‘Surrogate’ parents see students graduate from Africa University
June 3, 2004
By Andra Stevens*
MUTARE, Zimbabwe (UMNS) —Twenty-three-year-old Wellman Kavul pulled a tattered sheet of paper from his wallet and opened it on the table. It was the first letter he received from Frank and Betty Anderson, the couple who sponsored his four years as an undergraduate at Africa University.
In the letter, Frank Anderson wrote that he and his first wife, Betty, now deceased, had served as missionaries in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They had taught school there, and motivated by a desire “to help educate a person who would give his life to helping others make a better life for themselves,” they had provided a scholarship for a Congolese student to study agriculture at Africa University.
On the eve of Africa University’s 10th graduation ceremony on May 29, Kavul met Anderson and his second wife, also named Betty, for the first time. He took out the letter to show them that he’d underlined that section and taken the words to heart.
“I’ve been keeping it,” Kavul said. “It is something that they gave me, like a ministry, that I am supposed to do.”
The Andersons were part of a small, excited and proud group of “surrogate” parents who traveled from the United States to Zimbabwe to attend Africa University’s 10th commencement.
As a longtime supporter seeing the campus for the first time, Frank Anderson said the facilities and the pace of development impressed him.
“I’m happy to be here and see for myself what a wonderful initiative this is,” he said. “I have many friends, United Methodists, in the Sarasota District in Florida, and when I told them that I was coming to visit, some of them asked, ‘Why should we pay apportionments for Africa University?’ I can now tell them that things are moving along very well, the student population is growing rapidly, and it’s a very good, high standard of education.”
Fellow United Methodists Marilyn Hurlbut, Barbara Williams and Joseph Moore, from Highland Village, Texas, came to celebrate with three young men from Mozambique.
Hurlbut and Williams have been making mission trips to Chicuque, Mozambique, for many years. They met the three — Lourenço Manganhela, João Massochua and Joaquim Muando — in 1997 and were impressed by the men’s desire to further their education. Hurlbut and Williams worked with others in their congregation to provide the three men with full scholarships to study business at Africa University. The three received bachelor of business studies degrees at the graduation.
“They’ve worked hard, and we feel very proud of them,” Hurlbut said. “I’m feeling like a parent again, just as I did when my own boy graduated.”
For the Andersons, Hurlbut and others, Africa University is a vital partner in ministries and service to the continent of Africa.
“What we felt called to do was to develop Christian leaders for Mozambique, and it seemed to us that Africa University had the same mission for the whole continent of Africa,” Hurlbut said. “We really felt like it was the right match.”
Hurlbut and her colleagues from Texas want to continue sending young Mozambicans to Africa University. They’re currently supporting one student and looking forward to finding others to send.
*Stevens is Africa University’s director of information.
News media contact: Linda Green, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org
