Pastor John Legg shares his emotions honestly and visibly when preaching at Temple Terrace United Methodist Church. If he gets to a particularly poignant moment in a sermon, sometimes his voice will catch, he’ll dab at his eyes, and he’ll need a moment or two before continuing.
Temple Terrace United Methodist Church is a part of the Florida Annual Conference.
Even by that standard, though, his reaction while speaking to the congregation about his recent trip to Rwanda was extraordinary.
His wife, Latrice, and Congregational Vitality Specialist Beth Potter were among those on the trip.
Zoe Empowers offers a hand up, not a hand out.
The group traveled for hours over rutted clay roads, up a mountainside about 8,000 feet, to villages in some of the most remote areas of this African nation to see the impact of the Zoe Empowers initiative on the lives of children in need most of us can’t imagine.
“The first time I went there, I was overwhelmed,” Beth Potter said. "I couldn’t put into words what I was experiencing. It has profoundly changed my life.
“What these children have been through is astonishing. Many of the homes had no adults and multiple children. Some of the children lived in trees to escape predators and animals at night. I believe very strongly that as Christians we need to have a passion to help all people.”
Through its local churches, The Florida Conference of The United Methodist Church strongly supports Zoe, which works through a network of local organizations around the globe on a mission to help “orphaned children and youth-led, vulnerable families to overcome poverty, move beyond charity, and experience meaningful lives.”
The program teaches those children how to start, operate, and maintain businesses to break the cycle of despair and poverty. It turns hopelessness into success in ways that Rev. Legg said have to be seen to be fully appreciated.
As a slide show continued on the church’s video boards, one by one, he began to detail the stories of some of the young people he met on his journey.
There was Therese, who at 18 years old is the head of a family with five siblings between the ages of 1 and 16. She cares for them all.
“After her initial business training, she started buying and selling cabbages, and with profit, she added peanut sauce,” Rev. Legg said.
“This snowballed over the past several months, and now she has added dried fish and onions to her product line.”
Denyse is 19 years old and has four siblings, ages 6-15.
“With her initial business grant, she bought avocados to sell in the market, and with profits, she added she added small eggplants,” he said.
Jean Baptiste, 19, was a street kid who hung out and begged for food. The program changed his life.
He sells cups of dried nuts for a profit of about $4 U.S. – which is a lot of money in the remote area where he lives. He used some of the profits to buy a hen, eggs, and a goat.
“Jean Baptiste told us that before Zoe Empowers, his siblings could not attend school regularly due to the lack of supplies and uniforms,” Rev. Legg said.
“He struggled to pay for health insurance. Now, he has already paid this year’s health insurance fee for him and his two siblings.”
Another young man started a business of buying and selling beans and rice and made enough money to buy a bicycle, which was a big deal because it gave him added mobility to reach more people. A young lady escaped a life on the streets where she admitted to doing unfortunate things.
“There has been a significant statistical analysis about the success rate of Zoe,” Beth Potter said. “Three to five years after they graduated from Zoe, the vast majority of people are living at a higher rate. That blows me away.
"They have been taught business acumen, nutrition, and other skills that help them live changed lives. For so many of them, their spirits were broken before they discovered Zoe. Now they are completely changed.”
As Rev. Legg completed his sermon about what he had heard and seen at Zoe, the congregation felt that they had witnessed something profound, something that struck at the heart of what it means to be a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ.
Rev. Legg’s eyes weren’t the only damp ones in the room.
story by Joe Henderson, News Content Editor
This story represents how United Methodist local churches through their Annual Conferences are living as Vital Congregations. A vital congregation is the body of Christ making and engaging disciples for the transformation of the world. Vital congregations are shaped by and witnessed through four focus areas: calling and shaping principled Christian leaders; creating and sustaining new places for new people; ministries with poor people and communities; and abundant health for all.
