wfn.org | Global youth conference goes on, despite world's unrest

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

July 23, 2002  News media contact: Kathy Gilbert7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.   10-31-71BP{315}

NOTE: Photographs are available with this report.

By Kathleen LaCamera*

NEWTOWNABBEY, Northern Ireland (UMNS) -- Two weeks before Zimbabwean Vuyi
Nemapare was to fly to Belfast for a World Methodist youth conference on
evangelism, she started praying. She still did not have the money she needed
to go. She had no plane ticket. 

"I was packing by faith," said the young laywoman, who works at a
Harare-based telecommunications company. 

A friend and mentor in Texas, Pamela Calip, called Nemapare and told her to
go and stand at the airport, with her bags packed, without a ticket if
necessary.

"I was praying, 'God give me the opportunity to go and testify for you,'"
she recounted. "I realized I might never have the chance again to be part of
such a global representation of young people. But I didn't realize what God
answering my praying would mean."

Even though her ticket arrived in the nick of time, a bigger test still lay
ahead for Nemapare, as she made her way to the 7th International Christian
Youth Conference on Evangelism.  

The conference, held every four years, hosts young people ages 17 to 30 from
all over the world in a weeklong exploration of faith and mission. This
year's conference, with the theme "Christ Jesus, God's Way," was held July
17-23 in Newtownabbey near Belfast.  To get there, Nemapare had to fly from
Zimbabwe to Johannesburg, then on to Paris and into Birmingham, England,
before reaching Northern Ireland. 

At the Birmingham airport, Nemapare was the only person on her flight
stopped for questioning. Every piece of her luggage was opened and searched.

"The immigration official was very suspicious of me. He made me feel ashamed
to be from Zimbabwe. He accused me of making up a story about why I had come
to Britain," she told United Methodist News Service. "He kept saying 'you
people' this and 'you people' that. It made me feel angry when I didn't want
to be. ... He really threatened me. He said they were going to tag me. ... I
just prayed, in my spirit, in my heart, '(God) I know you want me to be at
this conference' ... and God made a way." 

Nemapare finally got to the conference, joining 275 other participants from
36 countries. She was a day late and minus one piece of lost luggage but
certain that God wanted her to be there. Later she discovered she was
actually one of the lucky ones. Another 50 official representatives from
Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Cameroon, Angola, Mozambique, Kenya, the
Philippines, Pakistan and India never made it. They were denied visas by the
British government before even leaving home. The suspicion and fear
resulting from global unrest, a war on terrorism and failed diplomacy meant
even representatives to an international group of Methodist young people -
meeting to break down the barriers between cultures - were suspect.

With the reality of the world's divisions so close at hand, the Rev. Grace
Imathiu, a Kenyan-born pastor and international speaker, challenged
conference goers to "cross the seas" that divide people from one another.
Around the room, young people wearing traditional dress from cultures as
diverse as Japan, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Indonesia nodded in
agreement.

Reflecting on Chapter 5 in the Gospel of Mark, she described Jesus as "the
one who crossed the sea for me and for you." 

"We are called to be the 'sea-crossers,' the bold ones, the ones who don't
expect to be loved, but love anyway," said Imathiu. "Our world needs it so
badly. ... God is a God who takes risks. ...We are called to get to that
other side. Get out of the boat and take the risk."

Imathiu encouraged the young people to leave their familiar comfort zones.
"If you sit at breakfast with those you came here with, something is wrong.
... If you don't take risks, nothing will happen." 

Taking those words to heart, 17-year-old Paul McGarry from Plymouth,
England, sat down at breakfast the next morning with Mawia Lal Fak Mania
from Myanmar (Burma) and Neil Waddle and Cathy Harness from Los Altos,
Calif. 

"She's putting yogurt on her cereal," observed a clearly horrified McGarry,
who is a part-time youth worker at his church. "Do all Americans do that?"
Harkness assured him that, at least in California, quite a few did.

Despite their differing preferences for how to eat breakfast cereal, all
around the table agreed they had come to learn about how young people around
the world live their faith.

"Learning about what others believe also helped me to know better what I
believe," Harkness said. 

Over another meal, teacher Chiang Hanyang from Taiwan, recent college
graduate Jesse Turner from Tennessee, and Samuel Dzobo, who pastors a church
of 2,000 in Zimbabwe, talked about how much each has come looking for
something specific. Chiang, like many here, admitted he gets little chance
to interact with people from other cultures back home. Dzobo said he was
interested in worship as a means of self-expression, while Turner came with
questions about the value of such gatherings.

"It's interesting to see how people deal with each other at an event like
this," Turner said. "I want to see what really happens when the church
gathers like this. Is this what we should be doing, or are their better ways
to spend our money?" Turner plans to spend the next year working for Habitat
for Humanity in Durham, N.C. 

Turner was not the only one at the conference exploring his relationship to
the institutional church. At the encouragement of her pastor at First United
Methodist Church in Canton, Ga., Kelly Falany arrived seeking discernment.
Falany, 25, grew up in a non-denominational church setting. By her own
admission, she feels a bit "caged in" by denominational labels. She studied
marketing at college, but wants to be a missionary and is uncertain about
seminary and exactly what God wants for her. The one thing she is sure about
is that she has a "passion for mission." For Falany, the conference seemed a
good place to test those vocational waters. 

Conference planners and participants knew they were meeting in a place where
religion is often seen as a divisive and destructive. From conference
buildings at the University of Ulster, one can look out across the water of
Belfast Lough and see East Belfast, where some of the worst outbreaks of
Protestant paramilitary violence of recent weeks have occurred. 

The youth conference took place during the peak week of the annual marching
season, when Protestants commemorate the victory of the Protestant William
of Orange over Catholic King James more than 300 years ago. While in years
past this period has seen violent clashes of Catholics, Protestants and
security forces, conditions were relatively calm this year. In a move that
surprised everyone in Northern Ireland, on July 16 - coincidentally the day
the conference began - the Irish Republican Army issued a blanket apology
for the "civilians" it has killed and wounded in the last 30 years. 

The Rev. H. Eddie Fox, head of the World Methodist Council's World
Evangelism office, told UMNS that "Christ is the reconciler, not the divider
- Christ is the great healer." Fox said the decision to bring the conference
to Newtownabbey was done in consultation with and at the invitation of the
Irish Methodist Church. 

The Rev. Winston Graham, president of the Irish Methodist Conference,
described the significance of the conference being held in Northern Ireland
during his welcoming remarks on the opening night.

"There were times in our past when you would have been afraid to come, but
times have changed," he told the young people. "You are good news for us
here in Northern Ireland. Your presence here this week is Good News."  

During the week, participants attended sessions with titles such as "Faith
Sharing" and "Jesus, Young People and Evangelism." They shared in the
worship with the likes of Bishop Sunday Mbang of Nigeria, president of the
World Methodist Council. They got involved in mission projects, went to
church and had lunch with local families. They managed to fit in a trip to
the famous Giants Causeway, a spectacular natural stone formation along
Ireland's northern coast, and also spent a night celebrating Irish culture,
courtesy of the Irish Methodist Church. They did all that and still managed
to sit around talking and listening to music until the wee hours on most
nights. 

Despite a rough beginning, Nemapare said that her conference experiences -
both those she planned for and those she did not - "deepened" her
relationship with God.

"In the end, it's all about the Gospel," she said. "God has put me here to
do something. I've had to ask God to help me forgive this man who treated me
so badly. I know he was only doing his job. But I won't let it stop me from
being effective."

At the time Nemapare was stopped at the airport, she was wearing a bracelet
that said, 'What Would Jesus Do?' Perhaps the answer comes from fellow
conference participant, Lidia Garcia from Guatemala. At the close of
worship, Garcia told participants "to keep on shining through all the
struggles, to keep the passion for God in times of trouble."

# # #

*LaCamera is a United Methodist News Service correspondent based in England.

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org