Western
Jurisdiction
United Methodist Volunteers
In Mission
About 10 years ago I was presented with one of those mission opportunities that seem to be a once-in-a-lifetime event. I was asked to bring an UMVIM team to the South African township of Umlazi to build a Methodist Church. I was excited about the opportunity. I thought everyone would be as excited. Then, with the words of one individual at the church where I was a member at, my bubble was burst. He said to me: “why should we spend so much money to send a small team of individuals all the way to South Africa when we could send that same amount of money, itself, to South Africa and tell the people there to use it to hire the work out?”
I knew all the smart answers I was supposed to give him in response – and I did do that, but those answers felt like they were falling short – even in my own mind. I told him things like
In the years that have followed I have seen, first hand, better answers to his questions.
The factors that made this particular opportunity so unique included:
(1) The Umlazi township had a population of 100,000, and yet the Methodist Church we were to build would be only the 2nd Christian church ever built there (The 1st Christian Church there – the Catholic Church - was only one year old).
(2) The location of the Folweni Methodist Church in Umlazi was on the road that marked the dividing line between the Inkarta and the ANC political parties that were, at that time, opposing each other with guns.
(3) The political and safety concerns in Umlazi seemed to mirror the conditions throughout South Africa at that time – raising questions like “is this going to work”?
The desire of the people of Umlazi to have this church was so strong, however, that they had actually given up hope of having an official church constructed and had begun building one themselves. That flimsy structure had failed. In response to their determination, our team was brought in.
The mere sending of a check for the money, if we could have raised it, would have answered the needs of the Folweni community. Factor #2, however, actually ended up being the impetus behind the first answer as to why the sending of the money would not be good enough.
Because of the safety concerns, the team quickly learned it would have to stay in a separate community at night. Each day we would make the 30k journey into the all-black, poverty stricken and turmoil-ridden, township of Umlazi; and each night we would return to the all-white, upper-middle class, “safe” suburb or Amanzimtoti (“Toti”). The VIM director in South Africa. Richard Bosart, stated to me that it was his desire for us to stay with Methodist families in Toti because he knew we would talk with them about “what we were doing”, “why we do UMVIM work around the world”, and the concept of expressing our faith through our deeds. He stated that the Methodist Church in South Africa did not have the history of volunteerism that the United Methodist Church had in the United States. He knew we would talk; and he hoped the families would listen.
Our team built the Folweni Church – from digging the footings, to pouring the foundation, to building all the walls and setting the windows. We did not have time to put the roof on. When we left we assumed that some other UMVIM team would eventually come to South Africa to complete the building, someday in the future. We were wrong in that assumption, however. We weren’t home long before we were informed the Toti church folks had gone to Umlazi and finished the church. What the VIM director had hoped would happen did indeed happen – and today the VIM program is alive and going strong throughout South Africa. That could not have happened had we merely sent a check, and not included with it our hearts and our faith.
This past month I revisited Umlazi. As I walked through the doors of the Folweni Church I noticed the paint peeling and the plaster cracking and the floor covering showing extreme wear. My first thoughts, of course, were of sadness that the facility was not holding up better. These examples of “wear and tear” were, however, not things to be saddened by – but rather points of celebration! I quickly learned that here, where 10 years ago there was no church, there were now 400 church members and that the “facility” was so overused that it simply could not handle the crowds and their needs. I then learned that in Umlazi, where 10 years ago there was no Methodist Church, the construction of the Folweni Church was merely the beginning. Today, just 10 years later, there are 25 Methodist Churches! I visited one that was dedicated one-week prior. It was “built by the youth” (funded and constructed by the local community, age 25 – 35, through their own fund raising efforts) and has a membership already of 300. I visited another, dedicated one year ago, that now has a membership of 800.
One of the lessons I learned from my visit this month to Umlazi has to be the realization that our smallest of actions of outreach do indeed make a difference. Yes, it was the spirit of the Umlazi people that ignited the desire to have a Methodist Church presence in their community. But it was the team of 9 volunteers from America who gave them that church. And the presence of that church has ignited the phenomenal growth that has brought about 25 Methodist Churches in under 10 years.
So for the second time in dealing with Folweni I have been forced to ponder on the question: “would this have been accomplished by merely sending a check that could not have included our hearts and our faith.” And for the second time I have heard the resounding “NO”!
The growth of the Methodist Church in South Africa reflects the growth of religion in general across that nation. A country born out of strife and extreme grief has risen to a state of rare faith. Troubles will beset the people of South Africa for years to come – just as troubles beset us in the United States. There are obvious lessons of hope and faith there, however, that are so strong. How much of that was contingent on the efforts of one of many volunteer teems that have gone to South Africa over the years is something that will never be able to be truly measured. But through the efforts of many caring people from South Africa and from around the world a better society is growing. A simple check could never have accomplished what the labors of volunteers were able to do.