Cameroonian Group in Colorado Prays for Women in Gaza 

 

The annu­al World Day of Prayer, cel­e­brat­ed on March 1, is an oppor­tu­ni­ty for Chris­tians to pray for those who are less for­tu­nate, and to bring atten­tion to the plight of women around the world. The Chris­t­ian Wom­en’s Fel­low­ship (CWF) group of the Pres­by­ter­ian Church in Cameroon takes the day seriously. 

While it has its roots with­in the Pres­by­ter­ian Church in Cameroon, the CWF, with its wings spread out in the African dias­po­ra, includes affil­i­ates in the Unit­ed States, Cana­da, and parts of Europe. The group has long­stand­ing ties with the Pres­by­ter­ian Church in Amer­i­ca, PC-USA. 

In Auro­ra, Col­orado, the local CWF is part of the fel­low­ship at Auro­ra First Pres­by­ter­ian Church. They spent the day of Sun­day, March 10 in hon­or of Pales­tin­ian women in Gaza who they described as “the vic­tims of the war between Israel and Hamas.” The war which start­ed on Octo­ber 7, 2023, has claimed the lives of an esti­mat­ed 30,000 civil­ians, includ­ing many women and children. 

Women Supporting Women Around the World

So, they gath­ered to hon­or the women of Gaza who have died and oth­ers who are strug­gling as a result — through wor­ship — singing songs, telling their sto­ries, and pray­ing for peace in the war-torn region. 

Through­out the morn­ing ser­vice, they read sto­ries from Pales­tin­ian women. Par­tic­i­pants also heard tes­ti­monies from mem­bers of the Cameroon­ian com­mu­ni­ty about their fam­i­lies and rel­a­tives that they said demon­strat­ed their love and com­pas­sion for one another.

The CWF group is led by Mer­cy Nkwelle who said this was the sec­ond time they were hold­ing the prayer celebration. 

“The Pales­tin­ian women who wrote this wor­ship ser­vice have invit­ed the world to pray for peace, jus­tice, and free­dom of reli­gion and move­ment,” she said. “We hope to inspire oth­er women around the world to bear with one anoth­er in love dur­ing trou­bled times.” 

In 2023, they cel­e­brat­ed the women of Tai­wan. This time, she said they are reflect­ing and shar­ing the sto­ries of three Pales­tin­ian women “who wit­ness to the pow­er of bear­ing with one another.”

Africa Agen­da

Fellowship for Peace in Gaza and Palestine

“The inten­tion of this wor­ship ser­vice is to be with one anoth­er in love despite all the dif­fi­cul­ties and oppres­sion that is hap­pen­ing around the world,” said Lucas Nkwelle, an elder with the Auro­ra First Pres­by­ter­ian Church.

Nkwelle led the ser­vice with about 40 oth­er mem­bers of his com­mu­ni­ty, which includ­ed the CWF group, chil­dren, par­ents, friends, and rel­a­tives in the area. For about two hours they sang hymns and songs from Cameroon, prayed for the suf­fer­ing women and home­less peo­ple in Pales­tine, and asked God for peace and com­fort dur­ing this time of war. 

“I can relate to Eleanor’s sto­ry here because many of the things Eleanor expe­ri­enced dur­ing her time is what some of us are expe­ri­enc­ing today,” Nkwelle said.

The gath­er­ing took place in a makeshift sanc­tu­ary at Nkwelle’s base­ment. They held up leaves plugged from an olive tree which they said rep­re­sent­ed peace, jus­tice, and free­dom of reli­gion. The women staged a short play dur­ing ser­vice, which they said por­trayed how a fam­i­ly can reach peace dur­ing times of conflict.

A Call to Unity Among Cameroonians

“The Chris­t­ian Women’s Fel­low­ship that is here, no mat­ter how small they are, I think they are doing great things. They are able to ral­ly all of you and bring you here,” Nkwelle said dur­ing his message. 

In Col­orado, the com­bined com­mu­ni­ties of Cameroo­ni­ans num­bers about 1000, and is scat­tered in the Den­ver areas of Auro­ra, Boul­der, Col­orado Springs, and sur­round­ing cities. Nkwelle said God is call­ing the Cameroo­ni­ans in town to be unit­ed, because, as he stat­ed, “if we are divid­ed, we can­not achieve our aims.”

Dou­bling as the pres­i­dent of the Asso­ci­a­tion of Cameroo­ni­ans in Col­orado, he not­ed some of the suc­cess­es the small com­mu­ni­ty has achieved recent­ly, such as set­ting up a fund that he said is designed to assist in times of need.

“This morn­ing Eph­esians is telling us that we should be unit­ed as a peo­ple. And we can­not sit here and talk only about Pales­tin­ian peo­ple. We have to start by exam­in­ing our­selves,” he said.

The civ­il war in Cameroon, which start­ed in 2016, has result­ed in the deaths of more than 6000 peo­ple and dis­placed more than 1 mil­lion. Hun­dreds have fled to neigh­bor­ing coun­tries and oth­ers have sought refuge in the Unit­ed States, includ­ing Colorado. 

A Growing Community That Needs Support 

In 2023 the com­mu­ni­ty lost two of its mem­bers, and this turn of events required thou­sands of dol­lars in expen­di­tures to sup­port the griev­ing fam­i­lies. Nkwelle said they recent­ly set up a com­mu­ni­ty bereave­ment and endow­ment fund as a relief mech­a­nism and insur­ance pol­i­cy against future com­mu­ni­ty challenges.

“This Cameroon­ian com­mu­ni­ty is here to serve every­one. There are things you plan for, there are things you don’t plan for. Although we speak dif­fer­ent lan­guages, you can see your broth­er or sis­ter as a fam­i­ly. As we med­i­tate today and pray for Pales­tin­ian women, let us also pray for our com­mu­ni­ty, that we can be unit­ed,” he said to close the service. 

The cel­e­bra­tion con­clud­ed with a meal that the CWP group prepared.