On this episode of The Disciple-Making Podcast, we journey into the powerful testimony of Banele Ndlovu, a young Zulu man from South Africa who assists with translation work at Imprint ministry.
We explore his upbringing in a complex spiritual environment, where traditional ancestor worship met Catholicism. Through his mother’s battle with cancer and his own search for truth, we witness how a crisis of faith led him from planning to become an atheist to finding authentic Christianity. His story showcases the contrast between the endless cycle of appeasing ancestors and the transformative power of discovering truth through Scripture.
From believing he was the only true Christian in the world to finding a community of believers, Banele’s journey reminds us of how genuine faith can emerge from the depths of spiritual confusion.
Resources From This Podcast
Imprint
Managing Your Households Well
Episode Transcript
Chap Bettis: I’m Chap Bettis and you’re listening to The Disciple-Making Parent, where we seek to equip parents and churches to pass the gospel to their children. “Go and make disciples of all nations,” Jesus tells us. But what kind of need is there and what do we in the secular West need to understand?
Hi, my name is Chap Bettis and I’m the author of The Disciple-Making Parent. And in today’s podcast, I want to tell you the second of two stories of God’s grace in another part of the world. I just recently returned from ministering in South Africa. The trip was sponsored by Imprint, a ministry focused on equipping local pastors and printing good books for them. Tommie van der Walt is the founder and director, and you can hear his story in the previous podcast.
But after I spoke with him, I interviewed his assistant. And I’m going to slaughter his name, so when you hear this, don’t laugh. but it’s Benele Ndlovu. Benele is soft-spoken, but he’s a talented assistant to Tommie. In addition to his other duties, Benelli is helping with the translation of good books into Zulu.
Well, his story is another story of amazing grace. He was born into a broken family and into a background of syncretistic Catholicism and ancestor worship. So Benele was certainly far from the Lord. But God. But God started reaching out to him, and you’ll hear his encouraging story of finding new life in Christ.
What I found fascinating in his story was the current and ongoing ancestor worship that continues in many areas of the world today. So if you want to find out more about the need and support the work, you can head on over to imprinton.org.
But before we start, I want to remind you of a new resource coming out in June. It’s a book for pastors, deacons, and aspiring church leaders. The title is Managing Your Households Well: How Family Leadership Trains You for Church Leadership, and it’s taken from Paul’s instruction to Timothy on the qualities of a leader in 1 Timothy 3:4. It’s perfect for groups of church leaders to study together, and it’s available for pre-order now on Amazon.
But for now, let’s listen in on a story of God’s amazing grace in the life of Benele.
Chap: It’s been a joy to get to know Tommy, but just literally, two hours ago before we started recording, I got to know your assistant and I want continue with his interview. But before I do that, literally I know so little about him, and I’m going to interview him. Could you introduce him?
Tommie van der Walt: So we prayed for him to help me in the ministry because I’d been in it alone. I call him my unicorn. He was everything that I prayed for. Again, the Lord answers prayer. He’s a young man. He’s a Zulu-speaking man. Zulu is one of the languages- it’s a tribe in South Africa. It’s probably the biggest tribe in South Africa. His name is Banele Ndlovu. He’s a Zulu speaking man. He currently is dating, so he’s not single. And he heads up my translation projects. He does all of those things for me and fulfills some admin things as well.
He’s a young man, I think he’s turning 24 this year. He started studying aeronautical engineerin, so he’s a brainy guy. He’s cleverer than I am. But then he got saved and went into theological studies. But I think you’re going to ask him all about that. Banele Ndlovu. Young, wonderful man.
Chap: I’ll just stick with Banele. So tell me a little bit about your story. Your background, your spiritual background, how you came to faith.
Banele Ndlovu: So I grew up in KZN [KwaZulu-Natal -ed.], which is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. It’s where most Zulu speakers are found. So that’s where you’ll find most of our culture. So there I grew up in a very big family.
Chap: How many brothers and sisters?
Banele: So the thing is, I have one sibling from my mom. But in the context that we grew up in, we grew up, in a family where. . . so my grandfather had 32 children, and six of them were from his first wife, my mom’s mom. And they all had children. So all my cousins, we lived under the same roof, so I’d have like 12 different cousins under one roof.
We all were not really sure spiritually where we fell. Because my grandfather was one of the priests in the Shembe religion, which is an ATR, or African Traditional Religion. And then my grandmother was a Catholic and she was not too sure about whether or not she wanted to participate in ancestral worship. So we grew up a bit confused where we fell. But we didn’t ask too many questions because there are parts where Catholicism encourages certain beliefs in the African traditional religion. Things like talking to the dead, right? So in ancestral worship, that is the main core of the religion where the ancestors are the mediators between you and God. And as I mentioned, you end up not really getting to God because of the place that the ancestors hold in your life.
Chap: So for people familiar with the Catholic setting, it’s similar to the saints. So in one sense, you never go to God because you just go to the saints.
Banele: Exactly.
Chap: It’s the same way with your ancestors.
Banele: Exactly. Yeah. So most of their prayers end up with just communicating with your ancestors and asking them for this and that. And they hold the power to bless or curse you. So you don’t really end up getting to God that much. I mean, people pray to God because South Africa has been westernized and it’s been Christianized to some degree. But the people that give and take are the ancestors. So we grew up in that context.
But for me, luckily enough, in that confusion I was taken to a Catholic boarding school where I began to see where the two divide. I’d not met or even heard of the name Jesus Christ until I think I was four. So that was in the Catholic school where they started teaching us about Jesus Christ, God, how he’s the son of God. And while it wasn’t a fully fleshed out understanding of what Christianity is, there was enough there to hold onto; something that I understood rather than something that I completely didn’t understand. So I really was overwhelmed and did not understand much of the ATR religion. So I held onto more what I did understand. And that would be very helpful going on later because I was encouraged by the teachers there that the answers to life are found in Scripture.
So that would stick to me throughout, even until I started really questioning the meaning of life when I was in university. So part of what really got me to questioning the meaning of life was, I know that I was always sort of a very internal child, always sort of anxious about life in general. But as soon as I got older and I started seeing that life is not what your mother says it is. It’s more difficult and more complicated than just “Mom knows the answers to everything. And I’ll just ask her to help me out with that.” And this just came to bear on me when she was diagnosed with cancer and I had to really think about what this meant. If I lost her, what would this mean for my life and my sister’s life going forward?
Chap: How old were you?
Banele: I was in grade 11. So I was 17.
Chap: And that plays into the ancestral worship. . .
Banele: Exactly.
Chap: Tell me about that again.
Banele: Yeah. So, around about just early in my- I don’t know if it corresponds to my grade 11. We met up with one of my mother’s sisters-in-law. And she was a sangoma, a traditional healer. And that’s what sort of sparked a very strange period of our life where we were going from one place to another in terms of religion. She encouraged us to look deeper, whereas before we were mostly nominal and we’d strayed away from the religion of my youth. She sort of drew us back into thinking about spiritual things.
We ended up living with her. So we left our own home. As soon as we’d established a relationship with her, she invited us to her house, and that’s where we’d spend most of the time because she had this thing in her mind that she shared with us, that our life is better lived out with her because then she can protect us from all the evil spirits that are after us and she can be able to look clearly into our lives and see what things needed fixing, which parts of our life needed to appease the ancestors.
Chap: And a big part of ancestor worship is, like you told me before, if the ancestors are happy, you get good things. And if you’re getting bad things, they’re not happy. So you need to appease them.
Banele: So it’s works based in the worst way. Cause anytime something bad is happening to you, it’s the ancestors who are not happy with you. And every time something good is happening to you, you have been blessed by the ancestors. And so praise would go to the ancestors. And when something goes bad, you’d be encouraged then to appease them. Which would be things like, maybe bringing certain offerings to them, making certain sacrifices and all that. And that never ends because bad things happen in life, good things happen in life. So you’re always fluctuating between appeasing and praising them.
Chap: Was she the one that you were telling me about that was the healer?
Banele: Yeah. She’s the one.
Chap: And so it was actually your mom’s cancer, right? And her inadequate response that caused you to doubt.
Banele: Yeah. So part of the thing that really made me doubt this traditional healer was, I always thought, How is it possible that we’re doing everything right? We’re going an extra mile more than most people would. We’re living under your roof. We’re obeying the things that you say you’re telling us and encouraging us to do. Yet, just the bad things just don’t stop. They just keep getting worse and worse and worse. So I had that skepticism in me where I was just wondering, when would we graduate? When would we say, Okay, we’ve reached where we needed to reach, and thank you very much, it was nice knowing you and then just life goes on? But that just never seemed to be the case.
And the thing that finally made me really take action in questioning her was when my mother was diagnosed with cancer. And before we knew it was cancer, she had encouraged us and told us that we shouldn’t go see the doctor and that she would take care of this. This is a spiritual matter, not a medical physical matter, so the doctors wouldn’t be able to help her with anything. So my mom, just being anxious and fearful, clung to her. And that just didn’t sit well with me. But I let it go and trusted that she would be able to help. But over time things just got worse and worse, and my mother was falling more and more ill.
So I just came to her one time and I told her, “Hey Mom, I know what the sangoma said, but I think you should go see the doctor and just find out what this is. Because I’m looking at you and I’m seeing that you’re becoming more and more sick. So whatever she’s doing for you isn’t really helping.” So what convinced her in the end, when I asked her later on, was she knew that if she left us on this earth, me and my sister, we were very young, and she didn’t know who else would take care of us. So she was convinced by that and went and spoke to a doctor and then we found out some time later that it was cancer.
When she told that to me, I responded to her and said, “I don’t think we should go back there, because she clearly doesn’t know what she’s doing.”
Chap: Go back to her sister-in-law?
Banele: To her sister-in-law, the traditional healer. And so she agreed with that, because then there was also the shock of cancer and it not being able to be cured by anything besides chemo and that stuff. She agreed and we didn’t go back there until my mom spoke to her again and told her that she’d gone and seen the doctor and there was a falling out between the two of them. And she said, “Then if you’re going to go to the doctor, I want to have nothing to do this. And when you do die, I want to have no responsibility over you or your kids.” So it was a bad falling out, and we haven’t seen it ever since. But my mother went through chemo and was healed from cancer. She’s healed from cancer.
Chap: And so tell so tell us, how did you become a Christian?
Banele: Throughout all of this, I was doing my matric here, which is my final year of high school. And while my mother was undergoing chemo I left and ran to university. And there I decided that I had enough of religion and I was really planning to be an atheist. I don’t know how that works, but I just told myself this is a year where I just quit religion because I’ve had enough of it. I’ve done the Catholic thing. I’ve done the African traditional religion thing, and it hasn’t worked. And I’ve gone through other Pentecostal churches with my grandmother and it just seemed to me like too much and too complicated and nothing really that worked.
Part of my working towards atheism was also denying the part of me that felt that life had to have meaning. And you can imagine, that’s a hard thing to try to convince yourself of, that life has no meaning. And for me, that was a tough period in my life where I fell into a depression. I didn’t even want to go back home because I was just like, If I go back home, Mom will just draw me back to religion, draw me back to spirituality. And I just needed to work on this and be stronger when I see her again.
And then over some time, and it all happened very quickly because, I got saved within three months of my university. The depression was just too much, and I turned to the one thing that I was told when I was younger had all the answers, which was the Bible. So I went to the Bible and just read through it, just hoping that I would find the answer that I was told I’d find there. And through reading the two books of the Bible which are my favorite even to this day- the book of John and Ecclesiastes- that just helped me come to terms with what life is and what the meaning of it is.
And in there, I just saw that all things fall short and that if you really want the kind of healing that you’re looking for, it is found in knowing God and in serving him. And I remember in my dorm room alone just making the decision after reading about the disciples being called and following Christ, that I want to follow Christ.
And it’s interesting that I think of this now, but I really thought that I was the only real Christian in the world because I didn’t know any other people. I knew of many people who, who called themselves Christians, but most of them had this tie to ancestral worship. And most of their lives didn’t really show that they’d been called and that they’d been saved. And it was just more sort of thing of like, Of course we’re Christians, but then they live out a life that is totally different from what Jesus calls them to do. So looking around me, I had no one really who I thought was somebody I can talk to about this. Just surrendering my life to Jesus, and him having a plan.
When I went on campus one time, I was speaking to a friend of mine who I used to go to the same high school with, but we drifted apart and we hadn’t really spoken. We were having a discussion and I was just overflowing with my excitement of Christianity and trying to evangelize him. He turns to me and is like, “Hey, I think something’s changed about you.” And I was like, “What do you mean?” He was like, “I think you’re saved.” And that meant nothing to me because I didn’t even know what he meant. I was like, “What do you mean?” And he told me, “I think you’re a believer. I think the Lord has really changed your life.”
And he asked me about my life. I shared to him that this is all I really want to do forever. Just follow Jesus. And then he had to explain to me the basics. This is what salvation is. This is what the gospel is. This is what believing means. And I was like, “Wow.” And then, well, you found a like-minded person there, and he invites you over to a youth meeting, and you find more fellow believers, and you’re like, Wait, Jesus has been calling more people? It’s not just me?
So I was encouraged by that and started really spending more time figuring out how I’d been changed by Jesus and learning everything that I wasn’t really taught as a child, what it means to believe. And I’m still learning till now, but that was one of the experiences I’ll just never forget.
Chap: Wow. That’s such an encouraging, encouraging story. Both Tommie’s and yours. Parents can influence, but ultimately it’s cool to see how God intervenes and calls people. And I told you before, Tom is bragging on you and I think you’re a great, you’re a great help and can’t wait to see what God does for you in through you in the future.
Banele: Thank you very much. So just to explain, because I think this is also a good part to share. After being evangelized by my friend and him sharing all these things, I knew that I needed to go back home and share these things I’ve learned with my mom. And it was hard to do, not knowing really what you believed. I practiced. I even remember just pacing my dorm room thinking, How do I tell her what I believe, how do I share with her in a way that will convince her of what I believe? So I paced, I paced, I practiced, I had a whole manuscript in my hand that I would recite to her and hopefully she would just be as excited about everything as me and change her life and all that stuff.
I went back home during the holidays, and I remember just sitting in the car with her and just turning to her like, “Mom, I think I have something to share with you.” And she’s like, “Go for it.” And I don’t know what happened, but my mental manuscript just vanished and I didn’t know what to say. And I started with, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” And just trying to really explain what this change that had happened in me. But I really couldn’t, I didn’t have the grasp of it very well. So I said what I could.
And later on, she told me that it wasn’t really what I said that convinced her that there was something to what I was saying, but more so the change that she had witnessed in my life after that. And she was like, I know there’s something here. And so she was keen to listen, keen to learn. And over some time of just like talking to her, yes, she also had her struggles, and that’s her story, but she also grew up steeped in ancestral worship. And she herself could have been a sangoma if she followed that whole track. So she wrestled with those things, just asking me questions like, “So how does God relate to my ancestors?” And I’m just new at this, not really knowing exactly how to tell her that these two things are separate.
But over time and over just discussing them and her asking her questions to other people in her life, she came to be saved and we looked for a church and we joined BBC and that’s where she was baptized. She’s baptized in this church, she’s a healthy member of the church. And my sister as well. It was also a bit tough with her relationally, but over some time sharing the word with her, she was also saved and also baptized in this church now.
Chap: That’s a great, great story of God’s grace. And part of your work is to translate materials into the Zulu language, right?
Banele: Yeah. I’m just grateful to be in this position, just looking at my own testimony and seeing how the lack of knowledge and the lack of teaching that we received when it could have been there would have just made things easier. That’s at least what I think.
I’m just hoping that God would use this, where we’re translating good gospel material, and putting it in the hands of people who might never have ever had a chance to encounter it. Putting it in their hands and them learning from it and being changed. I just pray that the Lord would just do more of that and give us that privilege of doing so.
Chap: Yeah. It’s a privilege to get to meet you and learn about the ministry here.
