrived at the church slightly late and found the front rows all filled up. Despite the fact we arrived late, there were still empty seats behind us and these were steadily filling up as the minutes ticked. We ‘sat’ through more than half an hour of praise then another half an hour or so of worship before suddenly the worship leader announced that those that had been seated needed to join those who had been standing as ‘papa’ and ‘mama’ were about to enter.

Shortly after, there was what I would term commotion behind me and as I turned to have a look I saw a flamboyantly dressed man with a woman beside him that looked equally ostentatious walking in the front of what I’d call a delegation. I guessed these were pastor and his wife, and they strode towards the front of the church on a red carpet rolled in the middle of the pews. On the sides were two men in dark suits probably in their early thirties not necessarily stepping on the red carpet that I immediately assumed were body guards. Behind the pastor and his wife were three more people whom I had no clue what their role was but definitely looked like insiders. I would say they qualify for ‘Chola boys’.

When they reached the front of the church, they turned to the right where a couch was placed. The pastor and his wife sat on that sofa and immediately behind them were sat the ‘bodyguards’. The other people on the entourage also found seats on dining like chairs in the row behind the sofa.

What followed were the customary praise and worship, and then the pastor stood up from the sofa. As soon as he got hold of the microphone he announced that he was in the mood for prophecy. So I sat there expectant of what was to follow. At that moment, the pastor pointed his right index finger in my direction. I couldn’t believe he was pointing at me so I turned behind me to see who was being pointed at. The pastor immediately announced on his microphone, “It’s you sir. Stand up sir.”

At that moment it was clear enough that it was me he was talking to as all eyes turned in my direction so I stood up. He then asked me to walk to the front of the church and I obliged.

“You are Mr…..?”, asked the pastor.

“Aongola.”, I replied succinctly.

By this time a microphone had been shoved into my face by the gentleman that had been the MC or praise leader earlier before the pastor took the stage. This meant that my responses were loudly broadcast to all corners of the building.

“Who is Patrice?” asked the pastor.

“That is my first name. It’s my foreign name.” I answered.

At that point, I had become agitated. No, I was not agitated. I was outraged. I knew something was not right with the man. Prophecy is not about being specific. How would he prophesy what my first name was? This wasn’t prophecy! No way. Prophecy isn’t as specific, as specific as guessing people’s first names. He had to have been told. In any case if it was prophesy, why the heck didn’t he call me by my definite first name Nambayo? Patrice is my foreign name I must say. At that point it dawned on me that he was just doing a recitation of things from what he had been told. So as I stood in front of that church, I recalled that a few days earlier my wife had been to see him. This was how the invitation that brought me to that church in the first place came about. I was about to walk out but I looked in the front pew and my mother-in-law from whom the invitation to come to the church came from was sat there. It would be embarrassing to walk out.

Then the pastor continued.

“I can see…. you are a married man.”, declared the pastor. I didn’t answer him this time but instinctively moved my left hand putting it on top of the right to cross my hands so as to show my ring and send a message that it doesn’t take a lot to notice that I am married.

“It’s like a TV screen and I can see things.”, the pastor announced.

With every word he said, he was met with a chorus of shouts, ululations and claps. Others shouted, “Prophesy man of God!!!!”  

“Say it papa!!!”, a chorus of shouts could be heard right behind me.

The pastor moved closer to me and this time declared, “You have problems in your marriage.”

I stood there trying to comprehend what the man had just said. I was also asking myself what was discussed in his meeting with my wife. Definitely, problem was a misplaced word in the man’s sentence.

“The problem of miscarriage,” he said.

“Your wife has miscarried twice.” He continued.

As he visibly waited for my response, I just sat there staring at him. He briefly walked away and made a sharp U-turn and announced in the microphone to ask me if I was interested in more of his prophesy.

“You are not interested? Should I stop?” he asked.

Then a woman came to me out of nowhere but I figured she would have come from the praise team who were sat in an area of the church behind where I was standing.

“Please answer when the man of God speaks to you. Otherwise he will stop and you will miss the prophecy and its anointing.”, the woman whispered in my ear.

I won’t describe further the distress I suffered standing in front of that church. But I eventually went back to my seat as the pastor pointed to someone else who had also come with us and whose story I knew very well and the pastor claimed to be prophesying again. Well, I knew that story too and I felt sorry for them perhaps the same way they felt sorry as my story of my family’s pain was being used in the premise of prophecy.

On that day, I wanted to have an audience with him, so I stayed and went to an adjacent room where they asked all visitors to stay. He never showed up so I immediately left as well. I asked for the where about of his office and I was given directions which somehow were scanty, so I have never met him since that encounter. Maybe I have just been busy pursuing more productive things in life. I hope my blog in my small way can go further to expose most of these ‘wanna-be’ prophets as nothing but crooks.

The background story

About a month and half before that day, my wife underwent surgery to deliver a pre mature baby who weighed only over 1 kilogram. The baby spent three days in neonatal care at CFB hospital before he died. It was the second time we had lost a baby. Back in April 2014, she was induced for delivery at 31 weeks after we lost the baby due to what the doctors called severe preeclampsia. Both situations just two years apart were painful in equal measure, at the very least. In 2014, she had to be induced for natural birth and the fact that this was a still birth the pain on the mother pushing is unimaginable.

Fast forward two years on, this time the doctors delivered the pre mature baby by caesarian. Make no mistake, birth by surgical caesarean (C-section) is the most painful child birth experience because pain doesn’t end at birth but continues for weeks and months on end. The fact that one is left with a permanent physical scar makes it all the more painful. In our case, the mother was only able to see the baby 24 hours after birth, walking a distance of about 60meters from the one end where her hospital bed was to the neo-natal section. As she stood there looking at her newly born fighting for his life she couldn’t stop tears rolling down her eyes. She eventually let out a loud cry as I emphatically tried to keep her strong. I explained to her that it wasn’t congenial to cry for someone who was trying hard enough to keep his breath. But her experience weighed hard enough on her conscious, she had lost a child before and here she was watching another one fight for his life.

In the evening of 2^nd April 2016 after frantic efforts to keep him alive both from CFB and UTH hospitals, he was eventually pronounced dead. I stood there looking at his young and lifeless body and wondered how in the first place I would break the news to my wife. I lifted his lifeless body into my hand and held him tightly to my chest. I cried because of the pain of loss I was feeling, I cried because of the physical pain my wife was going through, I cried just imagining how this would affect her life. In that moment I also knew I needed to be strong for her, she needed me more than ever. We had lost a second baby in two years. We needed comfort; we needed support and a lot of hope.

My view… my thoughts…

I do not intend to be indecorous or show calumny by calling out some men at the pulpit conmen. It is because of my encounter that I call this man, ‘prophet’ Lenga from Salvation City International church a conman. He is nothing but a charlatan. He was visited privately at his office by someone who needed comfort and encouragement, he chose to come and use information given to him in front of an entire congregation pretending it was prophecy. He even claimed he was seeing this like it was on a TV screen. As he blurted out his so called prophecy that day amidst chants, clapping and whistling from the crowd, he had used my painful situation and episode in life to gain fake mileage in front of his unsuspecting flock.

This man to me is a conman using lies and properly stage managed declarations in the name of prophecy but devoid of substance and credibility. I saw him use information given to him and claiming it was prophecy. I am afraid there are plenty of such men on the prowl out there. They don’t even care what their subjects (victims is a better term) go through. They are indifferent of the pain other people go through. These masquerades and their minions lack compassion, a basic human predisposition existent even in mandrills. The biggest problem I have is that they have an audience.

Many of these prophets are void of substance and are out of touch with the real issue at the core of Christianity which is salvation. The messages of salvation aside, these phony prophets lack any desire or endeavor to help with the real issues and challenges that plague their followers. Their only role is to milk. Listening to ‘prophet’ Lenga on that unfortunate day, he was nothing but an arrogant megalomaniac. A better description from my experience could be that the man is simply a narcissist con-man. The whole time that he stood in front of his congregation, he said nothing of note from the bible except some fitful mention of the word God.

He was the star of a very sick parody of what preaching and prophecy should be. A boastful egomaniac who at one point even claimed to have brought a young boy to life after the boy had ‘died’. The poor woman who came to parade the little boy didn’t even look convinced the man had brought the boy back to life. She was just looking to have it over and done with it by giving one-word answers as testimony while prophet Lenga gave a descriptive narration of the events that led to bringing the boy back to life at his office. Despite his deft attempts at propping his skills at seeing things in people’s lives and bringing others to life, prophet Lenga clearly showed a lack of any religious conviction or familiarity with the issues at the core of the Christian faith. His entire preaching was all but punctuated by fake prophecies to conceal his lack of gravity on the many lessons and teachings of the bible.

Regrettably, many people especially women throng the offices and churches of the likes of ‘prophet’ Lenga every day. Most do so without questioning anything but offer blind loyalty in the name of faith. I cannot blame the people that follow these men, but I feel as a nation we need to find ways and means to monitor and regulate some men of the cloth. I don’t intend for government to run churches or churches to be run according to how the government wants them to be run. However, the conmen need to be flushed out. The teaching of Jesus was to render unto Caesar that which was of Caesar’s. In this case all citizens, residents and visitors in Zambia should respect the law of the land. Conning people from the pulpit or any other place for that matter is simply obtaining money and other favours by false pretenses and is an offence in the republic of Zambia. Unless a few of them are prosecuted, the number of these conmen will keep going up.

The population needs to be protected from these conmen. Most of their followers are blinded by these false miracles and prophesies. Even an outsider would easily be fooled. There needs to be deliberate action to check this cancer creeping into our country. A mechanism to check this needs to be in place soon enough. Unless one interrogates their words and match them up with Scriptural jurisprudence, one can never know if they are false prophets. But for many people in desperate everyday situations, no one questions anything. The people need solutions and answers to their everyday situations, and they will seek prophets for elucidation. Because there is a ‘market’ of people with physical, emotional, financial and spiritual needs to be met, the pastoral field has been infiltrated by many false prophets coming from all parts of Africa. And unless they know that there is a mechanism to check them they will continue.

The ‘prophet’ Lenga himself didn’t need much introduction to me as to which country he originates from, as he had Democratic Republic of Congo written all over him. The most scaring part about these people is the level of organization of their deceit. Someone was even filming a video so I stood there asking myself where that video recording would end. I assumed it would be aired at some local TV station and probably some cheap DVDs produced for sale to deceive more people to his church because of his ‘prophetic gifts’. In reality this is all utter lies, taking advantage of people in need.

My advice for now; be on the lookout and test these spirits.