Amid the existence of COVID-19 cases in the country, the Vision Pentecostal Church in Zimbabwe is urging church leaders and the Christian community to support the Government in the fight against the pandemic
Speaking on the sidelines of a three day revival conference held in Harare over the weekend, Reverend John Peter Hakizimana said the pandemic had affected church attendance which saw an increase in Gender Based Violence and drug abuse.
“We would like to encourage all church leaders and all believers to continue supporting the Government’s efforts of preventing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic bearing in mind that the virus still exists and there is need to fight it so that it may not spread again and put us back in lockdown like before. Let us respect and observe the World Health Organisation measures of social distancing, masking and sanitiser,” said Hakizimana
He said through various departments of the church they have been conducting visits as a way of maintaining peace in homes.
“Through church visits we have managed to teach congregants on how to maintain peace within homes. We have representatives in every department of the church and these will be teaching them life basics and by so doing there won’t be disputes and other related cases of gender based violence,” he said.
Guest speaker at the Conference, Bishop Aderino Nyabanga said the lifting of the COVID-19 induced lockdowns had come at an opportune time.
“The conference came at an opportune time whereby we are coming from lockdowns which resulted in us not meeting as a body of Christ. We are here encouraging each other to remain steadfast and uplifting those that had backslided. We lost our loved ones through the pandemic but we thank God that we are now in a position to gather,” said Bishop Nyabanga
Vision Pentecostal Church draws it’s membership from both refugees and non refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa.
