Bishop Mutendi gives Holy Communion to Chipinge accident survivors in their hospital beds

In a remarkable feat showing the goodness of God, on 18 April 2022, Bishop Nehemiah Mutendi was allowed to give Holy Communion to more than 30 hospitalised survivors of the Chipinge bus disaster at Mutare and Chipinge Hospitals.

A bus carrying members of the church from Chimanimani to Mbungo for the Easter Conference was involved in a fatal accident about 5km along the Skyline-Jopa Road on the evening of 14 April.

Twenty-nine people died on the spot.

The bus was carrying 106 people, including about 40 children. Ten more people died later due to serious injuries sustained bringing the current death toll to 39.

Only one person, the deputy headmaster of St Charles Lwanga Secondary from which church members hired the bus, was not a member of the Zion Christian Church.

Within hours of the accident on Good Friday the church sent senior officials, who included Bishop Mutendi’s brother and sister, to assist the accident victims and the bereaved families.

The church provided food, clothing, and other necessities to the affected.

It also assisted in the burial of all those who died.

Bishop Mutendi managed to give Holy Communion to at least 20 of the 24 church members who were at Mutare Hospital. Only those who were too critical to take the bread and wine were not served.

Each patient was also given a fruit hamper as well as toiletries and clothing and some cash for their upkeep and to enable relatives looking after them to meet transport costs to visit them in hospital.

One of those who was at Mutare Hospital has since died.

When Bishop Mutendi arrived at Mutambara Mission hospital, three patients, Jonathan Matsikenyere and his two sons, had just been discharged.

Matsikenyere joined the Bishop’s convoy to his home in Biriri where he and his two sons were given Holy Communion. Matsikenyere lost his wife in the accident and she had already been buried.

Bishop Mutendi also gave Holy Communion to eight patients at Chipinge Hospital where he addressed church members who had gathered outside the hospital.

He promised the congregants that he would be returning to the area in two or three weeks to give them Holy Communion.