Emmanuel Makandiwa was born on 25 December 1977. Emmanuel grew up in a Christian home and after his family moved to Muzarabani [in Mashonaland Central Province], they majored in farming cotton, grain, and other crops.

Being the eldest in a family of five, Emmanuel was taught by his father on how to farm; from planting and crop management to fixing their farming tractor and as he grew up, he became the right-hand man of his father on their farm. Emmanuel’s father and mother were devout Christians and when they settled with their children to Muzarabani, they opened the first church in that area.

They were financial partners to an evangelical organisation that was headed by the late Evangelist P.D. Chiweshe which was in Harare and they hosted quite a lot of crusades in Muzarabani. This constant exposure to such sparked a desire in young Emmanuel.

He began preaching at a young age and the pastor at his church would give him the opportunity to minister even during the main Sunday Services. After finishing high school, Emmanuel became a full-time worker on his father’s farm and he began to have more and more supernatural encounters. He began seeing visions and he would hear God speaking to him, telling him of future events to come and how He was going to use him in pastoral ministry. His father said that he was already told by an angel that young Emmanuel was going to be a great minister of the gospel so he wasn’t shocked by the supernatural manifestations that would occur at their house through the young boy.

One afternoon, as he was sleeping under a shade at their farm, Emmanuel was caught up in a supernatural vision and the shade that he was sleeping under, caught fire but mysteriously, the fire did not consume the shade which had wooden planks. Other people who were present when it happened said they ran with buckets of water to try and quench the fire but they were amazed to see Emmanuel sleeping in the shade, without even a single scratch or burn.

Whilst all this was happening, Emmanuel said that he was caught up in a vision and the Lord told him about his ministry and what was going to happen through him. from that day, the supernatural manifestations increased and he then decided to heed to the call of God as a full-time minister.

Emmanuel tried to enroll at a Bible school in Harare but he was denied thrice but eventually, he got enrolled at Living Waters Theological Seminary where he graduated with a Diploma in
Theology in 2002.

MINISTRY

After his graduation, Emmanuel was deployed by the pastoral board of his church, Apostolic Faith Mission [AFM] then, to Matebeleland where he served as an assistant pastor and later on, he was given an assembly to pastor in Shangani. He was then transferred to How Mine Assembly in 2004 and then to Chitungwiza. The Assembly he pastored in Chitungwiza was well-known for having a huge congregation as his dynamic preaching drew people from all-over Chitungwiza and Harare. As he was in Chitungwiza, Makandiwan founded a non-denominational ministry called the United Family Interdenominational Ministries and he started by hosting lunch-hour meetings in the Harare CBD and later on, he started hosting mid-week services. Their first meeting which was held at the Anglican Cathedral in the Harare CBD attracted a huge attendance and there was a big overflow.

Due to huge numbers, the meetings were moved to State Lottery Hall which is adjusted to the Harare Town House and the numbers continued to swell. People from his church and other churches attended his meetings and these meetings were characterised by overflows. They were compelled to look for another bigger auditorium and so they moved to Harare City Sports Centre. The AFM board did not agree with this arrangement that Makandiwa was having, so one Sunday, representatives of this board came to attend the main service at the church where Emmanuel was pastoring and gave him an ultimatum, in front of the whole church – either to close the inter- denominational ministry or depart from AFM. Emmanuel Makandiwa then made his standing clear, in that very same service and he decided to keep the interdenominational ministry.

This saw the birth of the United Family International Church [U.F.I.C] in 2008 at the Harare City Sports Centre and this service was attended by tens of thousands of people. Since then, U.F.I.C has grown into a mega-church with over 70,000 people attending the Sunday Services. It has branches in almost every province in Zimbabwe and it officially opened its first international branch in South Africa in 2014.

MARRIAGE

Emmanuel Makandiwa got married to Ruth Makawa just before he started hisfull-time ministry as an ordained pastor and Ruth has since been his partner in ministry and the co-founder of UFIC. Ruth also heads the women’s ministry; Victorious Ladies and the ministry’s charity arm; Agape Family Care through which she engages in charity and philanthropic works. The charity arm takes care of over 3000 widows every month and well over a thousand orphans every month by giving them food, groceries, money for rentals and tuition fees for the orphans. Agape Family Care also supports institutions and orphanages. It donates annually to the Zimbabwe Prison Services.

Through the Agape Family Care, Emmanuel and Ruth Makandiwa hosted two successful programs under the theme “Operation Restore Sight” where over 200 patients were given free eye cataract and all were successful, the total budget over $500000.00 USD. The International Institute of Philanthropy (IIP) conferred Prophetess Ruth Makandiwa with an Honorary Doctorate Degree of Humane Letters in 2014. The two have never gone in any marriage scandal or cases of infidelity; a thing that they have managed to maintain despite the demands of their global ministry.

Testimony and Biography About Prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa

They have five children together. Spiritual Fatherhood Emmanuel and Ruth Makandiwa started to submit to the Ghanaian pastors; Victor and Anita Kusi-Boateng and Emmanuel made his allegiance to Reverend Victor public, which attracted media and public persecution as many did not agree with his concept of ‘Spiritual Fatherhood”. Makandiwa openly believes in spiritual fatherhood and he has supported his stand in this matter with scriptures and teachings. Reverend Victor and Anita Kusi- Boateng frequently visit Zimbabwe and they have ministered at quite a number of conferences hosted by Emmanuel and Ruth Makandiwa.

Criticism and controversy Emmanuel Makandiwa’s unique ministry and preaching has since attracted criticism and attack from media and the general public in the nation of Zimbabwe.

International Prophecies

Emmanuel Makandiwa’s prophetic ministry has birthed a lot of local and international prophecies and in all of the prophecies though most people claim that he is a false Prophet, all the prophecies he gave, everything happened according to what he has said. On the 9th of April 2017, Emmanuel Makandiwa gave a prophecy, urging the church of God to pray for one of the prominent people in Zimbabwe. At that time, Emmanuel Makandiwa did not disclose much information concerning the person due to the sensitivity of the matter but he gave accurate details concerning what was going to happen. Giving more detail on the prophecy, Emmanuel Makandiwa explained to the people that were present on that day during the UFIC Sunday Service and he gave precise detail and he urged the church to pray for him. Exactly 5 months after the prophecy was given, media houses in Zimbabwe reported that the Vice President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Hononurable Cde Emmerson D. Mnangagwa suffered from serious bowel complications after some food poisoning Miracles

Unusual miracles have been witnessed through the ministration of Emmanuel Makandiwa, which are also a token of all the church meetings he hosts and conferences. People have claimed that they were healed from diseases like cancer, HIV, hypertension and critical health conditions. In December 2013, Emmanuel makandiwa during a service asked medical personnel to line up with sphygmomanometers and he asked them to check and record the blood pressure of people who were hypertensive before he prayed for them and after he prayed for them.

All of the people who were checked to be hypertensive before prayer had significant changes in their blood pressure after they were checked and it was confirmed that it had gone down after Emmanuel had prayed for them. Makandiwa is well known for his boldness in praying for people with critical cases in public. In one of his services, Emmanuel prayed for a young man and made one of his leg longer than the other, on camera and then made the other to adjust to the new length of the other leg, all in public and on camera. Mega-church auditorium In 2011, Emmanuel and Ruth Makandiwa procured a huge piece of land in Chitungwiza and they began construction of a mega-church auditorium called the UFIC Chitungwiza Basilica which has the capacity of holding 60 000 people. Initially it wasn’t easy for them to start construction on the land, as it is a wet land and also there were some people who were claiming that Makandiwa stole their land.

The local authorities halted the progress for some time but in 2015, they got the final green-light which gave them the authority to continue with the project. Televangelism Emmanuel and Ruth Makandiwa launched a free-to-air Christian broadcasting network called Christ TV In September 2014.This channel covers the whole Sub-Saharan and some parts of Europe.

Christ TV

Christ TV is also the official broadcaster of U.F.I.C and it has broadcast all the major events in Emmanuel and Ruth Makandiwa’s international ministry. The 1st anniversary of Christ TV also came with the birth of a Gospel Awards platform; PERMICAN Awards [Prophet Emmanuel and Ruth Makandiwa’s Invitational Concert and Awards Night] where Zimbabwean and international gospel musicians are honoured for outstanding works in the gospel music industry. The PERMICAN awards are the biggest awards show in Zimbabwe and it has hosted international artists like Loyiso Bala and in 2016, it gave an honorary award to the International gospel artist; Sinach.

Judgment Night

In 2012, Emmanuel Makandiwa introduced a one-night conference dubbed Judgement Night. This conference gained momentum over the years and became one of Zimbabwe’s biggest Christian annual gathering has it has consistently hosted over 150 000 people from 2012 to 2016. In 2016, Judgement Night was endorsed by the Zimbabwe Ministry of Tourism as a major tourist attraction as many foreigners from all over the world get into Zimbabwe for that event.

Christian Spiritual Link

Emmanuel Makandiwa also has a platform called Christian Spiritual Link where he sends a text message to a database of subscribed people every morning. These messages have a scripture reading and a message directly from him to the people subscribed to the platform.

PUBLISHED WORKS

Emmanuel and Ruth have a 30-day devotional called Life Lighter which they release every month. This devotional contains a message, scripture reading, declaration and prayer for each day and it is published in English and Shona.

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