Ex-Zambian VP to launch Chiriseri Foundation

THE Charles Chiriseri Foundation will be officially launched on Easter Friday morning by Apostle Charles' friend and former vice-president of Zambia, Dr Nevers Mumba.

This day marks the Harare memorial service of our late friend, father and Apostle Chiriseri combined with the 2017 Conference for His Presence Ministries International Church that has lost our founding Apostle.

I take this opportunity to thank all pastors, leaders and churches of all denominations, the media and the nations for standing and praying with us in these difficult months.

Your prayers and support are sustaining the family and the church, and we will never forget.

God birthed the idea in my spirit when my daughter and I were treated to a unique time of rest and recuperation by a dear friend in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. She kept saying to me "Sister Petunia, you and Brother Charles were such an inspiration to us and to so many through your exemplary marriage".

Months earlier I lay on that hospital bed replaying the story of our love life, and I had repeatedly told myself that it was great while it lasted, and now sadly it's all over.

We have mentored countless young and older couples as the cutting edge of our church and ministry, and I thought that too was all over for me. But my friend said something that caught my spirit.

She said, "Oh no, actually now you are more qualified to speak on issues of marriage more than those still married because nobody knows what tomorrow holds. But you and Brother Charles however modelled a Christian marriage from beginning to end and your marriage ended God's way. You kept your marriage covenant the way God ordained it and you can teach many on how you did it".

I was so surprised and so energised right there that I started praying about it. So by God's amazing grace I am living out the message I have preached entitled, "What do you do when the unexpected happens to you?" After the accident that took my husband home it was clear that God preserved my life miraculously because I still have a job to do.

The high divorce rates and the resulting product of dysfunctional families; street kids, criminals and other angry, bitter children present a challenge to society which my husband and I were passionate to do something about. We were great friends, we complemented and never competed with each other and we enjoyed the team work that made our dream work.

Left alone, widowed and almost crippled, I have had to choose whether I will join the league of eternally sad widows who wallow in self- pity, anger and jealousy or I will remember who I am in Christ Jesus, and why I am alive. And so continue to make a difference in someone else's life, while I have the privilege of life. I chose the latter and this spells out the preamble of The Charles Chiriseri Foundation.

The feeling is surely this can't be the end. I will make it the beginning of a ministry bigger than myself, my family and bigger than our church. A ministry that will restore lives and families internationally.

Born out of pain, mixed with a sense of calling, The Charles Chiriseri Foundation seeks to benefit more young people beyond the borders of my family and church, by perpetuating my husband's legacy of an excellent husband and father, responsible for a happy, healthy, lasting godly marriage and for raising a confident God-fearing and serving breed of children.

I'm doing this out of the honour and deep appreciation I feel for my husband's unique love and care in the 34 years of our covenant relationship. Also I am aware that there is a lot of curiosity and interest about who Apostle Chiriseri really was, as his is an untold story.

The Charles Chiriseri Foundation's first goal is to strengthen family foundations, based on the book co-authored by my husband and I, titled "The 12 Foundations of Marriage", The Charles Chiriseri Foundation, through seminars, workshops, pre- and post-marital counselling will produce many clones of faithful, fulfilled couples that effectively serve their purpose while here on earth.

The Foundation will expose and expel the fundamental causes of marriage break ups, as well as empower couples to deal with issues of infidelity, finances, anger management, GBV prevention, affirmative fathering and wise parenting.

The second major goal of the foundation is the provision of emotional, spiritual, medical and other welfare for widows and orphaned children of pastors of all churches and denominations. The third goal is to help people deal with death.

All are welcome at the official launch and conference but we desire confirmation by Wednesday to Gladys Kwedyo on +2634710420 and +263712802163