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Hillsboro reaches out to Zimbabwe church with love, prayers, financial aid
Written: 10/23/2009 Click here to find out how local churches can support Zimbabwe partnership By Rev. Charles Grant The “Mutare Connection” is a program that was started at the first of 2009, when Zimbabwe was experiencing an inflation rate of 3 million percent. In July, it was 231 million percent. This means that prices double every 13 seconds. Rev. Mark Conard, pastor at First UMC in Hutchinson, had visited Zimbabwe previously as part of a United Methodist Communications team. He became aware of how critical the conditions were there. Pastors’ salaries are only $20 (U.S.) a month, but even that is difficult to pay during such hyperinflation. Conard has collected money several times from Hutchinson District pastors and at conference meetings to send to Zimbabwe for pastoral support. Out of this came the idea to pair churches of the Hutchinson district with churches of the Mutare District. Rev. Kennedy Mukwindidza is a United Methodist pastor from Zimbabwe presently serving Quinter and Grinnell UMCs in the Kansas West Conference. His wife and son, Susan and Farai, joined Hillsboro UMC when Susan was a student at Tabor College. So, the Hillsboro church has a natural interest in Zim-babwe. Mukwindidza suggested in January that Fern Valley UMC would be a good partner church for Hillsboro UMC. Fern Valley UMC is located in a very poor community where children are the most vulnerable to hunger. At times, the children even faint while at school because of the lack of nourishment. Hillsboro UMC has been raising money to help Fern Valley UMC with their feeding pr
To do this, the congregation provided the meal at the Hillsboro Farmers Market Aug. 13 and raised more than $1,000 for the feeding program at Fern Valley by charging $5 per person and through donations. An article in the local paper about the partnership with Fern Valley UMC included information about the upcoming meal at the farmers market and that the profits and any donations would be going to the project. A sign at the meal stated the same thing. Most of the meal items were donated by the church members, so that all proceeds could go to Fern Valley UMC. With other donations, Hillsboro UMC was able to send $1,400 to purchase a freezer and a stove—they had been cooking over an open fire—along with cups, pots and pans. In September, the Senior Youth Fellowship raised $838 by parking cars for the Hillsboro Arts and Crafts Fair. This, with other donations, provided a September donation of $1,000 to Fern Valley UMC. It is estimated that it will cost $700 (U.S.) a month to provide for the feeding program. The Hillsboro UMC congregation is beginning to plan a Volunteers In Mission trip to Fern Valley UMC. Building a better kitchen for them may be on the list of projects. Fern Valley UMC’s pastor, Phillip Mpindu, has been sending pictures of the feeding program in action and of the children’s families. In some of the pictures, the people are not smiling. When asked about this, Mpindu said, “They had not eaten for two days. When I asked them to smile, then they would smile.” Some youth and children have been expelled from school because their families cannot pay the school expenses of about $35 (U.S.). Hillsboro UMC will be including some money from their Benevolence Fund to help pay these expenses to keep all of the children and youth in school. I have committed to providing $20 (U.S.) per month for Mpindu’s salary. Besides the financial support, which is one way, there also is a tremendous amount of prayer support and cross-cultural education going on between the churches. To have our children praying for and becoming aware of what is happening to children in Zimbabwe and connecting with those children is worth far more than the cost of the program. Several families have established relationships with the Zimbabwe children via the Internet. Recently, a 3-year-old Hillsboro boy was given a cookie bar as a part of the summer Sunday school program. He took his home to eat later. When snack time rolled around and his mother asked him if he wanted his treat, he replied, “No, I’m saving that to share with William.” William is his Fern Valley Prayer Partner, and the boy wanted to share because he knew William may be hungry. Each day, the members of the Hillsboro UMC are praying for their partner child of Fern Valley, who are praying for the Hillsboro UMC members. The “Prayer Bear” program is the brainchild of Debbie Ratzloff, who was trying to come up with a mission project that would connect the children of Hillsboro UMC to the children of Fern Valley UMC. In consultation with Mpindu, she developed the idea of purchasing little bears for the children. The bears were placed in plastic bags along with pictures and information about the children of Fern Valley UMC that Mpindu had e-mailed her. Then, the Hillsboro UMC children and adults took the bears home. They kept the information about the Fern Valley children and replaced it with information and pictures of themselves. They then returned the bears to the church, where candy and small gifts were added to the plastic bags. The bags were packed in a suitcase and sent to Fern Valley UMC with Conard. He was a member of a Volunteers In Mission Team that was travelling to Zimbabwe during the summer. The “Prayer Bears” were distributed to the children of Fern Valley UMC July 26. “Some children were actually crying [when they received the bears] for they have not seen or received such love, care and concern from anyone,” Mpindu said. “No one can afford to give wonderful gifts as these … They actually received love from you people.” To learn more about the “Mutare Connection” program, contact Hillsboro UMC at 620-947-5643 or hllsbumc@yahoo.com. Rev. Charles Grant is the pastor at Hillsboro UMC. There are no comments |
