Attendance at the third Zimbabwe West Union Conference (ZWUC) Adventist Possibility Ministries camp meeting rose from 223 on its opening day to 490 on the closing Sabbath, as speakers pressed churches to move from charitable giving towards building the capacity of people with disabilities.
The gathering ran from 27 to 29 August 2026 at Maranatha Adventist Primary School and Maranatha Adventist High School in Bulawayo, under the theme "Chosen for Mission". It drew Adventists and community members with diverse abilities from Dete, Kezi, rural districts and suburbs around Bulawayo, together with leaders from the South Zimbabwe Conference and West Zimbabwe Conference.
Advocate T. Sibanda used his address to press for person-first language, urging the church and wider society to say "persons with disabilities" rather than "disabled persons", the person recognised first, the condition afterwards.
He argued that people with disabilities are not objects of charity but people with rights, abilities and potential, and that support should shift away from arrangements that produce dependence towards those that build capacity. Interventions, he said, should enable people to develop their gifts and take part in society on their own terms.
Sibanda also called for children with disabilities to be educated alongside other children in inclusive schools, and distinguished equity from equality: each person should receive the support they actually need to participate fully. He raised representation, respect for privacy, access to good health, and the effect of public attitudes.
Preaching on the closing Sabbath, Pastor Ben Strike drew on Psalm 71 as the account of a person called to mission, inviting listeners to read the psalm with their own name in it. "Everyone is chosen for mission," he said. "No matter how old or young you are, age does not matter."
He applied the psalmist's plea not to be cast off in old age to the question of who the Church considers useful, arguing that diminished physical strength does not end a person's usefulness.
At the opening service, Pastor Patson Kazini had set out the same theme from Joshua 24, telling the congregation that every person is called to mission regardless of physical condition. Turning to Jacob's night of wrestling in Genesis 32, he noted that Jacob received his blessing and left with a limp.
"Sometimes God may allow you to be weakened so that He can place you where He can use you," Kazini said. "It is in that very situation that God calls you to take part in His mission."
Pastor J. B. Sibanda, welcoming campers to Maranatha Adventist Primary School, recalled that the donors gave the building on condition that it serve as a mission centre, a purpose its pulpit and baptistry still reflect.
The programme closed with children who had completed Vacation Bible School lessons through the week graduating in the main arena, wearing crowns and carrying certificates. Blessing Sibanda, ZWUC Children's Ministries Director, led that programme.
