OUR HISTORY
1970s
The Charismatic Renewal of the 1970s saw many people come to faith in Jesus and seek a church where the Gospel was preached, the Bible was believed, and worship was alive. It was at this time, in 1978, when Rev. Richard Holderness of the Anglican Church, Marondera asked Kevin and Gill Martin to start a family service in the old church building for young families. With the help of Paul and Delia Vandoros, John Chinyowa, George and Rosemary Martin, and later Keith and Judy Brown and Orpah Chinyowa, a congregation was established.
1981
In 1981, the congregation moved to Godfrey Huggins School Hall for Sunday Worship. It consisted of Shona and English-speaking families, single men and women as well as a good number of scholars from Marondera High School. The Church, then, was called ‘The 9:15’ as that was the meeting time. It was there that the Lord gave us the name Family Praise Fellowship during one Sunday worship service. We believed our purpose was to major in building family, praising God, and serving one another while reaching out to the wider community. John Chinyowa and Kevin Martin were elected elders and Hugh Alexandre a deacon. Eight years later, John would retire from chaplaincy at Marondera General Hospital to be full-time pastor of Family Praise Fellowship.
1990s
The church grew with very good worship leaders in Gill Martin, Orpah Chinyowa, Abigail James, and Joyce Chirombe. Preaching was undertaken by John Chinyowa, Kevin Martin, Huertley Muller, and Dale Everswick. The Sunday School grew from the many young families in the church and outreach was done mainly on the surrounding farms. With the church’s support of local interdenominational meetings relations with other Churches and Christian bodies grew.  Several young men were raised and supported in ministry. Julio Meki and later Luke Kawala, for example, were sent to study with the Theological College of Zimbabwe. Julio subsequently went to the UK as an evangelist while Luke became Youth Pastor in FPF with a fruitful youth ministry. The children from Mushawevana, a local home for underprivileged and orphaned children, started attending FPF and the number of young people grew.
2000s
In 2008 FPF found a new home at Gatehouse community where the church met for 11 years in the Community’s ‘Main House’.  In 2019 we moved to our own building on land adjacent to and donated by Gatehouse Community.
