Emmanuel Sisterhood Bafut (Cameroon) annual report 2020

We thank God for the year 2020 just ended. It was a successful year full of good and difficult happenings, but God is by us and led us through.We are so thankful to you all who helped us go through. God alone holds the future; our today and tomorrow. We keep on trusting God.We want to express our hearty thanks to you for your strong support to us morally, spiritually and financially. This has been very helpful and useful to the life of our community. We can only ask God to bless you immensely for all these and many more. 

We also want to be grateful to God that in the midst of the crises our community still moves on. The political situation of our county remains difficult; nobody knows the end, which is very painful as people keep losing their lives.Despite all these, we have continued to move on with our life, taking care of our different places where our sisters live. Since November 2020 we have tried that a small group of sisters live in our house in Bafut so that it is not left empty again as has been the past two years. This is not very easy, but with prayers and trusting God we have been able to go on with this until now. 

God has used this difficult situation of our country to bless us with an extension house in Foumbot where our community has continued to witness for Him in that part of the country we have never thought of. God's ways are not ours, nor are God's thoughts ours. Our group of sisters working in school and hospital of the PCC continue in Baffoussam (Sr. Magadaleine, Sr. Hope, and Sr. Claire who joined the group three months ago and working in the treasury department of the hospital). The host machines are still there in Baffoussam and sisters are going on with the wafers production there. 

Some sisters are carrying on studies in different fields (Sr. Florence and Sr. Beatrice in the field of nursing, Sr. Angele reading Project management and a few young sisters going to a college around Foumbot. 

World Council of Churches Ecumenical Prayer Cycle - Cameroon

The WCC Ecumenical Prayer Cycle includes the Cameroon on August 2nd-8th, 2020.

DIAKONIA World Federation has a member association in Cameroon, Communauté de l’Emmanuel (Emmanuel Community), a protestant monastic community within the "Presbyterian Church in Cameroon" (PCC). It was one of the first Protestant communities of Africa. It was founded in 1971 by Sister Madeleine Mary Handy, Cameroonian and first woman pastor of Cameroon. The Cameroon sisters are closely associated with the Deaconesses Sisterhood of Reuilly (Versailles).

The prioresses (left to right)
Rev. Sr. Madeleine M. Handy, founder and prioress 1971-1999
Rev. Sr. Judith Ngo Nyemb, prioress 1999-2012
Rev .Sr. Shalom Kiven, prioress from 2012    
                                                             

The Charisma of Emmanuel Sisters is prayer, service to the poor and needy (whether the needs are
spiritual or practical), service to the church, and ecumenism. Prayer is central in the life of the Emmanuel Sisters. Isaiah 62: 6-7 guides them to give God no rest as they watch and pray for the whole world. Being a member of this community the sister must develop an intimate fellowship with God through prayer and learn to invoke God in all circumstances through prayer.

Prayers of thanksgiving for:
* the natural resources and diverse gifts, such as the distinctive music and dance of Cameroon
* those who minister to victims of sexual violence, trafficking and other human rights abuses
* Christians and people of other faiths who courageously have pursued reconciliation and peace among those in conflict
* individuals and organizations who have provided for health clinics and schools in Cameroon

Prayers for others:
* just resolutions to the conflicts and violence among diverse groups and their leaders
* refugees who flee to other countries, and for those who host them
* economic developments that make it possible for all to rise out of poverty
* stable democratic governments that effectively serve the common good.

WCC shocked by news of kidnapping at school in Cameroon

06 November 2018

World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit expressed shock and dismay at the news on 6 November of the kidnapping of 79 students and three staff, including the principal, from the Presbyterian Secondary School, a boarding school in Bamenda, in the northwest region of Cameroon.

“We are lifting up in prayer and solidarity the kidnapped students and staff, their families, their churches and their communities,” said Tveit.

“We pray to God, and appeal to those responsible for this kidnapping, for the safe release of all those who have been taken.” The school has pupils ages 10-14.

“This incident underscores the gravity of the crisis afflicting especially the western regions of Cameroon, and we urgently appeal for increased international and ecumenical advocacy and action for a just peace in Cameroon, in which the equal dignity and rights of all people in the country are respected and protected, and for the immediate cessation of all armed violence,” said Tveit.

“We pray for the Presbyterian Church of Cameroon, and for all the churches of the country, that they may be empowered and strengthened in their witness and for their pilgrimage for justice and peace in Cameroon and the region.”

Communauté de l'Emmanuel is in the Presbyterian Church of Cameroon, and a member association in DIAKONIA World Federation. Please pray for their community and for ministry in challenging times. 

A focus on Emmanuel Sisters, Cameroon

The sisterhood was first founded in 1971 by Rev Mother Magdaline Marie Handy. She had travelled to France in 1951 with five others on an academic scholarship to became a student nurse. Her school was at the Deaconesses Sisterhood of Reuilly (Paris).

The sisterhood is one of the first Protestant communities of Africa. At first, the sisterhood was only affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon but is now fully part of the PCC. The then Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, Rt. Rev. J.C Kangsen visited Makak, and learned about the problems of the sisters, the moderator invited them to attend the PCC Synod Meeting that held in Kumba in April 1974. It was in this meeting that the General Secretary finally gave the approval for the PCC to take over the community. Thus, the community became an institution under the PCC.

In 2014, the sisterhood changed their name from Sisterhood of Emmanuel to Emmanuel Sisters.

The beginning was not easy for the foundress Sister Magdaline and the other sisters as they lived without any income. In the midst of all difficulties and challenges, Sister Magdaline did not give up. She was ordained as the first female Pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon in January 1978, and died in January 1999. She is burried in the community's Cemetery.

The first batch of consecrated sisters was on the 24^th November 1985 - Sister Judith Ngo Nyemb, Joy F. Joy, Jane Manka'a, Ann Emmanuel, Martha Ngo Nge and Regina Shu. Sister Judith Ngo Nyemb and Sr. Joy F. Toy are the only two sisters out of the six first consecrated that are still living in the community. 

The sisterhood maintains good networks with deaconesses in Stuttgart who support the training for nursing and diaconal education in Cameroon. The sisterhood also has a close connection with the Diaconesses of Reuilly, Versailles, France. They are also supported by the Circle of Friends for the Emmanuel Sisters.

The sisters have a life of vocation and prayer, offer hospitality, work in the bakery and sewing room, and as medical nurses and midwives (Sr Hope, Sr Magdalena and Sr Samuel), as teachers (Sr Emmanuel and Sr Loveline), and in the Agape Unity Program, an outpatient programme supporting people with handicaps and those with epilepsy (Sr Judith and her team of trained volunteers and staff). 

The house at Akum where the sisters care for and train handicapped girls

In Akum, new host baking machines have arrived, and there have been extensions of the building, and the workmen's house (which will be transformed after completion of the extension into the guesthouse). The extension of the main building should be completed by August 2014. Melanie, a handicapped young women, finished her formation at the end of 2013. On her departure, she received a sewing machine which will help her to support herself in the future. The community is pleased she was able to complete the formation, and that she now steps into independence. Sr Mary Ann has been in charge of the home centre since 2009, and two sisters from Bafut take turns of one year to support her. Like Sr Judith, she is in need of a wheelchair at times. Visitors describe the joy of life of the young handicapped women and girls in Akum, a unique experience.

The team in Bafut, Sr Shalom, prioress and her first and second assistants, Sr Angele and Sr Claire, are fully established. The new, very nice dormitory for the sisters is completed. In Bafut, the education programs for the sisters have been supported, and the host baking machines replaced.

On June 21st, 2014, the General Assembly was held in the Mission House of Basel. Sr Traude Leitenberger (Secretary, DIAKONIA World Executive Committee) gave a short presentation with pictures on the subject, Eight years circle of friends Emmanuel Sisterhood - what has come to be?

Facebook page for Sisterhood
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Some of this information was adapted from the newsletter by the Circle of Friends, Emmanuel Sisters, Bafut, Cameroon c/- Urs Scheibler, Bundtenweg 16, CH 4434, Holstein, urs.scheibler@bluewin.ch