Stephen Lungu, one of the great evangelists of recent times and revered as the ‘Billy Graham of Africa’, has died of coronavirus, aged 78.
Stephen grew up in pre-independence Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) and was the product of a dysfunctional family, living on the streets and getting involved with street gangs.
In his bestselling memoir Out of the Black Shadows he wrote about how, abandoned by his parents and angry at the white minority government which ruled Rhodesia until 1980, he and his gang plotted to petrol bomb an evangelistic tent meeting in Harare. But as they awaited an opportune moment, the preacher’s words lanced Stephen’s heart and he staggered forward to give his life to Christ instead.
Uneducated and illiterate, he was discipled by Patrick Johnstone, a British missionary and author of prayer guide Operation World. From there he became a powerful and effective evangelist, first with the Dorothea Mission and subsequently with African Enterprise (AE) from the early 1980s. Lungu served as Malawi Team Leader of AE before he succeeded Michael Cassidy as AE’s International Team Leader from 2007 until 2013.
Paying tribute, Cassidy said: ‘I have known many preachers over the years, but I don’t think I have ever known a more passionate and endlessly energetic preacher of the gospel than Stephen. No-one could match his energy or his day and night sharing of the gospel, whether from public platforms or in shops and restaurants.’
