wfn.org | UMNS# 05157-Beauty, despair mingle to make Mozambique unforgettable

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Beauty, despair mingle to make Mozambique unforgettable

Mar. 16, 2005	 News media contact:   Kathy  Gilbert * (615) 7425470*
Nashville {05157}

NOTE: NOTE: This story is part of a six-week Close Up series,
"Mozambique: A Land of Contrasts." Related reports, photographs and
audio will be available at http://umns.umc.org as the series progresses.

By Kathy L. Gilbert*

CHICUQUE, Mozambique (UMNS)-Chicuque, on the shore of the Indian Ocean,
is breathtaking. Early in the morning, men are on the beach throwing out
and dragging in heavy nets of fat, shiny fish. Coconut trees sway in the
warm breeze, laughing children stream past on their way to school.

Directly across from the beach is Chicuque Rural Hospital. People
suffering and dying from AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and a high infant
and maternal mortality rate flood through the front doors and spill out
into the yard of this hospital every day.

It is the contrast between the beautiful and the ugly that makes
Mozambique a place you can't forget. And it is the genuine hospitality
and passion of the people that make it a place you fall in love with.
United Methodists from other countries who have experienced the spirit
of Mozambique are responding with life-saving gifts and are being
rewarded with lifelong friendships.

"The hospitality, the warmth, the passion, the faith, the joy of seeing
the extraordinary, absolutely extraordinary, perseverance in the midst
of unbelievable circumstances touched my heart," says Bishop Ann Sherer,
former episcopal leader of the Missouri Conference, describing her first
encounter with Mozambique in 1995.

Sherer and Mozambique Bishop Joao S. Machado have become close friends
over the years. The Missouri Annual (regional) Conference of the United
Methodist Church has spent more than $1 million in ministries with
Mozambique.

The denomination's Volunteers in Mission from the United States are
often the "angels" bringing much-needed supplies to Chicuque Rural
Hospital. "The Volunteers In Missions have been very resourceful for us;
they bring suitcases with supplies," says Jeremias Franca, hospital
administrator. "Sometimes we run out of supplies like sutures, and we
dig into a bag dropped off by a VIM team and we find what we need. These
are the things that enable Chicuque Rural Hospital to be the miracle
that it is."

In a country dying from the HIV/AIDS crisis, words from United Methodist
pulpits often bring comfort.

"The word of pastors in Mozambique is more respected than the word of
politicians because of what we did bringing peace in Mozambique,"
Machado says. "They know the message of the church is true."

Teaching the people to love those who are infected with AIDS and ways to
prevent the disease from spreading is the role of the church, he says.

"In the pulpit we can say these things. We can appeal to the people.
Those living with HIV/AIDS are still in our family-they need our love
and support. This is the message we need to tell people."

By buying equipment and training people to drill wells, the United
Methodist Church is bringing a life-giving resource to a country deeply
in need of clean water.

"Most people take it for granted that water comes from a tap, (but) the
reality is very different for most in Mozambique," says Benedita
Penicela, director of the Living Water Society in Mozambique, a program
supported by the United Methodist Church.

"In some cases, the nearest water is 10 kilometers away," she says. "It
is mostly a job for women and girls. Many cannot attend school because
they have to travel all day to get water." Because so many girls are
spending their days fetching water for their families, a whole
generation is being affected, she says.

Machado became bishop of Mozambique in 1988 while the country was in a
bloody civil war. The war left behind a legacy of poverty and a
countryside littered with landmines.

The United Methodist Committee on Relief is working in partnership with
Accelerated Demining Program, and since 2003, more than 3 million meters
of land have been cleared.

Seeing former death traps turn into places of hope is "magic," says
Jacky D'Almenda, director of the program to clear the landmines.

The church is the only group doing this work, without any government
involvement, and is crucial to the success of this program, D'Almeda
says.

Seeing Mozambique and meeting the people changes your perspective,
Sherer says.

"I visited with a pastor whose child had brown, not black, hair," she
says. "His hair was brown because of malnutrition. As I looked at those
little kids with their distended bellies and their brown hair, I
realized he was a United Methodist pastor just like my United Methodist
pastors back in Missouri. And I thought, he and his children deserve the
same consideration that our pastors in Missouri deserve. We're all
United Methodist pastors."

Upon returning home from that trip, she told the story to churches in
Missouri. During the next year and a half, every church in Mozambique
developed a covenant relationship with a church in Missouri.

 "Persons in Missouri began to see the world through a developing
country's eyes, to know that more people live like the folk in
Mozambique than live like the people in Missouri, which shifts how you
see the world," Sherer says. "It gave us a perspective that changed us."

# # #

*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer in Nashville,
Tenn.

News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470
or newsdesk@umcom.org.

********************

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