wfn.org | 4-year-old offers her treasures for African children

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

June 15, 2000  News media contact: Tim Tanton*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
10-31-71B{276}

By Cathy Farmer*
JACKSON, Tenn. (UMNS) -- "I gave them all I had."
During the June 4 opening worship service of the Memphis Annual Conference,
Bishop Kenneth Carder shared a letter describing one child's gift of love,
sacrifice and hope for the children of Africa. The letter was from Beth
Capuson, director of children's ministries at St. John's United Methodist
Church in Memphis
The 4-year-old girl, whose earliest memories are of sexual abuse and
neglect, wanted to help the "poor African children who need a home." Though
she lives with a loving foster family, little "Ann" knows that life can be
horrible if no one is there to help. 
In the letter, the church staff member wrote: "Last Sunday, I was in my
office when a very excited 'Ann' ran to me with a smile from ear to ear and
said, 'Miss Beth, I've brought you my stuff for those kids that need a home.
I gave them all I had.' 
"I thanked her for her generosity and she skipped up the stairs to Sunday
School. 
"As I heard her footsteps fade, I opened the small canister and found a
bright assortment of hair clips, play money and seven cents. The realness of
the moment was breathtaking. She had given all she had to give, for all the
right reasons. These were her treasures." 
After reading the letter to a Jackson Civic Center crowded with more than
2,000 people, many of them quietly crying, Carder then opened a small can
decorated by a child's hands with red construction paper. He shook the hair
clips, play money and seven cents into his palm. Then he very carefully
added the little girl's treasures to the money being brought to the altar by
hundreds of children. 
When the pennies, dimes and quarters were counted that night, the children
had contributed $20,283, one $5 bill of play money and three barrettes. 
The children's offering was added to the money raised by conference adults
to help African children in the Congo who have been orphaned by war and
AIDS. More than $82,000, a record, was donated during the four-day session.
The money will be used to help build an orphanage/school for 175 children in
the Democratic Republic of Congo. Bishop Nkulu Ntambo of the North Katanga
Conference was present to accept the money, which will fund the school in
his area.
In a June 6 sermon at the conference, Ntambo called America the "country of
choices, a country that has been blessed and because of that may bless
others." He then described his country, the Congo, where children die every
day from hunger, illness and the depredations of soldiers coming across the
borders.
"Every day, in my village alone, three to five children die," Ntambo said.
"The soldiers from Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi are trying to eradicate an
entire generation.
"The children are being destroyed," he said. "Today, you will find only
empty villages. There is no greeting, no singing. The children are the
victims of the war."
Nothing is safe in Africa, he said. Anyone can take your house or your cow,
he declared, "But no one can steal your education. The school you are
building with us will provide a dormitory, food, 18 classes, and a cafeteria
for the children. It is the first school in our district of four million
people."
# # #
*Farmer is communications director of the United Methodist Church's Memphis
Annual Conference.

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United Methodist News Service
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