Education is the way forward

Mission Afrikas management report 2018. It is exciting, challenging and ever-changing when we do mission work. We constantly have the joy of experiencing how God makes the puzzle pieces fit, change situations, gives endurance and blesses us.

By Anne Mie Skak Johanson, Chairman of Mission Afrika’s board of directors.

Mission Afrika works with her partners in some very challenging areas, both in terms of living conditions, social structure and safety. We are aware of this and know that we must work hard and that there may be obstacles along the way. We have experienced a change in the understanding of mission and our global responsibility in our own ecclesiastical homeland. This new development opens for exciting possibilities but also challenges and we have to come together as a missionary society and be clear about what we hope to accomplish and be brave. It brings us great joy to take part in the mission and share the good news of the peace, righteousness, and salvation of the kingdom of God.

We have had a special focus on education in 2018, which we’ve called “Education is the way forward”. We have chosen this theme of the year because we know how much of a difference a good education can make and because we’re seeing the lack of education in several of the places where we are engaged. Furthermore, education is one of the four visions listed in our Vision 2020 mission statement, on which we’ve been working since 2015.

Education for the benefit of everyone
Mission Afrika’s educational efforts are unfolding in multiple ways. Through our widespread stipend- & capacity building program we’ve supported several school activities with our partners every year. We’ve focused on the support not only benefiting a single person but for it to benefit both the church and the society. A few examples of the grants of recent years: Two leadership training courses for every employee at SAT-7’s international headquarters, thorough leadership training courses for two of the bishops in the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria, a leadership course for the coordinator of the Cameroon missionaries in Mali, support towards a team of pastor candidates and a dentist in Cameroon as well as the education of several finance employees of the Central African Republic.

This March I participated in the World Mission Conference in Tasmania, where more than a thousand people from all over the world came together to talk about mission. It was made very clear at the conference, how massive a growth had taken place among the churches of Africa in recent years. It’s important for us in the Western world to be part of that growth and at the same time make sure the growth also leads to theological reflection and that the churches have the leadership it needs to handle the growth.
Education is extremely important in this context.

Fellowship and theological schooling
Theological education has also been part of the agenda in our meetings with the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria, regarding a new three-year action plan, that will be signed by the board of directors in September. A dream that we already are setting in motion for short-term missionaries to assist the ongoing theological training in Cameroon. Theologian Lene Skovmark visited Cameroon for 3 weeks in the fall of 2017. During her time there she managed to instruct 97 theological students, 30 catechist students and 250 graduate pastors in a pastoral care seminar with the headline “Fellowship by faith”. It has already been agreed upon that she will be returning during January 2019.

It starts with proper training
We are aware that it not only is the management level, that is in need of training and education. This why we’re happy to support school work in different places. The satellite-TV station SAT-7, which Mission Afrika supports, has a strong focus on helping children. They were able to launch the ‘SAT-7 ACADEMY’ channel in the fall of 2017, which primarily airs school related TV programs for the many children that can’t be schooled, because of wars and other conflicts. The SAT-7 KIDS channel, which Mission Afrika supported directly in 2018, also focuses on the general education of kids as well as offering spiritual care and encouragement.

In 2017 we were able to assist the Central African Republic Lutheran church with the starting of classes in five new schools in the Bouar-Bokaranga area and helped secure schooling and teachers for approximately 718 children. The UN estimates that only a third of the children in the Central African Republic have access to schools. In some of the areas, in which Mission Afrika have helped start schools, there hasn’t been access to schooling since the ‘60s. The original goal was to expand the number of schools this year, but we’ve had to slow down a little due to a low capacity in the local school administration.

Two thirty-year anniversaries in 2018
Mission Afrika’s partnerships have been around for many years, and some of our youngest partnerships get to celebrate their 30-year anniversary this year. In 1998 we began our partnership with Church of the Lutheran Brethren of Cameroon and SAT-7. We have now got a total of 7 partnerships, which also include: the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria, Mission Fraternelle Lutherienne au Mali, Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Central African Republic, PROCMURA (The Programme for Christian-Muslim Relations in Africa) and The Anglican Diocese of Bo, Sierra Leone. We haven’t had any activities in Sierra Leone recently, due to a major case of corruption, which has necessitated a slowdown in cooperation. We are having constant talks with the church and with the church’s partners regarding a resumption of our cooperation in the future. In addition to the seven previously mentioned partners, we also support the work of Citi Ministries in Nigeria, but the cooperation is being phased out and will expire by the end of 2018.

We are so grateful for everything we get to achieve in cooperation with our partners. The activities are so extensive. In Nigeria and Cameroon, we’ve been heavily supporting the church’s evangelization efforts in both rural and urban areas, including direct support to more than one hundred evangelists. In Cameroon, we have worked for years to strengthen the church in its meeting with Islam, among other things in the wake of the refugee crisis caused by the terror group Boko Haram. We are currently discussing different new activities, for which we are likely seeking funding from DMRU/Danida in the fall of 2018.

Health and retail
We are very preoccupied with health activities in the Central African Republic, on top of the previously mentioned school project. We still support the health centre in the village of Bohong, and we managed to complete a DMRU/Danida-funded project in 2017, which has made the establishment of four new local health-related jobs. This activity is definitely making a difference and saving lives, as pregnant and ill people no longer have to walk far to get the help they need.

Last year’s exciting new activity was Euroshop in Mali, which is a store fitted with the surplus products of Danish clothing manufacturers. The products are sold at competitive prices and help fund new developments in Mali, one of which is a new phase in a large scale DMRU/Danida funded agriculture/education project for women. The store launched in June 2017 and had a surplus profit of 50.000 Danish Kroner after only 6 months. A new container with 25.795 pieces of clothing was shipped to Mali in the fall of 2018. We are extremely grateful for the amazing cooperation with the Danish companies that have been supplying the store. These companies currently include: HRT Textiles, Danefæ, Jeva, Christine Headwear and Trade Expert. The volunteering Mali-project group has also been helping out with the project and has been a great help in unpacking the containers.

The development in Nigeria
We have been pleased with the meetings with the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria’s new archbishop Musa Panti Filibus and the administration of the church. Mission Afrikas former Secretary General Peter Fischer-Nielsen and I participated in a positive partner meeting in Abuja in September of 2017, where several points were discussed. We are still awaiting a response on some of the opportunities we brought up during the meeting, distribution of volunteers, the exchange of priests and employees, a joint commitment regarding Christian-Muslim relations and the future of theological education support among other things. We can already get into some of the points discussed – others await negotiations regarding a new cooperation agreement and action plan. An interesting development is the fact that the Viborg diocese has agreed to resume friendly relations with the church in Nigeria by request of Mission Afrika. We also expect archbishop Musa Panti Filibus will participate in Heavenly Days in Herning in 2019 per invitation.

Sadly, the parish of Numan in northern Nigeria was hit by bloody conflicts between nomads and permanent residents around Christmas, many people lost their lives, villages were burnt down and people were in some cases displaced. We have been in close contact with the church and offered them our prayers and support throughout the entire ordeal. In our homeland, we’ve been continuously keeping people updated about the situation and encouraged everyone to keep the affected families of Nigeria in their prayers. We have been offering the church economic support since the beginning of the conflict in the form of relief efforts, but we haven’t received a request yet. We’ve been told that many local congregations and individuals have made a great effort and raised their own money towards the relief efforts. The last thing we heard from the church was that they’d like to get a better understanding of the needs in the slightly longer run, before asking Mission Afrika for help.

Relations are important
Living partnerships require active contact. Although we’re excited about the new opportunities for contact the internet and social media have given us, it is also important for a healthy amount of face-to-face contact. Our partner coordinators play an important role in this regard, as they with their frequent trips to our partner countries are fostering a daily link between them and us.

To strengthen our focus on theological education and Christian-Muslim relations we hired Clement Stephen Dachet as a new partner coordinator towards the end of 2017. He is also responsible for Christian-Muslim relations and intercultural activities in Denmark and has among other things held a lecture about the meeting of cultures at several of the recycling events of the year. Through a cooperation arrangement with The Intercultural Council, he has been using a quarter of his time to create ties between the Danish National Church and Danish migrant congregations. The Intercultural Council contributes to his salary.

Besides Clement, Hanna Rosenlund Meilandt has also been hired as a partner coordinator. She has solid experience with involving volunteers in the global ecclesiastical work. Hanna took over the position from Maria Haahr, whom now works for the umbrella organisation CISU. We have been very pleased with Maria’s hard work during the years she’s been with Mission Afrika, and we wish her all the best in the future.

Relations can’t however just be through our coordinators, and we have held many exciting meetings between Danish people and our partners in the south in recent years. Mette & Claus Swartz Andersen had their volunteer contract with SAT-7 extended and started their 4th year in Cyprus in September. In May 2018 they went on a 14-day meeting trip around Denmark and brought the inspiration from important TV-work to many churches, associations, and schools. In January we sent our first volunteer to SAT-7, namely Joel Zakarias Dam, who has been doing a great job at the SAT-7 PARS studio in Limassol. We hope to be able to send a volunteering young married couple to SAT-7 in the spring of 2019.

Volunteers and short-term missionaries
The church in Cameroon has also received Danish volunteers. In the fall we sent out Emma Aninne Bjerre and Agnete Rix Wad as deanery volunteers in collaboration with the Ikast-Brande deanery. After returning from a very profitable trip, they have travelled around the country and shared their experiences with confirmation candidates among other people. We are looking forward to sending more volunteers to Cameroon in the fall of 2018.

We have also been sending out several short-term missionaries in recent years. Nurse Rikke Vestergaard started a four-month stay in Dakka in Nigeria this year, where she contributed greatly to the local health work and at the bible school. This year she was accompanied by doctor Rikke Silberbauer, who was not sent out by Mission Afrika. Theologian Lene Skovmark was, as mentioned earlier in the report, on a teaching stay in Cameroon, and during the fall, we sent nurses Marianne Kilerich and Merete Værge on an investigation assignment in Cameroon. During their 14-day trip they mapped out the different health needs in the church’s work area, and Mission Afrikas volunteering health project group will now use this information to potentially start new important activities in the area.

Fully booked travel experiences
In the fall of 2017, we launched a travel concept called “Travel experiences”, where we offer the chance to get to know our partners a bit better, to anyone interested. So far, we’ve sold out every trip. The first trip went to Cyprus in October 2017, here 25 participants had the opportunity to get acquainted with SAT-7’s work. The second trip went to Cameroon in February 2018, here 14 participants had the opportunity to meet several congregations and had an exciting and close impression of the church’s work. Representatives from the church of Lemvig were among the participants on the trip, and they got to have a friendly meeting with their friendship congregation in Garoua. The next trip will once again go to Cyprus, where another 25 participants will embark in October 2018. It’s lovely to see the great interest in our trips and the positive feedback we have received from previous participants.

We have experienced that it is often easier to send Danish people in the world than it is to bring representatives from our partners to Denmark. Last year’s annual meeting guest Cathérine Naabeau from the Central African Republic didn’t make it for the appointed time because of visa issues, but she did get into Denmark albeit a bit late, and it turned out to be a great experience for both her and anyone that had the pleasure of meeting her. The volunteering Central Africa-group had put a lot of work into planning the visit. We were less fortunate with our guest for the Mission Africa day of the year to Denmark. Because of an extensive and seemingly never-ending visa processing process, we had to eventually cancel Elizabeth Kodio from Mali’s visit. We can only regret that the Danish authorities are making it increasingly difficult for our partners to visit. It is incomprehensible considering our long and good experience with having foreign visitors. At the time of writing, we are looking forward to two partner visits, that should by all accounts not run into any visa problems. We have invited SAT-7 founder Terence Ascott to hold a sermon in Aarhus Election Congregation in June, and we’re looking forward to being joined by the Cameroon church president Robert Goyek during our annual board meeting in September.

Ebola-nyheder fra BBC

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• 04. aug. - The Joy of Sharing
• 07. okt. - When people are fleeing, we must take responsibility
• 18. feb. - The chairman has the floor
• 18. feb. - We have a lot to be grateful for!

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