Bishop encourages U.S. churches to partner with East Africa
Aug. 23, 2006 News media contact: Tim Tanton * (615) 7425470* Nashville {503}
NOTE: A photograph is available at http://umns.umc.org.
By J. Richard Peck*
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) -- A decade ago, Hutu extremists killed 80,000 Tutsis, and hundreds of thousands of Tutsis fled Rwanda for neighboring Zaire and Tanzania.
Today, Tutsis and Hutus worship together in United Methodist churches in Rwanda.
"It's the power of Jesus Christ," explained Bishop Daniel Wandabula, who leads the denomination's East Africa Area. "Jesus makes us brand new creatures and we no longer live under law, we live under grace. He takes us beyond tribes and beyond denominations."
The East Africa Area includes churches in Rwanda (three districts), Burundi (seven districts), Kenya (three districts), Sudan (one district) and Uganda (six districts). The bishop and three other leaders from the episcopal area visited Nashville as part of a U.S. tour through Iowa, Nebraska, New Jersey, Wisconsin and Tennessee.
The team wanted to encourage United Methodist churches and conferences to become partners with East Africa churches to address health and education issues.
Shortly after his election last May, Wandabula described churches in the five nations as "almost in a state of anarchy" and in need of healing.
"I no longer feel that way," the bishop told United Methodist News Service during an Aug. 19 interview.
He explained that in the 10 months following the July 2005 death of Bishop J. Alfred Ndoricimpa, the churches felt they had been left without a leader. The Council of Bishops appointed Bishop João Somane Machado of Mozambique to serve as interim bishop, but a leadership vacuum remained. Wandabula said that since his May election, a great deal of healing has already taken place. It also helped that the Rev. Lazaro Bankurunaza of Burundi was appointed as the administrative assistant to the Ugandan bishop.
Wandabula says he plans additional visits to churches in the five nations and hopes to have another central conference bishop accompany him.
Health concerns
Dr. Eric Ikoona, the conference medical director who accompanied the bishop, said he hopes churches or an annual conference will help his volunteer medical team secure a mobile clinic. Currently, Ikoona and five other medical volunteers rent trucks for weekend visits to various villages.
"We see an average of 1,200 people during the three-day visits," Ikoona said. "During the past year, we have visited four villages in the Sudan and 26 in Uganda."
The life expectancy in Uganda is only 43 years. The country has only one physician for every 18,700 people, and few doctors live in the remote villages visited by the United Methodist team. Ikoona's team provides vaccinations and treats people for malaria, intestinal parasites, pneumonia, and eye, ear, skin and urinary track infections.
AIDS is always a major contributor to health problems, said Ikoona, who works for the World Health Organization. The Kampala physician said the group also trains at least one person in each village to serve as a medical adviser who provides information about ways to prevent disease.
Partnerships
Leaders of the East Africa Area have developed a 10-year plan that addresses issues related to education, church development, health, waste management, leadership development, agriculture, disaster relief, communications, children and youth, and evangelism.
The training of pastors tops the list, as church membership has increased in all five countries. Wandabula said new statistics are being processed, but he noted that in Uganda, membership has increased from 5,000 in 1998 to 45,000 today. The Holston Annual (regional) Conference in the United States is helping by paying the salaries of 15 pastors and three support staff in Uganda.
William Bamusute, chairman of the Humble United Methodist School Management Committee, said the elementary school in Uganda cares for 198 children, many of whom are orphaned by AIDS. He expressed gratitude to the South Georgia Annual Conference and Cross Roads United Methodist Church in Virginia for providing $240,000 to construct two buildings for the Humble school. Each building houses five classes.
The African group wants to develop other partnerships with annual conferences and local churches. Discussions are under way in Kentucky, but no specific plans have been developed.
"These partnerships are not one-way streets," the bishop said. Team members noted that despite the fact that their churches are physically poor, they are spiritually rich, and six conference leaders will lead a fall revival for Baptist churches in the Milwaukee area.
Team members also invited U.S. church members to visit their nations. Those who have accepted such invitations learn something about the true meaning of hospitality, as African church members ensure safe travel, housing, meals and comfort for visitors, the East Africans said.
David Muwaya, conference project director, told of a conference effort to provide job training for young people in each of the five countries. He hopes centers will be able to provide training in carpentry, farming, brick making, baking, music, drama, and art and design.
The conference is also working with United Methodist Communications to develop communications centers in each nation. Those centers will include short-wave radios, Internet access, and video production and editing equipment.
Peace agreements, conflicts
Churches in each of the five nations continue to struggle with uneasy peace agreements and continued conflict:
* Burundi is still at the negotiating table with rebel groups. * Rwanda battles with remnants of the Intarahamwe rebel group, which operates in the Congo. * Sudan has signed a peace agreement with rebels, but war continues in the Darfur region. * Kenya has been destabilized by attacks by Somali warlords. * Uganda continues a 20-year war with the Lord's Resistance Army.
Formed in 1987, the Lord's Resistance Army said it wants to replace the Uganda government with one that "follows the Ten Commandments." Claiming to be part of the "Holy Spirit Movement," the group, led by Joseph Kony, has abducted 20,000 children to be trained as rebel fighters or used as sex slaves. The U.S. government estimates that up to 12,000 people have been killed by the LRA; many more have died from disease and malnutrition as a result of the conflicts.
Asked about the effect of the LRA's distortion of the Christian faith, Bishop Wandabula said no one is confused by Kony's claims to be a Christian. "He was raised as a Catholic," said the bishop, "but he has no relationship with any church. The government says the movement is weakening, but there is no way to measure the size of a group that operates in the shadows and attacks soft targets."
Leaders of the East Africa Conference also expressed concern about violence in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, where people are still dying of malnutrition and disease. According to reports by the United Nations, 3.5 million people are now hungry, 2.5 million have been displaced due to violence, and 400,000 people have died in Darfur so far.
The bishop called for the international community to take action to alleviate the suffering. A U.S. group, "Save Darfur," is calling for the strengthening of an African Union peacekeeping force and the creation of a U.N. or a NATO peacekeeping force. The African conference has 15 schools in the southern Sudan, and it operates six primary schools with 500 students each.
Cooperating with Kenyan Methodists
The British Methodist Church missionaries founded a church in Kenya in the early 1800s, and the autonomous Methodist Church of Kenya now operates several schools, including Kenya Methodist University. The Rev. Samuel Kobia, a clergy member of the denomination, serves as the top staff executive of the World Council of Churches.
Wandabula holds a diploma from Kenya Methodist University, and he was ordained in the Methodist Church of Kenya. He served as administrative secretary to the Methodist Church in Uganda before being invited in 1994 to assume a position in the United Methodist Church. He later received two master's degrees from United Methodist-related Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Ill.
Since the bishop has close ties with the Methodist Church of Kenya, he said he hopes to improve relations between that denomination and United Methodist churches in Kenya.
"I see a lot of collaboration in the near future," he said.
Signs of hope
While the conference struggles to minister to over 100 million people in five nations, the bishop and five conference staff members find hope in former enemies working together, new opportunities in health care and education, nascent peace agreements, and closer cooperation with the Methodist Church in Kenya. It also hopes that other conferences and churches will become partners in their effort to implement an ambitious ten-year plan to meet the needs of a growing church in troubled nations.
Following the Nashville visit, Bishop Wandabula traveled to Wilmore, Ky., where he is enrolled in a doctor of ministry degree program at Asbury Theological Seminary.
Said the bishop: "I still have a lot to learn."
*Peck is a retired clergy member of New York Annual Conference and communications coordinator for the Commission on United Methodist Men.
News media contact: Tim Tanton, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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