1st UMC trip to South Africa

Phakamisa is Zulu for Uplift

First United Methodist Church of Denton, NC sent a mission team to engage and support the Phakamisa project of Pinetown Methodist Church, Pinetown, South Africa last summer. The Phakamisa project of Pinetown S. Africa exists to serve and uplift impoverished communities through the provision of educational training, resources and support. The team was in mission with orphans, orphan caregivers and AIDS support groups. These groups endure extreme adversity, poverty and suffering in the townships near Pinetown.

The focus of the mission trip was to provide respites for these groups. Respites consisted of daytrips to the petting zoo for the kids and a trip to the nearby aquarium for the adults. The team was also in mission with several daycares supported by Phakamisa. Before departing, the team spent a day helping with the construction of the Hillcrest AIDS Clinic, a project of Hillcrest Methodist Church, in Hillcrest, S. Africa.

First UMC-Denton has committed to be in local mission for the 2009 year as they rotate between global and local mission each year. Therefore, the earliest another mission team would be sent to South Africa would be the summer of 2010. Anyone interested in being in mission to South Africa with the Phakamisa project may contact Rev. Bill Foust at Denton: First-Canaan UMC, phone: 336-859-4603, email: wfoust001@triad.rr.com. The mission team is available to visit area churches and present details of the mission trip with personal stories, slides and videos. For additional information or to donate to Phakamisa please go online to http://www.phakamisa.org/.

For United Methodist Advance connectional giving, Phakamisa is number 14154A.

Child Action Initiative

Child Action Initiative, Kasungami, Democratic Republic of the Congo:

Child Action is a Non-Government Organization founded in 2006 by Isaiah Njimbu after graduation from Africa University with a sociology degree, when he returned home to Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Child Action has been sanctioned by Southern Katanga Province United Methodist Bishop Katembo Kainda. Isaiah is currently in the process of submitting an application to UM GBGM, New York City, for financial support for this mission in nearby Kasungami, DRC where approximately 20,000 people reside. The original purpose of this organization was to provide primary and secondary education for children whose parents died from HIV/AIDS, who reside in Kasungami and attend Nazareth United Methodist Church. In the summer of 2006 Isaiah contacted us about the dire need for potable drinking water in Kasungami. Nazareth UMC is in a serious state of disrepair and would welcome support from UM Building Teams.

Bev and I (Ed Wentz) visited Lubumbashi and Kasungami, DRC May, 2008, to take an inventory of the existing sources of drinking water in Kasungami. While there we also observed the dire need for medical services and a continual source for food for all residents. We also met with the mayor of Lubumbashi and officials of World Vision whose DRC headquarters are in Lubumbashi to discuss their capabilities to drill wells.

The drinking water aspect of this project is tentatively receiving financial support from the Hershey and West Harrisburg, PA and Lubumbashi, DRC Rotary Clubs. This is being made possible through our friend Richard (Dick) E. Wright who is a retired professional geologist, member of First UM Church, Hershey, PA and a Hershey Rotary Club member. Dick is Chairman of the Rotary's Water Resources Committee which is studying the best approach to solve the need for water in Kasungami and methodology to raise funds to finance the project. January 20, 2008, Mr. Wright contacted me to advise he has made a significant contact with Mr. Kim Lorenz with World Vision, Federal Way, Washington who will ultimately advise their interest in providing matching funds for drilling wells in Kasungami.

The Child Action program has grown from providing education and clothing for the orphaned children of Kasungami to providing drinking water, medical services such as visiting nurses and doctors, facility for expectant mothers, a facility to care for the sick, vaccines and the development of a subsistence farming program in order that the residents can raise nutritional food for their own consumption and selling it to earn an income. We facilitated Isaiah to visit the United Methodist Mujilla Falls Agriculture Centre, Zambia in September, 2008 to learn about the program developed by Rev. Paul Webster resident missionary.