Malawians Should Celebrate Prophet Shepherd Bushiri

For once, Malawians need not look further to appreciate the fact that, like dust, anyone can rise with the winds of fortune and make it big in world where everything, including success, depends on one's own initiative.
Today, Malawians can just look at Prophet Shepherd Bushiri to know and realise that everything is possible.
Of course, Malawians -- most Malawians, that is-- have grown up believing that success comes on the premise of patients. Towing this line of thinking, most Malawians adopt a wait-and-see mode. Even when the world throws all the hard lessons on them, they wait, patiently, in the hope that, with patience, everything will fall into place.
Most often, their patience endures to a fault.
But that line of thinking is about to be taken out abandoned in Malawi-- for examples are plenty of people who have thrown the patience sleeping to the dogs and taken the path towards their destiny in their own hands.
Today, Malawians no longer have to look at others who are doing so well in other countries. They only need to take a quick look around the room to see that there is someone who is making the headlines for all the good reasons: Prophet Shepherd Bushiri.
To begin with, Bushiri's is a rags to riches story. No, not rags to riches story. It's a story from humility to greatness.
Bushiri, in his youth and school days, started off as a members of SCOM and participated in all the activities SCOM members participate in.
But he seems not to have believed that there is life after this life. It seems like he believed that people could make the best out of this life. He seems to have known that, by tooling the scriptures and living God's word [in other words, by seeking God's kingdom], everything would be added unto you-- and me!
And, so, he embarked on a journey to reach out to many souls. He did not have a prayer house of his own when he embarked on this spiritual journey. He did not even have a bicycle. All he had was faith; the faith that everything is possible with faith in God.
And, then, there was that break-through. By serving others, he ended up serving only himself because he is the one who reaped the blessings of preaching to people and reaching out of those craving for spiritual emancipation.
From fellowship, Bushiri saw his mission grow into a church.
Actually, Bushiri has become one of the richest prophets in the world because of something that happened when he went to share the word with a certain rich man who happened to have a mine.
The man, according to Bushiri, was prayed for and received his miracle. In the end, touched by the fact that what he thought was an irreversible condition had been reversed through prayer, the rich man sold Bushiri a mine at a very cheap price.
The miracle was much more than the mine.
"When I bought the mine, I sold it at twice the buying price and invested the money in other ventures," Bushiri confesses.
So, while he continued with his preaching, he also realised the importance of investing. In other words, he had become a preacher and businessman.
He has interests in mines, banking, education and, need I say, sports. He has a sporting academy in South Africa, he recently short the Flames-- the Malawi National Football Team-- in the arm by donating a whopping K44 million to the Flames. The funds were meant to help the Flames prepare for the away and return matches against Guinea last week and on Tuesday this week.
Now, the mistake people make is that of judging Bushiri as a prophet when they are referring to business issues and attacking Bushiri as a businessman when they are referring to business issues. It is like someone is jealous and does not want to see a fellow Malawian prospering.
But, then, Bushiri has shown to be a man who does not forget his roots.
Countless times, he has reached out to the most vulnerable and donated relief items.
Just this year, he distributed track-loads of maize flower to villagers struck by hunger in Ntcheu.
Last year, at the height of the Lower Shire floods that affected parts of Chikhwawa, Nsanje, and well as other districts [outside the Lower Shire] such as Mulanje, Bushiri was all over-- distributing clothes, food and what have you.
I happened to be one of the people on one of such trips to the Southern Region district of Chikhwawa, and I must say that I was impressed with the way Bushiri handled himself.
When we met at Chichiri Shopping Mall around 9 am, Bushiri greeted each one of us, and made us feel welcome. He was wearing a golf shirt while the people escorting him under the banner of Pentecostal pastors were wearing suits as heavy as an armor. It was clear that Bushiri was different.
In the Lower Shire, Bushiri personally distributed the relief items-- handing them over to the affected people. Definitely, he wanted them to reach the intended recipients.
It was a hot day, but Bushiri chose to be there and see to it that the materials that were being distributed reached out to the right people.
On our way back to Blantyre [needless to say in the evening], our vehicle broke down somewhere before Thabwa in Chikhwawa. Bushiri and other people were behind us. They found us eight minutes later and Bushiri personally stopped, disembarked from his vehicle and checked our vehicle. He wanted to know what the problem was.
When he was sure that the problem could not be fixed, he made sure to arrange for another means of transport because, apparently, he knew how important it was that we reach home.
In all this, he did not appear to be a pompous man. And he was still in his golf shirt.
So, really, I do not understand why people hate on him.
He is a man-- just like us-- trying to make the best out of his, and other people's lives.
The best we can do is appreciate that he is doing very well and that, if we work as hard as him, and be as diligent as him, we may get our rewards. Maybe a greater rewards than what he has received.
So, hate it or love it, Bushiri will not get poor, or stop preaching, because someone hates on him. Haters will, more likely, just feel more pain as Bushiri touches more people in his life.
As they say, there are more blessings in giving than receiving.
And Malawians can benefit more by blessing Bushiri than hating on him. In blessing others, we gain more [not forgetting peace of mind].