Rev Johannes Moyo started a church in a small rural community. He had wanted to embark on a ministry training, but couldn’t afford time away from family and church at a Theological College.
When an opportunity came for him to join a course, run by a trainer of WITH’s partner MMD in Bulawayo, he imagined that he would learn more about the Bible and how to become a better preacher. Johannes got much more than he bargained for…
He was deeply challenged by the question of how he and his church could share the Good News with more people in the community. Johannes knew that he was reaching the same people every week.
For one of the course assignments, Johannes mobilised his church to launch a special Children’s Day – a special outreach day when the church would open its doors to street children for games, food and Bible study. There are many such children in Zimbabwe, often orphans of HIV/AIDS.
The event was a big success and it got the church thinking. They had initially planned to run these special days once a year. However the church soon realised that if they were going to build any relationship with these children, they needed to meet them more often. They decided to hold a Children’s Day once a month.
Local business people took notice of what the church was doing and provided free clothes and food for the church to distribute.
Some members of the congregation felt a call to go one step further and adopted orphaned children into their own families. Children who had lost everything were seeing the Gospel in action and given a fresh start in their lives.
WITH’s partner training challenged Johannes to truly share the gospel. He and his church took their commission further than anyone had dared to hope.
