“I AM wired up differently. I have no idea why but God can tell you. I only sleep three hours per day but am always fresh when I wake up. I am always writing and planning since I cannot sleep. Anyone who wants to be like me will be frustrated.”

This is how author and founder of interdenominational organisation Elshaddai Ministries International Dr Patience Hove aptly puts it when asked to describe herself.
“I am a rare species and can write a 152-paged book in two months. I just do things in a way I cannot explain. I once asked a colleague if what I do was normal and she said there is nothing normal about me. No one does anything the way I do. My husband, Kenias Mabika Hove, does not cope and I do not know how he compensates. My children love me the way I am,” she adds.

Indeed, this “high voltage wiring” and sort of “admirable weirdness” has given Dr Hove enough energy to build families through prayer. The long journey began in 1994 when Elshaddai Women’s Fellowship, which is one of the five facets of Elshaddai International, was born.
They would discuss family issues, marriage, HIV and Aids, abuse, domestic violence and how to deal with illnesses like high blood pressure.

“We would pray for our families and God has answered and continues to answer us. Everyday we see family members being saved. We now meet during the first Saturday of every month at the Transformational Centre. We have two sessions in the morning and afternoon. The morning session focuses on issues affecting women and their families. We also have a question and answer session during this time,” said Dr Hove.
She said the Elshaddai Lunch-Hour Ministries is an interdenominational ministry targeting people who work in the city centre and also those coming from home.

“We have a programme for everyday and it tackles  different things. For example, on Monday we introduce a new theme, Tuesday is for intercessions, Wednesday is set aside for Bible study, Thursday focuses on family issues and Friday is celebration day. This ministry is growing and we have heard so many testimonies of how God has impacted on people’s lives,” she added.

Dr Hove revealed that Elshaddai Couples Ministry was formed in 2000 to tackle social problems affecting the home. She said they realised that their vision of building families in prayer could not be achieved without the involvement of husbands.
“The spiritual, moral and physical transformation that husbands noticed in their wives who attended Elshaddai Women’s Fellowship made them eager to join,” she added.

She pointed out that ECM’s goal is to strengthen the headship of the father, the administrative position of the mother and obedience of children. ECM organises and hosts a variety of programmes and events every year. These include couples’ braai and social gatherings at lakes, parks, resort areas and indoors at the Elshaddai Transformation Centre in Ruwa.

The outdoor events are designed to provide an open and friendly atmosphere where biblical teachings about God’s purpose of marriage are delivered. There are also discussions on all issues that affect marriages, like bringing up children, romance and intimacy, financial issues, commitment and communication, as well as relationships with in-laws.

A hungry family is an unhappy family and to defeat this, Dr Hove came up with a number of income-generating small businesses through Elshaddai Voluntary Organisation in 2002. Some of the beneficiaries under this organisation are HIV positive and affected women.
“EVO empowers people from all walks of life in projects such as jam, peanut butter, insecticides and detergents making, and baking. People are also taught entrepreneurial skills and many of the beneficiaries have gone on to establish their own companies, which are now flourishing.

“Members from areas like Njanja have been empowered and are now involved in projects like peanut butter making and market gardening to look after their families,” she added.

EVO members meet once a month to pray for their businesses and share ideas. They have also been helping orphans and vulnerable children with school fees.
So wired up is Dr Hove that in March 2008, Elshaddai Christian Church was born through their Church Planting Ministry.
“It only started with one assembly in the CBD and has grown to three assemblies which are House of Grace, House of Liberty, and House of Miracles. Plans to open two more houses, House of Favour in Chitungwiza and House of Breakthrough in Mount Hampden are already at an advanced stage.

“Membership is growing. All the houses meet at House of Grace Ruwa Transformational Centre on the last Sunday of every month for Thanksgiving Sunday,” explained Dr Hove.

She pointed out that their ministry has bought three stands to build transformational centres countrywide.
The Ruwa stand will house the ministry’s headquarters. The stand is slightly under 17 000m2. The building will have an auditorium, halfway home where victims of abuse will be housed while undergoing rehabilitation and a retreat centre for pastors, reverends and bishops wanting to seek the face of God in solitude. The two other centres will be in Njanja and Chihota area in Mashonaland East and Manicaland provinces respectively.

“The people in these areas are contributing to moulding bricks. They have already built Blair toilets and shelters and are meeting these centres for their prayer meetings,” she added.

She explained that the halfway home would identify girls who have been abused in school or at home.
“We can help them emotionally through counselling and let them know that they can still have secondary virginity and that God loves them. We struggle with people affected by abuse such that they live an unproductive life.
“We help them in two to three weeks both spiritually and emotionally and put them back in their homes or look for help in other areas if they live with the abuser,” she added.

Their ministry has grown and they have networks in England whose pastors come to Zimbabwean conventions every February. They also have branches in Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania and South Africa.
She said she started the ministry when she had a degree in theology and had a diploma in Bible studies. She did her masters degree with the University of

Zimbabwe and did a doctorate with Bakke Graduate University in Seattle,US, through a block tutorial scholarship.
She says if Zimbabwean women want to succeed in leadership positions, they have to change their game plan.
“We have a lot of Beijings and feminist movements. The women were advocating for being looked at as if they can do better than men. I advocate for women to ask for equality in the sense of complementing men, desiring to be equal by supporting each other.

“A lot of women behave like men when they are in management positions. Be a woman and bring out your womanhood in an organisation behaving, talking and working like a woman and do better than a man.
“I created a theology called ‘gender cross-pollination’ in my theses. We need to be able to pollinate each other with our qualities. A woman is a woman and was created to be a woman for a reason so was a man. God was not confused. If you are a woman and behave like one, you meet the needs of that particular organisation and people will respect you for being a woman.

“Let us be women and be accepted as such. Women have to support each other and not pull each other down. They do not like to support each other even in politics. A female candidate will rarely get votes from women.”
She also suggested that women in leadership should mentor the younger ones.

“We must not say that now that I am in a leadership position, I will pull down others. There is need for forums where women can meet on their own. Men meet for golf and do all sorts of things together. Women do not meet just to discuss issues pertaining to them in leadership. They meet for kitchen teas where they do not have the forum to talk about business,” she added.

She confesses: “I believe Beijing was taken wrongly in Zimbabwe because when it happened the agenda was for the West. There was no Zimbabwean agenda . . . We need to take all frameworks that people make internationally, bring them home and pick what is acceptable in our culture. What is it that the rural woman should say about it? When talking about Zimbabwean women, not focusing on urban only but also what the rural one needs.”

As a reverend of such a large organisation, Dr Hove has seen the ugly face of domestic violence through some couples she counsels. She said she looks at domestic violence from a different point of view.

“The first thing I ask the woman is why she got hit. There are some women who are verbally abusive to their husbands. I will not tell such a woman to run away and go to the police but ask why she is always getting beaten up and we discuss and try to help the woman change her personality. We will help her live in harmony with her husband because that is what the Bible says.

“When I work with her and see she has changed but is still being beaten up, I ask the husband to come and we talk about the issue. Some may be suffering from depression and there are things that are happening at family level pushing the man to be violent. If he needs cleansing or clinical help we do so. I am not quick to send people to divorce or separate,” added Dr Hove.

She said she has seen men who are beaten by women and such cases are on the increase.
“A lot of cases are coming to my office often. Some churchgoing people have through anonymous notes complained that their wives beat them up every day. So sometimes I just look at them while in church and imagine which wife is beating up her husband as they all look like angels. The problem is men are embarrassed to speak out on domestic violence. When a woman is beaten up she screams but a man remains silent,” she added.

Dr Hove was born in a field in Njanja and her father died when she was one. Her mother left the country for England to study leaving her in the care of her maternal grandmother, Anna Mutasa Mvere.

Sadly her grandmother died when she was nine and she had to move in with relatives.
“My maternal grandmother, who was a devout Christian, taught me a lot and is the one who groomed me. My paternal grandmother was a traditional healer and we would come back with “madumwa” and all sorts of things whenever we visited her.
“I experienced the two worlds when I was an infant and decided which world I wanted to live in,” she said.

Dr Hove said God kept her reading and writing and she has written 19 books so far and is working towards finishing the 20th entitled “Woman: God’s Idea”.
“All my books have emphasis on relationships because I have seen both good and sour. I write a lot on relationships because I grew up living with so many different family members from aunts, uncles and friends like the Muzorewa family,” explained Dr Hove.

She attended Founders High School for her secondary education and was the first African prefect at the school in 1979. She married her husband at 18 and later studied A-Level through correspondence. She was to later earn diplomas, degrees and masters degrees through her hard work.
She has travelled a lot both internationally and regionally to speak on different forums.

“I will be travelling to the Bahamas, and from there to England then to a women’s conference in Kenya. I will also address a Sadc women’s conference in Namibia in September,” she added.

Their organisation gets money through subscriptions and tithes and offerings, and they do not have a donor.
“We do not believe in getting help from Europe. We should stand up and do what the Americans were doing to us.
“An American Apostle Rodgers came for our conference in April and copied what we were doing. I am now a Missionary in Philadelphia US. We are adopting an

American Church, something the Americans used to do years back,” she boasted.
In 10 years time she expects to have finished their centre in Ruwa, Njanja and Chitora. She also sees herself imparting knowledge to the younger generation.
Dr Hove is a proud mother of five — Kudakwashe Nigel, Ruvarashe Tatiana-Lynne, Ropafadzo Christina, Kudiwanashe Praise Emmanuel, Kupakwashe Divine Glory.

She has two grandsons, Mukudzeishe Michael (4) and Mutendeshe Michael (1).
The highly wired woman is a fitness fanatic and runs five kilometres at 5.30 every morning, goes to church counsel people, go home at 8pm, do whatever she is supposed to do, go to bed, sleep three hours and starts writing books.

Above all her day ends with prayer.

• roselyne.sachiti@zimpapers.co.zw