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UMNS# 05158-Bishop played important role in bringing peace to


From "NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>
Date Wed, 16 Mar 2005 17:43:39 -0600

Bishop played important role in bringing peace to Mozambique

Mar. 16, 2005 News media contact: Kathy Gilbert * (615) 7425470*
Nashville {05158}

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*

MAPUTO, Mozambique (UMNS)-Joao S. Machado has a burden on his heart. He
has just returned from visiting a village where he witnessed women and
children drinking "muddy, brown water" from a ditch.

As he tells the story, he can hardly breathe or talk. He wipes tears
from his eyes as he remembers the image.

"It was brown, brown water, but they are drinking it," he says, his
voice rising. "I want to tell you I was trying to be strong enough not
to collapse there. I don't know how these people are alive with water
like that, but God is always good. They are living by the grace of God."

The United Methodist bishop of Mozambique is a man deeply in love with
his people.

Machado is overcome with grief at the country's poverty, the HIV/AIDs
epidemic and other problems, but he is equally filled with joy for the
work of the United Methodist Church in his homeland.

Elected bishop in 1988 during a bloody civil war, he risked his life for
the cause of peace during the early years of his episcopacy.

In a small office in his home, he fondly holds up a peace award he
received from the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries for his
efforts. He was one of the religious leaders in Mozambique's National
Council of Churches who approached both sides in the war to negotiate
for peace.

He remembers the day his relationship with President Joaquim Chissano
became a friendship.

On that day, he compared the people of Mozambique to hungry children. "I
said, 'My president, when you come home from work, your kids come
running to you and hug you and say, 'Dad I want meat,'" he says,
recounting the meeting. "'Maybe you don't have any money to buy meat,
there is no meat at home, but the kids want meat to eat. We come here
not to tell you how you can give us peace; we are your kids, and we want
peace.'"

Chissano told Machado and the other religious leaders if they made an
effort to talk to the head of the "bandits," then he would be open to a
discussion.

That task took Machado on a long and dangerous trip that ended with an
agreement from rebel leader Afonso Dhlakama to meet with the president.

"I have a long story about the last time we went to Kenya," Machado
says.

He and two other religious leaders, one Anglican and one Catholic, set
off for Kenya to find Dhlakama. When they arrived, they were told he had
left and gone to Malawi. With no money for another plane ticket, food or
hotel rooms, the three prayed for help. Help came from a friend Machado
knew from the All Africa Conference, who bought them plane tickets to
Malawi.

The three flew to Malawi and were told the rebel leader had left and
gone to Tanzania. Once again, a friend from the All Africa Conference
helped them get plane tickets to Tanzania. They arrived in Tanzania only
to find once again the man had left and returned to Kenya.

By this time the three bishops had shared their last dime, ordered one
chicken dinner and divided it among themselves and waited until midnight
to sneak back into one hotel room. They knew they could only stay in
Kenya one more day. The rebel leader kept them waiting for hours. "I was
so angry," Machado remembers. "I said, 'Let me begin.'"

He opened his Bible and the page that it fell open to was Matthew 5:9:
"Blessed [are] the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of
God."

He told Dhlakama, "We are here not because the government asked us to
be, we are here not because we want to receive something. We are only
here because of the millions of people who are suffering. Can you take
the first step? If you do that, you will be blessed."

Dhlakama agreed.

After that meeting, Dhlakama asked Machado for a copy of the Bible verse
he had read. "I said, no, I can't give you the passage, I want to give
you the whole Bible. To this day, that man has my Bible."

Machado says because of the efforts to bring about peace, the United
Methodist Church has a great reputation in Mozambique today.

After the peace agreement was signed in 1992, the United Methodist
Church began growing rapidly, he says. In 1988, the church had 33,000
members in Mozambique; today, it has more than 180,000.

"This is really a growing church," Machado says. "Our challenge now is
how to sustain this growth with pastors and schools and health care. We
don't want to only evangelize spiritually, but we want to also teach the
people how to live well."

# # #

*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based 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


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