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Arkansas Tech students dedicate Congo’s
first Wesley Foundation
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A UMNS photo by Billy Reeder
The Bobby Jackson Memorial Wesley Foundation will serve the community of Kamina, Democratic Republic of Congo.
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| The
newly completed Bobby Jackson Memorial Wesley Foundation at ISP College
in Kamina, Democratic Republic of Congo, has been dedicated to the
memory of Bobby Jackson, worship director of Arkansas Tech University
Wesley Foundation, who was killed in a hit-and-run accident in August
2004. Students, alumni and friends of ATU Wesley Foundation raised funds
to start the Wesley Foundation in Kamina as a way of fulfilling Bobby's
lifelong dream of serving in overseas missions. A UMNS photo by Billy
Reeder. Photo #06154. Accompanies UMNS story #088. 2/16/06 |
Feb. 16, 2006
By Billy Reeder*
KAMINA, Democratic Republic of Congo (UMNS) — For Bobby Jackson, it was a fitting legacy.
The young campus minister at Arkansas Tech University had spent much of
his life helping others, and he dreamed of extending that ministry of
caring overseas. When his life was cut short two years ago, his friends
and others at Arkansas Tech rallied around the dream.
On Jan. 8, a seven-member team from Arkansas Tech’s Wesley Foundation in
Russellville dedicated the first Congolese Wesley Foundation campus
ministry at ISP College (Institut Superieur Pedagogique) in Kamina.
The Bobby Jackson Memorial Wesley Foundation dedication marked a
milestone in a journey that began with tragedy in August 2004, after the
worship leader from the Arkansas Tech Wesley Foundation was killed in a
hit-and-run accident.
“Bobby was the kind of person that people were drawn to,” said the Rev.
David Scroggin, director of the Arkansas Tech Wesley Foundation. “He had
a real heart for ministry and especially global ministry.” Jackson had
sparked the idea of building a campus ministry in Kamina, but the plans
were not under way when he died.
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A UMNS photo by Billy Reeder
Larry
Jackson (center), the Rev. Jon Mac Taylor and Bishop Nkulu Ntambo (in
white robe) prepare for the dedication of the foundation.
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| Larry
Jackson (center), the Rev. Jon Mac Taylor and Bishop Nkulu Ntambo (in
white robe) prepare for the dedication of the Bobby Jackson Memorial
Wesley Foundation in Kamina, Democratic Republic of Congo. The center
was dedicated to the memory of Bobby Jackson, the worship director of
Arkansas Tech University Wesley Foundation, who was killed in a
hit-and-run accident in August 2004. Students, alumni and friends of the
ATU Wesley Foundation raised funds to start the Wesley Foundation in
Kamina as a way of fulfilling Jackson's lifelong dream of serving in
foreign missions. A UMNS photo by Billy Reeder. Photo #06155.
Accompanies UMNS story #088. 2/16/06 |
The project took off when his family suggested memorials go to Jackson’s dream, Scroggin said.
What followed was an intensive student-led drive that has raised $40,000
to date. In 35 years of ministry, Scroggin said, he has never witnessed
the level of dedication to ministry and self-sacrifice as he saw in his
Wesley Foundation students in the last year in a half.
“These students really understand what it means to give everything. I
found a note attached to a $10 in the collection plate one day that
said, ?This is all I have.’ And I really believe them. College students
are not wealthy people.”
At the dedication, Jackson’s sister, Becky, presented Bishop Nkulu
Ntambo with a plaque. “During his life, Bobby touched many lives,” she
told a packed Wesley Foundation. “He dreamed of touching more lives for
Christ through foreign missions.”
Bobby died before he had an opportunity to leave the United States, she
said. “Because of his passion for Christ and foreign missions, our
Wesley Foundation, his family and friends, we are proud to dedicate this
project to his memory to the glory of God.”
Arkansas Tech graduate Greg Pair told the crowd of 500 that Jackson put others before himself.
“Bobby was a man of God’s heart,” said Pair, youth minister for
Greenwood (Ark.) United Methodist Church. “He was a friend that would
lay everything aside for others without questioning what he was doing.
Because of this love for mission he put everyone before himself. It’s
been an amazing blessing in our lives to learn and grow because of the
life he lived.”
A tool for ministry
The 90-minute dedication service was filled with singing from multiple
local choirs and ended with the Arkansas team members forming an
impromptu praise band and performing Matt Redman’s “Blessed Be Your
Name” to the wild cheering of the Congolese audience. The song has been
an unofficial anthem for the Arkansas Tech Wesley Foundation since
Jackson’s accident, team members said.
“The amazing thing about this group is that, to them, the building
really isn’t the memorial,” said Dr. Jon Mac Taylor, president of ISP
College. “The building is only a tool to host the ministry, and the
ministry is what they really came to give.”
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A UMNS photo by Billy Reeder
Members of the Arkansas Tech University Wesley Foundation sing with a local choir at the dedication.
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| The
dedication service of the Bobby Jackson Memorial Wesley Foundation at
ISP College in Kamina, Democratic Republic of Congo, ends with an
impromptu performance of "Blessed Be Your Name" by team members from the
Arkansas Tech University Wesley Foundation and a local choir. The song
was the Arkansas Tech Wesley Foundation's unofficial anthem after the
death of worship leader Bobby Jackson in a hit-and-run accident in
August 2004. A UMNS photo by Billy Reeder. Photo #06156. Accompanies
UMNS story #088. 2/16/06 |
Taylor serves two churches in central Arkansas and is the driving force
behind recruiting American assistance to the North Katanga region.
“I was completely blown away by what they were proposing,” he said. “The
Arkansas Tech students didn’t just want to build a building as a
memorial. They wanted to build the building, help start the ministry and
fund it perpetually.”
The students envisioned a Congolese Wesley Foundation that would match
university students with children living in the abandoned children’s
home operated by the United Methodist Church in Kamina.
“I kept thinking to myself that this was huge!” Taylor said. “This is a
generation of kids that watched the Rwanda and Bosnia conflicts on
television and were taking proactive steps to keep such atrocities from
happening again. They wanted to give the Congolese students a gift they
had received, the ability to lead others on principles of compassion
rather than force.”
He noted that the “Congo is in need of leaders.” Torn apart by civil war
in the late 1990s, the AIDS pandemic and a general lack of
infrastructure, educated leaders are harder to find.
Ntambo told the Arkansas students that the work of the Wesley Foundation will reach into areas that they never dreamed of.
“Recently, the United Nations selected the ISP College site as the
voting location for the North Katanga region,” he said. “So there will
be United Nations peacekeepers here on this campus, and I will be
preaching and ministering to them in this new Wesley Foundation.”
The work will be a challenging process for the Congolese, according to
Taylor. “Having a centralized college is new in itself; the idea of a
campus ministry is a completely new idea for them. It will take time for
the surrounding community to realize that the Wesley Foundation is more
than a chapel on the college campus.”
An emotional, spiritual journey
Team members Dustin Coates and Chris Collins said they didn’t go to the
Congo to recreate the Wesley Foundation from Arkansas. They knew the
campus ministries would be different; they simply wanted to offer their
stories and share the love of Christ, they said.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing how this ministry develops,” said
Larry Jackson, Bobby’s father. “I want to see it help the young people,
the future leaders. I think this is going to be a bright light for
Congo. I didn’t know what to expect when I got here, but I’ve always
felt sure that the people here would pull it off. This whole thing has
been a journey — a physical journey as well as an emotional and
spiritual journey. I’m happy to be a part of it.”
“We aren’t interested in fossilizing or preserving a building,” said
Scroggin. “If they beat that building to pieces ministering to the
Congolese students, then that will be a blessing and perhaps the best
gift we could have ever given to Bobby.”
Plans are being developed to create an online forum for Arkansas Tech
Wesley Foundation students to connect with Congolese students. For more
information, go to www.atuwesleyfoundation.org.
*Reeder is director of communications, Arkansas Annual Conference. He attended the dedication.
News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
| Video Highlights from Kamina |
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