A triple celebration for Elim in Zimbabwe

Under the cloudless Zimbabwean skies at the Elim Mission Station in Katerere, Roy Johnston and Bobbie Tinnion took part in a weekend of celebrations

Official opening of the hospital theatre

For more than a decade these moments had been in the making and now the dreams had come to a pivotal point.

The community in Katerere, in partnership with the Elim Pentecostal Church of Zimbabwe and the movement in Ireland and other parts of the UK, have together raised financial support and materials to build a state-of-the-art hospital theatre to serve the local community around the mission station at Katerere.

The project, first birthed as ‘The Centenary Project’ in 2016 by Pastor Ray Cotter, has faced many challenges and complications, but through prayerful and practical persistence it has finally come to completion. The local community has invested in the project, providing building materials and labour. The Elim Pentecostal Church in Zimbabwe provided the drawing plans, the local knowledge and expertise to source the materials for construction and equipment for the theatre, ensuring they satisfied building regulations and department of health requirements.

The Elim movement in Ireland and the UK helped to provide much-needed financial support for the project to come to fruition.

On Saturday 14 September, we saw the culmination of these years of hard work and dedication as the hospital officially opened amidst great rejoicing! It has now been recognised by the local medical authorities to be a facility that can serve the wider community with surgeries and medical care in a modern, superbly equipped facility.

A new ambulance

The celebrations continued later that afternoon as Bobbie and I joined the invited guests, including staff of the hospital and theatre, representatives from the regional medical department, stakeholders, representatives from NGOs, leaders from the community and students from the primary school and Emmanuel secondary school.

At this celebration, we had the honour of dedicating a brand-new ambulance to support the work of the hospital. This had been provided through donations from the Chibisa family and the generosity of the Elim churches in Ireland.

A new building

The next day, Bobbie and I travelled to Kanyim, approximately 45 minutes from the mission station, for the opening of a new church.

There was a tremendous sense of joy and celebration as Dr Pious Munembe led the congregation in worship while the new building was opened and dedicated to the glory of God in memory of Rev Edwin Cotter.

The funds were raised by Edwin’s brother Rev Ray Cotter through sponsored events primarily in Northern Ireland.

It was wonderful to be with the Elim family in Zimbabwe, to see their appreciation of the goodness of God and the help they have received from Ireland and the UK. They respectfully send their heartfelt love and greetings to the wider Elim family.

We give God the glory for each faithful footstep of giving, praying, planning, labouring and building, and rejoice in all that God is doing in Zimbabwe. We praise God for the part that Elim Missions Ireland and in the UK have played in this journey so far, and for the future godly connections of vision, purpose and fruitfulness as we endeavour to continue to support the projects.

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.