Africa-Press – Botswana. Holy Family Roman Catholic Church in Letlhakane has recently raised P55 000 through a 12-kilometre sponsored walk.
In an interview after the sponsored walk, the event’s chief organiser, Mr Abel Jamba said the aim was to raise funds and expand the church’s footprint and build a chapel in Orapa to further fulfil God’s mission of taking the Gospel to the people.
“The idea to build a chapel in Orapa was conceived after realising that majority of Catholics staying in Orapa failed to attend church due to the distance they have to travel to attend mass in Letlhakane,” Mr Jamba said.
He added that they had also managed to raise about P33 500 through buddy walkers and had already acquired a 50 by 50 plot in Orapa.
The project which was projected to cost around P285 000, he said was in two phases which entailed building a hall and offices first then move to construct the chapel in the second phase.
“The aim is to give and build the best chapel we can in order to represent the church and show our acknowledgement as Christians and acknowledgement of God,” he said.
He added that the Roman Catholic Church arrived in Letlhakane in the late 1990’s and they started by attending mass in classrooms in Orapa.
“The community grew and we built a church in Letlhakane. It is time to continue with the mission to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth,” he added.
Parish Priest, Father Onkabetse Sebokolodi commended participants and buddy walkers for their commitment saying they assumed the role of building churches which was commonly carried out by missionaries from Western countries.
Father Sebokolodi stated that it was common knowledge in the olden days that funds were usually sent from the Western to African countries to build churches and that had since become an issue of the past because more Africans built their own churches.
Holy Family Parish chairperson, Mr Anthony Matebu indicated that the objective behind raising funds through the sponsored walk was to ensure that parishes were self-reliant from the Bishop’s office.
He emphasised that the intention was to run and operate parishes without seeking support as it was the case in the olden days.
Mr Matebu added that walking was also good for enhancing the state of the mind and health of fellow Christians.
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