WHEN pastors die, their widows are quickly forgotten by their churches.
For this reason, His Grace Family Church founder, Mzoxolo Oliphant, and his wife Perfidia, celebrated Women’s Month by taking the widows of 30 pastors for breakfast at Malibongwe restaurant in Lookout Hill in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, on Saturday 20 August.
The widows, aged between 39 and 82, were given gifts of blankets, flowers and certificates acknowledging the work they did in building churches with their late husbands.
Oliphant told Daily Sun: “We have discovered that once a pastor is no more, the widow is rejected and neglected by the church.
“The mother is left to raise the kids alone and there’s no financial or moral support.”
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Gogo Tryphina Mbama (82) said her husband, the pastor of Light of Hope Evangelical Church, died in 1999.
“This is the first time I feel appreciated for what I have done in the house of the Lord. It’s rare in our churches to see the widows of pastors being given this kind of love.”
Ntutu Mgoqi (52) said she lost her husband Mziwakhe in 2012.
“If you are a pastor’s wife, you find yourself between two mountains – the church and the in-laws. I want to thank the Oliphants. They have been supportive,” she said.
