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Africa tour stirs moderator
03547
December 22, 2003

Africa tour stirs moderator

'Jesus being reborn again and again' amid pain and joy, Andrews finds

by Sharon K. Youngs

LOUISVILLE - Christmas came early this year for the moderator.
	In November, the Rev. Susan R. Andrews, moderator of the 215th
General Assembly (2003) of the Presbyterian Church (USA), received gifts too
numerous to count during a three-week visit to Africa.
	Andrews was fulfilling one of the many roles she has as moderator >
serving as an ambassador to the PC(USA)'s global partners and witnessing to
the ministries undertaken by Presbyterians and partner Christians for the
sake of the gospel. She returned from the trip tired but energized.
	Accompanying the moderator on the trip were her husband, the Rev. Sim
Gardner; elder Charles Easley, the vice-moderator; and Doug Welch and Jon
Chapman, PC(USA) area coordinators for Africa. Numerous PC(USA) mission
personnel served as hosts.
	Andrews visited Ethiopia, South Africa and Cameroon. Everywhere she
went, she saw an evangelical joy sweeping across the continent, a spirit she
said can "help us in the United States reconnect across theological
perspectives."
	Joy was the theme of the tour: the joy of smiling children; of women
beginning to step forward into more visible roles and sharing the good news
through their lives and dreams; and of men, women and children making rich,
rhythmic music. At the end of one worship service in Johannesburg, Andrews'
singing and swaying so impressed the pastor that he said he wondered whether
she was part Zulu!
	The moderator was deeply moved by the faithful, committed work of the
PC(USA) mission personnel she met, by the strong, dedicated leadership of
African Christians, and the power of their partnership. "The witness to Jesus
Christ is broad-based and multifaceted," she said. "I experienced
Biblically-grounded evangelism that is enthusiastically offering the whole
gospel to the whole person, and public-policy advocacy ministries that make
concrete the good news of salvation."
	Although telling about all the ministries and missions work being
done in Africa by the PC(USA) and its church partners "would require
volumes," Andrews said, she's going to try. "I plan to continue to share each
and every story," she said. "Presbyterians in the United States need to know
how very far their mission dollars go."
	One of the things that impressed the moderator was the work of Gwen
and John Haspel, who run a medical clinic and school that are among the best
in western Ethiopia, despite being an 18-hour drive away from the nearest
source of supplies. The Haspels' evangelical witness to the previously
unreached Suri people has resulted in dozens of baptisms in the past five
years.
	The moderator also was impressed by the work of Breezy Luster and her
two African colleagues, whose translation of the Bible into the Anurek
language is almost finished - two decades after it was begun.
	Farther south, the public policy work being done by Doug Tilten is
helping to make South Africa truly "post-apartheid."
	Andrews brought greetings from the PC(USA) to those who attended the
eighth assembly of the All Africa Conference of Churches in Yaounde,
Cameroon. In her remarks to the assembly, the moderator said: "I confess to
you that, over the years, we Christians from the West and the North have made
mistakes, sometimes imposing our faith in ways that have been oppressive to
the African people. But at the heart of our mission partnerships has been our
desire to share the liberating gospel of Jesus Christ through evangelism,
education, health care, and political and social empowerment."
	"Brothers and sisters," she told the delegates, "you here in Africa
are the 'new thing' that God is doing in the church. We in the PC(USA)
recommit ourselves to be partners with you, praying with you, serving with
you, sharing our resources with you. Most of all, we commit ourselves to step
back and learn from you how to be the joyful, vibrant, growing church of
Jesus Christ in the 21st century."
	The moderator and vice moderator were not entirely shielded from the
problems that plague the continent of breathtaking beauty and faith-filled
people.
	Ramifications of the HIV/AIDS epidemic greeted the team at every
turn. While the PC(USA)'s partners are committed to educating the population
about the disease through clinics, schools, and congregations, tensions
persist about how best to prevent AIDS. Tackling the issue of sexual
infidelity, for example, is complicated in a culture where vestiges of
polygamy linger.
	The African church faces a serious challenge: The number of
Christians there is increasing at an explosive rate, and the numbers of
pastors and lay leaders is not keeping pace. But Andrews said she was deeply
impressed with the African leaders she met - such as Setri Nyomi, a
Princeton-trained Ghanaian now serving as general secretary of the World
Alliance of Reformed Churches.
	"Setri is preaching Africa into wholeness, with his honesty and
passion and joy," she said. "He is calling them back to the memory of the
moral community that formed their African tribal identity, but he is also
calling them forward to a future of physical, emotional, spiritual, and
intellectual maturity, as the interdependent body of Christ in Africa."
	Andrews summed up her feelings this way:
	"The hospitality was generous, the energy was contagious, hope was
palpable, and the joy was life-changing. Jesus Christ is being reborn again
and again in the heart of Africa, and we all will be different because of
it."

	For more information, contact Sharon K. Youngs, Communications
Coordinator, Office of the General Assembly, 100 Witherspoon Street,
Louisville, KY 40202-1396; phone (888) 728-7228, ext. 5750; email
syoungs@ctr.pcusa.org.

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