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MWC will Deliver on Promise of Support for Zimbabwe

STRASBOURG, France — An eight-member Koinonia Delegation representing global Anabaptist-related churches will visit Zimbabwe August 16-29. The team will go to learn, listen, encourage and stand beside Mennonite World Conference member churches there.

Larry Miller, MWC general secretary, in his closing remarks at the 2003 global assembly in Bulawayo, said to the thousands of Brethren in Christ brothers and sisters present, “We will not forget you.” Now that promise has moved to action.

The BIC Church and the country of Zimbabwe continue to suffer due to severe food and fuel shortages, lack of medical services, the exodus of professionals, record high inflation and unemployment, and political tension.

Pakisa Tshimika, MWC associate general secretary, will lead the Koinonia Delegation. While its primary purpose is support other than financial for churches under duress, this first delegation will carry a gift of $15,000 from the global church. Leaders of the BICC in Zimbabwe will discern how best to use the money in consultation with Tshimika so that legal requirement in the US and Canada can be met.

The Koinonia Delegation will be international, reflecting the composition and the voice of the global MWC family of faith. The team is made up of people with various skills, representing their region but not their individual churches, conferences or countries. They will lead workshops on leadership training, peace-making and HIV/AIDS in the church, as requested by the Zimbabwe BICC, and visit congregations, institutions and individuals.

They will also participate in the annual national assembly of the Zimbabwe BICC from August 22 to August 26.

In addition to Tshimika, who was born in Congo but now lives in California (USA), the team includes Beatriz Barrios, Barbara Kaercher, Mesach Krisetya, Pascal Kulungu, Dan Nighswander, Yvonne Snider Nighswander, all of whom attended Assembly 14 in Bulawayo in 2003, and John Byers

Barrios, a pastor from Uruguay and a member of a local interdenominational group of intercessors, is the Latin American team member.

Byers, a North American, is a retired BICC pastor and bishop from Mt. Joy, Pennsylvania (USA), who has had training and experience in conflict transformation. He is currently Pastor of Congregational Ministries at Messiah Village.

Kaercher, a nurse from Germany, is the team member from Europe. She will also represent AMIGOS, the MWC youth and young adult group which emerged from the Global Youth Summit at the 2003 global assembly.

Krisetya, who was president of MWC 1997—2003 and is professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling at the Satya Wacana Christian University in Salatiga, Indonesia, as well as a member of the Salatiga Mennonite Church board, is the Asian team member.

Kulungu, the African team member, is a Mennonite Brethren leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is director of the Center of Peace building, Leadership and Good Governance based in Kinshasa, and financial director at Christian University of Kinshasa.

The Nighswanders, Canadians now serving in South Africa on behalf of Mennonite Church Canada Witness through Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission, are North American team members. Dan, a former pastor and teacher, most recently was General Secretary of Mennonite Church Canada and Yvonne was a research assistant at the Provinical Archives of Manitoba.

The delegation will gather for orientation in Johannesburg, South Africa on August 16 and then in Bulawayo for further direction from Danisa Ndlovu, MWC president-elect and bishop of the BICC in Zimbabwe.

Koinonia delegations were proposed and approved by the MWC General Council at the mini-assembly in California in 2006. Other delegations are expected in the future.

— Ferne Burkhardt, MWC news editor