Annual conference campaigns support Africa University

By Linda Green*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Two United Methodist conferences devastated by Hurricane Katrina are moving beyond their own needs to addressing a continuing denominational need: support for Africa University in Zimbabwe.

The Louisiana and Mississippi annual (regional) conferences are among the U.S. conferences enacting campaigns to endow chairs and sponsor scholarships, build buildings and engage in hands-on ministry at Africa University. The Africa University Advisory Development Committee learned about the campaigns during its Sept. 22 meeting.

In 2005, Louisiana pledged to build a dormitory at the university, and today the conference's African-American churches are leading the three-year effort. A conference group will travel to the university in November to learn more about the university's needs.

Since January, the Mississippi Conference has been trying to endow a scholarship in the university's Faculty of Theology. Through the Black Church Initiative, Mississippi also is working to build a dormitory. Aubrey Lucus, president emeritus of Mississippi Southern University, and Ella Lucus, his wife, provided a $100,000 matching gift to the Mississippi Conference and the scholarship in the Faculty of Theology will be named in their honor.

"The church sees in Africa University a physical representation of hope," said the Rev. Lloyd Rollins, director of development for the Africa University Development Office.

That is particularly true for church members in Louisiana and Mississippi, he added. "With all they have been through with the turmoil of Katrina, the No. 1 thing that I have seen as a native Mississippian is that hope reigns supreme," Rollins said. "It is hope that says that not only can we continue to overcome what we have experienced but we can continue to do what we have committed to do in Africa."

More campaigns under way
In August, more than 425 freshmen and 225 graduate students began classes at Africa University, the second largest intake in the school's 15 years. Total enrollment is 1,300 students, representing 26 African countries.

The Desert Southwest Annual Conference is planning to endow a chair in the Faculty of Health Sciences and will launch a capital funds campaign. The Memphis Conference is working to establish a "Dream Farm" initiative at the university to provide a self-sustaining model to serve as lab and training facility.

A staff/faculty house is the focus of a campaign led by Ed and Cathy Fry of Laguna Beach (Calif.) United Methodist Church, while the youth from First United Methodist Church, Birmingham, Mich., donated a million pennies to assist Africa University in responding to HIV/AIDS on the continent.

Since 2006, an effort has been under way in the Virginia Annual Conference to provide a district by district scholarship fund at Africa University. In Missouri, a three-year campaign will endow a chair in the Faculty of Education, to be named in honor of C. Jarrett Sr. and Mai Gray, recognizing their years of service to the church and the community. The effort will be publicly launched Nov. 19 with a gala at Saint Paul Theological Seminary in Kansas City.

Western North Carolina has provided $625,000 to endow scholarships for two students from the Central Congo Area, the first installment of a $2 million scholarship and building campaign.

The Peninsula-Delaware and North Texas annual conferences are also planning other campaigns.

A symbol of hope
The United Methodist annual conferences see Africa University as a "true representation" of hope, which is enabling people to live in peace, with dignity and the basic necessities, and with good governance, Rollins said. "Hope is the education that will lead anybody to any dream that they happen to have."

Although news reports from Zimbabwe are often grim, Rollins said that "United Methodist churches and annual conferences are made up of people who look at reality and who also realize that today's reality is not tomorrow's reality."

"This is faith," he said. "We have faith that what they hear about Africa University is the truth."
Bishop Ernest Lyght, president of the advisory committee and the development committee of the Africa University Board of Directors, said the hope that Africa University provides is education.

A key component of alleviating poverty is education, he said. As annual conferences and individuals become educated about Africa University, they get excited about the institution and about the difference that their dollars can make in enabling people to have a different attitude and view of the world, he said.

When Africa University was created in 1988 and opened in 1992, not everyone expected that it would be what it is today, Lyght noted. "It continues to be a product of faith in action because there are times when I wonder how the university is able to do what it does," he said. "It does what it does because it is a faith-based institution and that God is our leader."

The development committee, established in 1993, works with the Africa University Development Office in Nashville and agencies of The United Methodist Church to raise money for the school's capital, endowment and operational needs.

In addition to the annual conferences, at least 40,000 United Methodist congregations have faithfully supported Africa University. In 2006, the university netted its largest percentage of apportionment payments "in what I see is a sign of the increasing understanding within The United Methodist Church of the value of this ministry and a celebration of what we are doing," said the Rev. Ken Bedell, a staff member of the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.

Congregations also support Africa University through the Usahwira program, named after a Zimbabwean-Shona word meaning "a relationship that is closer than family." The program enables churches to make a four-year commitment to help a student receive an education at the university. The program has been a steady source of scholarship funds since 2002, and churches can contribute up to $5,400 a year in support of a student.

In other business, committee members:
.Learned that the Africa University endowment had reached $45 million.
.Learned that the St. Jude Clinical HIV/AIDS Trials will begin in Mutare, Zimbabwe, in January.
.Participated in "saturation" events on Sept. 23 and visited 12 United Methodist churches in Nashville to talk about Africa University.
.Created an honorary alumni association to enable high school and college students to give $50 donations in support of the university.
.Heard that the 12 African bishops committed to sending four students annually from each of their episcopal areas to the university.

*Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.