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November 2000
Dear Family and Friends,
This year marks our ten-year anniversary of service as mission
co-workers with the PC(USA) in Africa. It has been a decade full
of developing relationships with African neighbors and colleagues.
We’ve shared their joys interspersed with sorrows. The collaboration
with our partners has provided rich learning experiences. In Tanzania
the teacher-training seminars organized for a broader spectrum
of teachers than those of the schools of the community-owned Njombe
District Development Trust (NDDT) complemented the classroom practice
within one of the schools itself. This experience has proven to
be Jeff’s best teacher for the work that awaited him in Zaire/Congo
with the Presbyterian Community in Kinshasa (CPK).
There, the direct collaboration with the church’s leadership
for its educational ministries provided an insight into the challenges
that African partner churches face in the holistic approach to
minister to their population. These insights have been invaluable
for the current task in Cameroon with the Presbyterian Church
of Cameroon (EPC). During the ten years our blessings in family
life and work have been abundant. The renowned tranquility of
Tanzania contrasted with the notorious turbulence that continues
to dog the former Zaire, while Cameroon seems to be stable enough
to live in peace as a family. Through it all we’ve known
God’s protection and guidance.
Debts in Cameroonian church schools
The involvement of the Eglise Presbytérienne Camerounaise
(EPC) in education has roots in the work begun by missionaries
nearly a century ago. As throughout much of Africa, the end of
the 1950s and beginning of the 1960s was for Cameroon a period
marked by independence—of churches and of the nation itself.
The state initially subsidized church schools, but has significantly
cut back its support over the past two decades. This has forced
the schools to raise the lion’s share of the running costs
through school fees paid by the parents. Increasing competition
with government and other private schools, a slump in the economy,
and an era of weak management policies within the church have
developed a crisis situation for the education work. An enormous
debt of unpaid teachers’ salaries, taxes, and social security
payments has accumulated and continues to grow annually.
Ecumenical collaboration
A couple of times in the last year Jeff has been involved in
a meeting of the Club of Yaounde. They don’t play tennis
or squash at the Club, nor is it a meeting of the movers and shakers
of Yaounde. The Club of Yaounde is an initiative under the patronage
of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Cameroon (FEMEC),
of which the EPC is a member, and consists of a group of men and
women involved in private education in Cameroon. With the Catholic
Church, Islamic organizations, and representatives of non-religious
private schools participating in this initiative, the Club has
tuned into the momentum of the campaign "Jubilee 2000"
to assure that the private education sector will benefit directly
from international debt relief. International lending agencies
want to assure that debt relief to the Cameroonian government
is directly linked to additional government investment in the
social sector, with education and health being given top priority.
Therefore, the Club is not just studying the origins of the financial
crisis facing private education in Cameroon. It is also and especially
developing strategies to assure that the private education sector
benefits directly from this unique opportunity. In this effort
there is collaboration with other international church partners
and the World Bank.
Transparency in EPC schools
With transparency being a buzz word in international relationships
it resonates in all levels of society here. But what does it mean?
Jeff posed that question as he heard staff throwing the term around
during school visits. The vague responses from administrators
indicated that transparency was not well understood and applied
in the schools. Out of this developed a five-day seminar on the
topic. Principals and financial managers were invited from 13
EPC high schools. Topics included bookkeeping, personnel management,
and budgeting. A grant from the Global Education Office of the
PC(USA) provided for the organization of this seminar, through
which leadership qualities, energy, and interest emerged in some
of those involved.
We would enjoy hearing your stories. The most practical and assured
way for us to communicate (also with churches) is by email, but
we surely appreciate regular mail, too.
Peace be with you,
Christi, Jeff, Matthias, Salome and Naomi
The 2000 Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study, page 32
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