College student responds to genocide in Africa Aug. 24, 2004 By Cathy Farmer*
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A UMNS photo courtesy Andrea Dewey Andrea Dewey visits with Jean Paul, who crafts greeting cards in the Widow�s Mite vocational ministry in Kigali, Rwanda. |
Andrea
Dewey visits with Jean Paul, who crafts greeting cards in the Widow�s
Mite vocational ministry in Kigali, Rwanda. Dewey, a junior at Millsaps
College in Jackson, Miss. and a member of Broadway United Methodist
Church in Paducah, Ky., was recruited by the United Methodist-related
college to make the trip to Africa. A UMNS photo courtesy of Andrea
Dewey. Photo number 04-349, 8/24/04 |
PADUCAH, Ky.
(UMNS)-Reading about genocide in Africa doesn’t have quite the same
impact as trying to coax a smile out of an orphan left to grow up in a
dump in Kigali, Rwanda. That’s
one of the things Andrea Dewey learned this summer while spending two
months in Uganda and Rwanda working with a ministry called Widows’ Mite. Dewey,
a junior at Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss., and a member of
Broadway United Methodist Church in Paducah, Ky., was recruited by the
United Methodist-related college to make the trip to Africa. "Missions
are my life," said the enthusiastic 20-year-old. "I love to do this
stuff. Going on mission trips with my parents are among my first
memories." Though
she had planned to spend this summer on an archeological dig in Israel,
when Millsaps asked her to be the first recipient of a grant from the
newly established David McNair Fund, she jumped at the chance. The $1
million McNair Fund is a gift to help students fund mission trips. Dewey
said the college wanted "to get the ball rolling." She agreed to make
presentations about the trip when she returns to school this fall. "This
wasn’t my first trip abroad," she explained. "When I was 14, I went to
Brazil. When I was 19, I went to Panama with Teen Mania."
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A UMNS photo courtesy of Andrea DeweyChildren learn how to pray for rain by making rain noises during a camp in Rwanda.
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Ugandan
children learn how to pray for rain by making rain noises during a camp
for 300 children, ages 6-9, at the Kumbya camp on Lake Kivu in Rwanda.
Andrea Dewey, a junior at United Methodist-related Millsaps College in
Jackson, Miss., helped lead the camp. A UMNS photo courtesy of Andrea
Dewey. Photo number 04-350, 8/24/04 |
Dewey found the
mission opportunities through her own research. She says she looked for
organizations going places and doing things."My
parents are a huge blessing," she explained. "They trust me to travel
overseas. When I wanted to go to Brazil, they said, ‘Prove it’s safe,
get your money together.’ They’ve gotten used to me coming up with crazy
ideas. "They understand I can’t be idle." Her
father, Dave Dewey, said he and his wife, Pam, worry about their three
daughters who are often gone on mission trips. Elizabeth is a senior at
Lambuth University in Jackson, Tenn., and Megan is a sophomore in high
school. "But we step out in faith, we pray and we trust." Widows’ Mite helps thousands Widows’
Mite was begun 12 years ago in Uganda by Fern Stanford and Monique
Lasdoz. When the killing began in Rwanda in 1994, Lasdoz extended the
ministry to the thousands of widows and orphans scrabbling to survive in
the devastated country. Called
‘Veuvaction’ in French-speaking Rwanda, Widow’s Mite begins with a
group of about 11 widows. They pray together and act as a support group,
meeting once a week in the villages. The groups gather twice a month in
the city: in Uganda, they meet in Jinja; in Rwanda, they meet in
Kigali.
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A UMNS photo courtesy Andrea Dewey Children take their first boat ride on a large body of water at the Kumbya camp on Lake Kivu in Rwanda. |
Children
take their first boat ride on a large body of water at the Kumbya camp
on Lake Kivu in Rwanda. Andrea Dewey, a junior at United
Methodist-related Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss., helped lead the
camp. A UMNS photo courtesy of Andrea Dewey. Photo number 04-351,
8/24/04 |
Widows’ Mite helps
the groups when they decide upon a project to raise money. Some elect to
raise goats, others to sew or craft greeting cards. Some sew, others
plant trees or offer a midwife clinic."Monique
raises the money through global outreach," Dewey said. "She travels to
America, Canada and Europe three to four months a year." The
73-year-old American, the daughter of Salvation Army missionaries, asks
for financial support as she travels, and she offers for sale the
crafts made by the widows and orphans. "Everyone
in Rwanda and Uganda knows Monique," Dewey said. "She’s one of very few
white women who live there. They all call her ‘Nanny.’" Two months filled with activity When Andrea arrived at the end of May, she and roommate Amber Weinger took some of the kids camping. "We took the guys the first week and the girls the second week." They went to a missionary camp in Rwanda called Kumbya on Lake Kivu. "These
kids had never done anything just for the fun of it," she said, "and I
don’t think any of them had ever seen a large body of water."
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A UMNS photo courtesy Andrea Dewey The
Widow�s Mite ministry offers support to widows and orphans in Rwanda
and Uganda through support groups and vocational projects such as
raising goats. |
The
Widow�s Mite ministry offers support to widows and orphans in Rwanda
and Uganda through support groups and vocational projects such as
raising goats. Andrea Dewey (back row, second from right), a junior at
United Methodist-related Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss., spent two
months working with the ministry this summer. A UMNS photo courtesy of
Andrea Dewey. Photo number 04-352, 8/24/04 |
It was a "huge deal" for the young people-partially because they received three meals a day instead of the usual one.Dewey
worked on seminars for the children, planning games and writing
lessons. One of her favorite memories from the trip came when she was at
a camp for 300 children, ages 6-9, in Uganda. "It’s
drier in Uganda and they needed rain," she explained, "So I taught them
how to pray for rain with their bodies-rubbing their hands, patting
their legs and snapping their fingers (to simulate the sound of rain). "In ten minutes, a huge gust of wind came up the valley and we could hear thunder. Later that day, it sprinkled!" Dewey also labored in the craft workshops with the widows. "I
helped fill an order for cards for a store in Europe," she said. "They
wanted 4,000; it was the biggest order we ever had. I learned how to
make the cards (out of natural banana bark) but mostly I helped set up
their accounts on the computer." She
brought back samples of the many beautiful crafts-cards, wall hangings,
purses, bags, dolls, clothing, place mats, jewelry, picture frames and
carvings-produced in the workshops. "If
anyone wants to order them or a store wants to sell them, great!" she
said. "I’ll place orders with Monique by e-mail. Federal Express will
make the deliveries." Andrea, a religious studies major, hopes to travel around the world for a year after she graduates-working as she goes. "I
want that kind of world education," she said. "Seminary is an option,
but more and more I want to be on my own somewhere. If I have a pulpit,
it may be a bamboo pulpit in a jungle somewhere. "Hopefully," she said with a smile, "the world is my pulpit." News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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