The Pastor And His story and History
This is the story of Evan Mawarire . You remember him. The pastor-for-hire and the #ThisFlag guy from Zimbabwe. He is that guy who when he came against an ordinary challenge in his life, failure to pay his children's schools fees made it a political issue.
Now if it was me or you would have had to do something to figure out how to get past an ordinary challenge so you could get to the bottom of it.
The Pastor and his Creativity
It was not to be for Evan. The old ways of raising money wasn’t working anymore. So he thought of something different did it. He got a video of himself, narrated his views and feelings!! And the video went viral. We will not discuss the concept of viral marketing except l will tell you ...it an expensive exercise for a broke pastor.
Now that the pastor had a viral video, the next thing he did was to go out and meet his fans. This is a very expensive exercise for a broke pastor but through the grace of God , he was able to meet his fans (l am not calling them supporters).
This Pastor And Violence
It is on record that the pastor did not incite public violence, he was a victim of an unjust government. I mean the executive an independent arm of government, arrested him and the judicial another independent arm of the government of Zimbabwe set him free. His fans who always blame lack of good governance had to eat their own words on this occasion. They could not applaud or curse the government.
This Pastor And This Dollar Thing
Evan achievement of making a school fees plea into a social movement, as the stupids ones amongst us want to believe … felt GREAT. And he realized he could do wonders as broke as he was.As soon as he was released he fled the country penniless and very broke.
The next picture of him is at a Lakers match deep in the USA. How can broke pastor fly across the oceans and turn up at a $2000 dollar a seat basketball match. The money for the ticket could have paid school fees for a term for 50 kids in Magunje.
This Pastor And His Fall
The pastor did one or two television shows and then he turned up with six or nine others at the UN headquarters to meet the President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe. It was where he met his Waterloo in the form of the December 12 movement. These are blacks who know the colours and cost of the Zimbabwean flag. They had not flown half the world to protest the presence of Robert Mugabe,like Evan,in contrast they walked from their homes to support him. Evan was told to go home and he was told that he was there for the USA green card.He was humiliated and chased from New York.It was an embarrassing moment for the pastor-for-hire and his sponsors. It was when every Zimbabwean knew why the pastor-for-hire had made the school fees video.
This Pastor And His Dirty Record
Every Zimbabwean knew the purpose and intent of the flight into exile. After his infamous escapades in New York and other cities in the USA, the pastor thought he had done enough to clean his dirty British records,enough to please the English authorities to clear him for a visa. NO the British do not forget easily he was denied entry.
This Pastor Today
Everyone of us Zimbabweans now know who was behind the video and the Pastor-for-hire.
Our questions to the pastor-for-hire is did he pay his children's school fees after all that drama? Where is the pastor today. Does he still wrap our flag on his shoulder and call it cheaply #ThisFlag. We wait for the answers! !
