Chronicle Editor
Rutendo Nyeve, Sunday News Reporter
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa yesterday touched down at the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport in Bulawayo ahead of the eighth edition of the National Thanksgiving and Dedication Service set for the Zimbabwe International Exhibition Centre (ZIEC) today.
The President was welcomed by the Minister of Defence and Security Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, Bulawayo Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Judith Ncube, Zanu-PF provincial leadership and members of the Joint Operations Command.
This year’s National Thanksgiving and Dedication Service, hosted by the Inter-denominational churches is being held under the theme: “Our Nation, Our Opportunity — Celebrating the progress and acknowledging the potential for our country Zimbabwe”.
The annual service, held since 2017, not only showcases the cooperative relationship between the Church and the Government, but also provides a platform for both to celebrate the progress the country is making across its various socio-economic sectors.
In an interview with Sunday News at ZIEC yesterday, Faith for Nation Campaign founder and Chairperson Reverend Andrew Wutawunashe said all is set for the service with 30 buses organised to ferry people around Bulawayo.
“The eighth edition of the National Thanksgiving and Dedication Service will be conducted to dedicate the nation of Zimbabwe to the Lord for the coming year and ask for his help in every department and sphere of our nation. We also want to look back and see the good things in which God has helped us as a nation and give thanks.
“Everyone is welcome from every denomination, persuasion, and area of life. It is also a very good occasion to just come and enjoy celebrating through gospel. We are very prepared for the service to be held at the ZIEC here in Bulawayo.
“We have deployed over 30 buses all over Bulawayo and we invite people to find those buses tomorrow morning and make their way to the ZIEC,” said Rev Wutawunashe.
The celebration, in principle, underscores the importance of the church in nation building, he added.
“If you look carefully at the nation building in the word of God, you will discover that the Kings always did well if they were supported by the prophets. God wanted that combination to be there.
“One of the things I can also say is that in our particular Zimbabwean situation, the way I see it is that, our nation is in need of the silencing of demoralising voices, which are failing to recognise the progress God has given us since the coming of the Second Republic,” said Rev Wutawunashe.
He said there are people who are in denial of all of the great developments, which President Mnangagwa has spearheaded in his administration, and the progress the nation has made.
“What happens is that the psyche of the people is discouraged and demoralised unjustifiably and God does not like that. As you know, when the children of Israel were going to the promised land, voices like that were there, which were crying for milk and honey, and the milk and honey was there until the people could not reach the promised land.
“So the role of the Church must be to inspire people, to encourage people, to also silence and drown voices of false discouragement. This is also a platform where we want the true picture of what is going on in our nation to be brought forward by a voice that has integrity, which is the voice of the Church, and to inspire our people,” said Rev Wutawunashe.
He said bishops of practically every denomination in the country will be in attendance.
“We feel that the Church, in being a truthful and encouraging voice, is participating in patriotic and Godly nation building,” said Rev Wutawunashe.
The National Prayer and Thanksgiving occasion started at the offset of the new dispensation by the agreement between the churches and President Mnangagwa.
@nyeve14
Online Reporter