June 23, 2003
by Fred Koenig

It's the life of a rock band. They take the stage, pour out their hearts through their music, greet the fans, and then head back to the tour bus with the promoters to do the same thing in another town, on another day, day after day.

But this group is different. First, its venues aren't stadiums but United Methodist churches. Second, when the group members greet their fans, they are not speaking a common language. But the biggest difference is that the relationship they have with their fans is symbolic of a much larger bond that goes beyond their music.

The name of the six-person choir from Mozambique is Kuzwanana. It is from the African language Xitswa, and means "understanding" or "being together." Upon arriving in Missouri on May 16, the choir began touring the state. The group usually had a performance every day, and some days two or three. This is the first time a choir from the United Methodist Church in Mozambique has toured internationally.

On day 15 of the tour, Nilza Cartina da Conceicao Lila Macuacua was feeling a bit weary.

"We knew what our schedule would be like before coming on the trip, but because of the travel and the different environment, we're getting tired," Macuacua said, speaking through Ezequiel Marcos Nhantumbo, a representative of the Mozambique Initiative, who was translating for her.

That day, the choir was doing its second and third performances for the Missouri Annual Conference session in Columbia, and was going afterward to Nelson Memorial United Methodist Church in Boonville for another performance.

Sometimes the choir members even sang at their recreational stops. When they went to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, they did an impromptu song while in the top. Other recreational stops included taking a cave tour, visiting the Precious Moments Chapel in Carthage, Mo., a Bass Pro Shop and playing mini-golf. But not all of their sightseeing was light fare. They also visited tornado-ravaged areas in Southwest Missouri.

"It reminded me very much of parts of our country after the civil war," Nhantumbo said. "The people there are in a similar situation. I know our whole Mozambique Annual Conference is praying for these people who were hit by the tornadoes."

Even with the hectic schedule, the choir members enjoyed themselves.

"The people of Missouri have been very receptive," Macuacua said. "We've been kept in a very warm environment. They try to make us feel at home."

Dealing with the communication barrier was the hardest part of the trip for Macuacua.

"I have a willingness to talk to other people, outside of our group, but I can't communicate easily," she said.

Jo Wright, from Manchester United Methodist Church, drove a van for the group for about half of its tour. She said some of the higher-tech items along the way, such as automatic faucets in restrooms and automatic doors at stores, were new to the group. The visitors were also overwhelmed by the opulence in which most people in the United States live.

During the trip, some of the choir members saw people they had met before. Last summer, about 90 people from Missouri United Methodist churches went to Mozambique to participate in a consultation for the initiative. Alex and Lindsay Smith, two youth from Liberty, participated in that trip as part of the Bishop Ambassadorial Youth Choir. They were glad to see the choir come to their home church.

"Their concert at our church went really well. The people who were there all seemed to enjoy it very much," Alex Smith said.

Because so many people asked for a recording of the music during the tour, the choir spent a couple of the last days of its trip making a compact disc at Manchester United Methodist Church in St. Louis. The group gave a final concert June 3 at Zion United Methodist Church in the Gateway City and returned to Mozambique June 5.

The United Methodist churches of Missouri have a special relationship with their counterparts in Mozambique. The former Missouri East Conference has had a relationship with the African country going back to the time of Bishop W.T. Handy, in the late 1980s. Bishop Ann B. Sherer became directly involved with Mozambique during the 1990s. She made the country an area initiative, seeking covenant churches for every church and district in Mozambique. United Methodists in Missouri currently have 412 covenant relationships with Mozambique.

Since then, the churches of Missouri have extended support to Mozambique in many ways, including providing financial assistance to local churches and districts and following natural disasters and famine, and conducting a major well-drilling program, which has provided more than a dozen villages in Mozambique with safe drinking water.

United Methodist News Service
Fred Koenig is editor of the Missouri Conference Review, the newspaper of the United Methodist Church's Missouri Area.