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Missionary updates |
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December 2006
Dear Friends,
“Come thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free” goes the hymn by Charles Wesley. Advent is a time of waiting in great expectation for what is to come, for the fulfillment of a promise, for the long awaited to become reality. There are many advents in our lives. Pregnancy is an advent. We wait nine months for the life within us to grow and develop, to be born and live among us. Like pregnancy, waiting for something to come to fruition has its ups and downs. In fact, it can make you feel downright sick at times. It can also delight your soul and fill you with joy and hope. Giving birth is hard work and not without certain risks to both the one giving birth and the one being born. But as every parent knows, there is scarcely a joy on earth that compares to a delivery where mother and baby come out fine. The expectation of Advent has born its fruit and that which was so long awaited is now reality.
[Read the full letter on the Mission Connections Web site]
 This is the little commercial area where the bus stops halfway between Bamenda and Buea. It has the only public restrooms during the eight-hour trip.
June 2006
Dear Friends,
I’ve been in Buea, Southwest Province of Cameroon, for about three months now. With each passing day, I discover more about the shape of my work here and about the people and culture in this part of Africa. Last month, Mary, the HIV/AIDS coordinator for the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC), and I attended a conference at the Presbyterian Church Center in Bamenda, Northwest Province of Cameroon. We traveled by bus, which was a cultural learning experience of its own. Most Westerners are very conscious of their “personal” space. We get uncomfortable when a stranger comes within, say, 18 inches of us. There is no such concept of personal space here, at least not when it comes to getting where you want to go. People pour into buses or taxis until not another one can squeeze in and then somehow they manage to fit in one or two more for good measure. So people are generally friendly to one another, and strangers chat like old friends, especially being in such close quarters for the seven or eight hours it takes to get from Buea to Bamenda. The bus was not quite full when we departed, so the driver picked up new passengers and let others off all along the way. We laughed because it felt more like being in a taxi than a long distance bus. [Read the full letter on the Mission Connections Web site]
Read more letters from Shirley Hill. |
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June 2005
... The Presbyterian Church of Kinshasa (CPK) is alive and having an impact on HIV/AIDS through various activities such as the production of AIDS-related Bible studies that will be published this year; small-group training done in conjunction with Sally Ivaska of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, so that the Bible studies will have impact in the local church; income-generation groups that prevent women from turning to prostitution; a program in maternity centers that identifies pregnant HIV positive women, makes preventive drugs available to them, and supports them with pastoral care and nutrition. The youth of the church are active too, and they are doing income-generation and skills-training activities, too. This church is passionate about caring for people with HIV/AIDS and making known God’s love toward them no matter what the circumstances. I am very proud to be partners with them! |
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A participant in an income-generation group for women sells corn. Photo by by Caryl Weinberg.
Presbyterian Action Against AIDS (APCS) is the CPC’s primary response to AIDS. It was founded by Pastor Albert Kabwe to prevent the spread of AIDS among youth and within families. The programs now exist throughout the Congo. Through discussions in schools, communities, churches, and the radio the APCS gets the message across that AIDS can be avoided. They lift up the family as a unit blessed by God and worth protecting at all costs. They make sure people know that God grieves over AIDS and that the church needs to respond with love and compassion and concrete action. [Read the full letter on the Mission Connections Web site]
Read more letters from Caryl Weinberg. |
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August 2006
 The Rev. Ayano Chule, representing ANERELA+, with Dorothy Hanson in a teaching session on Stigma in the Church.
Friday night
Wow! How can one woman be so thoroughly blessed? By God’s grace! You see, tonight there was a Celebration of Positive Living—those who are living with HIV-positive status and doing so with grace, joy and purpose.
It is Friday night and the fifth day of a grueling training. Looking at the schedule one week ago with my teammates, I suggested a celebration of positive living. When they agreed none of us realized how blessed we would all be. The Rev. Ayano, the HIV-positive Ethiopian who came here to break the silence in the churches—his arrival an answer to prayers—opened with his story and some salient points about staying healthy, upbeat and in God’s way. Then the 17-member choir—mostly women, all HIV-positive and willing to be open about their status, some from the church with which I work but also from four others—sang with such genuine praise. I felt as though I was in heaven, rather I wondered if this is what heaven could be like! [Read the full letter on the Mission Connections Web site]
Read more letters from Dorothy Hanson. |
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March 2006
The weather has been very unusual, or so I am told. We had almost no summer here in Benoni this year, which has left people wondering what the winter will bring. In the last few years, weather patterns have been so erratic that many parts of southern Africa have had to live as best they can with drought conditions. (And now it is folks in East Africa who are suffering.) When food is scarce it is often the poor people who are most vulnerable, and in our situation it’s people living with HIV/AIDS who are affected first and affected worst.
Volunteers who work with people with HIV/AIDS in Malawi have spoken about this often, as food scarcity one of their biggest concerns for the people they work with. It is an especially troubling concern, as they cannot in good conscience care for their clients knowing that they need food and not give them some. In many cases the volunteers have shared what little they have for their families. We thank God for the rains that did finally come to most areas this year. It looks like the harvests should be OK in most parts of Malawi, but they won’t be coming in for a month or two yet. Village chiefs in many areas have allocated land for volunteers to use to plant a garden. The fruits of these gardens, predominantly corn but also other crops like peanuts and soy beans, can be used to supplement the diets of some of the clients. Some of the crop can be sold to purchase medicines and materials needed for the clients. Part of the crop will be saved as seed to plant next year. [Read the full letter on the Mission Connections Web site]
Read more letters from Janet Guyer . |
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YAV Alexis Confer in Kenya
July 2005
This will be my final newsletter in Kenya. I will be back in a little over three weeks. It is truly mind-boggling. It feels strange trying to wrap up a year in one newsletter. I would like to share with you some of the thoughts that have been racing through my mind as I prepare myself to come home and a few highlights of the year.
Of course, what I will do when I get home is creeping into my head daily. There are the immediate things (like eat Mexican food and lay in the grass of my yard), but there are also more long-term goals (apply to grad schools and readjust to life at home). If you had asked me a few months ago about going home when the normalcy of my situation here had set in, I would have said, “Yeah, I feel like I have accomplished some things, I could go home tomorrow.” However, as things get closer, I realize how difficult it is going to be to leave all of these people behind. I have made many friends and deep connections in just a short period of time. This year has forced me to drop the barriers of comfort that I had around me for years: familiar surroundings, my family, friends, church, an academic atmosphere. Letting go has been a good thing, because it forced me to experience the life around me and help where I can. Strangely enough, I came here to volunteer and “serve” but I will walk away learning more things from the people of Kenya than they have learned from me. [Read the full letter on the Mission Connections Web site] |
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