The following article was reprinted from the March 21 Missouri Conference News

Mission Group journeys through three countries in southern Africa
By Rev. Ken Lutgen, Blue Ridge UMC

In mid October I led a group of 46 persons on a 20 day, 3 countries, Mission Travel Program to Southern Africa. In this group were people from Blue Ridge Boulevard, Centennial, Lawson, Saint Paul in Independence and Webster Hills United Methodist Churches. It was 20 years ago that the first Mission Study Travel Program left Missouri and traveled to southern Africa. That team, led by David Flude and I, was a part of the Missouri West Conference Board of Global Ministries, Advance With Christ to Africa Mission Interpretation Program. At the time of the visit South Africa was in the throws of an apartheid government with 13 percent of the population brutally separating and oppressing the majority 87 percent, and the fear of a bloody revolution everywhere. Mozambique was in civil war and Zimbabwe was emerging from a disastrous war. The people of the Church known as Methodist in these lands stood for peace, reconciliation and in many communities were the only visible hope. With the world divided into the camps of The Cold War few held any hope for the nations and people of Southern Africa.

We as Missouri Methodists have been going to Southern Africa for 20 years. We have gone as volunteers and friends. We have exchanged pulpits, built buildings, sent offerings and developed  relationships. The old Kansas City South District sent the Rev. Diane Nunnelee as a missionary to the Cape District and Bishops Handy and Sherer visited Mozambique.

Methodists visited Zimbabwe and started there a university. Southern Africa has been very much a part of who we are as Methodists.

The Team of 46 persons began their pilgrimage in Cape Town, South Africa. There first exposure to Africa was a boat trip to Robben Island, one of the most notorious prisons in the world, and a tour led by Bishop Stanley Mogoba. Bishop Mogaba was on the cell block with Nelson Mandela where the decision was made that when the multiracial government came to power in South Africa its leaders would seek reconciliation rather than revenge. We witnessed the peaceful transition made by these leaders and heard the part our church played in this transition. On Sunday we visited churches in the Cape Area built by volunteers and monies from Missouri and the many programs that are combating the poverty of the people. Next to Johannesburg and a visit to the AMCare Aids center begun with funds from a local church and now serving thousands of persons affected by Aids. Then it was on to Mozambique and there to break bread with brothers and sisters of the churches in covenant through the Mozambique Initiative. One of the highlights of our time there was to worship in our partner churches and share in food and fellowship. Few expected to find at the end of the road in Zimbabwe the campus of Africa University. We got a glimpse of our future as we experienced students from 26 different African countries gathered in a choir to welcome the team.

As we stood in the Old Mutare Mission, we all realized how fortunate we were to be here in the place, where United Methodism began its mission to Southern Africa. We witnessed over the course of these 20 days the incredible story of our church and its mission to Southern Africa. One will never know how many lives have been touched and changed and the hope those lives have brought to others. We, the United Methodist of Missouri, know that over these 20 years through a faith in Jesus Christ our journey half way around the world has made a difference.  

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