A Sewing Club and a Construction Crew

After visiting the Chitakatira Primary School on Monday morning, July 27, our VIM Team headed next door to the Chitikatira United Methodist Church for a calmer, but no less powerful experience. Inside the building was gathered the Women's Sewing Club.

As we entered the building, the women of the Sewing Club began to sing. It was simply one word, sung over and over. "Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome!" The women's voices blended together richly, and we were humbled by their greeting.

The Sewing Club makes uniforms that can be purchased by parents at the Chitikatira Primary School. Uniforms are requirement for both boys and girls, so there is a continuing need. The women also make other items for sale, including place mats, dresses, and hats.

After various presentations had been made, it was time for the women to show what they had made. These items were placed along the chancel for our review--and, as it turns out, our possible purchase.

I bought a dress to take home to my grand- daughter and placed an order for a set of place mats. Other members of the VIM Team made similar purchases.

After the closing prayer, the women sang us out of the building with the same tune but different words, "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

From Chitikatira, which would readily be considered rural in Kansas, we headed for a location that would have to be deemed"really rural!" We also made the transition from a sewing club to a construction crew!

The location was a place called Chishakwe, which is another church on the Chitikatira circuit. As we arrived, a group of women began walking toward us, singing a welcome song. Behind them was a partially finished church structure.

It turns out that this effort to build a new church building was at a critical point. The women who comprised the construction crew had run out of resources. There were eight or ten of them, all of them widows. They had done the hard work of carrying river rock, transporting water, and making bricks for the church building.

But they needed cement in order to continue the project, and the women literally had no money. They were at a point where, without some sort of assistance, the work would have to stop. The women had fasted and prayed, asking God's guidance and direction. And now we had arrived.

The pastor (a remarkable young woman named Lizzy Chigizura) had the VIM Team come and join the women in the open space of the partially completed church building. The building is up to "window level," with frames set for the windows--or at least window openings. There were some hired workers doing the actual brick laying, but otherwise the women had literally done everything.

The pastor invited one woman to "speak what was on her heart" for the group. She outlined in a straightforward manner the plight of the group. They literally had nothing with which to buy additional resources, primarily bags of cement needed to complete construction of the walls and supplies to install an eventual roof.

When she finished, the VIM Team was initially at a loss as to what to do. It was apparent that we were being asked for help, but we had no frame of reference for how to respond.

Finally, one of us asked the cost of a bag of cement. The eventual answer was that it was $10.00 a bag. With that, one of our team members announced that he would buy ten bags of cement. That resulted in a spontaneous outburst of joy and thanksgiving from the gathered women.

Eventually our team pledged or gave money for 31 bags of cement. That seemed like it would be enough--at least for the time being. I hadn't yet made a pledge or a contribution yet, so I asked if I could give $100 toward the eventual installation of a roof. That gift was met with another round of praise and exultation.

A Sewing Club and a Construction Crew. The women of Chitikatira and Chishawkwe. A commitment to do whatever needed to be done to support the work of the church and to make possible a church building for the community.

Someday, I want to visit each of these places again--to see the further progress of the Sewing Club at Chitikatira and to worship with the remarkable women at Chishakwe who comprise the Construction Crew there!