{"id":1862,"date":"2013-11-11T11:21:27","date_gmt":"2013-11-11T09:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/w3.sonofcarey.com\/?p=1862"},"modified":"2013-11-11T11:51:30","modified_gmt":"2013-11-11T09:51:30","slug":"lasting-love-vs-temporary-love-an-interview-with-a-rural-african-churchplanter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/?p=1862","title":{"rendered":"Lasting Love Vs. Temporary Love: An Interview With a Rural, African Churchplanter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the last few days we have had the privilege of hosting Pastor and Mrs. Wastemore Sarireni in our home and at our church in South Africa. This couple lives in an undeveloped area in Zimbabwe with the church they officially planted in 2012. Wastemore is a graduate of the Limpopo Bible Institute<\/a> who also benefited from training at the African Pastors Conferences<\/a> as well as other South African churches.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Wastemore and Mary Sarireni<\/p><\/div>\n

Below is the transcript of portions of an Interview With Wastemore Sarireni<\/a> (17 min. 8 mb) I conducted with him a few days ago. It is encouraging to see genuine pastors living in difficult circumstances, and his comments about money are especially meaningful because of the context in which he serves.<\/p>\n

SM: First of all, could you introduce yourself to us?<\/p>\n

WS: My name is Wastemore Sarireni, and I am married to Mary, and God blessed us with three kids: John (13), Sharon (9), and Keith (5). We are in a rural village, in Dzingira where I\u2019m a pastor there at Dzingira Baptist Church.<\/p>\n

SM: So, Dzingira is in Zimbabwe, southern Zimbabwe?<\/p>\n

WS: Yes, Masvingo Province. In the far south.<\/p>\n

SM: What\u2019s the difference between a rural area and a city area?<\/p>\n

WS: A rural area is where there is no electricity, no [avenues] for employment, no tarred road. And we rely on water from the well. It\u2019s undeveloped.<\/p>\n

SM: And are most of the people poor there?<\/p>\n

WS: Oh, the people there are very poor. They depend on other people for living, maybe on their brothers, sisters, their sons who are working in towns to support themselves.<\/p>\n

SM: How did you become a believer?\"IMG_0527\"<\/a><\/p>\n

WS: It was a time when I was in Joburg [2008] during xenophobic time. And Pastor Brosnan came with his church which is Calvary Baptist Church, came to preach to us. I had to ask a lot of questions concerning the Word of God. And he has to show me that I have got a problem. And I need to be correct with God, and he shows that the problem I had was that I was a sinner. I need to receive Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. And I had to understand it, but it takes time for me to confess that Jesus is my Lord.<\/p>\n

SM: So, the xenophobia was critical in your coming to Christ?<\/p>\n

WS: It was critical. But at the other side I can say it was the right time that God sent His servants so I had to understand it.<\/p>\n

SM: I just think of the Puritans where the one man [William Still] said, \u201cGod uses sin sinlessly.\u201d He took that terrible thing, xenophobia, and He used it to save you and other people as well.<\/p>\n

WS: I also believe on that. Because when we look to the book of Genesis, Joseph says to his brothers, \u201cYou meant it bad, but God meant it good.\u201d Which means God can use any means.<\/p>\n

SM: Tell us briefly about your church. What is your church like?<\/p>\n

WS: Our church is in a rural area. We don\u2019t have a building, but we know that a church is not a building, it\u2019s believers. We have about 60 people coming to the church. We teach the gospel, and we love the doctrines of grace in our church because we know that God is doing everything, not us doing everything. We are only the tools to reach the other people.<\/p>\n

SM: Where does your church meet?<\/p>\n

WS: Now because of the number, we are meeting under the tree outside.<\/p>\n

SM: Do you have chairs?<\/p>\n

WS: We have got almost 27 chairs which is not even half of the people coming to the church. Which means others are staying on the stones, others on the ground.<\/p>\n

SM: How many of those are true believers?<\/p>\n

WS: Maybe, I can say, 30 of them. Others are still, I am still looking at them. I don\u2019t see fruits coming out of them. To be a shepherd is to see that you have to look to your sheep and find their health.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0565\"<\/a><\/p>\n

SM: Many pastors in the African villages love money. If they can get any connection with US dollars\u2014they\u2019ll do anything to get that connection. How can we avoid that? How can we avoid giving money to foolish men while at the same time helping people who are in genuinely in need?<\/p>\n

WS: That\u2019s true. When you meet a guy who says he\u2019s a true Christian, true pastor, a true servant of Christ\u2014you don\u2019t rush to help him or to work with him. You take time looking at him. As I said, many people say I [Wastemore] am a pastor who is looking at fruits. Look at him, something must be seen. Even the time will tell if he\u2019s a true pastor or if he\u2019s not a true pastor. Don\u2019t just work with him, go with him. He will reveal himself if he is a true servant or false servant.<\/p>\n

SM: So, it takes time?<\/p>\n

WS: It takes time. Take time. Don\u2019t rush to help.<\/p>\n

SM: What advice do you give to a Western missionary, someone coming from another economic world; how can he tell the difference between a \u201crice Christian\u201d and a true Christian?<\/p>\n

WS: Something must be seen in a believer\u2019s life. Time will tell. As Galatians 5 is talking about the fruits, the fruits of faith. Faith should produce something in the life of a man. So we have to see what comes out of the man. Others they can trick us, but let us be sure that we know the people very well.<\/p>\n

SM: Do African churches need American money? Would they be better off if America kept its money? And if they do need the money what does that say about the Holy Spirit\u2014does the Holy Spirit need that money to keep the churches going?<\/p>\n

WS: If you say, they have to wait for the money to start the churches, I can say, \u201cNo.\u201d But there are sometimes when they need the money. They can live in a very poor, rural area, but of course, they can live without the money. Someone who is a true believer and a true servant in Christ can shift his direction looking for the jobs to support the family. It takes faith to remain in the church. Which means we can say it\u2019s a balance. They can live without the money, or they can live with the money.<\/p>\n

SM: So, in one sense, yes, and in one sense, no.<\/p>\n

WS: In one sense, yes.<\/p>\n

SM: Who is right in the debate about social ministry or churchplanting? Should we obey the Great Commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves, or should we obey the Great Commission to evangelize people? Should Christians come to an area to bring development or churches or both?<\/p>\n

WS: Planting churches is good because even the Great Commandment starts with \u201cLove God.\u201d And how do you love neighbor if you don\u2019t lead him to Christ? You don\u2019t love your neighbor. If you lead him to Christ, you show you really love your neighbor. If you don\u2019t, it\u2019s not a lasting love. It\u2019s a temporary love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the last few days we have had the privilege of hosting Pastor and Mrs. Wastemore Sarireni in our home and at our church in South Africa. This couple lives in an undeveloped area in Zimbabwe with the church they … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[159,154,158,357,156,157,155],"class_list":["post-1862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-missions","tag-african-pastors","tag-churchplanting","tag-interview","tag-missions","tag-money-in-missions","tag-rice-christians","tag-rural-africa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3QrZa-u2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1862"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1870,"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1862\/revisions\/1870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}