New York and Vermont become mission ground for Mozambique
6/5/1998 News media contact: Linda Green · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn by United Methodist News Service A team of "missionaries" from Mozambique is visiting United Methodist congregations in New York and Vermont, spreading the word about the church's volunteer work in the African country.
An 11-member team of clergy and lay people arrived in the Troy Annual (regional) Conference May 25 on a Volunteers In Mission quest to visit churches in the Northeast. During their trip, which lasts through June 15, they are telling about their faith and how the church in Africa has been strengthened, as well as sharing "gifts from Mozambique."
Since 1980, when Mozambique's first mission station was established in the Inhambane Province, missionaries from the United States have regularly visited the African country "to help, to teach, to give," said United Methodist Bishop Joao Somane Machado of Mozambique. "But it has been all (in) one direction."
Now, mission is moving in two directions, he said. "We are financially poor, but we have much to give."
Machado described this faith-sharing excursion to New York and Vermont as "turning a page in the history of the church."
The idea for the trip grew out of dialogues during 1993 and 1995 visits to Mozambique by Troy conference Volunteers In Mission teams. The team members discovered an "extraordinary faith" among the people of the African nation. The group decided that the best gift the people there could give would be to visit New York and Vermont and share aspects of their faith, said the Rev. Bill Barney, pastor of Christ United Methodist Church, Glens Falls, N.Y.
The intent of the Mozambicans' trip to the Troy conference is "for them to witness their faith, their hope and the struggles they face in the poorest country in the world," Barney said.
The 324 churches in the conference raised $40,000 to cover the cost of the visit.
The delegates from Mozambique attended the May 28-31 annual conference session and will spend two weeks visiting local churches, where they will participate in worship services, programs and dinners, and describe the church's work in their country.
During the annual conference session in Poultney, Vt., the African representatives shared their gifts of music, dance and testimony. They told of how Mozambique had been ravaged by a 17-year civil war following the defeat of the nation's Portuguese rulers in 1975. Team members spoke of children killed or maimed by the land mines that still cover the countryside. Despite the poverty, turmoil and upheaval, the delegates reported a strong spirit of God among the people.
The conference's invitation to Mozambique signifies "that we all have gifts to share with one another," Machado said. The United Methodist Church there is flourishing, while the church in the United States in declining, he said. "We can bring you what we have, we can share our faith."
The Rev. Jamisee Taimo, one of the Mozambican visitors, agreed.
"This is not an American Methodist Church and a Mozambique Methodist Church. We are the UNITED Methodist Church," he said in a presentation to the delegates at the annual conference.
Brenda Arley wants conference members to get the message that the United Methodist Church is connected. Arley is chairwoman of the planning team that arranged for the delegates' arrival.
"We hope this visit helps the conference realize that we have brothers and sisters of the United Methodist Church in Mozambique."
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*Information for this story was adapted from a release submitted by Holly E. Nye, media editor for the Troy Conference.
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