A new mission program, the African College Education Fund, or ACE Fund, has begun under the supervision of the International Development Agency (IDA). The purpose of the fund is to finance college education for selected young men and women of African national churches that are member churches the International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church.
The concept behind the fund is the idea found in the old saying, “You can give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, but if you teach a man to fish, he can eat for a lifetime.” In the developing countries of Africa, there is a strong tendency to look to Europe and America for funds and solutions to the challenges of health promotion, economic growth, and even evangelism and ecclesiastical growth. However, foreign solutions and foreign funding will usually provide only temporary solutions.
Permanent solutions must be culturally sensitive, locally resourced and must build a sense of ownership within the community, in order to be effective in the long run. The philosophy of the ACE Fund is that the best way to accomplish this is to have educated members of developing communities design and implement solutions for their own communities.
The goal of the ACE Fund is to provide tuition, educational expenses and a stipend toward living expenses to young men and women with the potential to contribute to the building up of their churches and communities. The Fund will also provide assistance to beneficiaries in selecting colleges that will advance their contribution to their communities as well as their careers. Beneficiaries will not be limited to clergy or candidates for ordination.
Diocesan bishops will be involved in selecting beneficiaries, and will advise the Fund on whether the colleges selected are suitable and proposed budgets are reasonable. In order to avoid fostering a mentality of dependency, beneficiaries will perform duties under the supervision of their bishops or rectors, for the benefit of the local ministries of their churches in exchange for their living expenses.
In keeping with the idea of fostering local ownership of solutions, the Fund will encourage local churches and former beneficiaries to contribute toward future scholarships.
The first beneficiary of the fund is Gordon Okumu, a member of the Episcopal Church of Africa congregation in Nairobi. He attends worship regularly and on occasion has had the opportunity to deliver the sermon during Sunday services. In exchange for his living expenses, he conducts door-to-door evangelism, sharing his faith and inviting members of the community to the Church.
Gordon’s goal is to become a Christian voice in the field of journalism and to develop media programs that will reach youths with the message of salvation in Jesus Christ.
For more information about the ACE Fund, or to learn how to contribute, please contact Fr. Jonathan Landon, Director of the ACE Fund at frlandon@iccec.org. Fr. Jonathan is an active duty Army Chaplain and serves as Archdeacon of the Archdiocese of the Armed Forces.
