Sundaymail Editor
Last Saturday, a neighbour uncharacteristically knocked on my gate during witching hours with a sack full of freshly dressed chickens that were still dripping blood.
Appearing to be in a hurry, and without the least concern she had plucked us from well-deserved sleep, she threw the sack at me saying: “Please put these in the freezer for me, I will collect them just before church on Sunday.”
Before I could say anything, she was already knocking on the next gate with another sack of birds that required refrigeration.
“But why would someone take chickens to church?” I asked rhetorically.
Gentle reader, instead of being places of worship, churches have assumed new roles altogether.
They have become marketplaces for goods and services.
They are turned into pharmacies, butcheries, funeral parlours and brothels, depending on the needs of the worshippers concerned.
Deals are cut at churches and parties usually deodorise the transactions with prayers and titles like “man of God” and “munhuwashe”.
Rogue pastors are at times involved in the deals, which sometimes go awry.
Forex is also changing hands at these places of worship.
Arranged marriages are also the in-thing at churches, where wives’ of church leaders are slowly usurping roles of aunties and grandmothers at weddings.
Called “kukereke”, “gospapa”, “chechalo”, “chechimbi” or simply “church”, a lot is happening at places of worship.
It is not unusual these days to walk into a churchyard to find people selling all sorts of things.
Some have the nerve to advertise on the noticeboard the merchandise they will be selling.
“We are children of God who know that we have to survive. I sell my chickens at church and people there are willing to assist me. I am free to offer the chickens to other worshippers on credit because as God-fearing people, they honour their debts,” the neighbour told me.
“I see nothing wrong in taking my chickens to the House of the Lord so that he blesses my hustle. There is nothing wrong in selling vegetables to those who need them after church so that I earn clean money to feed my children, instead of feeding them from resources found through prostitution,” she said.
And the goods being sold at churches nowadays are not limited to food.
These days, people are selling clothes in church parking lots.
There is a good number of enterprising women who find it necessary to sell their wares at church.
“Churches are there to teach people good morals. At times people dress shabbily because they do not know where to buy dignified apparel, so I do not see this as a sin to bring the clothes to them. Selling at church helps us grow as people easily spread the word,” said one interviewee who spoke on condition of anonymity.
It is, however, not only women who are selling goods and services at church.
Men, too, are found selling goods, including cars.
“I understand your concern, but a fish needs water to survive. I run a car sales business, so I have to make sure I sell at least a car per month to survive. So I see no reason why I should not sell the cars at church if people there need them.
“The biggest thing to consider here is that churches offer a ready market for my services, and who am I not to follow the laws of supply and demand? I am a Christian, yes, but I need to survive,” this writer was told by a certain elderly man in Budiriro last week.
Welders, builders and plumbers are not to be outdone.
They are also always at hand to sell their services.
“I am a builder and I need jobs to feed my family. If the church offers me a ready market for my services, so be it. Ndingadya marara here vanhu vachida kuvakirwa? Churches also have wider catchment areas, which make it easy for us to survive. I will not hesitate to offer my services where they are needed,” one Eldard Chokotso told this writer.
If you thought churches were simply places of worship, then you are in for a shocker.
Parents seeking God-fearing and well-groomed life partners for their children are also turning to churches.
“The church plays an important role in shaping the morals of children. I make sure if my son is ogling a girl to marry, he has to do so at church. We are one people who share the same values and I am at peace seeing him with a girl from church,” said an interviewee who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Churches have become places where people meet and share ideas on almost anything affecting them.
Inotambika mughetto.
Online Reporter