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African United Methodists pray, raise funds for tsunami victims

Jan. 13, 2005

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By Kathy Gilbert

United Methodists in Africa are raising money and praying for their
brothers and sisters in South Asia, who have suffered most of the deaths
and destruction from the earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean.

The Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami also struck the northeast coast of
Africa. According to reports, one person was killed in Seychelles, one
in Kenya and 13 in Tanzania. Somalia, the hardest-hit country in Africa,
lost nearly 300 lives. In a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean,
about 150,000 people are believed dead and many are still missing.

"This has been a very emotional time in Mozambique," said United
Methodist Bishop Joao Somane Machado. "People are giving of themselves,
whatever they can do."

The Inhambane Parish took up a collection Jan. 9 to help with the
tsunami relief, he said. Other districts are making donations and will
send them to the Mozambique Conference office. The Christian Council of
Mozambique is sending the donations to the Red Cross of Mozambique.

The Christian Council organized an interdenominational prayer and
worship service at the Anglican Church in Maputo, and ambassadors and
government leaders came to worship, Machado said. "If our president had
been in the country, he would have been here as well, but he was not in
Mozambique at the time. It is not the amount that's important, but the
spirit of the gift. The unity. We lit a candle and passed candlelight to
everyone in the whole church in memory of those lost."

Mozambique, one of the poorest countries in the world, has suffered from
floods and other disasters in the past. Located on the Indian Ocean, its
people know the destruction that water can cause, and they have empathy
for their sisters and brothers in South Asia.

"But even in Mozambique, we cannot imagine the power of this water and
the magnitude of the subsequent loss," Machado said. "We continue to
pray for God's hand on the poorest of the poor as all work together to
create in God's kingdom a different life."

In a special statement, Liberian United Methodist Bishop John G. Innis
called upon all United Methodists, Christians and Liberians in general
to hold a special prayer service in the hope that the tsunami victims
will experience healing, relief and recovery.

"The church is deeply saddened by the loss of lives and other horrific
consequences of the tsunami, and it joins the global efforts of United
Methodists to mobilize disaster relief for the millions of victims," he
said.

"The hopes of millions of people the world over, especially in Southeast
Asia, for a happy new year were dashed when the unprecedented deadly
tsunami, ocean-based earthquake, struck the coastlines of several
Southeast Asian countries, mainly Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, among
others. The destructive path of the tsunami even reached the coast of
Africa, as seen in Somalia," he said.

Bishop Eben K. Nhiwatiwa, who leads Zimbabwe's United Methodists, said
the president of Zimbabwe has encouraged the nation to participate in
the relief effort.

"We are passing word to our church people," he said. "I will meet with
my cabinet on Jan 18-19, and we will discuss what we can do. We are very
much aware that the church must do something."

*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.

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United Methodist News Service
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