“For many, many years did not know what my purpose in life was”, says Apostle Dr. Nabo Muravu, the Principal Minister and Administrator of DANEM Global Ministries. Even though he was raised under Christian principles and values, was baptized and grew up attending church, was a member of the Scripture Union in his entire schooling life, he still struggled with establishing what God’s purpose in his life was.

For the larger part this made him a “wavering” Christian, torn up between the world and total submission to Christ. He grew up under the Reformed Church in Zimbabwe, also known as Dutch Reformed Church, where he attended Catechism, was “baptised” and continued into his early adult years. He and his family moved to the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) in Zimbabwe in 2001 and he gave his life to Christ and was baptized in 2004. In his growth Christian years, he became a part of various ministries such as the Couples Ministry and Cell leadership.

However, for the most part, he largely remained an armchair Christian. When he left Zimbabwe in May 2009 to pursue and international career, things suddenly changed for him. He suddenly felt exposed like a bird that had left the mother’s nest for the very first time. “Things became hard, and it was spiritually really cold out there”, he recalls. In Windhoek, Namibia, in addition to the largely unfamiliar surroundings, he found himself separated away from his family and the church that he was so used to. He attended several churches, including the local version of AFM but it was never the same. In April 2010, he moved to Lusaka, Zambia where he was joined by his family and worshipped with the Apostolic Faith Mission, LongAcres Tabernacle under Bishop Mark Musonda. He found this church closer to what he was used to be back home, yes close, but by no means a perfect substitute.

After a while, he was invited by the bishop to start partaking in Church activities and he became a member of the Men’s Fellowship and its leadership and got involved in teaching Bible Study to the congregation. His true road to Christian growth and ministry involvement had started but he felt there was still something he missed in his spirit. During his stay in Lusaka, he found himself being involved more and more at a personal level than what he was used to each time he faced problems before. This was because back home, when he faced problems, like a child falling sick or anything, he would immediately call the Pastor or an Elder/Deacon to administer the prayers. In this case he had to learnt to do it himself. So he became the Pastor in his own household.

In 2011, he had an encounter with a man of God who had visited AFM’s Longacres Tabernacle in Lusaka, Zambia from the USA who told him that God wanted to reveal his purpose in my life. As mentioned, he had been a born again Christian for many years but was largely not involved in any ministry activities. He was informed that God was going to reveal His purpose in his life in the still of the night one day.

In 2014, the Apostle moved to Italy after landing an assignment as international civil servant. He said he had always wanted to work for the UN, but he asked self why Italy of all places? He later convinced himself that God has a purpose for that and for real as he was to later find out the Almighty God did it and it became the genesis of DANEM Global Ministries.

In 2015, on the south-eastern coast of the Italian Peninsula, in a small town called Brindisi, he met with a Nigerian Pastor, Reverend Ikponmwosa Imafidon (Pastor I.K.), who had just started a young but vibrant church called God’s Image Ministries International under Assemblies of God Nigeria (GIMI-AGF). He was coopted into the ministry and started serving the Lord, teaching Sunday school/Bible Study and preaching the word. During the same period, he enrolled for the Diploma in Ministry and Pastoral under Gospel Ministers’ Training Centre (GMTC) and was ordained as a Pastor in 2016. The Apostle testified that during the same period God revealed to me him one of his talents - writing – which he embraced and has  been using to write Christian literature to support DANEM ministry.

After a prolonged period of ministry prayer and fasting, on Friday 26^th February 2016, God planted this evangelistic ministry in his heart. “I was in a prayer programme from the beginning of the year, praying and fasting for God’s visitation and enlargement of my territory in Ministry”, he added. On the 57^th of a scheduled 60 day fast, when almost all hope was lost, God did it. He has done it before and he will do it again. Coincidentally, on a day that he sat his exams for the Ministry and Pastoral diploma with Gospel Ministers Training Centre (GMTC) in Italy. He knew then that now the real hard work had just started there…

In mid-2015, he was astounded when he came across a survey titled, “The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050”¹  The study was carried out by a Washington based “fact tank” called Pew Research Center and released in April 2015. What alarmed him was the fact that something that he and many others had observed anecdotally, had been confirmed by an independent empirical study which concluded that Islam had become the fastest growing religion in the world.

Below is a summary of some of the key findings and statistics of the research assuming the then current trajectory was maintained, between 2010-40, are as follows:

• Muslims will nearly be same as Christians in number around the world as they are estimated to increase from 1.6 billion in 2010 to 2.76 billion by 2050, a 72.5% increase. By contrast, Christians will only increase 34.6% from 2.17 billion to 2.92 billion. Both religions will constitute about 1/3 of the world’s population apiece.
• In Europe, Muslims will make up 10% of the overall population while the number of Christians in Europe will drop by 100 million.
• In the United States, Christians will decline from more than 3/4 of the population in 2010 to 2/3 in 2050, and Judaism will no longer be the largest non-Christian religion. Muslims will be more numerous in the U.S. than Jewish religious people.
• 4 out of every 10 Christians in the world will live in sub-Saharan Africa and Nigeria will have more Christians than any other country except for the United States and Brazil.
• In the four decades, 106 million people are estimated to leave Christianity. 46 million will convert to Christianity, offsetting the losses a little but it is the extend of the losses which boggles the mind of every serious Christian.
• Christian majority countries will drop to 151, as Christians are projected to decrease in traditional Christian countries such as Australia, Benin, Bosnia-Herzegovina, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Republic of Macedonia and the United Kingdom.
• Muslims are expected to make up more than 50% of the population in 51 countries, including the Republic of Macedonia and Nigeria.

The Pew study’s conclusion is that it may be that for the first time in human history, Islam and Christianity would boast roughly equal numbers and if the same trajectory is maintained Islam's population could surpass Christianity by 2100, despite Christians' six-century head start.

The findings of this research were of great concern to the Apostle as they should to any evangelist or missionary as it represents a reversal of the great work done by early and later apostles and the church over time in spreading Christianity the world over. This is exacerbated by the fact that we are seeing a retrogression in the Christian faith at a time we should be focusing on spreading the gospel to those who have not heard it before.

To advance the work of Jesus Christ and to contribute to the growth of His Kingdom in line with the Great Commission contained in Matthew 28:19-20 and read with Matthew 24:14, Disciples of All Nations Evangelistic Ministry (DANEM) was Born. The name itself was directly given from Mat 28 v 19, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations...”

The fellowship arm of the ministry, DANEM Fellowship now has two assemblies or congregations. The first one was opened at Nyabira in May 2016 while the second was opened in July 2022 at Gutu, Zimbabwe. Part of our missionary work involves gospel/ evangelism outreaches and planting of churches for which lots of resources will be required.  

Apostle Dr. Nabo Muravu, Principal Minister and Administrator, DANEM Global Ministries

¹If interested read the 245 –page Pew report at:http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050/