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long queues but this is a different place altogether.
The grass is drenched in dew and shadows of the huge trees just outside the City Sports Centre in Harare make this particular Sunday morning chilly.
Thousands of people of different ages and walks of life queue outside the City Sports Centre and are absorbed in various discussions, each telling the story of his or her life.
There are three queues, one short and two long.
The shorter queue goes up to a precast wall of the Harare Agricultural Society’s showgrounds.
Despite being there by 7am, my number is 658 meaning there were 657 early birds. This number excludes that of officials that include ushers and those setting up chairs and musical instruments inside.
I secure a place in the second queue, which later reaches saturation point and becomes the middle one as a third is formed.
A little after 7am, four elderly men clad in suits start pacing up and down the long queues giving out small papers to all the people. 
“You are early and will sit on the couch (the bays). Make sure you do not lose that small piece of paper or you will not be able to get inside. Also make sure that if you want to leave the queue for a while, you know the spot you were in because you may get lost,” the man advises me.
His warning and the hundreds of people who keep coming at different intervals makes me wonder, if I am not lost.
Has the Passport Office relocated to the City Sports Centre without notifying us?
What is going on here?
These are thoughts that race through my mind.
But lo and behold, they are all waiting for Pastor Emmanuel Makandiwa, founder of the United Family Interdenominational Church.
The 32-year-old Makandiwa is drawing thousands of people every Sunday and Tuesday. His ability to attract the numbers is the mystery that had caused me also join the queue to find out what really goes on at the services.
As I absorb the reality of the numbers, I notice that the time is now 8am and I have given up on counting.
I now shift my focus to the means of transport they use and realise it is a mixed bag.
Some come on foot, others in ramshackle cars while others are dropped off by taxis, and commuter omnibuses. Others are driving top-of-the-range cars.
The time is now 9am and we are still standing in the queue. I cannot sit on the ground because it is wet, and moreover I did not come prepared for the long haul.
I realise that I have not adequately prepared for the day when I see most people with large food containers.
Others have loaves of bread while others are holding mega pizza boxes and soft drinks. I wonder why?
“Church only starts at 3pm. This is when Prophet Makandiwa comes. He has two other sessions at his church in Chitungwiza and only comes here at 3pm. People come early so that they get a place inside the City Sports Centre. Did you bring any food with you? If not you can buy from the canteen inside because it is going to be a long day,” says one of those on the queue.
I thought the service would start at 8am and end somewhere around 1pm and had really not prepared for a long wait. I call my husband back home and break the news that I would only be home after 7pm.
To make matters worse, I had missed my breakfast hoping to eat after the church service and the thought of waiting until 3pm makes my stomach grumble.
I cannot buy food from the canteen as the City Sports Centre gates are still locked.
The woman who I have now befriended tells me that I can buy food from some people on an open space near a gate at the City Sports Centre.
My feet are now swelling from standing for too long and I slowly walk in the direction of the “flying kitchens”.
Braai stands, large silver pots bags of potatoes, meat varieties that include beef and chicken, maize meal, cooking oil, salt among others welcome me.
An elderly man and two young others are busy offloading their merchandise that include snacks, crates of cokes, juices among many others.   
Some “flying kitchen owners” who came early have already lit fires while their relatives are cutting meat, others peeling potatoes and cutting them into chips. Big business has grown around this mysterious man of God.
No food is ready yet and I end up buying bananas from one of the several fruit vendors outside the popular prayer spot.
Some cameramen in a car are filming the crowds.
Besides chit chatting with newly found friends nothing much is happening between 10 and 12 pm.
During this time I get testimonies from people who have been helped by Prophet Makandiwa.
“That man is blessed. He has a rare anointing I cannot explain. I came a long way to be where I am. I have a marketing diploma and would not get a job even as a till operator since 2000.
“I tried every trick in the bag but would not get any job available yet some people less qualified than I am got them ahead of me.
“I heard of Prophet Makandiwa from some friends who had seen him help other people. I started coming here and now I have a job at a leading company. No one who comes here and believes fails to get a job,” says the woman who identifies herself as Amai Chiedza.
Molly, a woman who has been failing to conceive for the past five years, is also in the queue with her bundle of joy only three months old.
She has great words of how Prophet Makandiwa’s rare anointing has helped her.
“I tried every gynecologist and was told there is nothing wrong with both my husband and I. I tried visiting traditional healers and drank all sorts of concoctions and underwent many rituals but nothing happened. I went to faith healers and still could not conceive. I then heard of Pastor Makandiwa and came to try. I wasn’t sure if I could get healing but just tried.”
Molly says she attended the service for close to four months but nothing happened.
Then one Sunday Prophet Makandiwa said he was praying for barren couples and she was healed.
“I would see others receive miracles and I just told myself that my time had come. “I now have my son I named Samuel,” she adds.
But George, who was listening to our conversation, could not be left out of the chit chat as he also wants to share his story.
He says he was possessed by evil spirits and demons that made him unattractive to women.
An accountant with an NGO and a good looking 28-year-old man, George confessed: “I tried dating all different kinds of women from teachers, to housemaids, to company executives and even went to the rural areas in search of a wife but none would go out with me. I had given up and thought of becoming a priest until I heard about Prophet Makandiwa. I started attending his services and he picked me out of the crowd one day and cast the demons away. I am now married and my wife and I are expecting our first baby,” he claims.
Mrs Grace Murape has it all. A well-paying job, a loving husband who fears God and four beautiful children. She drives one of the latest Mercs and owns a house in Borrowdale, and is among the masses who come to Prophet Makandiwa’s services.
“The way he expounds on the scriptures and the revelations he gets simply get me off my feet. His grasp of the word of God is just phenomenal. When he explains a scripture, you can visualise and even relate to it. He preaches the word of God and demonstrates it and those who believe are healed,” she explains.
Munya, who has been following Prophet Makandiwa since 2005, says he does so because his preaching is in a class of its own. “Christians flock to where there are results and in Makandiwa they are finding the answers.
“People are burdened, some cannot get married because of unknown forces, others cannot have children despite doctors telling them that there is nothing wrong with them,” says Munya who I also met in the queue.
Time moves fast as we talk and I realise it is 1pm. The men who had given us numbers start moving down the queues again telling people who had moved from the lines during chit chat hours to go back in their places as they are about to let us in.
The lines finally start moving and we hand over our numbers to some men near the entrance.
But it is not without incident as some late comers try to cheat their way inside.
“You will sit inside the four overflow tents if you do not get a place inside,” the men tell the two women. 
Like dogs with their tails between their legs, the women walk to the Harare to Bulawayo Road, the end of the line.
The four overflow tents carry up to 300 people each while the City Sports Centre takes up to about 7 000.
We slowly walk inside and are ushered to different bays of the City Sports Centre.
There are no special sitting arrangements and only the church leaders sit in the arena separately from the others. Only one bay is reserved for the praise and worship team.
Those who bring young children also have a special sitting area in the arena.
Everyone else, whether rich or poor, sit together in the bays.
I take a seat in bay 10 where I can get a good view of everything happening.
The time is now 2pm and inside several men and women with laptops on tables are seated near one entrance.  
A queue that leads to where the men and women are seated starts to form and I gather that they are paying their tithes and for other things.
Another group is setting up the musical equipment on the stage. Others are doing the interior décor and putting up white purple and gold materials.
There is a projector carrying various notices on upcoming events and other general ones.
Some are selling DVDs on the previous week’s sermon. The DVD entitled “ The Raven Must Go” is being sold for US$5 while another which contains both “The Raven Must Go” and the Tuesday sermon is selling for US$10. I buy the one for US$10.
Hunger has now taken its toll on me and I go outside to buy a coke and food from the vendors through a fence since the canteen is packed. I notice that there is some sort of commotion at one of the gates and I go to investigate.
A group of late-comers who want to get in has gathered at the gate trying to force their way inside. They will not take anything a man in a cream suit is telling them and are just waiting for the gate to open when cars belonging to the leaders come. When the gates open, the people rush inside but one woman fails.
“I want to get inside. That is where all the anointing is. You will see what I will do if you do not let me in,” threatens a female latecomer at the gate.
I get back inside and just a little before 3pm Prophet Makandiwa arrives with his entourage.
The word that day was on seeding and people commit their money for projects they want to start.
Everyone is absorbed in Prophet Makandiwa’s word and time moves fast. Church ends and I leave the City Sports Centre. It takes time to get out as there are too                         many people. Taxis and commuter omnibuses are lined outside to ferry people to different residential areas and some to the CBD. I get a taxi and go home then notice that it is 7:45pm. It has been a long day filled with new experiences.
But I did not have answers to what really pulls the crowds. The battle then began to try to get an interview with Prophet Makandiwa so that I could get to know what really makes him tick.
It has been two weeks and still I cannot get through to him.
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