If there is one plea that pervades every discussion of the Bishops' Appeal: Hope for the Children of Africa, it is the matter of urgency–of getting assistance to the children now. When you visit countries that are engaged in or recovering from civil wars on the African continent, you begin to understand why.

Rwandan children, many of them orphaned, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photo courtesy of the UMC of the Congo.

In Liberia, shells of buildings destroyed in the war rise from the ground like tombstones. In Angola, thousands of children in the countryside are close to death from malnutrition. In Burundi, children play atop a mass grave of the war dead. In Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, refugees languish in crowded, unsanitary camps. In Kenya, young children of parents exiled by war can no longer afford the school fees necessary to continue their education.

It was these and other atrocities heaped upon the children of Africa by countless civil wars that in 1997 prompted the Council of Bishops to establish the Bishops' Appeal: Hope for the Children of Africa.

The assault on the continent of Africa has been both external and internal. Colonization, post-colonial meddling, and the present neglect of Africa by Western powers have played a part in the proliferation of wars there. Ethnic rivalries and struggles to control the rich natural resources of the continent have resulted in fighting within and between countries. Yet, since Africa has yet to become a major player in the global economic market, the wars that rage there go unchecked by Western powers.

The Bishops' Stories

As is usually the case, the children are the worst casualties of decades of strife. Bishop Arthur Kulah of Liberia laments the fact that so many children in his country have been robbed of their childhood. "Many of them have been made to fight, to loot, to steal," he says. "That has had a devastating effect on them and they must be cared for. Sometimes people say the people of Liberia are asking too much. Well, if you have been at war for eight years and almost everything has been destroyed or devastated, there is always an urgency to ask more."

Lesley Crosson, left, shows a digital camera to children in Burundi. Photo by Celinda Hughes.

The toll in Liberia is more than 150,000 people killed and a million displaced–most of them children. Bishop Kulah and his wife, like many other Liberians, have filled their home with more than 30 war orphans whom they care for and educate. One major concern is that uncared-for children might be seduced into signing up as soldiers if fighting breaks out again. The attraction would be the sense of belonging to a community and the possibility of food and lodging. Bishop Kulah is determined that the church do whatever is necessary to prevent consigning any more young people to lives of hopelessness. "There is no time to wait," he said. "Soon these children will have lost their entire childhoods. They will grow up having known only war and violence and pain. The people of God must come to their rescue before it is too late."

That sentiment is echoed by Bishop J. Alfred Ndoricimpa of the East Africa Annual Conference. Ndoricimpa has been in exile from Burundi for the past seven years. The casualty estimate for Burundi is more than 200,000 killed since 1993 and more than a million–most of them women and children–displaced. "The children have hope because we trust in Him who won the victory at Calvary," Bishop Ndoricimpa says. "We believe that one day we will overcome these difficulties. That is why we cannot stop educating the children and caring for them. It is why we must stand together to nurture this faith and hope that lives in our children."

Children of the Glenview UMC in Zimbabwe. Photo by Celinda Hughes.

A classroom in the Kayole United Methodist Church in Nairobi, Kenya, where Bishop Ndoricimpa sits surrounded by children studying grammar, is a good example of why the children need help and need it now. The young students are the children of Hutus from Burundi, forced into exile by the fighting between the Hutus and the Tutsis. Sitting backwards in their seats, the children put their papers on the bench backs. They have to use the bench backs as desks in order to write.

It is easy to believe that the church in North America and Europe is mobilizing, once again, to quickly deliver charity to the children of Africa. That, according to Bishop Kenneth Carder of Tennessee, challenges us to rethink our understanding of mission, which is reciprocal. Bishop Carder says it is important for all to recognize that the vibrant witness and abiding faith of the people of Africa are the African church's gifts to the church as a whole. "The Bishops' Appeal is much more than an attempt to raise money," he points out. "It is an opportunity to witness hope to the children of Africa by being in solidarity with them."

Missioners of Hope

The people who most visibly embody the church's solidarity with the children of Africa are the Missioners of Hope, most of whom are African. They are being sent by the General Board of Global Ministries to several countries in Africa in support of the Appeal. Missioner Matthew Williams, 28, has been working in the Christian Education Department of the Liberia Annual Conference since last September. "I thank God for the Missioner of Hope ministry," he said. "It is the beginning of restoring the spiritual and physical well-being of these children. We must care for them lovingly and immediately if they are to be healed and helped."

Some of the UMC members who celebrated the commissioning of the Missioners of Hope in Kitwe, Zambia. Photo by Lesley Crosson.

Missioner George M. Warner, 35, is working with Burundian and Rwandan refugees in the Kigoma refugee camp in Tanzania. "I am motivated by the fact that I have been uprooted myself," he says. "I know what it is to lose everything, even your identity, and how important it is to bring hope and dignity back to these children as quickly as possible. We must let the children know that God has not forgotten them."

A Timely Response

The goals of the Bishops' Appeal are to help the church in Africa build new schools and orphanages, carry out new ministries to children traumatized by war, and restore children's ministries damaged by the fighting.

Children served by the United Methodist Church of Burundi. Photo by John Coleman.

The Appeal encourages annual conferences in the United States and Europe to establish relationships with conferences in Africa. The entire church participated in Advent and Lenten offerings for the Appeal. Still, the $12 million goal has not yet been met. The Appeal will continue for as long as it takes to provide the needed resources.

Acknowledging that the world is beset by many disasters to which the church is called to respond, Bishop Emilio De Carvalho of Angola urged the church not to lose sight of the crisis in Africa."When there are hurricanes, the church comes and helps," he points out. "This crisis is urgent and the church must come now. You don't plan for an emergency; you simply do what you can to deal with it. People are waiting for the church to come, and it must not come too late."

The Angolan government estimates that two million Angolans, out of a population of about 12 million, have been displaced by civil war. About one million people are facing starvation because of the fighting, and 15 percent of the children under age five are suffering serious malnutrition.

Anna S. Kpaan, the district superintendent in Monrovia, Liberia, recalls the weeks she and her family spent trying to escape the fighting in Liberia. "We were always on the run," she says, "going for weeks without food. Because of that, some of our older children have just started going to school. Some children don't even know where their parents are. We picked up as many children as we could who had dropped by the wayside and we took them in. They have been embraced by people here in Liberia, but they must be embraced by the entire church and loved back to wholeness. This cannot be put off until tomorrow."

"In all the countries whose economies have been devastated by war and whose children have had their childhoods stolen, the spirit of Christ is alive and well," proclaims Bishop Elias Galvan of Washington State. "It is that spirit we hope to harness by leading the United Methodist family in faithful response to the present need of the children of Africa. The Bishops' Appeal enables United Methodists to answer God's call to each of us to care for all children as though they were our own."

Lesley Crosson is the director of Public Relations for the GBGM.