“What has come into being in Christ was life,
and the life was the light of all people.
John 1:3b-4
 

Dear friends,

I am very excited about meeting our Africa University intern in June. I believe this holds such wonderful possibilities for our life together. We will experience a pastor who wants to grow in the life of Christ and learn from us. We will also learn from Sylvain Illunga. Every person from Africa University is required to have an internship before graduation. This internship is a dream coming true for Sylvain. As you can imagine, most students do not receive the opportunity to go to the United States.

By the way, Christ UMC on Shroyer Road is also supporting the internship with Sylvain. Although I will do the bulk of the mentoring, Christ UMC is offering financial support and John Parent from their staff will be involved in educating Sylvain on the financial aspects of administering a large church.

As many of you know, Zimbabwe is becoming a more dangerous place. After a national election, the president Robert Mugabe has refused to release results. Most fear that election results have not been released because Mugabe lost the election. The 28 years of his presidency have been marked by megalomania, human rights abuses, and economic collapse. This is a rough time for the people of Zimbabwe. Through the years nearly half of the population has left because there are so few jobs available and inflation is more than 10,000%. United Methodists are suffering along with everyone else, and Africa University is hurting, too.

On April 24 Mugabe had the police raid the independent election team’s headquarters in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. On May 4th the interns coming to Dayton must leave Zimbabwe through Harare. It is hoped that by the time you read this Reporter that things have settled down. However, it appears that Mugabe has no plans to hand over power to anyone else no matter what the elections say. Please pray for the peace of Zimbabwe and safe travel for Sylvain, Eric, and Marcel as they make their way back to the Congo before coming to the United States. We trust together that Christ is the light for all people. We do know that the interns have received their airline tickets. Next they must apply for visas. Sylvain’s first Sunday at Church of the Cross will be on June 8th.

Blessings,