The Calvary Christian Church in Lwamondo, which has been in the forefront of the struggle to empower communities for years, has been hailed for its generous work by the community of Tshivhilwi-Tshidangalani outside Thohoyandou.

On Friday, the church’s founder, Dr Maxwell Masakona, accompanied by senior members of the church, descended on the tiny village to hand over a borehole worth nearly R30 000 to the residents. This is the third borehole the church has given to  communities.

“We felt we were doing well in terms of looking after the spiritual being, but at the same time, we should also take care of the physical being,” said Masakona. He said as a church they had to preach a living gospel, a gospel that went with deeds. “We cannot minister people who are thirsty. We do not want to give people any excuse that they were not able to come to God because they were thirsty. This is faith in practice, because faith without deeds is dead,” he said.

Masakona also asked community leaders to identify a poor family for whom the church could build a house. On behalf of the community, local traditional leader Chief Robert Muonyolosi said he was excited and happy that his people were getting clean water. "Our people have been thirsty for a long time. We have tried many times to engage the government. We know many communities have the same challenges we have here. With us, all this is now history as our people will have clean water,” he said.

Local ward councillor Tshimangadzo Malada said the church had bailed him out by providing water to the community. “We can now walk tall, knowing that our people have water to drink. We are very thankful,” he said. He promised that the community would take care of the gift.