December 22, 2003
by Sharon K. Youngs

LOUISVILLE - Christmas came early this year for the moderator. In November, the Rev. Susan R. Andrews, moderator of the 215th General Assembly (2003) of the Presbyterian Church (USA), received gifts too numerous to count during a three-week visit to Africa. Andrews was fulfilling one of the many roles she has as moderator, serving as an ambassador to the PC(USA)'s global partners and witnessing to the ministries undertaken by Presbyterians and partner Christians for the sake of the gospel. She returned from the trip tired but energized.

Accompanying the moderator on the trip were her husband, the Rev. Sim Gardner; elder Charles Easley, the vice-moderator; and Doug Welch and Jon Chapman, PC(USA) area coordinators for Africa. Numerous PC(USA) mission personnel served as hosts. Andrews visited Ethiopia, South Africa and Cameroon. Everywhere she went, she saw an evangelical joy sweeping across the continent, a spirit she said can "help us in the United States reconnect across theological perspectives."

Joy was the theme of the tour: the joy of smiling children; of women beginning to step forward into more visible roles and sharing the good news through their lives and dreams; and of men, women and children making rich, rhythmic music. At the end of one worship service in Johannesburg, Andrews' singing and swaying so impressed the pastor that he said he wondered whether she was part Zulu! The moderator was deeply moved by the faithful, committed work of the PC(USA) mission personnel she met, by the strong, dedicated leadership of African Christians, and the power of their partnership.

"The witness to Jesus Christ is broad-based and multifaceted," she said. "I experienced Biblically-grounded evangelism that is enthusiastically offering the whole gospel to the whole person, and public-policy advocacy ministries that make concrete the good news of salvation."

Although telling about all the ministries and missions work being done in Africa by the PC(USA) and its church partners "would require volumes," Andrews said, she's going to try. "I plan to continue to share each and every story," she said. "Presbyterians in the United States need to know how very far their mission dollars go."

One of the things that impressed the moderator was the work of Gwen and John Haspel, who run a medical clinic and school that are among the best in western Ethiopia, despite being an 18-hour drive away from the nearest source of supplies. The Haspels' evangelical witness to the previously unreached Suri people has resulted in dozens of baptisms in the past five years.

The moderator also was impressed by the work of Breezy Luster and her two African colleagues, whose translation of the Bible into the Anurek language is almost finished - two decades after it was begun. Farther south, the public policy work being done by Doug Tilten is helping to make South Africa truly "post-apartheid." Andrews brought greetings from the PC(USA) to those who attended the eighth assembly of the All Africa Conference of Churches in Yaounde, Cameroon.

In her remarks to the assembly, the moderator said: "I confess to you that, over the years, we Christians from the West and the North have made mistakes, sometimes imposing our faith in ways that have been oppressive to the African people. But at the heart of our mission partnerships has been our desire to share the liberating gospel of Jesus Christ through evangelism, education, health care, and political and social empowerment."

"Brothers and sisters," she told the delegates, "you here in Africa are the 'new thing' that God is doing in the church. We in the PC(USA) recommit ourselves to be partners with you, praying with you, serving with you, sharing our resources with you. Most of all, we commit ourselves to step back and learn from you how to be the joyful, vibrant, growing church of Jesus Christ in the 21st century."

The moderator and vice moderator were not entirely shielded from the problems that plague the continent of breathtaking beauty and faith-filled people. Ramifications of the HIV/AIDS epidemic greeted the team at every turn. While the PC(USA)'s partners are committed to educating the population about the disease through clinics, schools, and congregations, tensions persist about how best to prevent AIDS. Tackling the issue of sexual infidelity, for example, is complicated in a culture where vestiges of polygamy linger.

The African church faces a serious challenge: The number of Christians there is increasing at an explosive rate, and the numbers of pastors and lay leaders is not keeping pace. But Andrews said she was deeply impressed with the African leaders she met - such as Setri Nyomi, a Princeton-trained Ghanaian now serving as general secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. "Setri is preaching Africa into wholeness, with his honesty and passion and joy," she said. "He is calling them back to the memory of the moral community that formed their African tribal identity, but he is also calling them forward to a future of physical, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual maturity, as the interdependent body of Christ in Africa."

Andrews summed up her feelings this way: "The hospitality was generous, the energy was contagious, hope was palpable, and the joy was life-changing. Jesus Christ is being reborn again and again in the heart of Africa, and we all will be different because of it."

PCUSA News Service