News media Contact: Linda Bloom · (212) 870-3803 · New York, N.Y.
The song being rendered by the Community of Hope Church choir from Lee's Summit, Mo., means, "We are singing, for the Lord is our light."
The bishop's contagious smile radiated around the room as he led the singing with his director of evangelism, the Rev. Fernando S. Matsimbe. Despite living in one of the poorest countries in Africa, their joy for the Lord showed in their uninhibited singing and dancing.
"We have no buildings to worship in, we have no formal style, yet our worship is joyous," Machado said. "We know how to sing and share so that God's love is felt."
The bishop was part of a May 19-20 consultation on the Mozambique Initiative of United Methodists in Missouri. The event also drew others from around the United States interested in mission and ministry work in the African country.
Machado, 42, was appointed bishop in 1988 and has watched the United Methodist Church in Mozambique grow from 40,000 to more than 120,000 members. He credits the growth to the covenant relationship held between his church and the Missouri East and West annual (regional) conferences.
United Methodists in Missouri have committed to a covenant relationship for 10 years with Mozambique. A partner church pays $900 per year to support a church in Mozambique. Currently, every local church in Mozambique is connected to a partner church.
"This covenant is a new page in the history of the United Methodist Church," Machado said. "Up until now, we received missionaries who came and knew everything, but this has changed. They have come to offer and receive."
Bishop Ann Sherer of Missouri said her conferences have received gifts of the spirit in return. "Their sense of spirituality is so deep," she explained. "The women there work under the most dire circumstances, but they can still sing joyously about the Lord."
In addition to assisting local churches, Missouri church members support a fund-raising project to drill wells throughout Mozambique. It is estimated that one in five children in that country dies of preventable diseases including cholera, which is attributed to unclean water.
The wells are often centered near areas where churches, schools and hospitals could be developed. "Missouri funds helped drill a well in July 1999 to serve the two communities of Matsinye and Goxanne and more," said Martha Sutherland, a Mozambique Volunteers in Mission trip leader. "Now the people dream of schools to educate their children, a church and a maternity clinic for expectant mothers."
Machado noted that "through the work of a well the church evangelizes."
The Mozambique bishop also has had to deal with the devastation wrought by a long civil war and, more recently, massive flooding. Through it all, he said, the people believe that God has blessed them.
Machado, who was involved in bringing about the 1992 peace accord in Mozambique, traveled to Burundi at the end of May with United Methodist Bishop J. Alfred Ndoricimpa to try to initiate peace talks with government leaders there.
More information on the Mozambique Initiative is available by calling Carol Kreamer at (314)
961-3164 or sending an e-mail to cpkreamer@fclass.net .
Marconette is editor of The Compass, the newspaper of the Missouri West Annual Conference.