wfn.org | CONSIDER THE RUINS OF YOUR LIFE THEN REBUILD SPEAKER URGES

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

For Immediate Release
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CONSIDER THE RUINS OF YOUR LIFE, THEN REBUILD, SPEAKER URGES AFRICAN YOUTH

Yaounde, Cameroon (AANA) - Mr. Lawrence Nana Brew, Co Secretary General,
World Student Christian Federation (WSCF), asked the youth to deeply
reflect on their personal lives as they gathered at the All Africa
Conference of Churches (AACC) pre Assembly meeting here Nov. 19-22.

The theme of the AACC's 8th Assembly, meeting Nov. 22-27, is, Come Let Us
Rebuild taken from the Book of Nehemiah 2:17-18.  Mr. Brew said this in
his keynote address, adding that youth should find how the theme relates
to the present context, which includes their personal lives, the
conditions of churches and the ecumenical movement in Africa, and the
state of the environment.

He said that the world was full of people whose lives are symbolized by
the broken walls, "people all of whose defenses have crumbled away and
have become human derelicts, drifting up and down the streets and paths,
absolutely hopeless and helpless."

Said Mr. Brew: "We have all encountered tremendous challenges to the
stability and insecurity of our churches, and we have all suffered
political and economic tensions that have threatened our survival as
nations."

Half of the world's population, he said, is wallowing in poverty and is
not part of the world economy. He said even a cow in Europe subsidised by
US$2 a day is worth more than the poor in Africa who live on less than a
dollar a day.

Besides a billion people going to bed hungry every night, he asserted that
one quarter of the world population never get a glass of clean water,
while every minute a woman dies in childbirth.

He questioned what globalization is, if it cannot take everybody on board
and leaving half the population of the world out as not part of the
economy.

Mr. Brew gave a gloomy picture of the environment, saying the oceans
providing oxygen were deteriorating rapidly. He alleged that water for
domestic use was getting scarce such that a quarter of the world
population was not getting it and this could change everything about "how
we grow food and where we live."

He warned that if the climate continues to warm up for the next 50 years
at the rate for the last ten years, islands in the Pacific Ocean will be
flooded by the rising water table as the South and North pole become
smaller.

The change in climate will have an adverse effect on food production and
will create millions of food refugees, he said, and more people will be
uprooted; many communities and their churches will not be spared.

But he observed that probably the population might be consumed by the
global epidemics that have been accelerated by breakdown of public health
systems across the globe. He alleged that one in four deaths all over the
world this year will be as a result of AIDS, TB, Malaria and infections
related to diarrhea. He singled out HIV/AIDS as the most serious threat,
which he said alone, today has claimed 40 million deaths, which translated
to 8,200 deaths a day. Quoting UNAIDS, he said so far AIDS has created 13
million orphans and it is projected that there will be one hundred million
AIDS cases by the year 2005.

He said if the UNAIDS projection becomes true, it will be the biggest
epidemic since the plague that killed a quarter of Europeans in the
fourteenth century, and it will destabilise countries and a whole lot of
young people around the world. More will deliberately infect others.

In all these, he said the simple question to the youth is; "Are the broken
walls beyond repair?" Is the desolation divine, put more specifically in
the relation to the AACC and the churches in Africa?"

Mr. Brew wondered whether it was possible that the AACC had come full
circle into expiry and whether the financial challenges were final, with
the coffin finally nailed. He challenged the youth on how they would go
about rebuilding.

He told the youth that for one to build the walls of his life, he has to
first become greatly concerned about the ruins. "Have you ever taken a
good look at the ruins in your own life? Have you ever stopped long enough
to assess what you could be under God, and compared that with what you
are?" he paused, adding, "Have you looked at the possibilities that God
gave you in your life, and seen how far you have deviated from that
potential?"

Like Nehemiah, he said, the youth had all received the word in some form
or another of desolation and ruin but until they first carefully consider
and decry the ruins, they will never rebuild the walls of their lives or
any other life.

While the vision for the youth was to see a secure life, secure church,
and secure a continent, such a vision would remain just a dream, unstable
and without substance, if the dream is without a task.

Mr. Brew observed that vision without a task quickly turns to self self-
righteousness, self-pity and criticism. It is not grounded on reality and
does not enjoy being questioned about details. When all is said and done,
he said, more is said than done.

The call, he said, is to discern not just the right thing but the right
time. It is not to act as if "my agenda" is the only agenda. He pointed
out that everybody is important but none is irreplaceable, and that often
the ordinary rather than the spectacular bear the solution.

He implored upon the youth not undertake a task without vision as that
will make them work for the wrong reasons.

AANA News   By Joseph K'Amolo