Wilbrought Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter
CHURCHES have been urged to play an active role in the fight against drug and substance abuse in communities as moral uprightness is one of the important pillars in the achievement of national development and social cohesion.
Speaking in an interview with the Sunday News, Apostle Joshua Zulu of the Royal Priesthood Solution Ministries said the church should play ball in addressing most of the social issues affecting the society as they have long term consequences in the development of the country.
“Society is grappling with the issue of drug and substance abuse among our youths. It is everyone’s concern and the church should not be passengers in this. It should be taking a leading role in the nurturing of an upright God fearing young people who are ready to tackle the national challenges and be prepared to be tomorrow’s leaders. We are very concerned about this as a church and we have been doing crusades in many areas including those that are regarded as drug hotspots and we are happy with the engagement that we have had with the youths,” he said.
He said they had also been raising awareness on drug and substance abuse to those children living in the streets who they were also feeding.
“The programme where we deal with issues of drug and substance abuse as a church falls under our department of Royal City Refuge which is a growing department within our ministry. This awareness is under the theme ‘no to drug abuse and yes to a safe living space and giving our lives fully to Christ.’
“As the department is growing, we have committed to increase our activities where we engage the street urchins. After serving meals we take time to discuss with them about drugs and substance abuse, a common problem in the streets as well as in the society. Some of the common drugs being used include glue, crystal meth, kambucha, mutoriro and other various kinds of substances that are cheap to acquire,” said Apostle Zulu.
He said they have noticed that redundancy was causing most of the children living in the streets to engage in drugs and called on relevant Government departments to assist in curbing the scourge.
“Some mentioned that they use drugs because they do not have any activities to do. They take these substances to fight stress and, to fit in the society and to gain friends. After the end of our engagement with them, we encourage them to give their lives fully to Christ, be each other’s keepers, come to church and be part of the congregation and have self-love. We use drug cards to conduct our sessions. Psalm 133 verse 1 encourages us to live together in unity and this is the love we would like to spread to them. Our mandate as the church is winning millions of souls to Christ and turning the hearts of people to the Lord their God.
“We are looking at growing our vision and have a rehabilitation center and homes for the street urchins but for now we have made sure our team has professionals to help with counselling, preaching and financial intelligence talks for the urchins. We are growing our community reach and we make sure not to leave anyone out in any area we visit including in Mberengwa, Victoria Falls, Gwanda and Kwekwe,” he said.
He urged the church to take drug and substance abuse seriously and ensure it was nipped in the bud.