wfn.org | Missouri celebrates covenant with Mozambique churches

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

June 6, 2000 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212)870-3803·New York
10-31-71B{265}

By Laura Marconette*

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (UMNS) -- As he saw the American choir struggle with "See
yah hahmbu koo kah nigh nee kwen kohs," Bishop Joao Somane Machado of
Mozambique jumped up in front of 80 people to dance a traditional dance from
his homeland and sing the song.

The song being rendered by the Community of Hope Church choir from Lee's
Summit, Mo., means, "We are singing, for the Lord is our light."
    
The bishop's contagious smile radiated around the room as he led the singing
with his director of evangelism, the Rev. Fernando S. Matsimbe. Despite
living in one of the poorest countries in Africa, their joy for the Lord
showed in their uninhibited singing and dancing.

"We have no buildings to worship in, we have no formal style, yet our
worship is joyous," Machado said. "We know how to sing and share so that
God's love is felt."
    
The bishop was part of a May 19-20 consultation on the Mozambique Initiative
of United Methodists in Missouri. The event also drew others from around the
United States interested in mission and ministry work in the African
country.

Machado, 42, was appointed bishop in 1988 and has watched the United
Methodist Church in Mozambique grow from 40,000 to more than 120,000
members. He credits the growth to the covenant relationship held between his
church and the Missouri East and West annual (regional) conferences. 

United Methodists in Missouri have committed to a covenant relationship for
10 years with Mozambique. A partner church pays $900 per year to support a
church in Mozambique. Currently, every local church in Mozambique is
connected to a partner church.

"This covenant is a new page in the history of the United Methodist Church,"
Machado said. "Up until now, we received missionaries who came and knew
everything, but this has changed. They have come to offer and receive."

Bishop Ann Sherer of Missouri said her conferences have received gifts of
the spirit in return. "Their sense of spirituality is so deep," she
explained. "The women there work under the most dire circumstances, but they
can still sing joyously about the Lord."

In addition to assisting local churches, Missouri church members support a
fund-raising project to drill wells throughout Mozambique. It is estimated
that one in five children in that country dies of preventable diseases
including cholera, which is attributed to unclean water.

The wells are often centered near areas where churches, schools and
hospitals could be developed. "Missouri funds helped drill a well in July
1999 to serve the two communities of Matsinye and Goxanne and more," said
Martha Sutherland, a Mozambique Volunteers in Mission trip leader. "Now the
people dream of schools to educate their children, a church and a maternity
clinic for expectant mothers."

Machado noted that "through the work of a well the church evangelizes."

The Mozambique bishop also has had to deal with the devastation wrought by a
long civil war and, more recently, massive flooding. Through it all, he
said, the people believe that God has blessed them.

Machado, who was involved in bringing about the 1992 peace accord in
Mozambique, traveled to Burundi at the end of May with United Methodist
Bishop J. Alfred Ndoricimpa to try to initiate peace talks with government
leaders there.
 
More information on the Mozambique Initiative is available by calling Carol
Kreamer at (314) 961-3164 or sending an e-mail to cpkreamer@fclass.net .

# # #

*Marconette is editor of The Compass, the newspaper of the Missouri West
Annual Conference.

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United Methodist News Service
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