Rwandan leader tells of UMC efforts to build school

Superintendent seeks
contributions to help
finish job by Dec. 31

By Claudia M. Williams
Staff Writer
A leader in The United Methodist Church’s East Africa Conference was in San Antonio Oct. 11 to raise awareness of church work in Rwanda.
The Rev. Kaberuka Jupa, district superintendent for Rwanda, a country with more than 65,000 United Methodists, spoke to a group of mission volunteers at University UMC, San Antonio.
Denise Barker, associate pastor of University UMC for justice and mission ministry, invited Jupa to San Antonio to “introduce the (Southwest Texas) conference, the San Antonio District and University UMC to the work he’s doing in Rwanda and to plant the seed as a potential place to be in connectional ministry.”
Central to Jupa’s presentation was information about a secondary boarding school for girls that Rwandan United Methodists are building in Kigali.
“The priority in rebuilding a country (after the 1994 genocide) was to start schools,” Jupa said, “because without education there is no future. To be without education is to be like an animal.”
The school Jupa described, along with an adjacent church building, is being built on land given to the church by the government—with conditions attached. The government imposed an 18-month construction time limit, which expires at the end of 2005.
If the school does not open in January, the government-imposed deadline, the land may be confiscated and given to another party, Jupa said. In addition, if construction meets certain requirements, the government will pay teachers’ salaries for the first year.
“We need only three weeks to finish construction,” Jupa said. The builders are making little progress, though, because they have no money to purchase construction material, which costs $80,000.
Rwandan United Methodists themselves are constructing the adjacent church building, which is to be home to The United Methodist Church in Rwanda. To raise funds for that construction, Jupa asked each United Methodist in the country to contribute $1. Because the priority of the church members is to build the church, Jupa said, “We can’t take that money to the school.” Therefore, Jupa is appealing to the United Methodist connection for money to support the school construction.
“We are one body in Jesus Christ,” Jupa said. “If you hurt your thumb, your thumb does not go to the hospital alone. The rest of the body goes with it.”
He said that Rwanda, faced with rampant malaria and HIV/AIDS and hampered by the scarcity of clean water, needs help from other United Methodists.
Barker said, “United Methodists must be aware of the good things happening in Rwanda as well as the desperate needs.” As a connection, she continued, “we have to know each other, and we have to feel each other’s pain.
“We are so blessed here in the United States. Rwanda is the poorest country in the world.”
The Rev. John Feagins, pastor of Chapel Hill UMC and San Antonio District Volunteers in Mission coordinator, said Jupa’s presentation challenged United Methodists to “know how to respond as Christians to a country that needs financial support.”
Feagins said Jupa’s presentation gave the audience perspective on relative costs in Rwanda.
“The school building,” Feagins said, “works out to $10 a square foot.”
Although education is a priority in Rwanda, it is not free. Jupa reported that tuition for primary school is $130 a year. Secondary school tuition is $345. One year of college costs $3,450. Students rely heavily on scholarships, but few are available.
“If we have 500 children who need a scholarship and we have only five to give, we write ‘scholarship’ on five pieces of paper and put them into a bowl with many other pieces of paper,” he said. Children draw randomly from the bowl. Whoever draws a piece of paper marked “scholarship” gets to attend school.
Barker met Jupa when she happened across a construction-site sign in Rwanda bearing the United Methodist cross and flame. The two struck up an immediate friendship. When she heard Jupa was coming to the United States, she took the opportunity to bring him to San Antonio for a day to tell the story of the Rwandan church’s work to as many local United Methodists as possible.
Jupa came to the United States in mid-September as a guest of the United Christian Parish of Reston, Va. He was to return to Rwanda this Oct. 26.
The United Christian Parish is an ecumenical church uniting four denominations in ministry: The United Methodist Church, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the United Church of Christ.