Zamuxolo Shows the Church Can Still Save Marriages

It started with a phone call.

A couple from Zamuxolo Dukuza’s South African congregation asked if they could meet him early the following morning before the church service.

There were no obvious warning signs. No visible cracks in the relationship. Just a request for a conversation.

What followed was anything but ordinary.

“They sat before me and said that they had decided to end their marriage,” Zamuxolo recalls. “After trying for a long time, they felt it was good for them to part ways.”

For a minister, hearing those words from a couple in your own congregation hits differently than reading about it in the news. Zamuxolo felt the weight of the moment immediately. And in that split second, something rose up in him.

“I thought to myself, I cannot just bless this divorce. I should do something,” he says. “Without even thinking much about what an intervention would look like, I asked if they could give me an opportunity to try and help them through their issues.”

It was a bold ask.

Zamuxolo had no guarantee it would work. But he trusted God and committed himself fully to the process. The couple agreed to give him the chance.

He prepared carefully, leaning on pastoral counselling skills and the marriage and family courses he had studied at African Christian College. He prayed. And then he went to work.

“I asked God through prayer to help reveal that he is a God who can change water into wine,” he shares.

The early sessions were uncertain.

“At first I could sense that they were doing all this to make me as a preacher feel better,” Zamuxolo admits. “But as time progressed, I started seeing a difference. They were opening up. And before I knew it, they were agreeing that they could still do something to save their marriage.”

Before he knew it, the couple sat in the very same chairs where they had first announced their decision to separate, but now they agreed they could still do something to save their marriage.

Zamuxolo stepped up with compassion, skill, and prayer to walk alongside a struggling couple in his congregation. It made a difference. Ministers like him are making a difference in the lives of their community members every day. Being equipped to do so can go a long way.