In Mbambai, Sunday faith and food meet under the open sky
On Sunday mornings in Mbambai, an open field transforms and fills into purpose. Plastic chairs are arranged in loose rows. Children, most of them still in primary school, arrive in pairs and small clusters. There are no church walls, no stained-glass windows, no scraped wooden pulpit. Only sky overhead and a pastor’s voice carrying across the dust.
The order is one that is familiar.
First, the Word.
Then, the meal.
This is an outreach run by The Glory of God Ministries International, which began the initiative two years ago after recognising a growing need in the community. What started as a three-day revival and door-to-door evangelism produced a weekly Sunday gathering.
They never left.
Every Sunday from 10am until around midday, the church sets up in the field. A sermon is delivered. Spiritual counselling is offered, and afterwards, a warm plate is served.
There is no external funding. The meals are financed largely from the pockets of church members, with more donations of non-perishable foods and clothing from congregants. It does not end with meals and clothes, at the beginning of each year, stationery packs are distributed to children.
“You cannot preach Christ while you are not helping those who are in need,” one of the organisers/leaders says. “It goes hand in hand.”
Although the project is open to everyone, most Sundays see a congregation mostly made up of children. They sit quietly, not many chairs, some on their siblings’ laps, used to the rhythm – expectant, but not chaotic.
One young girl said that she loves coming each week “so I can be at church.”
In that simple answer, the field feels less like a feeding point and more like a place to belong.
In a community where school feeding schemes sustain many children during the week, Sundays tell a quieter story. Here, faith and food arrive together. Encouragement is spoken before plates are handed out.
By midday, the chairs are stacked away, and the field returns to stillness again. But for a few hours each Sunday, it becomes something sacred, a church without walls, where hope is preached under open sky and served in warm bowls.
By Sinentlahla Mbokwe