Kick in the Gut
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2008
Two a.m. I feel like I’ve been kicked in the gut. News from Cameroon reports rioting and violence everywhere, including Yaoundé, where our friends live.
Divine appointment
Jean-Emile and Sophie Ngué have stayed in our home. Jean-Emile was a student in the 1990s, which is how we met. Dr. Sam Roberts, then of Virginia Union University, called my wife Sandy, who untypically had an open hour to meet him and a pastor from Cameroon interested in pastoral care.
We immediately realized Jean-Emile was unique. Cameroon pastors sent him to the US on a one year scholarship. Discovering pastoral care, he stayed for three more years. There was nothing sticky about him; though in need, he never let on. He’d been swindled out of his money by persons who posed as landlords.
I invited him to preach at the church I served; that would put a $100 honorarium in his pocket immediately. In the weeks that followed, the deacons made it clear no black man was to be permitted again in the pulpit, and I resigned. As a result, we became close.
Student days
Jean-Emile and I began going to Richmond Hill, an urban retreat center which has a community meal on Monday night following worship. At least, he’d get one good meal there. I provided transportation when I could for various errands.
Jean-Emile proved to be a gifted, eager student who studied clinical pastoral counseling at Virginia Institute of Pastoral Care (VIPCare) while completing a DMin at the School of Theology, Virginia Union University. His doctoral research concerned adapting Western psychology for the African context. He said that he came to value his African identity.
Return to Africa
Despite pleas from friends and teachers to stay in the US, Jean-Emile returned to his homeland, in the grip of poverty, corruption, and suffering on a scale those of us in America can hardly imagine. He cobbled together several positions to support his family, and founded the African Counseling Center in 2000. Although Executive Director, he declined a salary to make it possible to pay staff, college graduates who could not secure employment. Since people do not marry if unemployed, this problem created stress for several staff.
By now Jean-Emile was director of the Protestant Council of Churches in Cameroon, and occasionally worked for the United Nations. For example, he went to Gabon in response to a spate of child ritual murders.
Companions in Hope
He invited staff of VIPCare to visit Cameroon and present a seminar in 2002. See africancounselingcenter.org here for a roster of those who went. Incredibly, they raised the money and made the trip. One Board member got out his checkbook and wrote a large donation, challenging others to do the same. The missioners and staff of African Counseling Center adopted the name Companions in Hope. It was a life-changing experience for staff and Board of VIPCare.
Planning for 30, Sophie Ngué and her team cooked for 70 pastors who attended the seminar. Sandy asked, “How do you manage?” Sophie answered, “You’re not poor here unless you’re alone.”
Real Followers of Christ
I’ve never met Christians like Jean-Emile and Sophie and their colleagues. For them sometimes daily bread is the next meal. Critical health care is not available. In addition to their own family, pastors in Cameroon often raise three or four AIDS orphans.
Jean-Emile has taught me about living with pain, because he lives with illness that has plagued him since childhood. We talk on the phone every week. We sing and pray together. Jean-Emile is my brother in Christ.
At the moment he’s in France, meeting with supporters of the Protestant Council. He helped write the Voting Rights Act and advised the President on human rights issues. His wife and four children are dear to us.
Outside North American white privilege
Knowing him has changed me profoundly. The North American bubble of privilege and prejudice in which I’ve always existed has burst. Suddenly, it’s like I’m sitting at a table enjoying a fancy steak dinner while my brothers and sisters have little or nothing. The same is true in all essentials of life.
But when it comes to spiritual life, the situation is reversed. My African spiritual brothers and sisters are rich, while I live in Laodicean poverty.
O God, bring them through this crisis safely. Glorify yourself in us as we partner together for the sake of the least, the last, and the lost. Amen.