Prophet Kambale’s Life International Church marks a decade with groundbreaking ceremony

There is a particular kind of energy that builds around a church anniversary when the milestone is not simply looking backwards but breaking ground on something new. That was the atmosphere at Mbinzi Secondary School Hall in Area 3, Lilongwe, where Life International Church (LIC), founded by Prophet Amos Kambale, marked a decade of ministry with a two-day Total Transformation Conference that doubled as the launch of its next chapter altogether.

The celebration, held on 12 and 13 September, drew a crowd large enough to test the limits of the venue.

By the second day, the hall had reached capacity, with worshippers spilling outside into tents, onto plastic chairs arranged in the courtyard, and, for the truly committed, straight onto the ground — a fair indication of how far the church’s reach now extends, ten years after its founding in 2016.

Fittingly, the anniversary was more than a retrospective. Roughly 150 metres from the school hall, on land the church already owns in Area 3, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for what will become LIC’s first permanent complex, a structure designed to eventually seat some 2,000 worshippers.

It is the kind of ambition that tends to accompany a ministry entering its second decade with confidence rather than caution.

The task of turning the first sod fell to a notable visitor: Prophet Prime Kufa of Zimbabwe, closely associated with Prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa, who is himself regarded as Prophet Kambale’s spiritual father.

Kufa’s presence was treated as an occasion in its own right. His arrival at Kamuzu International Airport on 11 September was met with a police band and escort, a welcome that signalled just how much weight the church placed on his visit.

Kufa made clear he had travelled to Malawi as an envoy, standing in for Prophet Makandiwa, who he said could not, under any circumstances, allow the milestone to pass unmarked.

Over the two days, Kufa did more than perform ceremonial duties. He led the groundbreaking, joined Kambale and his wife in cutting the anniversary cake, and ministered throughout the conference, with messages centred on spiritual growth, transformation and what he described as the power of God to bring freedom into people’s lives — financial freedom included.

That theme, Total Transformation, ran through the entire gathering, reflecting the strand of ministry Kambale has built his reputation on: teaching grounded in the Word, prophetic ministry, healing and miracles, alongside a consistent emphasis on faith and financial empowerment.

For a congregation that began a decade ago, the past two days offered a moment to pause and take stock of what has been built.

But with the ground now broken on a structure meant to carry the church into its next phase, the anniversary read less like a conclusion than an opening chapter, one the congregation, judging by the crowds spilling out of the hall, seems fully invested in following.