[This is the third of four installments about our recent Africa mission trip.]

After spending two days in Zambia our team returned to South Africa, flying to the city of Durban on the Indian Ocean. The population of greater Durban is 3.5 million. It has a beautiful and scenic downtown along the ocean. It is also surrounded by magnificent hills and small mountains. Like other major metropolitan areas in South Africa, about 30% of the population is middle and upper class, and about 70% live at or below the poverty line. One in three people in greater Durban are infected with HIV. Imagine if every third person in your neighborhood - that would be one to two people per household - were infected with HIV.

The Methodist churches in Durban are yoked together - black and white, rich and poor, with an effort to support and help one another. We are working with the Pinetown Circuit (a circuit is a connection of churches that work together) to help build church buildings and community centers in impoverished communities. Those congregations with resources have committed to work together to provide 50% of the cost of buying land and building buildings for those congregations in communities that lack resources. The latter are churches that have met for as long as 60 years in temporary facilities or outside, under trees. These congregations must help with the construction of the buildings and demonstrate vitality and a commitment to developing seven-day a week ministries to their communities. But with per person incomes of $1 per day in many of these communities, these congregations will never raise the funds for building their own buildings (the cost of land and building is between $100,000 and $150,000 - very inexpensive, but even with 50% paid for by the churches with resources, an impossible goal).

This is where Church of the Resurrection comes in. We have agreed to provide the remaining 50% and some volunteer teams to work on some of these projects. The funds come from our annual Golf Tournament and Auction (half of the funds from these two events go towards this project and the other half towards building Habitat houses in Kansas City). So far we have completed two of these churches. We have made commitments for two more churches at this point (there are a total of ten churches in need in this circuit - we will be looking at helping with additional churches in the future).

We were in Durban for the dedication of the Marianridge building. At 6:30 a.m. 40 men from the circuit - their equivelent of United Methodist Men - began singing and dancing through the streets of Marianridge inviting people to come out for the service. At 9:00 a.m. the service began outside the doors, as I presented the key to the building to the Bishop, who opened the door to singing and cheers. It was awesome. I expressed our congregation’s support of their work and our connection in Christ. They presented Resurrection with a congo drum, which I will have in worship next weekend.

It was an awesome day. Over the two days our team worked on two of the churches and visited the sites of the next two churches we’ll be helping to construct. While they did this I led a two day Leadership Institute for 120 pastors and church leaders, offering six sessions on leadership, worship, preaching and evangelism. After this I had the chance to visit the church sites myself.

The next church we’ll be helping to build is the Emmaus Church. They meet in a very impoverished community and their building is about to fall in. They offer a day care center/preschoo during the week and worship and Sunday School on the weekends (see photo below). Following the construction of Emmaus (or perhaps simultaneously with it) we’ll be helping construct Sumago Methodist Church which is located on a hillside overlooking a Zulu village. The congregation currently meets in a metal shipping container (see photos).

I was grateful and proud of the work that we have had the privilege of partnering in in Durban. We are helping to build churches that are transforming their communities. One of the most important insights during my time in Africa was that the problems of poverty and all that goes with it will not be solved my major government initiatives, as important as these may be. The key is smaller initiatives taking place one community at a time and there is no other organization doing more, or with greater potential than the local church at transforming communities.

Here are a few photos of the projects I’ve just described. The first is the Marianridge Church that we dedicated while in Durban.  The second is the Thornwood Church that we provided funds and some of our members helped construct two years ago.  The third photo is inside the Emmaus Church building - the building is about to fall in - the roof trusses are tied together with rope and daylight (and rain) stream in from the ceiling.  This building will be torn down when we have completed a new structure that is safe and equipped to better serve the community.  The fourth photo is the children’s day care that meets in the Emmaus building and is a part of its program to the children in the community.  The next photo shows a home next to the Emmaus Church - I was certain it was abandoned, but when I went to look inside I found a family living there.  The sixth photo is the cargo container that is being used as the temporary sanctuary of the Sumango Church.  And the last photo shows the plans for a new building for the Sumango Church.  This church serves a Zulu village down the hillside.