URCSA Polokwane City gives to less fortunate, renovates Crèche

The Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa’s (URCSA) Polokwane City congregation attested to the Bible verse ‘Generous hands are blessed hands because they give bread to the poor’ when they donated goods and money to Pheladi Pre-School and Crèche in Ga-Mothiba and renovated the school as part of Mandela Month celebrations on Sunday.
The day started with a church service in a tent that was filled to capacity before the official handing over of educational toys, blankets and mattresses. A number of trees were planted on the premises and the facility was painted. Attendees were at the edge of their seats and ‘head-vosho’ was all that could be seen when Rev Moshe Maponya, Minister of the Word at the congregation, delivered the sermon of the day. He focused his teachings on unity and helping the less fortunate based on Philippians 2: 1 to 7.
He stated that the gathering was an annual celebration to honour Nelson Mandela and the church use the opportunity to extend a helping hand to impoverished organisations and people. Maponya could not hide the excitement when he thanked the worshippers for the good gesture they displayed saying “I am delighted that Polokwane City congregants did not object to the initiative when it was proposed. As Christians, we need to put a smile on people’s faces. Congregants went out of their comfort zones to make a difference and this is exactly what the word of God teaches us.” He emphasised that as they honour Tata Madiba, people must stay in Christ to get strength and wisdom, adding that he was confident that children at the school would enjoy whatever they had received. He indicated that this was a great gesture the church has shown for years and reiterated that Christians have to emulate God’s ways as stipulated in the bible.
The scripture ‘Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to’ came to life when congregants embarked on a church offering spree. After the generous exercise, the money amounted to over R6 000 and was donated to the school. The church council secretary, Sontaga Mobayi said it was a good thing to go out off their comfort zones to serve the Lord by assisting the poor.
When thanking the church for their open-handedness, Lesina Kunyana, a member of the school committee said God heard their prayers and that she was confident that more parents would now consider enrolling their children at the crèche because of its improved standard. The crèche currently caters for only 15 children and before the closing of the service one of the learners, Lesego Mothiba praised Nelson Mandela in a poem.

Story and photos: ENDY SENYATSI
>>endy@observer.co.za