Source: ‘Homegrown solutions key to developing church infrastructure’ – herald
Farai Dauramanzi-Echo/Radar Editor
ZIMBABWEANS have been urged to play a pivotal role in developing church infrastructure using homegrown solutions and resources in line with President Mnangagwa’s development mantra.
Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Martin Rushwaya made the call at a fundraising event held at the Reformed Church in Zimbabwe’s Makumbe Mission High School in Buhera on Saturday.
Church members are raising funds to construct a new house for the Mission Superintendent.
The project is being facilitated under the RCZ’s rural congregations upliftment drive, being undertaken by volunteers drawn from the church’s Harare congregations.
Dr Rushwaya and his wife are serving as advisers to the group, which comprises businesspeople and professionals.
In his address as the guest of honour, Dr Rushwaya urged congregants to take ownership of church development.
“I am here so that we can assist each other. As you know, no one is going to come and build your home for you, and no one will come to construct your church for you.
“Like what our President always says, nyika inovakwa nevene vayo, uye ichinamatirwa nevene vayo. So we should play a part in improving our infrastructure in whatever way we can,” he said.
Dr Rushwaya pledged to assist in the construction of the pastoral house, which will cost US$86 000 to replace the old structure built in 1914.
“The pastor’s house is now too old and has developed cracks, posing a danger to the man of the cloth and his family,” he said.
“It is critical that as a church, we provide our clergy, both those in rural and urban areas, with decent living standards.”
Dr Rushwaya also pledged to secure a new PA system, interactive boards, and drill a borehole for Makumbe Mission Primary School. The Mugumbate family will construct new toilets at the church.
RCZ moderator, Reverend Dr Ezekiel Baloyi, also a guest at the event, said the church was impressed with the rural congregations’ upliftment drive.
“We are happy with this initiative by this group of volunteers from our church, which is going back to develop churches in their rural areas.
“As you are aware, most of the people in rural areas are now old and can no longer develop their churches.
“So it is a noble initiative when church members plough back resources to develop churches in their rural areas. We are happy about that.”
Chief director of Water Resources, Irrigation Development, and National WASH Coordination in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, and Rural Development, Engineer Tinayeshe Mutazu, said he was impressed by the improvements being undertaken at Makumbe Mission.
“We are here because the personage here is really dilapidated to the level that I am ashamed as a person from this area.
“It is also Government policy that we should try as much as we can to support our rural communities because we are the people who should really help our communities,” he said.
Coordinator of the rural congregations programme Mr Tsungirirai Jeche from the RCZ Seke East congregation, said the programme was progressing smoothly.
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