Mutasa Nyanga District Superintendent Rev. Tafadzwa Musona from Zimbabwe provided an update on how worship services in her area are being handled during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite being a rural district where internet connectivity can be an issue, the church managed to regularly meet online. “We are having ongoing Church services where the Pastors continue to send sermons and teachings through WhatsApp as well as text messages.” Through social media platforms Musona says her district was able to observe its traditional learning weeks focusing on Christian education and church and society.
Musona’s district held an all-day prayer and fasting revival, which raised funds toward purchasing PPE materials for local front-line medical workers in district’s hospitals and clinics. By using social media as a means to share and promote the event, some of the revival’s virtual attendees were from well outside the local district.
Earlier this month, using the same social platforms to communicate Musona held her District’s Local Preacher’s Seminar with clergy and laypeople virtually attending not only from her own district but neighboring ones as well.
Musona, a master’s student at Africa University in Harare, Zimbabwe, has said the e-reader she received while studying at the university has been an important tool during this pandemic, relying on it for leading these virtual seminars. “l preached using one of the commentaries in my Kindle: The New lnterpreter’s Bible Commentary by Gaventa and Peterson.”