Self-sustaining food production in Africa will get a $2 million boost after the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries allocated its largest new budget outlay in honor of the late Bishop John K. Yambasu.
Other major new allocations approved during virtual meetings March 24-26 include $1.1 million to aid asylum seekers in the U.S., $1 million to promote environmental causes and $750,000 to address global health issues.
United Methodists “cannot turn a blind eye” to injustice, said Bishop Joaquina Nhanala of Mozambique during a sermon the opening day of the meetings. Not responding to important issues would be like stating, “Jesus does not care,” she said.
“We are all aware of a mixture of tensions affecting our work,” said Roland Fernandes, chief executive of Global Ministries and its subsidiary, the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). COVID-19, uncertainty about the future of the denomination, racism and climate change were cited as examples.
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Yambasu, the bishop of Sierra Leone, died Aug. 16 in a car accident. Among his accomplishments, he provided leadership during the deadly 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak and a landslide that killed hundreds in 2017 in Freetown.
In his ministry, Yambasu also championed agriculture as “the one single game changer” to transform the socio-economic status of the church in Africa.
The Bishop John K. Yambasu Agriculture Initiative began with an inaugural grant of $275,000 in 2020.
“Sustainable agricultural development … in Africa is crucial for a self-reliant African church,” according to the UMCOR Board Authorization publication provided to board members.
“Programs funded through the Bishop John K. Yambasu Agriculture Initiative seek to mobilize existing land and human resources within the church, build long-term community livelihoods and food security as well as support the empowerment and solvency of the local church.”
A $1.1 million allocation will support the refugee and asylum programs of Church World Service, a cooperative ministry of Christian denominations that provides refugee assistance around the world.
Since the Biden administration rolled back the Trump-era policy of requiring all asylum seekers to wait in Mexico until their cases could be processed in the U.S., about 16,000 children have crossed the border without any family or guardians and are in U.S. custody, Kekic said.
“This is where urgency met the emergency,” Kekic said. “This creates a huge need for immediate assistance for those children and for assistance to those cities of their destination to help them have access just to legal proceedings.”
The Global Ministries staff had more money to work with than they anticipated, after nearly a year of COVID-19 shutting down most Sunday services around the world.
More than $2.7 million in additional funding requests were approved, along with about $1.5 million in grants.
excerpt from a story by Jim Patterson, UM News reporter, Nashville, Tennessee
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