On September 1st of this year my church, Evanston First United Methodist Church, began a partnership with the Moheto First United Methodist Church in Kenya. Rev Kennedy Mwita, the pastor of Moheto First UMC, invited our minister, Rev Grace Imathu, to preach before the all church meeting took a unanimous vote to associate with the Reconciling Ministries Network. They are the first congregation in Africa and outside of the US to make this bold commitment. As the United Methodist Church is struggling at this time to define who we are as a global church, the commitment of this African church to continue to be fully inclusive of all of God’s people is so important. You can read the story of this historic vote here: https://www.umnews.org/en/news/first-church-in-africa-becomes-reconciling .
Since September, through the generosity of an anonymous donor from our church, fresh drinking water has been provided to the people of Moheto from a new well dug next to the church. The Moheto church has also been building a clinic on their grounds since 2003, which will be completed and able to serve patients in 2020. As a continuing piece of our partnership with the Moheto church, three of us from the Evanston church will be traveling to Moheto on January 3. We will be teaching small business skills to 21 business owners who are part of the congregation in the Moheto church, and we will be providing support for their efforts to grow their businesses.
Our team from the Evanston church is made up of: David, the coordinator of academic/career programs and instructor of business education at Truman College here in Chicago; Steve, our current church treasurer, who is a retired auditor and banker; Barb, a spiritual director and retired special education teacher. We are working closely with Pastor Ken from the Moheto church to align our teaching and support with the needs of our adult students. Here in Evanston, Pastor Grace, has been instrumental in arranging the logistics necessary for our trip and she has provided tremendous support as the vision for this trip has unfolded.
David, Steve and I will depart for Kenya this week to spend a few days exploring Kenya before we begin our journey to Moheto on January 3. I am so looking forward to experiencing all that awaits us in Kenya and to see where God will lead this partnership between Moheto First UMC and Evanston First UMC in the future!
Moheto Go Fish 