Guti’s interpreter bares soul

By Fatima Bulla

When Evangelist Ezekiel Guti Jnr’s home going celebrations were held last week, culminating in his burial at Glen Forest, Pastor Danmore Chenai was visibly shaken.

The youthful pastor had been acquainted to Evangelist Guti Jnr as an interpreter for the past eight years.

Spending time with him in prayer, travelling locally and beyond the borders, the bond had grown gradually with an understanding that transcended the speech differences between them.

For a person who had been taken as an ordinary individual to be groomed into a pastor, the death of the only son of the founders of Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa, Archbishops Ezekiel and Eunor Guti on December 27, left the interpreter heartbroken.

“I am a pastor now. I was taken when I was a young man with nothing. This man was an impartial man who loved everyone. He had to take care of me physically and spiritually.

“I had food, shelter and clothes. So he was mentoring me. Before then, I could not pray for people. I have seen Satanists crying out, he would arrive at a venue, just when the car is being parked or he was entering the venue, demons would start crying out in the church. Now I am a pastor, I am also preaching, I am also casting out demons, I am also healing the sick.

“Now I am seeing that same anointing working in me. I never saw him as an ordinary friend even though he would treat me as his friend,” Pastor Chenai said. Much is said of the late evangelist’s humility and hard work ethics which saw him travelling to minister in remote areas like Muzarabani, Chikombedzi, Binga and Mt Darwin, among other areas.

His ministry took him beyond the borders, as far as America and Australia.

“In 2014 we went to Australia where we spent three months. He was preaching everyday with no rest. I am talking about somebody people would feel pity for. But he would say don’t feel pity for me, I am doing the work of Jesus. It’s like he knew his time was short,” added Pastor Chenai.

While many require training to understand people with speech impairment, Pastor Chenai said he never struggled to communicate with the late evangelist.

“Well, the evangelist was a spiritual man and everything that he would do was spiritual. So as an interpreter at first, I didn’t hear anything.

“But God just opened my ears and I started understanding and hearing every word he would say. We would talk, joke and spend time chatting, even over the phone. I had no problem.

“Whenever you did something you needed to connect with him spiritually, so you also needed to be prayerful. You would cross lines if you stopped praying. So as an interpreter I would stay in the same realm with him. That is the realm of prayer.

“That’s how I would hear everything that he would say, even on the stage to hear and to interpret the way he wanted you to communicate to the public.

Memories of the last time the interpreter spent time with the evangelist linger on. “I last saw him on his birthday on December 13. I remember there was a small party in Glen Norah. We were joking and laughing. I remember when we were about to wind up he said Danie you must come and say something.

“I was just seated, I didn’t want to say anything. I wanted to give others a chance. I spoke of my experience with him and that was the last day we would share life moments, up until the day he passed on,” he said, with emotion taking its toll on him.

Testament of his love for people was the calls and messages he sent just before nearly drowning in a swimming pool in South Africa.

On the fateful day, he had called his wife from the lounge and sent her a Christmas message while she was in the kitchen. He had done the same with Pastor Chenai. “Before he had the accident he was saying, ‘Son I love you, Merry Christmas’.

“I have learnt about the ministry of giving. When you are a man of God and you receive an offering, you think of buying your own kids goodies. But with the evangelist I remember when we were going around Australia in the Aborigine area of Brum, there was an assembly with no church vehicle.

“He donated all he had received to the people in the community to buy a commuter omnibus to take them to and from church. There is one thing many people didn’t know about the late evangelist. He was the son of the Archbishop and he had great respect for the archbishop.

“I remember many times he would take us to the mountain in Bindura to pray first so that he could go to his father and ask for something. He was so unique, we would live a life of surprises everyday.”

Deemed one quick to forgive, the late evangelist would rarely get angry.

“Within five minutes he would come back to say, ‘Okay my son I love you. Sorry maybe I have said wrong or bad things that could have hurt you’. That is how good this man was,” said Pastor Chenai.

Evangelist Guti Jnr died at 35. He is survived by his wife Carol and children Eutricia Eunor, Ezekiel III and Dorcas III. The Sunday Mail