Cornelius Matandiko: The passing of a versatile preacher!

By Nebert Mulenga

Times of Zambia, 8 April 2008 - THE late tele-evangelist Cornelius Mulenga Matandiko, 48, who died last Wednesday and was buried at Lusaka’s Old Leopard Hill on Sunday, was an embodiment of so many things to so many people.

To most television viewers on both the national broadcaster, Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) and the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church’s free-to-air channel, Hope, he was a mesmerising and all-embracing preacher whose sermons found acceptance even beyond the four walls of the SDA Church.

Unlike most adventist preachers, whose sermons start and end with keeping the Sabbath holy, his explored various subjects that had a bearing on the day-to-day issues that people grappled with. Even so, his main thrust was eschatology – the end-time prophecy that he usually spoke about with passion in persuading people to turn their backs on the pleasures of this sinful world and embrace the life-giving Christ for eternity.

Dr Matandiko’s sermons found room even in the hardest of hearts, especially when he started his trademark TV programme, Voice of Prophecy on ZNBC in 1996. The programme later saw him go to the holy land of Israel for a series of productions that showcased key areas that Jesus Christ had walked in his earthly pilgrim. These included the sea of Galilee, the tomb of Jesus, the garden of Gethsemane, and the river Jordan.

Whereas the faithfuls have lost a gifted preacher in him, Zambia as a country will miss a forward-looking and solution-oriented national leader that he was – the man with a passion to contribute to development as a member of the National Constitutional Conference’s disciplinary committee.

And still, all Bible scholars at Kenya’s Baraton and Zambia’s Adventist Universities will miss the gifted lecturer in him, while his wife Patience has lost a responsible husband and father of two daughters, Tina and Charity.Various people have since described the departed hero of faith in so many words and so many ways.

“The death of Dr Matandiko is a great loss to Zambia, Africa and the world. As humans, the future without Dr Matandiko is dark; it does not look good. He was loved by students, musicians, church members…” said Pardon Mwansa, general vice-president at the SDA headquarters in Washington DC.Dr Matandiko was until his death serving as president of the Zambian Union Conference of Seventh Day Adventists, who had authored two books, History of the SDA Church in Zambia and Explosives Evangelism.

“The death of Dr Matandiko has robbed this country of a very dedicated spiritual leader who touched the lives of many Zambians and contributed to the uplifting of their moral and spiritual values. He was not only a preacher but a teacher, a father and a comforter to many people that interacted, or came into contact, with him,” said State President Levy Mwanawasa in his message of condolences to the church and the family.

Had it not been for his death, Dr Matandiko would probably by now be outside the country on ministerial missions. He was scheduled to travel to Kenya for two weeks to preach, and another preaching mission awaited him in Uganda during a week of prayer.But the cancellations of such preaching missions notwithstanding, Dr Matandiko still pulled thousands of people in his death including government officials, politicians, religious leaders, church followers, and civil society activists.

In fact, the crowd that gathered at Lusaka’s Showgrounds for the funeral service was much more than the man had ever drawn at any of his live crusades in his 20 years preaching life. The crowd was so big that the church had to shift the venue of his church service from Libala SDA Church to the Showgrounds.

The church has since been flooded with messages of condolences from Lesotho, Botswana, Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, the USA, Angola, and Madagascar, among others.Sermons have been preached and stories have been told around his life in the last one week, exhorting people to emulate the man who has since crossed over to the land where no one returns – after 48 years of walking the face of the earth. Dr Matandiko is gone to return no more!

The life of this great preacher started on September 1, 1960 when he was born as a last-born in the family of nine at Ipusukilo mission in Luwingu district of Northern Province. He was brought up in a Roman Catholic Church family before he converted to SDA during his secondary school education at Rusangu secondary school in Monze, Southern Province.

Dr Matandiko advanced his education at Solusi University in Zimbabwe, where he obtained his bachelor’s degree in Theology, before pursuing his master’s and doctorate degrees at Andrews University in the United States.

In 1986, he joined the North Zambia Field in Mansa as education director. He also served as stewardship director at Zambia Union in Lusaka till 1991. Five years later, he started featuring on ZNBC’s Voice of Prophecy (VoP) programme, an assignment he was committed to doing till his death. He briefly served as senior lecturer at Baraton University in Kenya from 2000 to 2004, before taking up his latest position as president of the Zambia Union Conference of the SDA church.

At the time of his death, Dr Matandiko was also an active member of the Southern African Indian Ocean Division (SID), and a regular preacher on Hope Channel. In the words of SID president, Paul Ratsara: “The mighty tree has fallen; it’s a heavy blow to the church, many more preachers of Dr Matandiko’s calibre should come forth!”