Summer 2007 - Focus on Africa - Brethren in Christ Church

their visiting relatives—will see the Lordthrough me.I feel sure God has called me in theministry of peacemaking and reconciliation.I love to become reconciled withpeople and I want to help reconcilepeople (2 Cor. 5:18-20) with each other.Not that I have obtained all this, or havebeen made perfect, but I press on (Philippians3:12-14.), and I’m confi dent thatGod will continue to work in me (Philippians1:6). ❦Esther Kalambo is a chaplain at MachaHospital in Zambia. Two years ago, she wasable to attend the retreat of the BIC Council onWomen in Ministry and Leadership at KenbrookBible Camp, and was a blessing to all those whoattended and heard her testimony.Global Giants and the Canadian ConferenceBy Brian BellMatthew 9:36 states that when Jesus“saw the crowds, he had compassion onthem, because they were harassed andhelpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”Three summers ago I heard Rick Warrengive a talk about the church’s responseto “Global Giants” as he called them.These fi ve giants were identifi ed as thefi ve biggest problems of the whole worldand they were 1) spiritual emptiness, 2)corrupt leadership, 3) extreme poverty, 4)pandemic diseases, 5) illiteracy and lackof education. As I sat and listened, I had aclear sense that we could not not respond(sorry about the double negative but thatis the way it came across to me). Theseproblems were so large and so overwhelmingthat the church of Jesus Christ, asexpressed in the Canadian Conference ofthe Brethren in Christ, must fi gure out away to respond under my watch as Bishop.I began to think and pray about this andhere is a little of what has transpired sincethat day.In April 2006 at our Canadian ConferenceAnnual Meeting, I shared my sensefrom my experience in the above paragraphand invited our people to attend afall gathering which we titled “The AfricanDream.” This came from a beautifulsong about Africa from the Soweto GospelChoir which we used at that gatheringwith some powerful creative interpretivemovement provided by Jennifer Baker.At this night we also heard from SarahAdams, HIV/AIDS coordinator for MCC,about her work around the world with theGenerations at Risk ministry of MCC.In December 2006 my wife Lori andour daughter Jessica and I had the opportunityto visit Haiti for two weeks wherewe stayed with Mission of Hope. A BICcouple, Travis and Elisha Smith, were ina one-year service role helping to manageThuma Hamukang’andu, bishop of the Zambian Brethren in Christ Church, with Brian Bell, bishopof the Canadian Conference of the Brethren in Christ Church.a small orphanage on the campus of Missionof Hope. I had been in Haiti in 1980and now some 26 years later saw little byway of development in this very desperatecountry. I prayed, “how, Lord, how willthese Global Giants be fought”?During the early part of <strong>2007</strong> we hadthe opportunity to continue on with thetheme of the African Dream by invitingthe Bishop of the Zambian BIC Church,Bishop Thuma Hamukang’andu’ to attendour <strong>2007</strong> Annual Meeting. BishopHamukang’andu spent about two weekswith various churches within the conferenceand in his gracious way invited usinto the hearts and lives of the Africanpeople. We were so humbled by his presenceamong us and we continued to learna little bit more about the challenges thatour African brothers and sisters face daily.Still the response to the Global Giants wasnot clear in my mind nor was it likely tobe easy.As of this writing we are planning to<strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2007</strong> • Page 5