Dera Digest

This Christmas season, I’ve been reflecting on what makes this time of year so special in ‘The Centre of the Universe’. Saint Paul wrote that three things remain: faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love. Working on the Dera Digest for the past two years, I’ve seen these ancient virtues alive and well in the most ordinary, extraordinary ways.

Faith isn’t just what happens within church walls on Sunday mornings. It’s what we see when leftover food from a school function is shared among less privileged members of the community, or when parents entrust their children to our local coaches and teachers. It’s the quiet confidence that when times are hard, someone will answer the knock at the door.

Hope has a home in Marondera. It’s there in the new family just moved into town, their children already making friends. It’s in the new shops opening after months of building and years of dreaming. Hope is in every student preparing for exams, every young person

with dreams bigger than our town but roots deep enough to remember where they came from.

But if faith sustains us and hope guides us, it’s love that truly defines us. Love is found in our community connections and institutions looking out for the vulnerable. It’s in the teacher who stays after school to help a struggling student, the colleague who brings an extra sandwich to share. These aren’t grand gestures; they’re reliable, repeated, real.

Joy is found right here, in the faith we have in each other, the hope we share, and the love we show in a thousand small, daily ways.

The greatest gifts aren’t under trees. They’re in our hearts, our hands, and our neighbourhoods.

From all of us at Dera Digest, may your Christmas be filled with faith, hope, and love.

Merry Christmas, Marondera.

Latest Edition

Welcome to Dera Digest!

Thank you very much to all our loyal readers of the DERA Digest. We are truly grateful for your continued support throughout the year. We hope you enjoy the complimentary contact numbers we’ve put together to make life a little easier for everyone in our community.

As we look ahead to the new year, we’re excited about some positive developments happening in and around Marondera. These will be announced in our next issue, so keep an eye out for some big news that will help shape and uplift our community.

Thank you once again, and we wish you all a wonderful festive season and an even better year ahead.