SPIRITUAL READINESS

    You are not only going into another culture to talk about Christ; you are going to be Christ. The people in the country where you serve will associate your behavior, attitude and character with that of Jesus. It is not enough simply to talk about Christ; you need to imitate Him. Becoming like Christ—being conformed to Him in mind, in faith and in action—will not happen during a Bible-study cram session the week before your trip. It takes time, discipline and your willingness to allow the Holy Spirit to search your heart and shape you into the image of Christ.

  If you don’t already have a consistent time during the day when you meet with God, commit yourself now to daily Bible study and prayer. As you spend time reading the Word of God and seeking the face of God in prayer, intimacy will follow. Find an accountability partner that will take you to task when you miss your time with God. Realize that while church attendance and involvement in a campus ministry are vital to your spiritual growth, they will not adequately prepare you for your mission. You must learn to meet with God individually as well as corporately.

  Life on the mission field is demanding physically, spiritually and emotionally. While you are in your home country you have several support systems—your family, your friends, your campus ministry, your church, your faith—to lean on when your emotional and physical reserves are spent. You can’t pack up your family and friends and take them with you to the mission field. You can’t run to them when you’ve had a rough day on the job, when you disagree with your supervisor, when you are baffled by cultural differences, when you are frustrated by another team member. But you can lean on Christ.

  Begin depending on Christ now. He should be the first support you lean on, not the last. His strength is sufficient to meet every need you have, however deep, however immediate. Remember Zechariah 4:6
“’Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty” (NIV).

   Work through the Bible study, God’s Heart for the Nations, to help you understand God’s passion for all nations to worship Him. We also included a list of topics matched with Scriptures that can help you prepare for your mission.

    “As the days changed, so did our transportation. We were now riding on a tractor. A tractor here is sort of a glorified rototiller with a truck bed. It chugged and ached its way above
the river below. We passed 6,000-foot mountains, white clouds resting on the ridges. There were occasional pines and rhododendron. Fingers of fog began careening through the gullies, and soon we were enveloped by fog and rain. As we rode along, we sang songs of praise to The Most High, exalting His name among mountains and nations, which have seldom
heard such praise.
   “I learned much about leadership on this journey.
Usually when leading a group I can prepare them for what to expect next, what the day might look like. I know where water is likely to be and where we might stay. After three days on the
trail, I knew this would not be the case. I WAS PERSONALLY BROUGHT TO THE END OF MYSELF. All the guys felt the same. We came to our end. IT WAS THERE THAT THE TRIP REALLY BEGAN. We relied on God for everything. We needed water, food and a place to stay. Where did He want us to go next? Where were the people that He had already spoken to? We asked Him to lead us, and He did.”
         Russell Taylor – Student summer missionary to East Asia

TALKING ABOUT GOD

   One of the most significant elements of spiritual readiness for the mission field is your preparation for evangelism. You should be ready to share not only about what God has done in your life in the past but also about what God is doing in your life in the present. You should be able to share a brief testimony addressing how you became a Christian, the impact of faith on your life and the plan of salvation in less than five minutes. Sound impossible? It can be done. Refine your testimony until you are covering only the essentials. You should avoid talking about smoking, drinking, divorce, money, the cost of the trip or how God provided money for the trip. Try not to use familiar, but often confusing, expressions like “washed in the blood of the Lamb.”

   If you have never composed your testimony, consider structuring it this way:

• Introduce yourself.
• Describe your life before becoming a
  Christian. What was it like to live without
  Christ?
• Explain how you became a Christian.
  What was the pivotal point in your life, the
  turning point?
• Relate what it means to be a Christian.
  What was the impact of faith on your life?
• The plan of salvation. How can others
  come to know Christ and His salvation?
• Provide an opportunity for others to make
  a decision for Christ.

Topics for spiritual preparation
Spiritual Renewal for Service (Psalm 51)
Taking Time to Pray (Mark 1:35-45)
The Word and the Way (Psalm 119)
The Power to Serve (Acts 1:1-12)
Christian Depression 1 (Kings 19:1-18)
Here I Am, Let Me Go! (Isaiah 6:1-12)
Fit to Serve (Ephesians 5:1-17)
Availability Plus Christ (John 6:1-14)
Commissioned to Serve (Matthew 28:19-20)
Empowered to Serve (Matthew 28:16-18)
The Unlikely Witness (John 4:1-42)
The Expected Result (John 4:1-42)
Making the Ordinary Extraordinary (Acts 4:1-19)
Revive Us Again (Psalm 85)
Overcoming Difficulties (Numbers 13:25-33)
Removing the Stones (John 11:39-40)
The True Measure of Greatness (Matthew 20:20-28)
Differences Between Good Missionaries (Acts 15:36-41)
When You Cannot Finish the Task (Luke 10:25-35)
Acting Like What You Are (Matt 21:18-19; Gal 5:22-23)
Overcoming Prejudices (Jonah 1:1-3; 3:1-20; 4:1-3)
Serve with Gladness (Psalm 100)
Serve with Gratitude (Psalm 103)
Serve with Compassion (Jonah 4)
Serve with Urgency (John 9:1-7)
Serve with Inner Strength (John 15:1-16)
Serve with Love (John 21:15-23)
Serve with Team Spirit (Romans 12)
Serve with Common Purposes (1 Corinthians 1:23-31; 2:1)
Proclaiming Liberty to the Poor (Isaiah 61:1-6)

A testimony from the field

   “A team member and I went to lunch with a girl I met when the power went out at an Internet computer bar. While at lunch, the Chinese student expressed her idea that ‘God loves us and forgives us, so that we can love others and forgive others.’ This is a foreign concept to the Chinese. I wanted to say to her ‘flesh and blood did not reveal this to you.’
   After lunch she became a Christian. That night she led another Chinese student to saving faith in Jesus Christ. When God turned the power out on our computers, He turned the power on in this Chinese girl’s life. He works in the most amazing way!”
     Kyle Gammill –  Student missionary to East Asia

Dear friends, I’m posting this entry as part of our testing schedule. I’m typing from a mobile phone (an apple iPhone to be more precise) and so far so good. Aparently the website works fine with mobile internet, and hopefully even those missionaries that doesn’t count on a computerbased connection will be able to post their texts.

Isn’t that great?

yours,
Filipe Fukumoto

Hello everybody.

 I joyfully announce that my flight tickets have just been acquired for the 2009 project trips! It has been a long way until it happened. Unfortunately the funds for the second participant have not been reached yet, however we are sure that God is in the lead of this project. If I’m meant to go alone, I’ll go alone then.

 I’ll be travelling within South Africa and Mozambique, visiting missions and missionaries, and I’ll be crusading with the “Africa on Fire Ministry” missionaries, preaching the gospels in the villages of Mozambique for around 10 days. No doubt it will be a very important experience for me and for UMAfrica.

 If you want to get in contact with me prior or during the trip, you can always reach me at filipe@umafrica.org

yours,
Filipe Fukumoto
+UMAfrica Global Coordinator

Support Africa Inland Mission

Mission & Goals

Africa Inland Mission exists to declare the Glory of God to the peoples of Africa. We exist to introduce those who have never heard to the One who died to save them – Jesus Christ. We exist to help new believers grow strong and healthy in their faith. We exist to see new believers enfolded into a maturing church. We exist to invest in the lives of current and future church leaders, so they can effectively build into the lives of others and reach out in turn to the vast populations of Africa and beyond.

While our ministries are many and varied, our goal is to establish maturing churches through the evangelization of unreached peoples, and through the effective preparation of church leaders.

Whether they repair Land Rovers, perform appendectomies, or teach better farming methods all our missionaries contribute in some way to these objectives. AIM’s ministries meet people’s needs, validate their worth and declare God’s glory.

Heritage

AIM’s first missionaries set sail on August 17, 1895. The group was led by AIM founder Peter Cameron Scott. (Front row, second from left)

 
Africa Inland Mission (AIM) had its beginning in the work of Peter Cameron Scott (1867-1896), a Scottish-American missionary of the International Missionary Alliance who served two years in the Congo before he was sent to Scotland in 1892 because of a near-fatal illness. While recuperating, he developed his idea of establishing a network of mission stations which would stretch from the southeast coast of the continent to the interior’s Lake Chad. He was unable to interest any denomination in this idea (including his own Presbyterian Church), but he was able to interest several of his friends in Philadelphia in the work and in subscribing some funds. This group formed itself in 1895 into the Philadelphia Missionary Council.
 

Beginnings

Scott quickly recruited several men and women who were willing to return with him to Africa to start work. The emphasis on accepting these and other early recruits was on their Christian commitment and personal uprightness rather than on any special training. The mission was to be composed of the workers in the field and would be entirely self-governing and independent of the Philadelphia Missionary Council. The Council, headed by Rev. Charles Hurlburt, agreed “. . . to spread the knowledge of the work and forward means and workers as God may supply them. They are under no pledge to the mission to supply these, but merely forward them as supplied.”

Hurlburt was also president of the Pennsylvania Bible Institute, which provided most of the mission’s workers in its very early years.

First Missionaries

On August 17, 1895, AIM’s first mission party set off. The group consisted of Scott, his sister Margaret, Frederick W. Krieger, Willis Hotchkiss, Minnie Lindberg, Miss Reckling and Lester Severn. Walter M. Wilson joined the party in Scotland. They arrived off the east African coast in October and Peter Scott started making arrangements in the Kenyan seaport of Mombasa. In little over a year, the mission had four stations–at Nzaui, Sakai, Kilungu, and Kangundo, all in Kenya. More workers came from America, including Scott’s parents, and the small group expanded to fifteen.

Scott’s Death

In December 1896, Peter Scott died, partly because of the extremely hard pace at which he had been driving himself. The mission almost dissolved in the next year when most of the workers either died or resigned. The Council began to take more responsibility for the work and appointed Hurlburt director of the mission. After a survey trip to Africa, he returned to that continent to work and he eventually brought his entire family over. For the next two decades, he provided strong, if not undisputed, leadership for the headquarters, established in 1903 at Kijabe, Kenya.

Expansion of Ministry

From Kenya, the mission expanded its work to neighboring areas. In 1909, a station was set up in what was then German East Africa and later became Tanganyika, and still later, Tanzania. In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt intervened for his friend Hurlburt to persuade the Belgian government to permit the mission to establish a station in the Congo, now called the Democratic Republic of Congo. Work was begun in Uganda in 1918; in French Equatorial Africa (Central African Republic) in 1924; Sudan, briefly, in 1949; and the Islands of the Indian Ocean in 1975. Besides evangelization, workers of the mission ran clinics, hospitals, leprosariums, schools, publishing operations, and radio programs. Rift Valley Academy was built at Kijabe for missionary children. Scott Theological College in Kenya helped train African Church leaders. The churches founded by the mission in each of its fields were eventually formed into branches of the Africa Inland Church which, however, continued to work closely with the mission.

From:
http://www.aimint.org/usa/mission__goals.html
http://www.aimint.org/usa/heritage.html

Offical Website: http://www.aimint.org/
Country: Continental Africa (Chad, CAR, Southern Sudan, DR Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Angola, Namibia, Mozambique, Madagascar, Lesotho, Kenya, Tanzania.)
Rating: “Safe for Partnership”

“Rolland and Heidi Baker began Iris Ministries, Inc., an interdenominational mission, in 1980 and have been missionaries for the past twenty-five years. They were both ordained as ministers in 1985 after completing their BA and MA degrees at Southern California College in Biblical Studies and Church Leadership. Rolland is a third-generation missionary born and raised in China and Taiwan. He was greatly influenced by his grandfather, H.A. Baker, who wrote “Visions Beyond the Veil,” an account of the extended visions of heaven and hell that children received in his remote orphanage in southwest China two generations ago.

Heidi was powerfully called to the mission field when she was sixteen and living on an Indian reservation as an American Field Service student. She was led to the Lord by a Navajo preacher. Several months later she was taken up in a vision for several hours and heard the Lord speak to her and tell her to be a minister and a missionary to Africa, Asia and England. When she returned home to Laguna Beach, California, she began ministering at every opportunity and leading short-term mission teams. Rolland and Heidi met at a small charismatic church in Southern California and married six months later after realizing they were united in their calling and desire to see revival among the poor and forgotten of the world.

Rolland and Heidi spent twelve years in Asia. The first six years they led Christian dance-drama crusades in Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Hong Kong. They made use of their backgrounds in creative media and the performing arts, and saw thousands come to Jesus.

After meeting Jackie Pullinger-To and working with her ministry to drug addicts in Hong Kong, however, they had a strong feeling that the Lord wanted to change the direction of their ministry. Their hearts were increasingly broken for the poor and unwanted. They wondered about their crusade converts and wanted to concentrate more on the specific daily needs of those to whom they ministered. This was a time of change. They began to plant works among the poor–first in the slums of central Jakarta, Indonesia, and then among forgotten streetsleepers and elderly in the most crowded urban area in the world, central Kowloon in Hong Kong. God was giving them his heart for the poor and abandoned.

In 1992 they left to do their PhDs in systematic theology at King’s College, University of London. At the same time they planted a church among the homeless, drug addicts and alcoholics who lived on the streets in central London.

In 1995, after twenty years of praying and waiting, they arrived in Mozambique, the poorest country in the world. The government offered Iris Ministries a horribly delapidated and neglected “orphanage,” and with no promised support such a project they simply said, “Yes, we’ll take it!” They began with eighty children, but their hearts were broken for the lost and abandoned children still on the streets of Maputo. After many years of brutal civil war, thousands left orphaned, displaced and abandoned. The Mozambican and foreign staff of Iris Ministries began to pick up and take in these lost children. God poured down his love and provided food day by day. They grew to 320 children. They planted a church in the community and began to see hundreds turn their hearts to the Lord.

The former communist directors of the government orphanage were furious ever since the Bakers took over, since their extreme corruption and thievery had been stopped. Scheming together with an equally corrupt faction of the government, they concocted accusations and issued a legal decree to Iris Ministries forbidding prayer and worship, Christian singing, etc., and all forms of “unapproved” food and clothes distribution and medical assistance. If they and their children did not obey these new rules, they all had forty-eight hours to leave. Heidi was also told that there was a contract out on her life, and that she was not allowed back on the property. Overwhelmed and exhausted by the fight, they had to evacuate to their office in the city.

At the center the children entered the dining room, which had also been used as a church, and began singing praise and worship songs at the tops of their lungs! They were beaten and told they were not allowed to worship God! One-by-one they began to walk the twenty miles to the city office. They told Papa Rolland and Mama Aida that they would go wherever they were because they wanted to worship God! Not knowing what to do, they all cried out to God in total desperation. They had lost everything. There was no place for them to go. There was not even a pot to cook for all these children! A friend, Nelda Lawrence from the U.S. Embassy, came over with some chili and rice for the Baker family. Heidi said, “We have a very large family!” Nelda said, “No, no this is only for you and your two children.” Heidi said, “We have a lot of children and the Lord said there would always be enough!” They prayed over the pots of food and told the over fifty children to sit down. Everyone ate and was full, including the Bakers!

Two other missions, hearing of the situation, offered the use of some unused buildings for three months. As the time ended the Lord graciously provided a piece of land. The children prayed and interceded with the whole staff and believed God for another miracle. Like always God came through and provided a huge circus tent and some used army tents in which the children could live. Holes were dug for toilets and everyone prayed for months for water from the earth (a well) and spiritual water from heaven (more of the Holy Spirit). God answered both prayers and provided a well with clean, fresh water, and poured his Holy Spirit out on the children in a powerful way. Through the trials all have grown stronger in the Lord. The greatest joy for the whole center is that they are now free to worship God.

The challenges of providing physically and spiritually for so many children under unspeakable conditions of poverty and evil are being met in Jesus. Time after time as discouragement and exhaustion have threatened to collapse the entire ministry effort in Mozambique, the Holy Spirit has poured out more grace and mercy on the ministry.

For example, at one point Heidi came back to the States to attend a renewal conference (being in drastic need of renewal!). She was exhausted by the work and the responsibility of over three hundred children who all called her “Mama Aida.” The enemy tried everything to stop her from making the trip. It looked financially impossible, and two doctors told her she absolutely could not make the trip because she had pneumonia. Stubborn as she is, she got on the plane for the thirty-some-hour journey. Mercifully, at the start of the conference God opened up her lungs and allowed her to breath freely. Each day her strength increased. She spent many hours receiving prayer from loving people on the ministry team. It was difficult, and at the same time deeply healing to simply receive after preaching and teaching for so many years. One night she felt she was in birth pains and was groaning in intercession for the children of Mozambique. There were thousands of them coming towards her and she cried, “No, Lord, there are too many!” And she felt Jesus say, “Look into my eyes. You give them something to eat.” Then he took a piece of his broken body and it became bread, and she began to give it to the children. Then again the Lord said, “Look into my eyes. You give them something to drink.” He gave her a cup of the blood and the water that flowed from his side, and she gave this to the children to drink. The Lord spoke to her heart and said, “There will always be enough bread and drink, because I paid the price with my life. Don’t be afraid. Only believe.” She returned to Mozambique healed and strengthened.

Today Rolland and Heidi cry out for a continuation of the visitation of God experienced by the children of H.A. Baker’s orphanage in China long ago. That is beginning to happen, and more testimonies are accummulating than can be communicated! May the Word of God spread in power to the remote corners of the world, and may the the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind, people who have never before tasted the goodness of God, be drawn the King’s great banquet!

[Since this background article was written, Iris Ministries has expanded to over 5,000 churches all over Mozambique and into neighboring countries. The disastrous flooding of 2000/2001 catalyzed an overwhelming hunger for the things of God in the refugee camps where we ministered, and the Gospel continues to spread like wildfire. We now care for almost 2,000 children at our centers, and our churches are taking in orphans as well. Jesus is revealing Himself through signs and wonders, visions and dreams, and we have never seen such a harvest before us. May the Lord of the harvest send us workers!]”

From: http://www.irismin.org/p/background.php

Offical Website: http://www.irismin.org
Country: Mozambique
Rating: “Safe for Partnership”

Dears,

  Marcelo and Adriana are back in Alberton, South Africa, they are once again working at the church they raised there due to some late happenings that made impossible their way to Mozambique and to the orphanage/school project they are involved with. Due to the “global crisis” the funding they were told they would get was called off.

  We are in need of churches in North America or Europe that could host a visit to know more about the project and possibly become partners of it. Marcelo and Adriana have funds enough to perform one international trip, if you are from a church that could get involved or know someone that could, please get in contact, “we” (church of Christ) need you.

  Get involved, that’s what we hope from all of you. Find us at: global@umafrica.org

yours,
+UMAfrica Team

“In 1988, in a town called Luwero, I was changed. There amid the banana plantations of a 79-year-old widow who had outlived six of her seven children… There amid the fruit stands where, with grim irony, vendors displayed rows of human skulls the same size as the pineapples scattered among them… There amid a shocking spectacle of defiance and memory, I was confronted by a naked reality that I could not ignore.

Six years earlier, my family and I had moved to Uganda – a country famous for violence and poverty. In Kampala, Uganda’s battered capital, we planted a church that we believed GOD would use to restore hope to the city and the country, whose supply was running desperately thin.

Uganda’s people had endured so much – corrupt and oppressive rulers had waged ruthless wars against the people, and when they were done with their slaughter nearly one million were left dead.

Luwero had been particularly ravaged by the wars that plagued Uganda for so long. But with the accession to power of Yoweri Museveni, a peace – though uncertain – had begun to prevail and the first glimmers of HOPE had begun to emerge.

We had planted a second church in the small town – 100 kilometres North of Kampala – and this was the reason I had made my journey there on that day.

As we approached the town we began to pass the roadside stalls where villagers normally sold bananas, mangoes and pineapples. With the war at an end, Luwero’s people began to mourn their losses, so the stalls became museums of death, where bananas, mangoes and pineapples were replaced with hundreds of human skulls. We stopped our car and I got out. As I held a skull in each hand, my heart broke for the people of Uganda who had suffered this way.

But that was only the beginning. The Pastor of Luwero’s young church took me to visit the widow I refer to in the beginning of this story. She was 79 years old and had mothered 7 children. As we walked through the banana groves behind her small hut, she began to point out the graves of her husband and six of her children. AIDS had killed them all.

Her last surviving child – a daughter – was dying of the same disease.

Surrounded by her 23 grandchildren, she pleaded in the way only a mother who has known the certainty of deep loss can, “I am an old woman and I can no longer dig. One day soon, I will also die. Who then will look after my grandchildren?”

Her voice assumed the cry of a Nation, a Continent engaged in the emerging reality of impending devastation.

AIDS has run a ruthless rampage in Africa. So many have died… So many children have been left orphaned and vulnerable… So many people have suffered…

And with each devastating loss, Africa collectively cries out, “Who then will look after our children?”

I was reminded of the verse in James 1:27 that says, “Religion that GOD the Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after the orphan and the widow in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

My visit with this woman in a simple Ugandan village was one of the defining moments of my life.

So in 1994, Watoto Childcare Ministries was birthed out of our local church – KPC. Watoto provides holistic, residential care for orphaned and vulnerable children with the core vision to rescue a Child, raise a Leader and rebuild a Nation.

Through the generosity of people from around the world, Watoto has given life and HOPE to many children. ‘Villages of Hope’ with homes, schools and medical clinics have been built. And a Baby Watoto introduced in 2007.

And in 2008, the vision has been extended to war-affected Gulu (Northern Uganda) and we’ve embraced the plight of the vulnerable women in the Nation.

As an addition to the ministries within KPC, Living Hope will operate alongside Watoto and has initially committed to transforming and restoring the lives of 1,200 women in Kampala and 900 women in Gulu.

Many people from Australia, Canada, Europe, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, the UK and USA have sponsored children. Today, more than 1,400 children have hope and a future, growing up with families that love and value them. Some of them have already moved on and are leading productive, independent lives. Many of them are attending university. And some are just beginning their new lives as members of our Watoto family.

Thank you for our your continued support of Watoto.

Gary & Marilyn Skinner

Founders: Watoto”

From: http://www.watoto.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=281&Itemid=363

Offical Website: http://www.watoto.com
Country: Uganda
Rating: “Safe for Partnership”

By David McKenzie
(CNN) — What’s happening in Madagascar?

Supporters of opposition leader Andry Rajoelina attend a rally in Antananarivo on Monday.

 Marc Ravalomanana resigned as Madagascar’s president after weeks of bitter and deadly political clashes.

The military handed power to Andry Rajoelina, the 34-year-old former mayor of Antananarivo. Rajoelina and Ravalomanana have been engaged in a bitter power struggle since the beginning of the year.

Despite vowing that he would never give up power without an election or referendum, Ravalomanana fled his presidential palace. The army later stormed the abandoned palace as a show of support for Rajoelina.

Analysts believe that Ravalomanana had little choice but to step down once he lost the army’s support.

The power grab ended a chaotic few days in the island nation. Though Rajoelina’s supporters say he is now in charge, the dust has not yet settled. Is this a Coup, as the African Union has suggested, or is this a popular expression of the people?

Why did this happen?

Trouble has been brewing in Madagascar since January, when Ravalomanana sacked Rajoelina from his post in the capital.

Rajoelina, a former DJ and media entrepreneur, tapped into rising frustration in the country over high food prices and service delivery to rally support against the president. He set up a parallel government and led massive street protests against his rival.

Over 100 people were killed in the protests, culminating in a demonstration outside the presidential palace in February when a further 23 were killed. Reports suggest most were killed by the security forces.

While Rajoelina has tapped into popular discontent, Madagascar watchers say that to call this a popular revolution over simplifies the takeover. “I think at first Ravalomanana was quite popular with the people but he treated the political elite with disdain,” said historian Stephen Ellis. This made him enemies within the country.

Ravalomanana v. Rajoelina — are they that different?

Ravalomanana made his fortune in business and has interests in several media outlets. He came to the fore politically in 1999 when he was appointed mayor of Antananarivo.

Rajoelina gained prominence as a DJ and also has interests in several media businesses. He too gained political traction by becoming the mayor of Antananarivo.

Both men gained popular support by reaching out to the masses as a leader for the youth of Madagascar.

Ravalomanana was first elected president in 2001 and won a second term in 2006. To many Malagasy he represented a new breed of politician-a self-made millionaire, a no-nonsense business leader. But Ravalomanana maintained his business empire while in office and it was unclear to many where his business interests ended and his political leadership began.

Rajoelina tapped into the very same strategies of slick marketing and a youthful appeal that Ravalomanana had depended on. Some feel he is just a younger version of the former president.

Will the international community recognize the new government?

It is unlikely that key members of the international community will rush to support Rajoelina’s push into power.

“All of the parties to this conflict need to exercise restraint and resume dialogue,” said Robert Wood, U.S. State Dept. Spokesman, “I also want to make clear that any extra constitutional resolution will result in a cut-off of U.S. assistance.”

Prior to the takeover, the African Union warned that any power transfer aided by the military would amount to a coup d’ état. The AU has since diluted its rhetoric-removing any mention of a coup in its official communiqué on the takeover and calling for the protagonists to “comply scrupulously with the provisions of the Constitution of Madagascar on interim arrangements.”

The crisis in Madagascar is a test for the African Union. Despite purporting to be champion of democracy, recent power grabs in Mauritania and Guinea and the botched elections in Kenya and Zimbabwe, have tested the continental groups claims.

Why should you care about Madagascar?

Madagascar isn’t just a cartoon movie. It is the fourth largest island on the planet with a population of around 20 million, a rich cultural history and breathtaking natural diversity.

In the relative stability of the last 8 years, the country’s tourism sector has boomed, bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars. However most ordinary Malagasy have not seen any trickle down from the tourism industry. The country remains one of the poorest in the world.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/03/18/…/index.html

 Now UMA has got “facebooked”!! Add our group to your facebook profile and be part of this wonderful community.

  http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=70746460444
  http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=70746460444
  http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=70746460444

Your comments and suggestiong are welcome.

yours,
+UMAfrica Team

 Hello everybody.

 My name is Filipe Fukumoto and I’m currently typing from Brazil. I’m a Global Coordinator for UMA and one of the members of the team that will be heading to South Africa and Mozambique in Jul’09.

 Back in Jan’08 while out on a Mission Trip in the northeast brazilian waste/hinterland (pic below) I was touched by a deep feeling of curiosity and care about Africa, it was when I met Marcelo and Adriana (currently in Mozambique) and we started talking seriously about the african needs and reality. Today I may say that I’m unable to stop thinking about this reality along my day-to-day routine.

 I’d like to thank my family and friends that have been very supportive to me during this lifechange proccess I’ve been living in the last 2~3 years. God has much to do, and it’s always a pleasure to take part in this wonderfull task that “spreading the Gospel” is.

 If you have any doubts, suggestions or curiosities drop me a message at: filipe@umafrica.org – We need all sorts of supporters, your help will be most welcome! (If you don’t know how can you possibly help us, write us and we’ll help you figuring out.)

yours,
Filipe Fukumoto
+UMAfrica Global Coordinator