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NEWS

BY JOHN S. MOORE
SPECIAL TO THE UMCONNECTION

At Brooklyn Heights UMC we are a living laboratory, showing that even small churches can do significant foreign mission programs. Size doesn't matter. It's the Holy Spirit that makes things possible. We are living evidence of that.

Brooklyn Heights UMC, in the Annapolis District, has been very active in African missions since 1999. The major focus of these missions has been on education, but there have been significant side benefits that have resulted from this focus.

For six years this congregation has contributed money to provide daily hot lunches to 300 or more children in a primary school for Masaai tribal children close to the Serengeti Game Park, near the village of Mto Wa Mbu.

Most of these children walk 10 or more miles each way to reach school. They take no lunch with them. This program has required about $300 every two months and we raised it all within the congregation.

In late 2000, our local agent for the primary school program introduced us to an exceptional young woman who had a request for financial support. We couldn't refuse. Later that year, Brooklyn Heights became the coordinating organization for a scholarship program, which has supported this young woman through medical college in Tanzania in east Africa.

Her name is Honoratha Maucky, she is 29 and will complete her five years of medical studies with a Doctor of Medicine degree in August. She has attended Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College, located in Moshi, Tanzania.

Of the original 24 students who began class together in October of 2000, only 11 remain in her class group. Thirteen did not survive. She not only did survive, but she is always among the top two or three in her class.

Honoratha is a member of the Chaaga tribal group, who live mostly on the southern slopes of beautiful Mt. Kilimanjaro. It is her intention to finish her studies and serve her fellow Tanzanians, probably near her tribal area. At last inventory, there was about one doctor for each 20,500 persons in Tanzania.

Without foreign sponsorship, this dream would not have been possible for her. Average annual income in Tanzania is about $300 per person. It would require 21.6 years of average income there to fund one year of college.

We, who are disciples, are proud of this accomplishment. Our mission extends beyond Honoratha to all the people she will care for, who otherwise might have suffered and died for lack of medical assistance.

We are also proud because in supporting Honoratha, we learned about being connectional. Twice a year, for five years we sent money for her tuition, supplies and living expenses. More than $34,000 of this came from people outside of our pews.

Our small church could not afford this great mission expense, but by sharing the story, fellow Christians from other denominations along the eastern coast of the United States have become involved.

With the close of our medical scholarship program this year, a new scholarship program has been launched to send youth to secondary school. The Tanzanian government funds primary, but not secondary school. Because of lack of family recourses, only 2 percent of Tanzanians ever finish secondary school.

AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis now cause the death of professional career persons in large numbers. Without secondary school graduates to replace them, the future of Tanzania is not promising. About $1,000 will support a student in a good quality secondary boarding school for one year.

Brooklyn Heights UMC is now funding 15-year-old Margaret in her second year of a six-year program. We will be searching for additional scholarship candidates, and for potential sponsors who will be willing to accept a six-year commitment, or a part of one.

God is working in our church and we are his hands. Praise God.

John S. Moore is a member of the Baltimore-Washington Conference Africa Committee and a member of Brooklyn Heights UMC. He can be reached at .