Pastor in love with married woman, sends pictures of his manhood

A HARARE-BASED pastor is entangled in a love triangle involving a married woman whose husband is in South Africa and has been allegedly sending pictures of his manhood through WhatsApp as well as asking for sex from the woman.

The youthful unmarried pastor who shepherds the Living Works Global Church in the capital and is known by the pulpit name Pastor Gabriel Cherubin although his real name is Paul Chipato confirmed the affair to Sunday News, saying he was not aware that the woman at the centre of controversy - Miss Tsungirirai Shilling - was still married to husband Mr Royce Mapaike.

"It is true that I am in love with Tsungi. I know she has a child but she told me she is divorced and I was planning to marry her.

"It was not my fault. Even her relatives, her sisters and brother know me very well. They even confirmed that she was a single mother. They told me she was still communicating with the father of her child on matters relating to the kid's upkeep and nothing more. I was even thinking of marrying her and plans were already under way," said the pastor in a telephone interview.

In some of the WhatsApp chats between the pastor and the woman that Sunday Life is in possession of, the pastor says he misses sex to which the woman replied that she misses it too.

He then allegedly sent the picture of his manhood to which the woman said she misses it (the manhood) before he asks the woman to also send hers to which she replied that she will do so the following day since she can't be seen taking pictures of her privates. The man whose wife wanted to elope with the pastor, however, had a different story to tell.

He said he left his wife of five years in the country when he went to South Africa and would often invite her to visit him.

"I suspect they hooked up a long time ago. Most probably when I was still in Masvingo because she would request to go to Harare for church gatherings and I would never object knowing fully well that's where her family is. When she came here (South Africa) this time that is when I got the shock of my life after I opened her WhatsApp and went through her chats. I realised the two were even promising to marry and the guy was sending her pictures of his manhood and telling her how sweet she was in bed.

"And when I engaged the guy over the affair he confirmed it. He even confirmed that they had sex starting in December. He said he met her through church sometime in November last year and that was before I left the country for South Africa. I asked him if they have safe sex when they met and he said yes to having sex with her but would not say if it was safe," said Mr Mapaike.

He said they were no longer staying together in South Africa after he discovered the affair saying she was now staying with her sister.

"I am actually in great pain. Imagine skipping the borders in search of greener pastures to fend for your family then someone takes advantage of that, worse still a man of God in whose care we entrust our families for spiritual growth. As if that is not enough he is bragging about it and threatening me with his lawyers," said Mr Mapaike after pastor Gabriel told him in one of his WhatsApp chats that he was consulting his lawyers with a view to sue him for leaking the story to the Press.

In the chats with the pastor, the pastor said he never bothered to ask when she separated with her husband adding that his forte was that her family knew he was going out with her and allowed the affair.

"Even now I am talking to her and she is saying she does not know why you are bothering her, she doesn't want you anymore," reads part of the pastor's response to Mr Mapaike's enquiries.

In a telephone interview from South Africa, Miss Shilling confirmed that she was going out with the man of the cloth. She said she separated with Mr Mapaike before she went to South Africa adding that she was staying with her sister in South Africa.

Asked how Mr Mapaike got her WhatsApp chats with the pastor while she was in South Africa she could not respond but hung up the phone.

"We are no longer together with Royce. Yes, he is the father to my child but we separated recently before he moved to South Africa. I am in love with the pastor and the other things that you are asking are too personal," she said before she hung up.