Child Action Initiative

WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA UNITED METHODIST CONFERENCE BUILDING TEAM VISITS KASUNGAMI, DRC TO BEGIN CONSTRUCTION OF A PARSONAGE FOR NAZARETH UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

CHILD ACTION INITIATIVE NEWSLETTER AUGUST 31, 2012

After a year plus planning, praying, fundraising and recruiting a "small" building team led by Max and Shirley Kern, members of Oak Ridge United Methodist Church (UMC), Oak Ridge, NC visited Kasungami, DRC to assist in the construction of a parsonage for Nazareth UMC. U.S. team members included: Jayne James, Good Hope UMC, Lexington, NC; Amy Hurley, Park Street UMC, Belmont, NC; Bill Baxter, Venice-Nokomis UMC, Nokomis,FL ; Dave Heiser, Fuquay Varina UMC, NC. It is not the size of the team that is important but rather the size of each team member's heart that matters.

Led by Child Action Initiative founder Esaie (Isaiah) Njimbu Chot, Nazareth UMC church members fabricated bricks; laid the building's footings in advance of the arrival of the U.S. team. This preliminary work enabled the DRC/U.S. partners to focus on erecting the parsonage's interior and exterior walls during the U.S. team's two week stay. The team also interacted with the children. Since the U.S. team returned home the local building team completed the walls and installed a corrugated roof.

We are also grateful to Joe Mabiala and fellow members of Edenton Street UMC, Raleigh, NC for their large donation of medicines and medical supplies to Child Action Initiative.

Following is Shirley Kern's story which captures the essence of the team's experience.

Bev & Ed Wentz

U.S. UMVIM Coordinators/Advocates for Child Action Initiative
Oak Ridge UMC, Oak Ridge, NC

When A Fork Is Not Just A Fork

Max and I recently returned from our mission trip to Kasungami, Democratic Republic of the Congo(DRC), Africa, exhausted from the long travel time but exhilarated from our experiences. I have to admit I was somewhat apprehensive about spending two weeks in the DRC with threats of malaria, being in a village where "white people" are rare and there is no electricity. I kept having flashbacks of watching old Tarzan movies as a child. It turned out all my fears were unfounded as we were welcomed with warm and open arms with a wonderful hospitality I can only describe as "amazing".

God's love shone through the village as we were greeted by the members of the Sunday worship service and prepared for our work of building the parsonage. The worship service was inspiring with a guest female minister. We could not understand the Swahili being spoken but the message was clear, God loves you. The young choir of about 20 blew our minds with their harmony and angelic voices. They could easily appear on the "Sing Off" with their rendition of our United Methodist songs sung in Swahili. The service lasted about three short hours and no one seemed to mind as they were truly praising and worshiping God. We could surely take a lesson from them!!

After church we were escorted to our quarters where we would live, sleep and eat for our two week stay. As most of you know, this mission trip came about because of a providential meeting in 2005 between Ed and Bev Wentz and Isaiah Njimbu Chot on the campus of Africa University, Zimbabwe. That meeting changed the lives of Isaiah, Ed and Bev, as well as the lives of many, many people in Africa and the United States.　

That meeting culminated in the founding of "Child Action Initiative" (CAI). This endeavor helps AID's orphans and the very poor children who can not afford to go to school plus an outreach program for women to teach them skills such as sewing, knitting, etc. The center also provides medicines for those children who have no way of purchasing them.　

The "CAI" Activities Center consists of three rooms, a pharmacy, office and one larger all-purpose room where the classes are taught. This building was built on the Methodist church property across the street from the church and adjacent to a new well drilled by Hershey PA Rotarians. To our amazement they had cleared out the office and large room for us to use. They had borrowed beds, mattresses and mosquito netting from a nearby Catholic mission so we would not have to sleep on the floor as we had expected. To our total amazement they had also built a new African toilet and two areas where we could shower with our camping shower bags. This new addition was connected to the "CAI" building where they knocked out a window and created a new door. All this was done for our use and convenience while no one else in the community has any of these amenities. How is that for hospitality? This was only the beginning of the love and graciousness we received at the hands of these wonderful people.

We had hoped our Conference Building Teams Program would be able to send three teams to build the parsonage and raise the needed $15,000 for building materials. Unfortunately, only six people could make the commitment of time, talent and funds to this project. Max and myself from Oak Ridge, NC, Jayne from Lexington, NC Amy from Charleston, SC, Dave from Fuquay Varina,, NC and Bill from Florida. We prayed God would provide a way and he never lets us down. Thanks to the generosity of many people with a heart for this ministry along with help from above, our small team was able to raise $15,000 for construction materials. Many people donated medicine and medical supplies, clothes, school supplies and much needed new sign for the church. We filled our bags to the limit and delivered much needed and much appreciated supplies. There were tears in their eyes as we unpacked all our supplies.

Our work on the parsonage began in earnest the next morning. Please visualize 10,000 hand-made bricks the members of the church had waiting when we arrived. I can only imagine how many hours of hard labor went into making these bricks. The church could not afford to buy the bricks but made the commitment of hand making them so they could help in finally obtaining a parsonage for the church. The church is currently renting a parsonage but cannot afford the monthly rent from their meager earnings. Also it was hard to attract vibrant ministers with families because of the lack of a place to live. So, the commitment was there but our help was still needed to make their vision a reality. We did far more work than we ever thought possible.　

Our first day began with deciding how to get all the bricks from where they were made to the construction site. God soon worked that out for us. We started our trek from brick pile to job site trying to carry two to three bricks weighing around 10 to 15 pound each. The children of the village had been watching us from a safe distance, not sure what to think of the strange white people that had invaded their existence. Their curiosity soon got the better of them and in no time at all they were following us to the brick pile and bringing them back for us!! What a blessing to work with these people for a common goal. Soon women were carrying three and four bricks on their head to help us along with children with babies on their backs helping too.

Over the next two weeks, bricks were carried, bricks were stacked, bricks were cleaned and bricks were laid. Everyday we marveled at how much was accomplished working along side all the volunteers from the community and church. Many volunteers that helped were not even members of the church. By the end of our time there, all exterior and interior walls were laid with bricks up to the top of the windows. We were so happy with the progress but it was only accomplished with God's help. With additional funding this project will continue by the local people until the completion of the parsonage.

The work accomplished was only a part of this experience. We met most every afternoon with a group of children doing crafts, and teaching them songs and games. It was so much fun getting to know these wonderful loving children. We were not sure who the orphans were as they had been taken into the homes of other relatives or sometimes just a neighbor who cared for them as their own. The women in the community worked so hard tending their crops where they have to water them by hand twice a day during the dry season. They dip buckets into shallow, hand dug wells which are everywhere and a hazard when you are walking in the dark. They cook on small hibachi style grills for their families and wash their laundry and babies from a bucket of water drawn from the local neighborhood well. No electricity for anyone here.
We had volunteers who cooked for us and they arrived very early and stayed until after dark. It was a challenge for them to feed the Americans who are so use to eating three squares a day. I asked if they ate three meals a day and was told if they were lucky, they ate twice a day. A lot of them only get to eat once a day. Even though we were paying for our food, it still made the food stick in my throat on more than one occasion.　

After our candlelight dinners (it is their winter and dark comes early) we held our devotions and team meetings sitting around the dinner table. Isaiah joined us often and one night he was thanking us for the medicine, clothes, shoes, toys, school supplies, etc. we had brought with us. He made a statement to us that had us scratching our heads. He said "sometimes a fork is not just a fork".　 He further explained, every single thing we brought had a purpose and God knew who would get each and everything sent. Each dose of medicine had a name on it, each pair of shoes was desperately needed by a particular child. This became evident when I saw two sisters standing side by side. One sister had on the left shoe and one sister had on the right shoe because there was only one pair of shoes for them. Sometimes when we send something small and seemingly trivial to us, someone there is in desperate need of it. He went on to say, it might just be a fork to us but to them it represents something they desperately need. So, everything we send fulfills a need someone there desperately has. They were SO VERY THANKFUL for everything we brought with us. Thank all of you for your donations. They were received with such gratitude!

Even though we reached our $15,000 goal for construction materials, we do not have enough money to complete the project. Based on latest estimates and due to inflation, we will need an additional $5000. I hope you will help us raise the additional $5000 so they will be able to complete the parsonage before the rain season arrives in October/November. Please send donations to: Oak Ridge UMC, memo "Nazareth UMC Parsonage Construction Materials", 2424 Oak Ridge Rd, Oak Ridge, NC 27310.　
　

I feel so blessed to have spent time with the people of Kasungami. They were warm, loving, generous and kind to us, just as God wants us to treat our fellow Christians. I keep going back to our United Methodist hymn, "They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love". So very true!!

Peace and Love,

Shirley Kern