When Pastor Kanya Kamahiro Georges received his envelope containing scholarship money, he said he felt great relief and a sense of joy.
Originally from the Beni District in the Kivu Conference, Georges is a student in the Faculty of Theology at Methodist University of Kindu.
Wespath Benefits and Investments, the pension agency of The United Methodist Church, is providing financial support to 12 student pastors from Beni living in Kindu to help them make ends meet. The students receive $100 U.S. each month.
Your support of the World Service Fund apportionment supports program-related general agencies, which are especially important to the common vision, mission, and ministry of The United Methodist Church
"Thanks to this scholarship, the students will be able to buy food and provide for other needs for eight months," said the Rev. Benoit Mahamudi, dean of the Faculty of Theology.
"This is the second time Wespath has supported the student pastors from Beni. Last year, 15 students received scholarships to support themselves for 10 months," he said.
Beneficiaries live far from their families whom they rely on for the provision of many personal needs, said Mahamudi.
Jean Tshomba, coordinator of the United Methodist Committee on Relief's disaster management office in East Congo, helped the students apply for the Wespath funding.
“The security situation in Beni, characterized by daily killings, has disrupted the lives of the local population,” Tshomba said.
“The unrest is often the root cause of the displacement of many inhabitants to areas which are deemed safe. Many of the displaced people abandon their fields and flock to the city center and other towns.”
The Rev. Kalema Tambwe, South Kindu District superintendent, said that the assistance to the theology students was made possible due to a plea submitted by these students and other United Mthodist leaders of Eastern Congo to a visiting Wespath delegation.
“The United Methodist Church is universal. We are happy to see our Wespath brothers and sisters step in today and put a smile on the faces of these students,” Tambwe said.
“These students receive bad news every day about the massacre of their family members or acquaintances as a result of the repeated killings in the Beni region,” he said. “We are calling on people of goodwill and Wespath to continue to think about these students who are in distress.”
During the handover ceremony at the Lokole Mission and in their thank-you note, the beneficiaries expressed their gratitude for the assistance.
Referring to the importance and necessity of helping a person in difficulty, Tambwe evoked the words of a theologian on Christian ethics.
"Christian ethics commend us to come to help, to listen to the cries of alarm of the one who is in distress; if the church does not do something to assist, then who should we expect it from?”
excerpt from a story by Chadrack Tambwe Londe, communicator and editor in Congo.
The World Service Fund provides basic financial support to program-related general agencies, which are especially important to the common vision, mission, and ministry of The United Methodist Church. Through World Service funding, agencies support annual conferences and local congregations in living out God’s mission for the worldwide Church. General agencies also provide essential services and ministries beyond the scope of individual local congregations and annual conferences through services and ministries that are highly focused, flexible, and capable of rapid response.
