Legacy

We're busy cleaning out the basement for the National Road Yard Sale. This is an annual event for all of us who live on the National Road (U.S. 40) from Cumberland, MD to Vandalia, IL. In the process, we've run across several old files of archived family papers. One gem is a copy of a letter that my mother had saved for me. It is from the Rhodesia Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church to a relative who grew up the son of missionaries and who continues to live in Zimbabwe. Mrs. Lois Murphree is my Mom's first cousin.

The photos of the letter are a bit hard/impossible to read, so we've put them on our Facebook page where they are still hard, but almost possible to read. https://www.facebook.com/bob.walters1?success=1#!/media/set/?set=a.10150274696130609.392974.82422350608

I did not grow up knowing that I had a cousin who was a missionary in Africa, so I can't say that I was following in her footsteps, at least not intentionally; but maybe there was some kind of invisible spiritual influence. The bits of connection are incredible and even fall into the realm of mysterious.

Bishop Muzorewa, who passed last year, and who was not only the United Methodist Bishop of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, but was also the first black prime minister of Zimbabwe Rhodesia, and who stood against Robert Mugabe, married a young girl who grew up in the Murphree home.

If that is not enough history, the Murphrees were missionaries at Old Umtali, now called Old Mutare. This mission station was given to the American Methodist Church by the British Government in 1907 (Reliable sources tell me that it was in fact sold to us by Cecil Rhodes.) because our missionaries were being killed by malaria in our mission stations further north in the Congo and there was no malaria in Old Umtali. So our missionaries in the Congo were relocated to Rhodesia. This answers my question of why an American mission station ended up in a British colony.

Here's the kicker: Africa University now sits on the property of that mission station. And Taylor and I now have the great pleasure and privilege to work with Africa University graduates serving in the Democratic Republic of the Congo fighting the killer disease of malaria.

What goes around, comes around. Or in today's vernacular: 100 years ago, someone paid it forward.

Don't think that The United Methodist Church just woke up yesterday and decided to take on malaria. We've been playing the long game with this disease and it has been our enemy for over a hundred years. While the big initiatives created by the global church and by international aid programs will certainly play a part, the ones who will finally defeat malaria will be those spiritual great grandchildren of Bishop Muzorewa and missionaries like Dr. Murphree and his wife (my Mom's cousin), Lois.

Peace,

Bob