February 18, 2020
Brother Ernest Chikwata didn't always see the priesthood as part of his future. Find out how his experience at Mustard Seed Zimbabwe led him to priesthood.
Read more about Mustard Seed's Formation Program here.
My Name is brother Ernest Chikwata. From Zimbabwe, in Africa. I'm currently training to be a priest. God willing, I will be able to finish my studies and be ordained a Mustard Seed Priest.
How did you hear about MSC?
The first time I heard about Mustard Seed, it was a friend of mine who was part of the youth choir in Mustard Seed. So he actually invited me to come and join them because he knew that I loved singing. I still do. I went to see what exactly they were doing, and I loved it. I fell in love with the music and singing, so I joined them.
What made you interested in becoming a Mustard Seed Priest?
During the time that I was in the choir, one of the brothers approached me and he asked me to join them, just to like come and experience the life they were living as brothers. At first, I resisted because it's something that I guess it was in me but I was just running away from it. I didn't want to think about it. And I said, ”Okay fine, I'll come and see what you guys are doing.” So I went there and I stayed with them for one week. And the experience I had during that week, I guess that's what made me realize that I think I need to give more and the best way I could do it was by becoming a priest.
What will your responsibilities be as a priest?
If I'm ordained a priest, my main responsibility, the first and most important responsibility, is to strengthen the spirituality of both the residents and also the staff members because our organization believes in and is built up on faith. So everything we do it’s spiritual, it begins with spirituality. So that will be my main goal. And what I look forward to is to grow spiritually and be a better person. Be able to inspire, especially the youth so that they may see the good in doing charity work. Working is not all about getting money but helping those who are in need is very important.
Thank you for being part of our community.