T.D Jakes coming to Zimbabwe
INFLUENTIAL United States preacher and senior pastor of the Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas, Theodore Dexter Jakes — popularly known as TD Jakes — is headed for Zimbabwe as a guest speaker at the Zimpraise Choir’s International Gospel and Music Festival scheduled for September 5 to 9.
BY WINSTONE ANTONIO
Zimpraise choir president, Joseph Madziyire, told NewsDay yesterday said the festival was meant to fulfil their vision to unite people and spread the gospel through music.
“We are happy to be hosting one of the best preachers [in the world], Bishop TD Jakes, for the first time in Zimbabwe. He will be one of our main guest speakers during our International Gospel and Music Festival as we celebrate 10 years of praise,” Madziyire said.
He said the fiesta was a celebration of the journey that Zimpraise has travelled and described it as a power-packed event.
“There are going to be different activities at the festival with the opening night being a clash of choirs, while on the second night, we are going to have honorary awards and gospel music legends ministry,” he said.
“On the third day we are going to have different musicians performing and on the fourth night we will be joined by Bishop TD Jakes. On the closing day of the festival were are going to have a business summit in the morning, Zimpraise Kids Festival in the afternoon and Zimpraise live DVD recording in the evening.”
Madziyire said they were open to partners who are keen to pool with them at the festival.
The worship leader said he would be stepping down as choir director for Zimpraise after the festival as a way of growing the brand.
“I felt there is so much that God has laid upon this vision apart from just the choir. There are other projects that need to support Zimpraise that I want to work on and support this vision to be sustainable and that is what I want to start to build now,” he said.
Madziyire said the 10-year journey had not been easy and he was sometimes forced to act like everything was in order even during crisis moments.
“It has been 10 years of great God’s success because it has been hard and difficult to be where we are today. I had to stand in the gap and pretend as everything is well to push the vision of this choir,” he said.
