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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3232 notes).

Note 3232 by UMNS on Oct. 15, 1996 at 15:50 Eastern (6217 characters).

SEARCH: VIM, volunteers, mission, house, construction

 Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency
of the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn.,
New York, and Washington.

CONTACT: Linda Green                     518(10-21NC-31-71B){3232}
         Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470             Oct. 15, 1996

Volunteers boost pace 
of staff housing construction

by Andra Stevens*

     OLD MUTARE, Zimbabwe (UMNS) -- Under the blaz ng summer sun,
a second three-bedroom house is beginning to take shape at the
Africa University campus, here. Eight men and five women, part of
a 23-member Volunteers in Mission (VIM) team from the North
Indiana United Methodist Annual Conference, are busy mixing mortar
and laying bricks to form the exterior and interior walls. 
     In just one week on-site, they have taken the house from
freshly-poured foundation to walls that are five to six feet high.
The door and window frames are in and the team wants to get the
brick walls laid to the top of the frames before they leave on
Oct. 21.
     "We're serious about building but we believe very strongly
that the work is secondary to the learning that people do," said
the Rev. Tom Frost, pastor of St. Mark's United Methodist Church,
Decatur, Ind. Frost and his wife Mary Ellen, are co-leaders of the
work team.     
     According to Frost, the single most important benefit of this
team's trip is that members will be able to go back and tell the
story of Africa University. "We've seen a lot of projects in the
church and this one (Africa University) makes a lot of sense to
us," he said. "It's an efficient way of training indigenous
leadership for African churches and communities and it will pay
off in ways that are important to us as Christians. We want to
raise the consciousness of the people in Indiana as to what it's
like and what it takes for young people to come and get an
education at Africa University," he added.
     At Africa University, volunteers eat, sleep, worship and work
within the community so there is constant contact with students
and staff. Though the backgrounds, skills and experiences of team
members vary widely, they are all committed to short-term mission
interaction as a way of getting individuals and local
congregations in touch with the realities of a global church.  
     Dee Stringham, is a building contractor who has been running
her own company for more than 25 years. "It's still not that
easy," she said, when asked about making her living in a non-
traditional sector for women. Occasionally, she encounters people
who are surprised by or doubtful of her skills because she is a
woman and too often, she said, those people are other women.
     This is Stringham's fourth trip to Africa as part of a VIM
work team. She has been to Sierra Leone twice and to Liberia once
and by contrast, she finds Zimbabwe well-developed. 
     Loman and Enid Young of Trinity United Methodist Church,
Hartford City, Ind., are veteran work team participants. Their
first work site was in Puerto Rico in 1967. Since then, they have
been to various parts of the United States, to Jamaica and to West
Africa to work on Operation Classroom, a project that links United
Methodists in Indiana with those in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
     Loman Young drove a maintenance truck for a gas company
before retirement and said he has a knack for fixing things. His
wife Enid served as a cook on their first work trip to Puerto
Rico, now she paints water-color murals wherever she goes. She did
a mural in the University Health Clinic in just three days and has
started another one at the hospital across the road at Old Mutare
Mission.
     The Frosts said that when they announced their plans for a
work team for Africa University from North Indiana in June 1995,
there was tremendous interest. Within three weeks, the roster was
full. 
     The team is large so it has split up and taken on a number of
projects. Some team members are subdividing student lounges in one
of the residence halls to provide more dormitory space. The two
electrical engineers and the electrician in the group are helping
to convert some of the outlets in the computer lab so that donated
machines from the United States can be put to use. 
     Some volunteers are painting cabinets in the laboratories and
clinic, doing routine maintenance and building upgrades while
others are assisting in the library.
     In addition to their labor alongside local craftspeople and
University staff, members of the North Indiana team donated $5,000
for materials and other costs associated with staff housing
construction. Each Indiana congregation that has members on the
team contributed $250 a person and the annual conference gave
$1,000 in Advance Special funds. Individual team members paid
their transportation, tours, accommodation and meal costs.
     Africa University administration hopes to build four faculty
houses each year with the support of the VIM program. The North
Indiana team is the last scheduled for this year but local workers
will continue to work on the house when they leave. There are
eight VIM work teams already confirmed for 1997. An 18-member team
from the West Virginia Annual Conference, under the leadership of
the Rev. Tom Clark, is expected Jan. 9.
     The first faculty house, a three-bedroom structure, built by
57 United Methodist volunteers in mission during an eight-month
period, is already occupied. Patrick Matsikenyiri, a music
lecturer in the Faculty of Education, and his family moved in last
August. Their home is the first to be completed in a plan to build
20 houses to accommodate academic staff at the University.
     Matsikenyiri and his wife Avis are delighted with the extra
space, though they are now lonely.  The family lived in a small
flat in one of the student residence halls for two years while
they waited for the house to be built. In addition to his teaching
duties, Matsikenyiri looks after student welfare in the residence
halls and is the director of the Africa University Choir.
                              #  #  #

     * Stevens is the director of information at Africa University

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