Matavele, Enos

Soon after his conversion on the Rand, Pastor Enos Matavele returned home to Gazaland. There he found that his wife, Tamar, was demon-possessed. He called Rev. Jona Mahleyeye and they prayed. The Lord showed him that the problem was with him. He still had charms and medicines given to him by a traditional doctor and so had Tamar. They brought them out and burned them. Tamar was delivered from the demons. Soon after that Matavele found the blessing of entire sanctification.

As pastor of the Kwavhuthu church, Enos Matavele wrote to Missionary David Jones, “The people wonder at the marvelous power of our God. A chief gave himself to the Lord the other day.”

Once Pastor Matavele was whipped severely and greatly tempted to give up his faith. A severe test was when his parents tried to force him to take a second wife. He remembered his Lord and wrote, “I was afraid to go back and continued preaching in the villages; God blesses me with souls finding him.” He became ill and passed away after suffering greatly, faithful to the end [1].

Paul S. Dayhoff

[1] Mrs. D. B., Reginald & Harold Jones, David Jones: Ambassador to the Africans, (Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 1955), 98.

This article is reproduced, with permission, from Living Stones In Africa: Pioneers of the Church of the Nazarene, revised edition, copyright © 1999, by Paul S. Dayhoff. All rights reserved.