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    Nov 17, 2019

    Missions Sunday

    Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can. ~John Wesley

    Mbwizu Ndjungu’s story

    My name is Mbwizu Ndjungu.    I was born into a royal family in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  My father was king but died when I was 3 and my uncle made my mother take me and my twin brother, age 3, to the British missionaries. After hearing my mother’s story, the three women missionaries decided to take care of us as their own children.

    One day, at the age of about 8, they asked me a question: “What would you like to become when you grow up?” I told them that I would like to be a missionary like them. “Why would you like to become a missionary?”, they continued. I replied that I wanted to be able to help other children and their mothers who might be in the same situation as my family. They told me that the idea was good, but it was a dream that could not come true because Africans could not become missionaries - only Americans and Europeans.

    Now, I know that they were wrong because God knows better than we do. He heard my wish, which was actually a prayer, and he granted me a positive answer.  In 1997 God called me to missions; and I accepted the call. Before that, I worked as a midwife for 12 years in the Congo.  During 10 years in Senegal, I worked to feed hungry children; and in Cameroon I worked 9 years providing eye consultations and distributing free eye glasses to many people.   I thank God because he has allowed me to pay back  in a small portion what He did for my twin brother and me years ago. May His name be praised! 

    Rev. Dr. Nkemba Ndjungu’s  story

    When I was a small boy my mother used to take me to church service every Sunday, and I was baptized at the age of 13. I attended a boarding high school led by British missionaries of the Church of the Brethren. When I was a junior in that high school, the British missionaries selected me and several others to become Sunday school teachers for the children of the elementary school. Each week, the missionaries taught us the Bible lesson we, in turn, had to teach to the kids. The more I learned Bible stories the more I found them fascinating. I didn’t know that those lessons were having a huge impact on my life. In 1977, all British missionaries left my country because of civil war.  I returned to that school to be the French teacher. Besides French, I also taught “Religion class” and I was in charge of organizing morning devotions every day. I considered it to be an honor and a privilege for me to be able to fulfill the tasks that befell on missionaries before; but I didn’t know that it was a preparation of some sort for a mission call that I would have to answer sometime in the future.

    When my local church began to include me in the Sunday preaching plan, I realized that my tasks of organizing the morning devotions and preaching at the church were becoming more and more challenging. I decided to attend the Methodist School of Theology, the only Seminary in our region, in order to be well equipped for these tasks.

    While in Seminary, I realized that I was being called into mission service, through my professor of Missiology, Dr. David Persons who has worked all his life in the DRC as a missionary. On the last day of his class, he had a prayer session with all the students and he told every student what he believed was the calling of each one. When my turn came, he said: “God will call you into mission service, I don’t know when, but it will happen; just be ready!” To be honest, I didn’t believe him because I didn’t think that an African could become a missionary in those days. But soon, I learned that I was wrong. The Lord taught me something new: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways”, says the Lord (Isaiah 55: 8); and “see, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43: 18a).

    Thirteen years later, in 1996, I was a delegate at the General Conference of the United Methodist Church in Denver, Colorado, when Bishop Katembo Kainda of the Southern Congo Annual Conference, told me that the General Board of Global Ministries was looking for someone to send to Senegal as a missionary. He encouraged me to apply, which I did. In April 1997, I was notified that I was selected, and in August of the same year, my wife and I and three of our six children came to Atlanta, GA, for a six months missionary training. Thus began our missionary journey. After the training, my family and I arrived in Senegal in March 1998. After spending 10 years in Senegal, I left for my Masters in Sacred Theology at Boston University. Then back into mission, I continued to serve in Cameroon for another nine years and completed my Doctor of Ministry at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington D.C. before arriving in Belize where we serve now.

    If we understand that the Church is God’s mission to the world, then we realize that every Christian is a missionary. When I look back at my missionary journey, I cannot say that I decided to be a missionary. Rather, I was called into missionary service, and I am glad I accepted the call. I am humbled to realize how the Lord chose me and prepared me for mission service and I praise him immensely.

    Sue Porter’s Story 

    My journey began when I was 49 years old, had been working as a pediatric nurse practioner and my daughter, Becky, was in college. I had always thought about working overseas in areas where there aren’t the same resources as we have in the US. In 1998, I was a representative for RUMC to the annual conference where Bishop May gave a call to missions and I responded. God was what had been missing.

    I was commissioned as a missionary of  the General Board of Global Missions of the UMC in December of 2000 and retired in December of 2012.

    I first served 6 years in Afghanistan, doing community health and development because Christian  missionaries are not allowed to work in that country. From 2006 to 2012, I was in Liberia, West Africa working with the Liberian UMC at their nursing school in Ganta.

    These countries were very different - but similar -in that they were post civil war, and suffered with high illiteracy rates and poor health care.  The challenges were many  but what stands out are the people and relationships.

    The people I lived with had different cultures, language, history - nothing I could relate to. But by getting to know each other on a daily basis, we learned about each other. People have the same desires for themselves and their children as we do and, basically, are good.

    Hopefully, I helped to improve the people’s knowledge of health practices which  will influence the countries’ poor health conditions. Even though I wasn’t evangelizing in the strict sense of the word, I found that actions can, and do, speak louder than words. Like the song says “they will know we are Christians by our love.”

    My mission experiences greatly affected me. I learned: .

    - about how resilient people are after the most horrific experiences and in the worst circumstances;

    - about generosity. How people who have nothing share.

    - about family and community. The family, extended family and community are very important. Relationships and taking time for them overshadows their daily life and defines what is important. At times, life depended on it, but even in a general way that cultural expectation is pervasive.

    - how creative and resourceful people are.

    - how easily we judge people, depending on their circumstances which we really don’t understand.  We really need to peel the onion of all those layers to understand a person.

    My missionary journey helped me define what being poor is and how little I really need.

    Most importantly, the experience affected my relationship with God. A deeper knowledge of His love; how to trust Him fully with my life; how my life and my needs work together with His plan and needs for His people.  

    Always with you in Spirit, Sue Porter