Church partnerships doing good

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Pastor Problems Chigede, of Mugodhi Apostolic Church started to work with Churches in Partnership (CHIP) in 2009, as a leader of the programme that comprised of different churches with multiple ideologies. At first that task sounded daunting as there was a lot of suspicion among the different church groupings. 

“Having been a leader in my own church, I initially found it difficult to work with leaders from other churches but after some time of learning we all came to the understanding that though we were different in our ways of worship we serve one God.”

Apart from regular interactions with other church leaders, Pastor Chigede praises the periodic Bible training that are held under CHIP. He says he found them to be informative and educative that their followers can testify that they are now receiving a better Gospel as a result of the trainings and workshops that they received under CHIP.

Pastor Chigede sentiments are shared by Pastor Doesmatter Makumbirofa of Time Apostolic Faith, who says since the introduction of CHIP in the area he has witnessed the growth of unity among the different churches.

"Instead of exhausting our energies on trivial issues we now know the importance of planning and that our messages do not only have to get people excited but should have a relevance to their lives and this is through the trainings and workshops we received,” Pastor Makumbirofa says.

He adds that after the trainings and workshops that they are now seeking ways of making the gospel have relevance to communities that they serve. He says through poverty alleviations projects include sewing, setting up of nutritional gardens and taking care of orphaned and vulnerable children.

“We thank God for CHIP as it gave us the opportunity not only to preach but to take time off for the less fortunate especially orphans and widows, and it is amazing the amount of small changes are impacting our society.”

One of the shining example of the church in the community under CHIP is Tendai Sewing Club, which comprises nine female members, which has been sewing school uniforms for schools around as well as plowing back some of their proceeds to orphaned and vulnerable children.

Tendai Sewing Club started with a machine and some rolls of cloth from World Vision as seed capital, and ever since they have not looked back and have taken advantage of the grouping to teach other on issues related to HIV and AIDS.

“Apart from the sewing machines and materials we received from World Vision had life skills, which we did not have in the first place imparted to us, and now we can choose to see the world differently as a result,” says Perpetua Hwata, 34, a member of the Tendai Sewing Club.

She adds that following the success of the club two members applied to join the group after realising the impact it was having on their lives and the community. 

Hwata says business has been brisk and they have back orders for school uniforms and sports kit and they were looking at recapitalising the project by plowing back their saving and sales into it.

“We have recorded sales we never expected and as you can tell from the amount of items in our storeroom we have been busy and our intentions is to buy more machines and materials so that we can grow the business by reaching out to more schools.
"All this was made possible through the work of CHIP and we never knew that we had responsibility over orphans in our community, we always assumed that it was for organisations like World Vision, but through enlightment we now know that for these children not to miss out on life, we have to reach out to them,” Hwata says.