My name is Abel Sauti-Phiri, a council member of TGC Africa. I come from Malawi. In Malawi I’m working with a Christian organization called African Evangelistic Enterprise and my role there – my position is Missions Director: I’m responsible for setting up missions and also training missioners.
How Did Jesus Find You?
I was born in a religious family. My father was a church warder in a Reformed Church of Zambia at that time and I’m told I was baptized as an infant. But not until at the age of 23 I had not known Jesus Christ as my Lord and personal saviour. I was brought up in this family, told that there is God – God exists, we need to go to church but my life was not changed at all. Why? Because every human being is born a sinner.
Even if you are born in a Christian family, you are still a sinner, you need a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. So, when I was at the age of 23, I heard the gospel and for the first time God opened my eyes. I realized that I was a sinner- I needed a saviour because before the age of 23, I was going to church, I was singing in the choir, but I was still stealing and doing all other things. I knew many things as a young boy that they were bad but I didn’t have the power to stop doing bad things. I was guilty all the time and I knew that had I died at that time, there was no hope for me, I would go to hell.
The Power Of the Gospel
But this evening when the Lord opened my eyes, I realized that I needed a Saviour. I went on my knees, I prayed a sinner’s prayer and asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart. Because that evening I had books which I stole from my high school, I had stolen some properties from American Peace Corps where I worked for three months, yet I was going to church.
But this evening the spirit of God reminded me all those, that those were the byproduct of unchanged heart, that I was a slave of sin. So, I prayed the sinner’s prayer and asked God for to forgive me and invited Jesus Christ to come into my heart. The first thing I received was the peace from above – that assurance that God had forgiven me.
Transformation that Results from Believing
And the transformation is that the following morning I was urged by the spirit of God to inform all my former girlfriends that now I was born again, I will no longer continue the kind of life that I used to live before I met Jesus Christ as my Lord and personal saviour.
And there was also an urge within me that God has forgiven me but I’m keeping stolen property. I therefore took a flight, because that time I was working for Air Malawi as a purchasing and supplies clerk in Blantyre, the southern part of Malawi. And the secondary school where I went to is in the Central region. So, I took a flight from Blantyre to Lilongwe.
First of all, I went to the American Peace Corps Office where I stole two bed sheets, one mosquito net and a pillowcase, before I got converted. So I approached my former boss I told him that “I’m under arrest, the heavenly police has arrested me”. It was confusing to him but I explained that I have met Jesus Christ in Blantyre and I’ve realized that I messed up here. He has forgiven me, but I stole some property here and I gave those bed sheets to my mother in Zambia – by then my mother was in Zambia. So, I said, I told him that I’d come to the office to pay for the items which I stole from that organization. So, my former boss said, “Well, if God has forgiven you, who am I to condemn you. I’m happy you are now born again; you have realized what you did was wrong. So, I encourage you to continue to walk with Jesus who has set you free.” I walked out of that office as though I was given R50 000!
I took a bus and went another one-and-a-half-hour journey to my former secondary school, close to Lake Malawi in Salima, I also met the Headmaster, I told him the same – “I am under arrest. I stole books here.” Fortunately, those books I had them. So, I said, “These are the exhibits. I’m now a child of God and I’ve been urged – I need to restitute. I’m sorry the way I used to live here. Yes, I was a secretary for Student Christian Organization but I was not born again, that’s why I was living a double standard, but now my life is changed.” So, the Headmaster also didn’t call the police he appreciated the action I did, and encouraged me to continue to walk with him.
My Life Changed
So, this is a change. Since then I’ve had the desire to share my faith with other people. I began to witness in the bus, to witness in the trains, to witness in the street and even at Air Malawi – distribution of tracts, that’s how I began my walk with the Lord. And a year later, the Lord called me to go for Bible training. So, I resigned from Air Malawi and went to Nigeria where I did my diploma in theology for one year, came back, I continued as a freelance evangelist for almost 10 years, until 1994 when African Enterprise, after they had seen the gift in me for evangelism, they gave me a platform, “Why don’t you come and join us so that you can grow your ministry of evangelism with us?” So, since then, I’ve been involved with African Enterprise.
But seven years later after joining African Enterprise, I was also picked by my local church to be a pastor. And that’s how my life has been. 2008 I went to GWC. I felt, “No, I still need to learn more about the Bible. I need to be trained.” Yes, people are appreciating the gifts that I had of evangelism but I could still feel, “No, I need to sit down and be taught properly the word of God so that I would be able to be preaching the truth.”
So, in nutshell, this is how my life … God changed, that’s how I became a born again Christian. And I’m not ashamed. I’m happy and I want everybody to know that Jesus Christ is able to save, is able to forgive. God bless you.
