Brief History of the Mt. Selinda Church

All churches in Zimbabwe are as a result of Mt. Selinda Mission which was founded in 1893 by the missionaries. These missionaries came from South Africa via Mediterranean Sea to Mozambique. Then from this Eastern Country (Mozambique) they came to Zimbabwe to them it was Rhodesia. When they arrived, they met and discussed with Chief Mapungwana took over chieftainship. In 1893 Chief Mapungwana and the missionaries being led by Rev. Banker finally came to an agreement that a mission be established. And the missionaries named it Mt. Selinda deriving the name from a local name CHIRINDA.

Mt. Selinda circuit is composed of four department; namely

1. Education department which embraces the four schools within the mission i.e. Mt. Selinda High School, Mt. Selinda Primary, Beacon hill secondary and Beacon hill primary school.
2. Hospital
3. Farm which deals with mission farm tenants
4. Station Council - it deals with the good and the bad (problems) that may crop up within the mission station e.g. accommodation, electricity and water

All these report to the SYNOD, but are also accountable to the local church administration.

It is of great importance to note that circuit executive members are chosen yearly.

Our church is composed of a number of preaching points whereby the local Pastor has to either cycle or foot in order to meet people in the identified area(s). The furthest Preaching Point is about 28km away to and from.

Mt. Selinda Circuit is built up of three churches and five preaching points. These include:

Zona preaching point - a tea estate company

Chimana preaching point - a commercial farm community

Tazviona preaching point - a resettlement community

Daisy Hill - also a resettlement community

Mapungwana preaching point - a reserve area which is about 28km

Playing the drums is part of the beautiful music
of Zimbabwe

SERVICES

Big Sundays are held on every first Sunday of the month. The services are either conducted by Rev. J. Foroma or the schools Chaplain Rev. Dr. Ntuli. Our Holly Communion is done on quarterly basis.

The Holly Communion is not a must that every person should take it. According to our by-laws it is only those who had been baptized who are eligible to partake Holly Communion.

After every Big Sunday we have pot-luck. This is whereby people share ideas, jokes, etc. It symbolizes oneness and togetherness. Our people heartily appreciate it for it means to them companionship.

An elephant roaming the open land

CIRCUIT MEETING PROCEDURE

The Circuit executive members have the executive meetings before big Sundays. After every circuit meeting the executive gives a report of what transpired during the last meeting to the whole congregation for approval of the resolutions, suggestions or recommendations made by the executive.

>WOMEN'S FELLOWSHIP: RUWADZANO (Venecular name)

As a council they have their services on Fridays. About 91% of our church membership are women who belong to this council. The committee members organize meetings where a program of action is drawn, discussed and then implemented.

VOLUNTEERS

They have their meetings every Saturday. It is where their council members move from one place to another reviving others as their main program of action. They also carry out charitable activities e.g. helping the aged and giving donations to the Mt. Selinda Orphanage. This Council is mainly used as an organ for evangelization.

THE CHRISTIAN YOUTH FELLOWSHIP

This is a group of youngsters. They hold their meetings every Sunday afternoon. Its advisor helps in the organizations, we solve problems and the implementation of disciplinary measures that are found in the council's by-laws. The advisor is a mature Christian who has been married following UCCZ principles of Christian marriage.

Children carry heavy bags of corn on their heads
as they walk to and from the grinding mill where
the corn is ground into a flour-like consistency
that they use to make sadza.

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

This council includes:

• Sunday School - This is whereby young children under the age of ten are made to recite verses, sing choruses, dramatize either birth of death of Jesus.

• Baptismal Class - With the aid of the (vatsvaki book) that is the seeking class text book, children are taught about the brief history of the church and also what it means to be a Christian, the differences between a believer or non believer as they can be baptized after having known what it means to be Jesus' followers.

• Confession Class - At this stage children are given lessons in order to be full members. They deal with the constitution of the church. Children are also assigned by the church that is leading the services in other areas within the circuit. At the end of the year one makes a declaration that he/she promises to help and work with the church in anyway he/she can.

• Evangelism - The committee is used to spread the good news from the bible. Volunteers and Ruwadzano councils recruit other members to the church. This is done through church revivals in order to boost the church membership. They even go to an extend of visiting and preaching to people in their homes.

However other people who want to become church members at old age, are taught about the unconditional love of God, forgiveness and church rules. They are given lessons so as to make them aware of the church constitution.

The City of Harare is very much like our
cities in the United States

OUR FUTURE PLANS

The top executive discusses and prioritizes the church's future plans. This is done every year. In the past three years we planned to purchase a grinding mill and the goal was achieved in 1997. Many people around the area now benefit from it for they no longer walk long distances to a nearby grinding mill. Indeed it was a great stride made by the church towards self-reliance. The other project is introduction of:

• Tea plantation which is approximately Z$10 000.00 for tea plants, Z$7 000.00 for labour. We are struggling, but with difficult to raise this Z$17 000.00, we hope that above mentioned plans shall make us be self - reliant.

• We intend to renovate our Pastor's house which is in bad condition mainly caused by its age. And the tabled project is to buy a second-hand vehicle for our Pastor though we are financially limited.

THE MOUNT SELINDA NEW CHURCH BUILDING

And the king said to me "Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing else but sadness of the heart", Nehemiah 2:2 (R.S.V.) Here Nehemiah became down-hearted and dispirited because the walls and the Temple of the Lord/Yahweh which were by the period laid desolate. He was spiritually affected to an extend of weaning a gloomy face.

Time wear pale faces because of holding Big Sundays outside the present church building for it fails to accommodate the ever growing membership. The community includes two thousand primary and secondary school pupils, over two hundred teachers including hospital employees with their families, hundreds of people who live around the mission and the hospital patients.

We also need to do finishing touches on Emerald church building. Lastly we intend to build a new church building which will accommodate five hundred and fifty people at beacon hill. All these important constructions are being funded by the local members with a few well-wishers.

Thus, after having seen and experiencing this seemingly chronic problems we decided to construct a bigger church. The idea of having a new church building cropped up in 1992 when Rev. Jeffrey Phillips was a missionary here. Thus from 1992 up to the present day the church is raising some funds towards this noble cause. So far we had locally raised Z$34 000.00 towards this more that one million church building. It was and still our wish to start the construction before long because of high inflation which heavily affects our currency.

However, it must be noted that all these dreams and plans cannot be all archived after a forty-night neither with a year due to financial constraints. Nevertheless, we hope through God's helping hand we are going to archive them one by one.

Victoria Falls one of the seven natural wonders
of the World, borders the countries of Zimbabwe
and Zambia

SOURCES OF INCOME

The church uses pledging methods whereby each member is to pay a certain minimum amount agreed upon the church

Our Pastor's salary comes from these pledging though other members are not employed. It is our desire to pay the Pastor sufficiently, but this remains a dream due to meager financial resources.