Women are hungry for a chance to talk.

                                                              

Women are hungry for a chance to talk. An open conversation that everyone will participate. In my experience as missionary, I have discovered that many women in rural areas or urban areas, are not participating in conversation of their community concerns. Many want to tell their story, their concerns and their struggles but they have not given an opportunity. In most of cases, they feel isolated, strange even ignored.  The church is a place where women are getting in conversation to help end all the frustrations.  Change will not come from the leader’s plan but change begins from deep inside a system, when a few people notice something they will no longer tolerate such as poverty or respond to a dream of what’s possible than will start.                                          

Women in the Southern Abidjan district of the United Methodist Church in Cote d’Ivoire believes in conversation. A conversation which will help women to acknowledge one another as equals, a conversation which recognized that we need each other’s help and assistance to become better listeners to overcome the challenges. During our workshop, they have remembered that conversation is the natural way humans think together and they took conversation as an opportunity to meet together as peers, not as roles.

In Africa, women are known to produce up to 80% of the food. Yet, when it comes to agricultural inputs and services, the share going to women is meagre: they receive only 7% of agricultural extension services, less than 10% of the credit offered to small-scale farmers, and own only 1% of the land.[1] In this context, women are often found concentrated in subsistence agriculture and unpaid farm work, and excluded from more lucrative agricultural opportunities such as cash crop production.

During our workshop, more than 200 women came to the program. It’s not true that rural women are incapable of thinking, but it is lack of an opportunity for them to talk. During our conversation, where each woman was involved in thinking and doing. They have numbered a long list of their struggles, their needs and they priorities. In all their discussions, they have concluded to empower women as major concern which will bring change. Through empowerment program, they want to start a micro-credit project to give small loans to women; they want to improve maternal health, they want to reinforce the gardens project which they are doing (Women are producing vegetables for their families and some part to sell to support children education. This project will improve the livelihood for women).

As a church, we should empower women farmers improves food security for all. As women comprise on average 43% of the agricultural labour force in developing countries and produce the bulk of the world’s food crops. While the vast majority of small scale producers experience difficulties accessing resources, socio-cultural norms particularly curtail women producer’s access to productive resources including education, land, technologies, information, financial services, and markets. Their presence in decision-making bodies, especially in leadership positions, also remains weak, and their needs as farmers are seldom accounted for in policy and resource allocation. As a result, women farmers do not produce to their full capacity. If women farmers had access to the same opportunities and resources as men farmers, their productivity would rise significantly and the food security of millions of people would be improved. One challenge that remains is to improve women’s participation in cooperatives. By ensuring women farmers to have adequate access to financial resources is a key tenet of successful rural development strategies.

As a church and as a missionary; I think, our reflection on ministry with the poor should be a practical framework where the beneficiaries are participating in the empowerment process where everyone is involved to bring positive change. We believe that participation means taking part, as an individual and as a community, freely and fully, in decision-making at each step of the development process because development should be understood as a process of ongoing change that moves all the people involved both the helpers and the helped. Our regard to ministry with the poor, the church should avoid doing things for people which they can do for themselves. The strategy is to empower them to bring change themselves. Participatory approach is one of the best way to build confidence to the people in need. 

                                                                        

Another project which they have listed is a women cooperative where women will work in small groups according to their vocation. For instance, those who are sowing will be in one group, those who are able to sell fish will be in another group.( Cooperatives increase women's income through job creation and financing of income generating projects and provide an opportunity for women to be leaders.)  Throughout our African continent and through cooperatives, millions of women have been able to change their lives - they have found through the cooperative enterprise a route towards self- empowerment and development that works for them.

Despite the physical needs which they have listed, women have also mentioned to develop their spiritual life.  The church should promote the cooperatives in ministry with the poor. Cooperatives are contributing to a change for the both as providers and recipients of services. Our goal as a church, is to empower more women with practical skills that will make their projects both successful and satisfying. The vision is working on empowering local communities where women will enhance their economic position and address the challenges surrounding them.

                                                                     

Women’s lack of access to finance, due to factors such as lack of collateral, complicated administrative procedures, unsuitable loan sizes or interest rates, is one of the major factors affecting – and limiting – the investment and productive capacity of women workers as well as their ability to finance other basic and strategic needs. In Cote d’Ivoire, for instance, only 3% of women have access to the formal financial sector, as opposed to approximately 44% of men. Many communities are responding to these constraints by setting up financial cooperatives composed of women, or developing the services of existing providers to cater specifically to women’s needs.

“Organizing is the key to empowerment. Organizing is the process by which people who are individually weak and vulnerable unite and create power together. When individuals who are among the poorest, least educated and most disenfranchised members of society come together they experience dramatic changes in their lives.” -- Renana Jhabvala

If you want to contribute to the project and donate any gift, please send your donation through the advance # 3021990 for Leadership Development Program in Cote d’Ivoire.  Thank  

Jesus challenged the disciples to "Go and make disciples..." (Matthew 28:19). John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, challenged those who were going to America to "Offer them Christ." .  Along with my family, we are offering Jesus Christ in Cote d’Ivoire.

 Jean Claude Masuka Maleka, Advance # 3021390

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[1] ILO, Global Employment Trends for Women 2009, Geneva, 2009

Connection in our Wesleyan Heritage

In 2014, Missionary itineration in Kentucky Annual Conference • Wesley urged those in connection with him to earn all you can and save all you can, so that you can give all you can. Wesley modeled modest living and sacrificial giving. He also told his followers, “There is no holiness but social holiness.” Class offerings in Wesley’s day were taken for outreach. • So, what is this connectional thing that we hear about so much in the United Methodist church, and what does it mean for my church? Well, let’s look at a church and see how this connection thing works.

Serving others in the name of God's mission. Coted'Ivoire • Dear friends your Church is not just any church, it’s a United Methodist Church. Every single congregation is linked to other United Methodist churches on its district. Some are larger, some are smaller, but they are organized in a way that says, “How we can we help each other be more effective in our mission and ministry? How can we make a difference, not only in our community, but in the world?” • Multiple districts, connected to one another, form an Annual Conference. The churches of the Annual Conference work together in lots of ways: sending local churches leaders to work on conference boards and committees, identifying candidates for ministry, giving financial support to ministries and mission projects sponsored by the Conference, to name just a few. • These Annual Conferences get grouped together into Jurisdictions. There are presently five Jurisdictions: Northeast, Southeastern, South Central, North Central, and Western. In some places, the annual conferences of the jurisdictions work collaboratively on things like leadership training and sharing facilities. • These five Jurisdictions encompass all the Annual Conferences in the U.S., and all the local churches of those conferences. But that is not the complete church; there are 59 conferences located outside of the US, grouped not into jurisdictions but into 7 Central Conferences: Africa, Central & Southern Europe, Congo, Germany, Northern Europe, Philippines and West Africa. These Central Conferences account for around 2 million members of the United Methodist Church! • The local church is at the center of the connectional system. How we empower local churches to do the work of making disciples, and how we share together in mission is how we participate with God in the transformation of the world. • The Mission of the United Methodist Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the World. Your church cannot do that alone. We have to be connected to transform. Our Ministry is Shared Ministry • We United Methodists believe that each of us is called to participate in the ministry of Jesus Christ. We do this in connection globally with approximatively 42,000 local churches and 11.5 million members. Today, through the United Methodist connection, we share a ministry:  In 100 different countries  With over 900 supported mission personnel  With more than 112,000 Volunteer-in-Mission placements  Through more than 1,000 approved Advance projects.

Within the Jurisdictional Conferences through • 225 retirement homes and long-term care facilities • 70 hospitals and health-care facilities • 50 children’s homes • 30 ministries for persons with disabilities • 113 colleges, universities and seminaries • Day-to-day witness and outreach from over 45,000 clergy members and 1,200 deacons, and not to mention 8,000,000 lay members. Does it make a difference? This young man is happy, fed, and is learning because of the caring and commitment of local churches to connectional giving. Could your local congregation do that every day, for all of these children, on your own?

This is a small school in Busia-Kenya, where I used to work previously. And this is just one school, in one community, in one small spot on the globe. We are taking care of needs like this in thousands of locations around the globe every single day. What single church could manage that on their own? Very few. We can no longer assume that when people join the United Methodist Church, or when they come into our churches, that they will understand that this is who we are and how we do our ministry. Unless the concept is explained to them, all they will perceive is money going away from their local church. We can be proud of the places where our church goes, of the lives our church touches, and the transformation that is able to happen because we work together to make the love of God real to a hurting world. United Methodists are generous and compassionate people • Our connectional giving is at work every day healing hundreds and hundreds of smaller, “silent tsunamis” that affect people’s lives. – Poverty, injustice, racism, malaria, unclean water, Ebola. – Illiteracy, hunger, disease ,loneliness, alienation, marginalization There is amazing work being done in our names every single day, helping to bring God’s love to the world. It is a story that the world needs to hear, but even more it’s a story our own members need to hear. This is Our Story Our colleges and hospitals across the world that bear testimony to the commitment of United Methodists to education and healing. No one will tell that story if we don’t tell it. This is our story… At Work Every Day Our church has never been afraid to make a witness for justice, peace, tolerance, and for the dignity of every human being. We are giving children a chance to learn, to grow up safe from the brutalities of war and the threat of diseases which ravage their countries. We go to reach out to people who are hungry, sick or in need, regardless of their religion or the politics of their government. Our church reaches beyond simply helping the poor, but works side by side with people in many different lands to help them raise themselves from poverty.

Sunday school at Fresco UMC in Cote d'Ivoire Thanks to the generous connectional giving of United Methodists The Methodists are courageous women and men who work to make the love of Christ real to a hurting world, and who count on us for their support, as they do ministry in our name. We need to tell our story, we are able to be present with people in their time of crisis, on the other side of the world. We are able to be there because of the commitment of United Methodists to live and give connectionally.

Missionary Francine taking care of the orphans while in Kenya at Amase village

Children at Gbambam village in Cote d'Ivoire. So Just how are we able to do all these great things? Advance projects are very attractive and exciting. They allow individuals and churches to feel a personal connection to particular projects, but they are dependent on churches completing 100% of their World Service and conference benevolence fair share. The Advance’s unique ability to provide 100% of your gift to the cause you designate is dependent upon their expenses being covered through the World Service Fund giving. Without the World Service support, the structures that enable all those mission settings to happen can’t be supported. We need to be committed to traveling the first mile before we go the second mile. By combining several smaller gifts into a larger amount, we can effect change across the world. Individual churches can minister to a small area; however, as a connectional church, we can do big things, all in the name of Jesus Christ.

Orphans of HIV/AIDs receiving support from the church in Cote d'Ivoire. THANK YOU! For all you’ve done, For all you are doing, For all you will do in the days and years to come, To make the love of Christ real to a hurting world. You do make a difference! On my behalf as a Global Ministries Missionary, and all those persons whose lives are touched by ministries you support, we want to say…THANK YOU! The urgent need we have is a 4x4 car for evangelism and church planting. Continue supporting us through the advance: # 3021390 for missionary support and #3021990 for Leadership Development Project.