Christians across the world celebrate World Communion Sunday by taking part in the Lord’s Supper and commemorating the ways different traditions and cultures celebrate this Christian sacrament. Yet, how many also understand the significance of the World Communion Sunday offering that United Methodist churches take on that Sunday?
Even some of the scholars who receive World Communion Scholarships have not necessarily connected the two, like Garikai Malunga, from Zimbabwe, who has been studying since 2022 as a World Communion Scholar at Africa University. He knew he was recommended by his pastor and that Global Ministries granted the funds…but where did they come from?
Your Generosity Matters
“You mean, this World Communion that we celebrate, even in Zimbabwe United Methodist churches, and in the U.S. and Europe and other places around the world…churches take an offering and that is how my scholarship is provided, by so many people who do not even know me?” Malunga said when he realized the connection.
He paused for a moment. “I now know the importance of giving! This money was donated in the church and being used to help the people, the less privileged ones. This is very good. At AU, many students come here through UMC scholarships.”
“I come from very humble circumstances,” Malunga explained. His parents divorced when he was very young and his father deserted him because of a physical ailment. Nevertheless his mother stayed by his side and worked to make sure he could attend school.
Malunga is not only a doctoral student at Africa University in Old Mutare, Zimbabwe, he is also a lecturer in the university’s Medical and Laboratory Sciences degree, and a clinical scientist, as well as head of the Department of Biomedical and Laboratory Services. At 49 years old, he may not be the typical scholar, but he has a deep appreciation for receiving a scholarship at this time in his life.
Scholarship Helps Provide for His Family
As Malunga looks back, he is astounded at how far he has come and considers himself very lucky that God guided him through lean times and busy times, good times and sad times, providing the scholarships he needed through the government and the church, and all beginning, of course, with the meager earnings of his mother. “This scholarship is crucial to my life.”
In fact, across his extended family, Garikai Malunga is the only one, in his generation or previous generations, who has graduated from high school. And now, the extended family looks to him for support and provision of one necessity or another.
Yet, without a Ph.D., Malunga knew he would lose his position at the university, and that would jeopardize the foundation of his family. In addition, he really likes his job. “I don’t know how to thank Global Ministries,” he said.
Giving, of course, is not just financial, but also in service. Malunga’s clinical biochemistry degree means he is qualified to do hands-on work, such as testing patient samples to determine diagnosis, which is what he does once a week at Old Mutare Hospital Laboratory…free of charge. “This is my community service, which I can offer back, because I know this United Methodist hospital cannot afford to employ clinical scientists. They really need this specialized service.”
Who would have thought that someone placing an offering in a World Communion Sunday envelope in Georgia, or Oregon, or maybe Stuttgart, Germany, would motivate someone in Zimbabwe to provide a vital service to a hospital as a volunteer, half a world away. This is the nature of the unseen faith connection in The United Methodist Church.
Your Donations Help
Your gifts on World Communion Sunday helps supports Ethnic Scholarships which enables The United Methodist Church to equip gifted, qualified students, like Martha Fatoma, become the world changers.
excerpt from a story by Christie R. House, senior writer/editor, General Board of Global Ministries
One of six churchwide Special Sundays with offerings of The United Methodist Church, World Communion Sunday calls the church to reach out to all people and model diversity among God’s children. The special offering provides World Communion Scholarships, the Ethnic Scholarship Program and the Ethnic In-Service Training Program.
When you give generously on World Communion Sunday, you equip gifted, qualified students from around the globe to become the world changers God created them to be. Give now.
