Help provide food for abandoned, orphaned children

By Jo Anne Wilshusen
St. John’s UMC, Corpus Christi
Wars have been ongoing in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1996. More than 4 million people have been killed.
Deaths resulting from wars, along with the loss of both parents through the ravages of HIV/AIDS; the influx of refugees from Rwanda, Burundi and other nearby countries (a large percentage of whom were children); and the extreme poverty of much of Africa have put countless abandoned and malnourished children on Congo streets. Families, already struggling to feed their family members, have taken in additional children, attempting to stretch their meager resources as they care for their existing family as well as additional children from the streets.
In July 2004 a Volunteer in Mission Team from St. John’s UMC, Corpus Christi, visited the North Katanga Conference at the invitation of Bishop Ntambo Nkulu Ntambo. During our visit, we assisted with the feeding programs in the nutrition center and with the orphans. We saw firsthand how the church was able to provide three nutritious meals per week for each child in these two places. Funding for these feeding programs was through the United Methodist Committee on Relief.
Since that time, even though United Methodists have given generously to UMCOR in response to the tsunami disaster, several major earthquakes and other emergency needs, the committee can no longer fund three meals per week in Congo.
When our team made its visit, members saw how the Methodist Church in Kamina has sought to provide both “place” and food for more than 700 children still left homeless and malnourished despite the best efforts of the families and churches of Kamina. While there, we visited a feeding center for malnourished children as well as a project for orphans.
We visited the orphanage that was being built with funds received from The Bishop’s Appeal for the Children of Africa. Since our visit, that orphanage has been completed, but funding for the program, including the feeding and medical needs of the children, has not been forthcoming. UMCOR funds cannot be stretched to cover these needs, nor can the committee provide but one nutritional meal per child per week.
We can help change this by giving through the United Methodist Church’s Advance for Christ and His Church. One Advance project has a goal of raising $80,000 per year through 2008 to provide at least three nourishing meals per week—along with room, loving care and medicine —for each of the hundreds of children driven to the streets of Kamina.
One hundred percent of funds given through the Advance will go directly to the project for which it is specified. Bishop Ntambo has said, “Establishing a program for assisting abandoned and malnourished children must of necessity seek funding from sources outside the North Katanga Conference.”
St. John’s UMC, Corpus Christi, is making gifts through “Advance for Christ and His Church Project 14398 FX: A” our high priority.
Please join St. John’s by also making this a high priority in your mission giving. Giving will help your congregation become a 5- Star in Mission Church by fulfilling the requirement to give to a World Mission Project. If your church would like to have a DVD presentation, which includes segments on both the Nutrition Center and the Orphanage, please contact Jo Anne Wilshusen. She will work with you on the possibility of scheduling a presentation. Wilshusen can be reached at jaw@ wjcconsulting.com or (361) 991-6244.
Assistance for abandoned and Malnourished Children, 2005-2008,
No. 14398: A.
Location: Kamina in Congo
Sponsor: North Katanga Conference, Bishop Ntambo Nkulu Ntanda.