or the month of April, we will be focusing on Africa 360.

Excerpt from the Africa 306 Lenten Devotional

Written by Rev. Bob Kolvik-Campbell

I went to Zimbabwe in 1992 as part of an interdisciplinary team. It was a year of great drought. Part of the time, I stayed at Old Mutare, a mission station that dates back to the 1880s. There was a school, a church building, a clinic, and missionary residences. Across the road was Africa University.

I got to know a girl named Grace, who was a student at the school and wanted to practice her English. We walked the garden and she showed me her plot, where she grew vegetables for the school. In that drought year, everything has to be done to preserve water. She brought the water she had used to wash each day to her plot, so that she could water it. We prayed for the gift of water and that the land might be renewed again with God’s presence in the rain.

Across the road was the newly opened Africa University. I visited the library. In this new facility, there were not many books, and I thought about the opportunity I had to read and grow from the libraries in my life and I prayed that the library would grow and expand.

It is God who has given voice to a university and to the elimination of malaria in Africa. It is God who has called us to be part of this great work.

God continues to bless Africa and Africa University, where the dream is alive. God blesses the school children of Africa as they grow, without fear of disease and death from malaria.

“Give Faithfully. Give Hope. Be a Global Neighbor.”

Africa 360 is the Upper New York Conference’s holistic plan for health and education initiatives in Africa. Uniquely, Africa 360 is about dreaming God-sized dreams, ambitiously eliminating preventable deaths from malaria and equipping the next generation of leaders.

www.unyumc.org/mission/Africa -360

The church has set a goal of $500. Let’s see if we can surpass that goal!

Envelopes for donations are available at the Welcome Centers and by each door.

Loose change containers will be in Fellowship Hall, the narthex and the welcome center outside Gibbs on Sundays

April 24: Education

For the month of April, we will be focusing on Africa 360.

Excerpt from the Africa 306 Lenten Devotional

Written by Martin Reimer, member at Watertown First UMC

This passage in James tells us that if we have faith in Jesus Christ, it should be manifest in actions that demonstrate love and care for other people.

Zimbabwe is a beautiful country and its people have a cultural tradition of being friendly to strangers. It once was a country that did well economically, especially in producing agricultural exports. Now it does not produce enough food to feed its own population. A couple of reasons for this may be that many landowners have reverted to inefficient ways of farming, and a lot of land has been let lay untilled.

The Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Africa University is providing students with knowledge and hands-on training to enable them to farm in economically effective and productive ways. We met one graduate, Justin Zimunya, who has been hired to manage the farm at Mutambara Mission Centre. With him as farm manager, agricultural land has been put back into production, large hog-raising and broiler-chicken raising operations have been established, and a dairy program has been started.  (Cont…à)

Africa University’s Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources can make a difference for Zimbabwe’s languishing farms. Support for Africa University through the scholarship program can aid in this.

“Give Faithfully. Give Hope. Be a Global Neighbor.”

Africa 360 is the Upper New York Conference’s holistic plan for health and education initiatives in Africa. Uniquely, Africa 360 is about dreaming God-sized dreams, ambitiously eliminating preventable deaths from malaria and equipping the next generation of leaders.

www.unyumc.org/mission/Africa -360

The church has set a goal of $500. Let’s see if we can surpass that goal!

Envelopes for donations are available at the Welcome Centers and by each door.

Loose change containers will be in Fellowship Hall, the narthex and the welcome center outside Gibbs on Sundays

When we served at the Mutambara Mission Hospital in Zimbabwe 15 years ago, 90 percent of our beds or floor mats were filled with patients ill with one or a combination of these diseases: HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Of these, malaria was the swiftest killer, and those most at risk included pregnant women and their unborn babies, and children under 5 years of age – the women because malaria parasites invade the placenta and multiply there efficiently; young children because they do not have the resistance achieved simply by living longer.

What a difference as we return there now with mission teams! A massive education promotion and the availability of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs for AIDS have changed a lethal diagnosis into a chronic disease. Preventive measures, including the “Nothing but Nets” project, has cut the number of people dying from malaria in half! Now the busiest unit in the hospital is maternity, where healthy mothers are delivering healthy babies. Glory to God! Indeed, this is good news. Having seen these changes first hand, I am an  enthusiastic supporter of the

Africa 360 initiative, especially its connection to Imagine No Malaria

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“Give Faithfully. Give Hope. Be a Global Neighbor.”

Africa 360 is the Upper New York Conference’s holistic plan for health and education initiatives in Africa. Uniquely, Africa 360 is about dreaming God-sized dreams, ambitiously eliminating preventable deaths from malaria and equipping the next generation of leaders.

www.unyumc.org/mission/Africa -360

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The church has set a goal of $500. Let’s see if we can surpass that goal!

Envelopes for donations are available at the Welcome Centers and by each door.

 ***************************************

Loose change containers will be in Fellowship Hall, the narthex and the welcome center outside Gibbs on Sundays

April 10: Medicine

For the month of April, we will be focusing on Africa 360.

Excerpt from the Africa 306 Lenten Devotional

Written by Pastor Nancy Pullen, retired

I first visited AU in August 1993. I was on my way to a Volunteers-in-Mission project in Mozambique, but we detoured to Zimbabwe to see the new university that United Methodists were building. At that time there were two studies underway: Animal husbandry and theology. We visited the farm, the library, and classrooms housed in the old farmhouse and buildings – pretty basic facilities. A quarter-mile or so away a dormitory was being readied for its first residents and a chapel was being built. AU was those buildings and a dream.

 By 2013, when we went to celebrate 20 years of graduating students, the campus was a full-fledged university. There are six areas of study, several state-of-the-art class buildings, a student building housing a cafeteria, the beautiful chapel, a new library, and dormitories. Nearby were single-family homes that serve as staff housing. The most remarkable part of all of this was everything is paid for. No new building is started until it is funded. The donations came from all over the world and some from Methodists who aren’t part of The United Methodist Church. The chapel was funded by the Korean Methodist Church, for example.

The campus was bustling with students from 26 African countries. Some of those students had been enemies before arriving here and learning to live together. That reminded me of why I support AU. I believe Africa’s best chance for peace and prosperity is in educated leaders. I want to be part of that future for the sake of Africa and of the world. This is one of the ways I try to follow Jesus’ calling to work for peace.

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“Give Faithfully. Give Hope. Be a Global Neighbor.”

Africa 360 is the Upper New York Conference’s holistic plan for health and education initiatives in Africa. Uniquely, Africa 360 is about dreaming God-sized dreams, ambitiously eliminating preventable deaths from malaria and equipping the next generation of leaders.

www.unyumc.org/mission/Africa -360

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The church has set a goal of $500. Let’s see if we can surpass that goal!

Envelopes for donations are available at the Welcome Centers and by each door.

 **************************

Loose change containers will be in Fellowship Hall, the narthex and the welcome center outside Gibbs on Sundays

April 3: Education