Wednesday, February 8, 2017

GPconnect for Wednesday, 8 February 2017 from The Great Plains Conference of The United Methodist Church in Wichta, Kansas, United States

GPconnect for Wednesday, 8 February 2017 from The Great Plains Conference of The United Methodist Church in Wichta, Kansas, United States

Download the printable version of the Feb. 8 issue of GPconnect.
In this edition:
ANNOUNCEMENTS
CLERGY EXCELLENCE
EQUIPPING DISCIPLES
MERCY & JUSTICE
ADMINISTRATION
ACROSS THE CONNECTION
Pastors gather to learn about reaching out to young adults
Have you defined your mission field? Is your church actively reaching out to young adults to ensure they have a place they can have an encounter with God?
Orders & Fellowship, our annual clergy gathering, discussed these and many other subjects Jan. 18-19 in Salina, Kansas. If you weren’t able to attend or want to refresh your memory, videos from many of the plenary sessions and workshops have been posted to the conference website at http://www.greatplainsumc.org/O&F.
Several more videos will be added in the next week and as one of our keynote speakers publishes a new book. So check future editions of GPconnect each Wednesday or visit the Orders & Fellowship page periodically for updates.
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Conference website
launches new video player

You spoke. We listened.
One common concerned shared with the conference staff is the difficulty in finding videos shot by the communications staff or shared with the conference from other sources.
This week, the conference website has a new video player that allows for user to either scroll to find what they want, search by keyword or view videos available by topic.
The changeover to our new video player is still a work in progress, but videos shot dating back to the beginning of the 2016 South Central Jurisdictional Conference are available at http://www.greatplainsumc.org/videos. Our communications team will continue adding older videos to the player over the next few weeks, as time permits.
Topics at launch of the new video player include congregational vitality, clergy excellence, training, young adults, youth ministry, mercy & justice, administration and events, such as the jurisdictional conference, and General Conference.
Watch for more changes to the conference website in coming days – all aimed at making information you’ve asked for easier to find and the website easier to use.
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Clergy Excellence
Culture of call –
helping children discern a call
Creating a culture of call means that the behaviors, beliefs and attitudes of your congregation or community readily support the members of the community to identify and explore a call by God to serve God as a lay, licensed or ordained person. Not everyone who feels a call will work in a church, but as everyone seeks to live out his or her faith more deeply, pray that everyone will consider their work in the world — and even their everyday interactions with other people — to be an opportunity to live out God’s call.
Check out the featured resource for February, a video about helping children discern a call to ministry. Also, find free VBS curriculum that your church could use this summer or in an after-school program at www.greatplainsumc.org/nurturingcall.
Check out two other Culture of Call programs:
Pastoral Leadership internships for college students and churches: Intern application deadline is March 19, while the pastor/church deadline is March 15. Information can be found at www.greatplainsumc.org/pastoralleadershipinternships.
Culture of Call grant applications have an early deadline of March 1. Find out more at www.greatplainsumc.org/cocgrant.
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Mentoring pastors needed for pastoral leadership interns
As one plank in the strategy to help nurture great leaders for the Great Plains, the Call Team of the Board of Ordained Ministry, in conjunction with the Clergy Excellence office, supports a summer Pastoral Leadership internship program for young adults aged 18-22. This 10-week program will provide young leaders the opportunity to experience pastoral work in the most “hands-on” way possible while being supported by a mentoring pastor and a teaching congregation. We are currently inviting churches to apply to host a summer intern through this conference program.
Commitments of the local church:
Desire to assist the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a young adult who is discerning a call to full-time vocational ministry.
Willingness of the congregation to be a learning environment, where new ideas and exploration are welcomed and celebrated.
No change in senior pastoral leadership over the summer of the internship.
Ability to provide housing for the intern with a church family. Housing must be in a location convenient to the church and include a private room, the ability to come and go as needed and the opportunity but not the expectation to join in family meals or activities.
Budget of approximately $500 to cover transportation to Internship retreats, attending annual conference session, purchase of a book or other resource and other unanticipated expenses related to the internship.
Ability to provide own work space in the church including access to telephone, Internet and printing/copying with regular space available for private meetings. Intern can be expected to provide own computer.
Exposure to all facets of pastoral work over the course of the internship. Examples include making hospital visits, funeral preparation, preach and plan worship at least twice, attend committee meetings, meet with new members, teach a class or classes, shut-in visitation, VBS, youth group party, etc.
Flexibility in scheduling as ministry has irregular hour. The expectation is for a 40-hour work week with adequate and regular time off.
In a multi-staff environment, the intern can be given the opportunity to shadow and learn from multiple staff people but the primary mentoring relationship will be with an ordained clergy person. Regular contact with the senior pastor is expected, at minimum a weekly meeting for reflection, questions and encouragement.
Deadline for churches to apply is March 15.
View more information at greatplainsumc.org/pastoralleadershipinternships.
Additionally, do you know a college student who would benefit from a summer internship experience? Early deadline is Jan. 22. The latest they can apply is March 19. They can learn more at greatplainsumc.org/internships.
For questions, please contact Rev. Ashlee Alley, aalley@greatplainsumc.org or 402-464-5994, Ext. 117.
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Bishop to lead training
on local-church vitality
The Wichita East and West districts’ Laity Connection Team invites the Great Plains Conference to take part in a one-day workshop featuring Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr. speaking on church vitality.
The workshop, titled “Leading Vital Congregations,” is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25, from First United Methodist Church in Wichita. The event will be livestreamed for those who are unable to attend in person free of charge at http://sundaystreams.com/go/firstwichita. Or, go to http://www.firstwichita.org and click on “Live Stream Sundays at 11 a.m. CST” to connect to the video player.
Vital congregations are led by clergy and laity who are clear about their mission and focused on achieving a vision that seeks the good of the communities where they are planted. Vital congregations are healthy, growing, committed to forming disciples through God’s means of grace and open to transformational changes that will lead them from one level of fruitfulness and effectiveness to another.
This workshop will help you diagnose your church’s current reality and provide you with the frameworks, tools and processes needed to implement for transformational change that will focus and direct your congregations toward transforming lives and communities.
Also, the Laity Connection Team is planning a workshop titled “Attracting and Retaining Younger People” from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 29, at Asbury United Methodist Church’s west campus in Wichita. The workshop will begin with a sample worship service and then a panel discussion with factors that go into attracting and retaining younger people. More details on this workshop will come in coming weeks.
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‘Wesleyan Live’ to feature
lectures on the Lord’s Prayer
Registration is now open for the spring edition of “Wesleyan Live.” This five-week course provided by Nebraska Wesleyan University may be a good fit as a Lenten study for individuals or for small groups within churches.
The title for the course is “How the Lord’s Prayer Lost its Radical Edge” and will be taught by the Rev. Dr. Robert Jewett, a graduate of Nebraska Wesleyan who also was educated at the Univesrty of Chicago and the University of Tubingen. Dr. Jewett has taught at Morningside College and Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary, and he serves as theologian-in-residence at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in Lincoln.
The course will begin at 7 p.m. Mondays from Feb. 27 to March 27, with each session anticipated to last approximately one hour. Participants in the Lincoln area may attend in person at the conference office at 3333 Landmark Circle in Lincoln. But all participants can take part via livestream on the conference’s website.
Cost is $40 per person or $20 for retirees and students. Local church groups may take part for a maximum cost of $75.
Learn more about the course and register.
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Equipping Disciples
Hastings church combining
forces in several ways
It’s a typical Wednesday evening in Hastings, Nebraska, and middle school and high school students from Hastings First United Methodist Church and Grace United Methodist are meeting together. They alternate meeting sites between both churches. Judy Aspen, Christian Education Director at First UMC, coordinates the group with Julie Simmons who serves as the youth ministry assistant at the church. The youth groups from both churches have plans to join together for their summer mission trips.
The Grace Community Garden, located at Grace UMC, is composed of people from both churches and the Hastings community, which includes English as a second language students. The ESL students meet at First Church twice a week and are taught by Sandy Sypherd. The Grace garden was started in 2012 when the garden team received a grant from the Big Garden in Omaha. The goals of the garden are to create opportunities for cross cultural interaction, to help families who are struggling in this economy and to promote healthy lifestyles.
The Big Garden receives funding from the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund to expand community gardens with churches that are members of the Healthy Congregations initiative. First Church is a certified Healthy Congregation and because of this and its participation in the Grace Community Garden, the garden has received grant money for 2017 under the direction of The Big Garden in Omaha. Sandy Sypherd from Grace Church is a member of that team along with Judy Aspen, Brandee Schram, Janet Schmidt, DeAnn Carpenter, Margaret Pierce and Charlene Turner from First Church. Collaboration and working together have resulted in fruitful ministry.
The churches have begun partnering with some health-related classes which include a support group for Parkinson’s Disease at First and a weight management class at Grace. By working together and combining resources, the churches are able to more broadly minister to the community.
Much of this is possible because of the willingness of two pastors who understand that so much more can be accomplished and more lives can be impacted and transformed when our churches work together. The Rev. Greg Lindenberger, pastor of First UMC, is in the third year of his appointment and the Rev. Kent Rogers, pastor of Grace UMC, began his appointment in July. Building bridges, dissolving walls and making commitments to reach out to our community with the love of Christ creates a welcoming climate by United Methodists in Hastings.
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Young Adult interns can
lead VBS in your community
If you are part of a congregation with 75 and fewer in worship, you can apply to have a team of interns come lead VBS in your community this summer.
It is a great way to bring more energy and fun to your VBS and to give young adults some leadership opportunities.
For more info and the application, go to: http://www.greatplainsumc.org/VBS, or contact Rev. Micki McCorkle, small church membership coordinator, for more information: mmccorkle@greatplainsumc.org or 316-210-3996 (text or call).
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Ethnic in-service training grant applications open through March 1
The General Board of Higher Education and Ministry (GBHEM) opened grant applications for initiatives and programming designed to recruit, train and retain ethnically diverse United Methodists in leadership positions in every level of the church and its ministries. The Ethnic In-Service Training Grant (EIST) awards up to $10,000 for innovative minority training programs; the application is open now through March 1, 2017.
The EIST grant is open to local churches and organizations associated with The United Methodist Church. Minority-focused partnerships and collaborative efforts within campus ministry, chaplaincy and institutions of higher education are encouraged to apply. Creative programs in ministry settings like children and retirement homes, camping and retreat centers and hospitals will also be considered for the grant.
The grant is funded from the World Communion Special Sunday, observed on the first Sunday in October, or any day designated by local churches. World Communion Sunday is one of the six church-wide Special Sundays. The offering also provides graduate scholarships for domestic and international students and undergraduate scholarships for racial-ethnic students within the U.S.
“The Ethnic In-Service Training Grant is a wonderful opportunity to gain the financial support to ensure success in our service to the recognized minorities in the church,” said Dr. Cynthia Bond Hopson, assistant general secretary of the Black College Fund and Ethnic Concerns at GBHEM. “Supporting minority-focused initiatives supports the diversity of our church, which, in turn, enriches our lives and our service. These grants give the denomination the opportunity and capacity to significantly impact our neighbors and the world through meaningful outreach projects – for that we are grateful.”
Proposals will be reviewed and selected in April by the GBHEM Board of Directors. Funding will be disbursed by May 15, 2017. To be considered, applicants must complete the EIST grant application and provide all supporting documentation by March 1, 2017.
To learn more about the EIST grant, visit www.gbhem.org. To obtain resources for the observance of World Communion Sunday or to donate online, visit www.umcgiving.org/wcs.
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Mercy & Justice
Micah Corps coordinators for this summer attend training session
The last weekend in January, the two newly hired coordinators for this summer’s Micah Corps internship traveled to Omaha. They met with the Micah Corps planning committee for two days of intense work.
Maddie Johnson, who grew up as a member of the Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, is currently attending Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Chicago. Deb Metcalf, originally from Michigan, is attending Iliff School of Theology in Denver.
“When I discovered the opportunity to be a co-coordinator for Micah Corps, I knew this was what I had been searching for,” Johnson said. “Now more than ever, the church is being called to speak out against injustices, to embody the folly and love of the Gospel, to challenge its members and to encourage their spirits, and to provide a path to live as Jesus did. I am so excited to work amongst passionate and joyful leaders, and to help guide a group of interns engaging in the necessary and inherent intersection of church and justice. I am eager to grow in faith as we, the 2017 Micah Corps team, epitomize the mission of doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God.”
The weekend’s schedule included a variety of topics, among them different spiritual practices, communication and team-building skills, introduction to the issue areas the interns will be focusing on this summer, and a discussion of the schedule for the ten weeks.
On Sunday, the group worshiped at First UMC in Omaha and then joined a rally standing up for refugees, immigrants and Muslims. “No hate, no fear, refugees are welcome here,” was one of the chants that could be heard from the 1,800 people who came together, among them many United Methodists. It was a fitting ending for this time together, being reminded of our call to welcome the stranger among us.
Metcalf shared: “I am very much looking forward to being a part of the Micah Corps this summer. Engaging in meaningful conversations about social justice issues is a part of my daily life at Iliff School of Theology, but I am very much excited to continue to put these conversations into practice. I wanted to be a Micah Corps Coordinator because of the Micah Corps' emphasis on social justice, and for the opportunity to work with the Micah Corps interns and lead meaningful discussions about social justice with them. While at the training this past weekend, we had the opportunity to participate in a rally for those with valid visas being unfairly turned away at airports across America. We had other things on our schedule, but our leaders thought it more important to attend the rally and practice what we had been talking about the previous day and that morning. I am so excited to work with people like this, who not only know why we need to be active and engaged members of society, but also who are willing to seize the opportunity to actively take part in creating an inclusive community on multiple levels.”
Micah Corps is a 10-week summer internship offered through the Mercy & Justice Team of the Great Plains Conference. It helps young adults live out Micah 6:8, “What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” The interns will link their faith with social justice and sharpen their leadership skills by visiting churches throughout Kansas and Nebraska.
For more information and to apply, go to http://www.greatplainsumc.org/micahcorps[Andrea Paret, Peace With Justice coordinator]
Photo: From left, Micole Harms-Brazell, Deb Metcalf, Andrea Paret, Rev. Kalaba Chali, Rev. Carol Windrum, Maddie Johnson at the rally in Omaha.
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Holy Land trip
planned for fall
I am excited to be leading another Volunteers in Mission trip to the Holy Land this fall and would like to extend an invitation to others in our conference to join me in this life changing experience! Our group will be visiting several organizations that are supported as Advance or Partner Projects of the United Methodist Church, including Four Homes of Mercy, Bethlehem Bible College, Wi’Am Conflict Resolution Center, Sindyanna of Galilee and Mar Elias Institution (Archbishop Elias Chacour’s school in Ibillin), to name a few. We will also be visiting many of the holy sites in the region and areas that are dealing with Israeli occupation issues. The trip is being hosted by our UM Liaison office in Jerusalem. For more information, see this flyer. Please feel free to contact me at jbcjsc@aol.com.[Carol Ekdahl-Garwood, Great Plains CSGM]
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Southwestern College graduate
tells of when she fled Zimbabwe
The University of North Carolina School of Medicine recently published a story on its website about Tendai Kwaramba, a graduate of Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas.
Tendai’s compelling story started nearly a decade ago when, fearing for her life, she fled Zimbabwe. Today, she's a political refugee living in the United States, on her way to becoming a physician.
From Zimbabwe to Chapel HillNearly a decade ago, fearing for her life, UNC medical student Tendai Kwaramba fled Zimbabwe and the ruthless regime of Robert Mugabe. Today, she's a political refugee living in the United States, on her way to becoming a physician.
Tendai Kwaramba is in her second year of medical school at UNC. After fleeing Zimbabwe, she attended Southwestern College, in Kansas, and then received her Master's from the Duke Global Health Institute. She has been designated a political refugee. Photo by Max Englund, UNC Health Care.by Zach Read - zachary.read@unchealth.unc.edu
In December 2008, as Tendai Kwaramba crossed the southern border of Zimbabwe into South Africa, she wondered if she would see her native country again. She was 18 years old, had just graduated from high school, and was fleeing to the United States, where her mother, Christinah, and brother, Farai, awaited her.
The U.S. Department of State had approved her student visa and the U.S. Embassy in Harare – Zimbabwe’s capital city and her hometown – had provided documentation for her travel. But Christinah’s status with the country’s ruling political party, Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), made it too dangerous for Tendai to depart from Harare’s airport, where alert officials could detain her.
In 2015, Tendai, who was studying at Duke University's Global Health Institute, traveled to Brazil for research for her Master's thesis.“Detainment in Zimbabwe often means death,” explains Tendai, a second-year UNC medical student who received a Master’s degree in Global Public Health from Duke University in 2015. “That’s the reality in Zimbabwe. Everyone knows someone – or knows of someone – who disappears at the hands of ZANU-PF and is never seen or heard from again.”
A Promise
To avoid scrutiny at the Harare airport, Tendai took a 13-hour bus ride to Johannesburg, South Africa, where she boarded a flight for the United States. A few weeks later, at the beginning of January, she would join Farai at Southwestern College, a small Methodist school in Winfield, Kansas.
She packed only the bare essentials for what could be the rest of her life: enough clothes for the trip and the days that immediately followed her arrival in the United States; her journal, in which she wrote poetry and documented her experiences living in hiding for the previous 15 months, outside the notice of Zimbabwean government officials; and Sudoku puzzles to occupy her time while traveling.
“I left a lot of my belongings behind,” she says. “But I brought Zimbabwean cornmeal and juice for my mom and brother – those were also essential items.”
Tendai and friends celebrated graduations for both Farai and Christinah.One precious belonging Tendai carried with her, which occupied no space in her luggage, was the memory of her final visit to the grave of her father, Tinashe, who died of esophageal cancer at age 40, when she was nine years old.
“It was very difficult for me to visit his grave in the days before I left,” she reflects. “What do you say in a situation like that, at 18 years old? I told him that I loved him, that I would say hello to my mother and brother for him, and that I hoped to return to Zimbabwe to visit him again – although I had no idea if it would be possible for me to do so. I also made a promise to him that motivates me today – I promised him that I would work hard to make something of my life.”
A Role Model
Nearly 40 years ago, among native Zimbabweans, Robert Mugabe was an admired leader in the fight for Zimbabwean independence. Today, as president of Zimbabwe, he and ZANU-PF, the party he leads, are feared by many citizens – responsible for countless human rights violations, elections staged and rigged to maintain power, and a violent land-reform movement that rewarded loyal supporters and destroyed the country’s economy.
Tendai arrived in the United States in December 2008. In this photo, she reunited with her family in Kansas. She hadn’t seen her brother in almost four years and her mom in over a year.During Tendai’s high school years, Zimbabwe grew increasingly violent at the hands of ZANU-PF officials and supporters, with murders, beatings, and other forms of intimidation marring elections. Despite what felt like perpetual turmoil in the country, Tendai, who speaks several languages fluently, including her native Shona and English, received an excellent education.
“I was fortunate in that I grew up in Harare,” she admits. “Education there was fantastic, perhaps the best on the continent. English was taught from day one, and I was in school with kids from all walks of life, from up and down the social ladder. The students were very talented. Sadly, as those in my generation have grown up, they’ve been robbed of the opportunities to share those talents, and today many are jobless.”
For Tendai, it helped that her parents, both graduates of University of Zimbabwe, were well-educated and successful, despite coming from humble, rural communities that lacked the level of opportunity available in Harare. Tinashe was the managing director of a bank and Christinah taught math in primary school and high school for 21 years.
“My mom encouraged us in our studies when we were young,” she remembers. “At home, we were given advanced math assignments, levels ahead of the math we were doing in school. I was in the third grade and I recall her telling me I would thank her one day, and she was right. I’m so grateful because it made me a good student and prepared me for educational experiences throughout my life.”
This photo, taken at one of Christinah's favorite Mexican restaurants in the Dallas area, came shortly after they were reunited.Shortly after Tendai started the third grade, Christinah, who had undergone nearly two dozen surgeries on her stomach for reasons that remain a mystery today, felt a calling to join the ministry. In her spare time she began crafting and delivering Sunday sermons for the United Methodist Church the Kwarambas attended in Harare. It wasn’t long after she began preaching that they learned that Tinashe was sick.
Christinah became Tinashe’s primary caregiver throughout his illness, while also raising Farai and Tendai and maintaining her career.
“For so many reasons, my mom has been an incredible role model for me,” says Tendai, whose name in Shona means Thank you, God, for giving us a daughter. “It isn’t easy to be a woman in Zimbabwe, let alone a widow. In most cases, widows are forced to give their children to the husband’s family, and then they return to live with the family that raised them. But she told my brother and me, ‘Don’t worry – I will never give you up.’ She defied all the cultural traditions and endured all the family rifts that developed by keeping us with her.”
Closure in Zimbabwe
After Tinashe died, Christinah resigned from her teaching job and, at the encouragement of her bishop, pursued a Master’s degree in Divinity at Africa University, in Mutare, a four-hour drive east from Harare. Four years later, Christinah was pastor of a parish of 3,000 members. With Tendai at boarding school and Farai on scholarship at Southwestern College, Christinah focused increasingly on her sermons, which became known for their passion and their strong point of view.
“Anyone who has met my mom will attest that she is very opinionated,” assures Tendai, laughing.
Tendai graduated from Southwestern College, in Winfield, Kansas, in 2012. Her grandfather -- Tinashe's father -- traveled from Zimbabwe to for the graduation.In 2007, ahead of the next year’s elections, opposition supporters were being targeted and intimidated by ZANU-PF officials and supporters across the country, and Christinah took notice. One July morning she delivered a fiery sermon to her parishioners.
“The theme was, ‘Where there’s no vision, people will perish,’” shares Christinah. “It was given in response to the events in our country. It was one of my best sermons, and many people in our church were happy about it.”
But not everyone was pleased. Some in the audience interpreted her words as a challenge to the country’s political leadership. The following morning she received a visit at the parsonage from two ZANU-PF officials.
“We’ve come to take you to the presidential office in Harare,” they told her as she met them in the driveway.
Christinah understood exactly what that meant. As a pastor, she had comforted many families whose loved ones had been taken away in the middle of the night, never to be seen or heard from again. She told the men that it was her duty as pastor not to leave the parish without notifying the community of her whereabouts. Fortunately, she found the parish school headmaster nearby. He sensed the seriousness of the situation and insisted on traveling with them to Harare. The men prohibited him from riding in the same car with them, so he followed them in his car.
In Harare, Christinah was taken to the top floor – floor 18 – of the presidential building. More than a dozen men awaited her in the room. They’d placed a chair for her to sit in, in the center of a circle of chairs.
“These were big, fierce men,” she says. “I hadn’t been around men like them before. I could tell that they were violent. I could smell the blood on them. They told me I’d been summoned by the highest person in Zimbabwe, the one I despised in my sermon.”
Tendai with two students from Rice University and a worker at Hospital de Cancer de Barretos, Sao Paolo, Brazil, taking a break from work to grab some divine Brazilian churros.They interrogated her, questioned why she would preach against the man who fills the people’s bellies with food and sends the country’s children to school, and demanded that she defend her sermon; instead, she preached it to them, just as she had to her parishioners the previous morning.
“For some reason, I wasn’t scared in the moment when I delivered my sermon to them,” she says. “I believe it is because the headmaster knew where I was. If I were to disappear, Farai and Tendai would know what happened to me. Thanks to this selfless man, they’d have closure, which gave me strength in that moment. Not having closure is terrible for so many of the families I counseled as a pastor.”
After she preached to them, the men threatened her life, showed her the various ways they penalized those who dissented against Mugabe, and warned her never to give another sermon like that again. Then, 12 hours after they’d picked her up in Mutare, she was taken to the ground floor of the building and pushed outside into the darkness, where the headmaster waited for her on the sidewalk near his car.
“I’ve never seen a man who could risk his life like that,” she says. “By standing outside and refusing to leave, they knew that he would know what happened to me if I never came out, so they let me go.”
Our People
Over the next several days, Christinah processed what had happened to her and what her future held. ZANU-PF officials had taken all her identification and gotten the names of all her family members, including Tendai, her mother and father, and her 10 siblings and their families. Her bishop asked her to consider staying on as pastor in the parish, but inevitably ZANU-PF would find fault in one of her sermons – she wouldn’t be as lucky the next time they came for her.
She called Tendai home from boarding school the weekend after her detainment to explain the situation.
“I was 16 years old,” says Tendai. “I told her, ‘You’re going to die. They’re going to come back for you. They don’t let people go after things like this.’”
As Christinah considered what to do next, she received a letter in the mail from SMU’s Perkins School of Theology. SMU had heard about her. She’d been the best student at Africa University, a school funded by the United Methodist Church, and she had experience leading parishioners. Would she be interested in applying to SMU for graduate work, with the possibility of enrolling in August 2008 or January 2009?
The following August was more than a year away. She was now on a ZANU-PF list. As time passed, her risk of another visit by ZANU-PF would only increase. With the elections coming the next year, she was certain to be targeted.
She called Farai, who urged her to accept the offer from SMU. Farai then spoke with Bishop Richard Wilke, the Bishop in Residence at Southwestern College who, with his wife, Julia, funds scholarships for international students at at the school. A widely known leader in the Methodist community, Bishop Wilke drove with Farai from Kansas to SMU to meet with the admissions team, which agreed to accept Christinah early.
“Bishop Wilke asked SMU if I could come immediately and fill out my application when I arrived, and SMU said ‘Yes,’” Christinah recalls. “I didn’t have a dime to my name – they even paid for my flight.”
Six weeks after her detainment by ZANU-PF, Christinah was on a flight to Dallas, where she would begin her graduate studies in Pastoral Care at the Perkins School of Theology.
“My family and I owe Bishop Wilke and all the institutions that have helped us our lives,” Christinah says. “They are our people.”
In Hiding
With another year of high school remaining, Tendai didn’t qualify for a student visa to leave Zimbabwe with Christinah, so they planned for her to stay at her boarding school until she graduated. Then, hopefully, she could attend college in the United States. Bishop Wilke, meanwhile, lobbied U.S. Senator Pat Roberts and other Kansas representatives to expedite approval of a student visa for Tendai.
After living years of my life that weren’t so happy, and that were troubling, I wanted to be somewhere that emphasized the importance of being happy and that developed well-rounded physicians. - Tendai Kwaramba
As pending elections increased turmoil in the country, ZANU-PF officials visited individuals on their list. Christinah’s old parish received a late-night visit. When officials discovered that the pastor was not Christinah, but a replacement, and that Christinah had fled, they sought out Tendai. They went to her school, but the school’s headmaster wouldn’t share a list of his students.
“Leaving my daughter in a country that was after me – and that would likely try to get to me through her – was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” Christinah says. “I cried day and night at SMU. I saw how people were being massacred during that time. They were the bloodiest elections in the world.”
To evade detection, Tendai moved in with friends of Christinah’s, to their farm in the remote countryside outside Mutare. The family could not be easily connected to Christinah. Tendai also switched schools to a multiracial private school without a connection to the church. No one at the new school knew her. Christinah’s SMU community raised funds to help pay Tendai’s tuition.
“It was hard,” Tendai says. “You’re a teenager, and you feel invincible – like no one will get to you. You’re also at this rebellious period of your life when you don’t want to be told where you can go and what you can do, but you’re confined to a house, to a property, and you’re not allowed to leave except to go to school.”
Tendai passed the time by doing schoolwork, reading, writing poetry, and helping the family with chores on the farm.
“I like to say that I could tend to pigs now if I had to,” she says. “I could get a plot of land and do some of my own farming after that experience.”
She became close with the family and their children. In one defiant moment, however, she wanted to travel with them on a trip they were making to Harare. They explained the danger both she – and they – would be in by taking her, and they reminded her of the promise they’d made to Christinah, whom they regularly spoke with by phone from third-party phone numbers, away from their house. But they couldn’t fend Tendai off, and they relented.
“We had almost made it home from Harare,” remembers Tendai, “and I was feeling like I’d been proven right that we’d be fine, when suddenly we ran into a ZANU-PF checkpoint. As we began inching closer to officials, we argued about whether I should stay in the car or get out of the car. I realized that I’d been wrong to travel with them and that I was putting them in danger, so against their wishes, I ducked down, crawled out of the car, and hid in a nearby ditch. Fortunately, I wasn’t discovered, and about two hours later they returned to get me.”
Here, Tinashe received his MBA from the University of South Africa. Tendai recalls the last time she saw her father. He had not been well overnight. In the morning, Christinah took him to the hospital. Tendai opened the driveway gate for them, waved goodbye, and he died two days later.
15 Seconds
Tinashe loved to take his family on trips. They traveled together to South Africa, Zambia, Namibia, and Kenya. But he loved traveling in his own country even more.
“Zimbabwe is such a beautiful place, with a lot of history,” Tendai says. “One of his favorite spots to take us was Victoria Falls.”
Parts of North Carolina remind Tendai and Christinah of Zimbabwe – the hills around Chapel Hill, the lush green of the trees during the summer time. At UNC, Tendai is also reminded of the challenges she and her family have been through. She had several options to choose from for medical school, but UNC was the right fit for her because it was the antidote to those difficult memories.
“I chose UNC because I knew I’d be happy here,” she says. “After living years of my life that weren’t so happy, and that were troubling, I wanted to be somewhere that emphasized the importance of being happy and that developed well-rounded physicians. Grades and tests are important at UNC, of course, but when I interviewed, students talked about the other things that interested them and how they make time to explore those interests. You’re here for four years – it should be a place you love to be.”
Although Tendai is deep into her second year of medical school, forming bonds with classmates and preparing for her board exams, she often thinks of her father. Last year, during the social medicine course taken by first-year students, students were asked to write a personal illness narrative. She focused on Tinashe.
“I took a chance with it,” says Tendai, whose paper was submitted for – and won – the Alan W. Cross Social Medicine Paper Award.
The essay reexamined an experience she had with her father when she was eight years old, two years into his illness. They were home together one afternoon while Christinah was still at school and Farai was away at boarding school. As Tendai walked past the bathroom, she noticed her father sitting on the bathroom floor. He had thrown up. Vomit was visible on the side of the toilet and the floor.
“He hadn’t made it in time,” she says. “I stopped, we looked at each other, and I ran to my room and closed the door. I didn’t stop to help him and I didn’t try to clean up. It was a 15-second interaction, and it’s something I remember so vividly today.”
In her room, she cried.
“I didn’t understand why I was crying,” she continues. “Today, the moment remains difficult for me because I turned away from him, without helping. I was eight years old, I felt awkward, and now I understand that I wanted to rid myself of that awkwardness.”
In her paper, Tendai reflects on how illness is processed differently by people in Zimbabwe, especially men, who try to pretend that nothing is wrong, that everything is normal, and that things will be okay.
“My father and I never once talked about him being sick,” she says. “It was just something that was there, and we never spoke about that moment when I saw him. He tried not to show vulnerability and wanted to do all the things that he would do if he were healthy – take me to school, and so on. In some ways that was good, but I think I would have processed his illness better as I grew up if we’d talked about it.”
Tendai with community health workers and nurses in remote Goias, Brazil, last summer. This mobile clinic provided cervical, prostate, and skin cancer screening and skin cancer lesion removal.
When caring for patients as a physician one day, she hopes to draw from what she learned from his illness.
“I think it’s important to have those conversations with your kids,” she says. “Kids see things even if they don’t understand and compute them at the time. They see that something is changing, and I saw that, for sure, but we never really discussed it.”
During the past two years, Tendai has considered what she might specialize in. Last summer she traveled to Brazil through the UNC School of Medicine’s Office of International Activities. It was her second trip to Brazil – her first came during graduate school at Duke. She worked on a research project at Hospital de Cancer de Barretos, in Barretos, Sao Paulo.
“It’s a private cancer center where Brazilians receive free care,” she says. “When I first learned about it, it sounded too good to be true. But it was as advertised – it’s a wonderful place – and I was able to have a diverse clinical and research experience looking at cervical cancer, HPV, and racial disparities.”
She presented her research at the Global Health and Noncommunicable Diseases conference in Atlanta in September 2016 and at UNC’s John B. Graham Student Research Day two months later – and she returned to the United States with improved Portuguese-language skills.
The trip also reinforced her interest in oncology as a specialty – an interest that doesn’t surprise Christinah.
“Tendai has wanted to be a doctor since she was a little girl,” says Christinah. “She was always with me while I was taking care of her father. For a long time she talked about being a heart surgeon, but now she talks about helping people with cancer. I think she’s inspired to provide the help to patients that her father couldn’t get in Zimbabwe.”
Point of Need
“In colonial Zimbabwe, when my mom was born, you had a better chance of going to school if you had an English name, which is why my mom was named Christinah,” says Tendai.
Christinah, Tendai, and Farai in front of the Old Well, after the UNC School of Medicine White Coat Ceremony in 2015.
Last May, nine years after arriving in the United States, Christinah completed a long educational career, which includes a Master’s from Perkins and a PhD in Pastoral Care and Counseling from Texas Christian University.
“I call her Dr. Mother now,” laughs Tendai, who flew to Texas to celebrate with Christinah, Farai, and the other program graduates.
Today, Christinah does supervisory training in chaplaincy at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital, in Fort Worth. She trains chaplains in visiting patients, grief counseling for families, and baptizing stillborn babies.
“The hospital setting is where people are most vulnerable,” says Christinah. “Because of our story, I wanted to meet people at their point of need, when the world seems to be at the end, when cancer is at stage 4 and we are facing death.”
Tendai sees Christinah’s current role as the perfect fit, bridging her two passions: “She combines both her worlds – she was a teacher for 21 years and now she can teach, but she also gets to do the work of a chaplain.”
During Tendai’s first year of medical school, Christinah and Farai traveled to Chapel Hill to witness the annual White Coat Ceremony, a tradition that marks the first time medical students don their white coats. As Tendai walked onto the stage to receive her coat, Christinah could be heard ululating across the auditorium. The sound, mhururu, is an expressive form reserved for women. It signifies “what one has endured to get to this point,” Christinah says.
“It was an emotional moment,” recalls Tendai. “There was definitely some embarrassment when she did that in front of so many people, but it was a moment I knew my mom was completely happy, and it felt like everything – terror, fear, loss – was worth it.”
Meanwhile, Farai, whose name means Thank you, God, for giving us a son, has completed his PhD in chemical engineering at Oklahoma State University, and today he is a chemistry professor at Sterling College in Kansas.
Despite their successes in the United States, the Kwarambas still miss Zimbabwe. Tendai and Farai have nieces, nephews, and friends’ babies who have been born that they’ve never met, and they’ve become estranged from family with whom they were once close. Tendai and Christinah, unlike Farai, were designated a political refugee, which means they cannot return to Zimbabwe. They keep in touch with family and friends by phone as often as they can. But they've also found family at each of her stops in the United States.
“I’ve encountered a different set of challenges here, but I’ve been fortunate to meet kind people living in Kansas and while at Duke and UNC,” says Tendai. “Friends here have become family.”
In 2011, Christinah was unable to attend her mother’s funeral because of her status in Zimbabwe, but she holds out hope of returning one day. She continues to speak out against the current regime, which is controlled less and less by Mugabe as he ages, but which remains under ZANU-PF’s rule. She is one of several African theologians who have addressed the U.S. Congress about Zimbabwe and its challenges and opportunities.
Their success as a family fills many who have gotten to know them with joy. Bishop Wilke, whom Farai still visits in Kansas, recalls when Farai first set foot on campus and how he learned more about the threats facing his mom and sister.
“We’re in awe of Christinah, Farai, and Tendai,” Bishop Wilke says. “We really are. We were able to help in some ways, but these are three brilliant people with advanced degrees who are headed toward making major contributions to our country. They’ve carved their own path since arriving here, and we’ve been so fortunate to get to know them and to be a part of their experience.”
Read Tendai’s story.
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UMCOM provides resources
for Black History Month
Follow these links to resources to help you with Sunday school classes, small groups or sermon preparations during Black History Month.
Center Honors Black Methodists’ History – Archivists hope churches and families will donate items to the African American Methodist Heritage Center, so the stories of those who built the church will remain alive for future generations: http://www.umc.org/who-we-are/center-honors-black-methodists-history
Jim Lawson profile – http://www.umc.org/how-we-serve/james-lawson-reflections-on-life-nonviolence-civil-rights-mlk
Encore: Methodist History: Bishop fought slavery – http://www.umc.org/news-and-media/methodist-history-bishop-fought-slavery
Encore: Tindley Temple – http://www.umc.org/who-we-are/tindley-temple-a-highlight-of-methodist-history
Walking with King Series – http://www.umc.org/news-and-media/united-methodists-share-mlks-dream
Selma (talk of MLK, anniversary of Selma march is March 9) – http://www.umc.org/news-and-media/eyewitness-to-selma-faith-leaders-stand-for-civil-rights
Timeline in black and white – http://www.umc.org/resources/timeline-methodism-in-black-and-white
Part of history, African-American spirituals still heal – http://www.umc.org/resources/part-of-history-african-american-spirituals-still-heal
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Ohio garden project seeks
seed, financial donations
Spring is not that far off, meaning that Jackson (Ohio) Area Ministries’ seed potato, tomato plant and vegetables seed distributions are approaching. For many years, congregations, UMW units, SundaySchool classes and other groups and individuals have sent their seed packets and financial donations to J.A.M.’s Green Thumb Garden Project. Together in 2016 more than 3,100 individuals and/or families to grow their own vegetables. If each garden were to net just $200 worth of produce then the value of the combined contributions would come to $623,600.
The Appalachian counties of Southeast Ohio will be participating in the project. Deadline for contributions is April 15.
Please send seeds and/or donations to: J.A.M. Gardening, P.O. Box 603, 119 McKitterick Ave., Jackson, OH 45640.
A bulletin insert can be downloaded from the JAM website, www.jamumc.org. Other information is available from the office, phone, 1-888-237-3141 or e-mail jamjar@midohio.twcbc.com.
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Administration
Stewardship and Connectional Ministries offering free webinars
Three upcoming webinars are available at no cost to local church leaders by Stewardship and Connectional Ministries. All times listed are Central.
They are:
Financial Tips for Clergy: Take the Bite Out of Income Taxes!
REGISTER FOR THE WEBINAR
10 a.m. Monday, Feb. 13
PRESENTERS: Rev. Don Joiner, Certified Financial Planner and Rev. Ken Sloane
Clergy face some unique challenges when it comes to things like social security payments, estimated tax payments, housing allowances or exclusions, and reimbursed expenses. It is important to know the rules, but also the way to minimize the impact of your tax liability. Not every tax preparer understands the unique situation of clergy, and finding one who does can save you substantially in money and aggravation. Join us as the Rev. Don Joiner, a certified financial planner, offers tips to clergy who are navigating the preparation of taxes and planning for a sound financial future.
The Church Audit: You Can Do This!
REGISTER FOR THE WEBINAR
6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 9
PRESENTER: Ken Sloane, Director of Stewardship and Connectional Ministries
Every congregation needs to do a church audit, but it doesn’t have to be a big expense or an insurmountable obstacle. There is a great Local Church Audit Guide, available free for United Methodist churches that will take you through it step by step. Going through the process builds confidence among you financial leaders and projects transparency to your donors. Join us as we explore the tools that can make this process easier than you thought.
Offering Electronic Giving: What Are You Waiting For?
REGISTER FOR THE WEBINAR
6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 11
PRESENTER: Ken Sloane, Director of Stewardship and Connectional Ministries
Electronic giving is not the future of charitable giving, it is the present reality. If your church is not offering this as an option for those who attend your church, you are missing out on generous giving. If there have been obstacles to making this option available to your church, we will talk about them in this webinar.
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Love in a Big World, Project Transformation to partnerLove in a Big World, UMPH’s research-based, social-emotional curriculum and character education movement has partnered with Project Transformation (PT), a program founded in 1998 by leaders in the North Texas Conference of The United Methodist Church that provides leadership development and ministry exploration to college-aged young adults who sign on to lead community-oriented after-school and summer day camp opportunities for children and youth from low-income neighborhoods.
Love in a Big World is designed to move kids from risk to resiliency by creating meaningful interactions with caring adults. Through a flexible and customizable curriculum, relevant and diverse stories, Scripture and life lessons, kids learn to love God, love other people, and to change the world by acting on that love. Love in a Big World is ideal for summer camps as well as other faith-based and community settings.
Project Transformation has for almost two decades worked to improve children’s literacy skills.
“This partnership will strengthen our ability to improve the social, emotional, and spiritual development of the children participating in Project Transformation’s summer program,” PT said in a press release.
Love in a Big World’s partnership with Project Transformation comes as they launch two new chapters this summer, giving them a presence in Tennessee, the Pacific Northwest, Oklahoma, Central Texas and Rio Texas. Approximately 2,500 children from 34 low-income communities across seven annual conferences of The United Methodist Church will participate in Project Transformation in summer of 2017, led by 300 young adults exploring the call to ministry and service.
To learn more about Love in a Big World, click here. To learn more about Project Transformation, click here.
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New national advertising
messages encourage childlike faith
Innocence, wonder and hope will be at the heart of The United Methodist Church’s national advertising campaign this year. The denomination is extending an invitation to people searching to give their lives deeper meaning through the words of children who share their thoughts about open hearts, minds and doors.
The advertisements feature elementary-aged students answering questions such as, “What does it mean to have an open heart?” The children’s inspiring answers reveal the depth of their beliefs, the strength of their faith and their devotion to the ministries of the church.
“This campaign encourages us to pause and see the world as young people see it,” said Dan Krause, general secretary of United Methodist Communications. “The openness and loving spirit that children offer to their communities can be the perfect invitation for people considering a visit to their local United Methodist church.”
The “Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors.” tagline has been part of the denomination’s advertising and outreach efforts for 16 years. The new ads offer a fresh approach to the meaning behind the statement, asking viewers to ponder what life would be like if everyone loved with open hearts, minds and doors as children do.
The ads then conclude with a statement of hope and invitation, “We believe that together, through God’s love, we can make it happen.”
The first set of advertisements will focus on the core values of The United Methodist Church and then will continue with messages about Easter, love and kindness. The ads will run March through June across the U.S. via print, digital platforms and cable television.
Local churches can take part in the campaign during the upcoming Lenten season; further details about resources will be released later this month at UMCom.org/RethinkChurch.
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Across the Connection
Churches return from
mission trip to HondurasNewman Grove and Looking Glass (Nebraska) United Methodist Churches recently returned from a two-week mission trip to Santa Cruz De Yojoa, Honduras.
During the two weeks, the construction team removed and installed new metal trusses and a metal roof on a church in the mountains near Santa Cruz. Another team conducted Vacation Bible Schools in four different locations. On the middle Saturday, the team conducted a humanitarian mission to more than 200 people that live in the landfill providing clothes, food and health kits. The team also conducted four worship services and saw numerous Hondurans come forward to accept Jesus.
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In Other News
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Newsletters
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Blogs & Opinion
Churches need a social justice committee: Deb Umberger of Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Wichita shares a blog about how social justice committees can help churches live out their mission in their communities.
Lessons from an immigration rally: Evan Robinson-Johnson, a high school junior and volunteer in the communications office of the New England Conference, shares his experience, through video and words, at an immigration march in Copley Square.
History of a welcoming faith: Ministry with migrants and refugees is one of the oldest expressions of Methodist mission, writes Thomas Kemper, top executive of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.
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Classifieds
Submit a classified and view ads at greatplainsumc.org/classifieds.
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