College student responds to genocide in Africa Aug. 24, 2004 By Cathy Farmer* PADUCAH, Ky. (UMNS)-Reading about genocide in Africa doesn’t have quite the same impact as trying to coax a smile out of an orphan left to grow up in a dump in Kigali, Rwanda. That’s one of the things Andrea Dewey learned this summer while spending two months in Uganda and Rwanda working with a ministry called Widows’ Mite. Dewey, a junior at Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss., and a member of Broadway United Methodist Church in Paducah, Ky., was recruited by the United Methodist-related college to make the trip to Africa. "Missions are my life," said the enthusiastic 20-year-old. "I love to do this stuff. Going on mission trips with my parents are among my first memories." Though she had planned to spend this summer on an archeological dig in Israel, when Millsaps asked her to be the first recipient of a grant from the newly established David McNair Fund, she jumped at the chance. The $1 million McNair Fund is a gift to help students fund mission trips. Dewey said the college wanted "to get the ball rolling." She agreed to make presentations about the trip when she returns to school this fall. "This wasn’t my first trip abroad," she explained. "When I was 14, I went to Brazil. When I was 19, I went to Panama with Teen Mania." Dewey found the mission opportunities through her own research. She says she looked for organizations going places and doing things. "My parents are a huge blessing," she explained. "They trust me to travel overseas. When I wanted to go to Brazil, they said, ‘Prove it’s safe, get your money together.’ They’ve gotten used to me coming up with crazy ideas. "They understand I can’t be idle." Her father, Dave Dewey, said he and his wife, Pam, worry about their three daughters who are often gone on mission trips. Elizabeth is a senior at Lambuth University in Jackson, Tenn., and Megan is a sophomore in high school. "But we step out in faith, we pray and we trust." Widows’ Mite helps thousands Widows’ Mite was begun 12 years ago in Uganda by Fern Stanford and Monique Lasdoz. When the killing began in Rwanda in 1994, Lasdoz extended the ministry to the thousands of widows and orphans scrabbling to survive in the devastated country. Called ‘Veuvaction’ in French-speaking Rwanda, Widow’s Mite begins with a group of about 11 widows. They pray together and act as a support group, meeting once a week in the villages. The groups gather twice a month in the city: in Uganda, they meet in Jinja; in Rwanda, they meet in Kigali. Widows’ Mite helps the groups when they decide upon a project to raise money. Some elect to raise goats, others to sew or craft greeting cards. Some sew, others plant trees or offer a midwife clinic. "Monique raises the money through global outreach," Dewey said. "She travels to America, Canada and Europe three to four months a year." The 73-year-old American, the daughter of Salvation Army missionaries, asks for financial support as she travels, and she offers for sale the crafts made by the widows and orphans. "Everyone in Rwanda and Uganda knows Monique," Dewey said. "She’s one of very few white women who live there. They all call her ‘Nanny.’" Two months filled with activity When Andrea arrived at the end of May, she and roommate Amber Weinger took some of the kids camping. "We took the guys the first week and the girls the second week." They went to a missionary camp in Rwanda called Kumbya on Lake Kivu. "These kids had never done anything just for the fun of it," she said, "and I don’t think any of them had ever seen a large body of water." It was a "huge deal" for the young people-partially because they received three meals a day instead of the usual one. Dewey worked on seminars for the children, planning games and writing lessons. One of her favorite memories from the trip came when she was at a camp for 300 children, ages 6-9, in Uganda. "It’s drier in Uganda and they needed rain," she explained, "So I taught them how to pray for rain with their bodies-rubbing their hands, patting their legs and snapping their fingers (to simulate the sound of rain). "In ten minutes, a huge gust of wind came up the valley and we could hear thunder. Later that day, it sprinkled!" Dewey also labored in the craft workshops with the widows. "I helped fill an order for cards for a store in Europe," she said. "They wanted 4,000; it was the biggest order we ever had. I learned how to make the cards (out of natural banana bark) but mostly I helped set up their accounts on the computer." She brought back samples of the many beautiful crafts-cards, wall hangings, purses, bags, dolls, clothing, place mats, jewelry, picture frames and carvings-produced in the workshops. "If anyone wants to order them or a store wants to sell them, great!" she said. "I’ll place orders with Monique by e-mail. Federal Express will make the deliveries." Andrea, a religious studies major, hopes to travel around the world for a year after she graduates-working as she goes. "I want that kind of world education," she said. "Seminary is an option, but more and more I want to be on my own somewhere. If I have a pulpit, it may be a bamboo pulpit in a jungle somewhere. "Hopefully," she said with a smile, "the world is my pulpit." News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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