Cameroon
Valéry Nodem stands beside a villager who was unjustly jailed during the construction of the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline.
If I am not back by the end of the day, look me up in prison.” He says it jokingly, but the undertone expresses more anxiety than mission co-worker Christi Boyd had heard in the four years they have worked together. A human rights worker and a lawyer by training, ValéryNodem is closely involved in an anticorruption campaign calling the Cameroonian government to good governance of its revenues from the oil, gas, and mining industries operating in its territory. Their conversation follows a call from authorities summoning him within the hour. They had learned about the upcoming publication of a statement by the campaign coalition that criticized the government’s accounts of the proceeds from its natural resources.
Only a few months earlier, two Congolese activists had been jailed for their advocacy of resource revenue transparency and soon afterward another was arrested in Angola.
Rather than alleviating dire poverty, Africa’s natural wealth aggravates corruption, autocratic rule, and civil strife. While the PC(USA) supplies funding and mission co-workers for development projects to improve the living standards in communities, the denomination also networks beyond its ecclesiastic partners to address societal and global ills that generate and maintain their suffering. Through the Joining Hands Initiative of the Presbyterian Hunger program, the church provides a platform for U.S. churches to learn about these often deeply rooted injustices, to humbly accompany its international partner networks, and to advocate changes in solidarity with the poor and voiceless. Learn more about Joining Hands.
PC(USA) People in Mission
World Mission: Jeffrey Boyd, regional liaison, Central Africa, Christi Boyd, development companionship facilitator
Presbyterian Church in Cameroon: Rev. Shirley Hill, public health worker (HIV/AIDS), Rev. Leisa Wagstaff, teacher/trainer
Partners/Ministries
Presbyterian Church in Cameroon: Rev. Dr. Nyansako-Ni-Nku, moderator, Rev. Dr. Festus Ambe Asana, synod clerk
PC(USA) General Assembly Staff
Randy Bowman, GAC
Nancy Boxman, BOP
Give us courage, God, to follow Christ as Advocate for the vulnerable and oppressed. Amen.
Ps. 143, 147:12–20 Ps. 81, 116
Isa. 49:13–23 (24–26)
Gal. 3:1–14; Mark 6:30–46
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