10MarApr07CallingAllJosephs

Calling All Josephs MOBILIZING BLACK CHRISTIANS TO AFRICA’S MISSION FIELD

BY VANESSA BURKE

me, and I knew she wasn’t just speaking on behalf of herself.

I felt like she gave me more in those few moments than I had given to Ghana in the two-week preaching crusade I had just finished.” Ofori expounded upon some of the needs of her people, particularly with regard to ministry and education.

Stevens was determined to help.

Earlier that week, Stevens had visited the very slave departure points that Ofori mentioned. She learned how the slave trade not only involved the capture of slaves by invading slave hunters but also the sale of Africans by other Africans. “While Momma Christiana was talking, I was still coming to grips with the reality that some Africans had actually sold their brothers into slavery; and now I was facing the fact that Africa needed our help. I felt like Joseph in the book of Genesis.”

In July 2001, sitting in her hotel room in Ghana’s capital city of Accra, the Rev. LaVerne Hanes Stevens listened intently as Christiana Ofori, a retired Ghanaian school teacher, talked about the North Atlantic slave trade’s effect upon West Africa’s Republic of Ghana. It turned out to be a defining moment for Stevens.

“We [Africans] have been watching,” Ofori told the Pittsburgh native. “We know that you built Europe and we know that you built America, and we are so proud of you.”

Ofori was referring to the generations of Africans and people of African descent whose slave labor has built some of the world’s economic superpowers.

“There could not have been a more affirming experience for me,” explains Stevens. “I knew she wasn’t just talking to

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Opposite: Rev. LaVerne Hanes-Stevens, director of the Joseph Alliance, holds an African orphan. muscle strains, consultations for controlling hypertension and diabetes, and health education for infection prevention. With an s hiladelphia) take Kimberly Daye (P e th open sewage system at readings blood pressure bre. and no access to puriical clinic in Ta ed m e nc lia Joseph Al fied running water, such African villages have a high need for health education in order to improve the quality of life and minimize the spread of disease. Each person in the village also received a Bible, a personal care kit with a supply of toiletries, and individual prayer with Villager one of the ministers on s arrive d early t he Jos and wa the team. eph All ited fo iance d r octors The list of services and to arriv e. humanitarian aid provided by the Joseph Alliance is impressive.Their teams volunteer in orphanages, visit hospitals, and provide nonprescription reading glasses. Last year they donated funds to Bishop Dusan Pobee and the congregation of Transformed Life Ministries to help develop a new ministry complex, which will include health, school, and worship centers near Accra.

In a short time, the Joseph Alliance has developed a reputation for serving passionately and effectively. “A passion for the glory of God, they say, is far more motivating than compassion for souls,” says Bishop Pobee. “This was in its full expression in the Joseph Alliance team.They gave us every part of them: their talents, time, energy, counsel, money, and what have you. There was a hallmark of brotherly kindness and love in the group we will never forget.”

Because of their service, the Joseph Alliance has been invited to join with the Republic of Ghana in the 2007 launching of an ongoing movement to bring others to Ghana.

The nation has extended a formal invitation to Diasporans— people of African descent born outside of Africa—and named it the Joseph Project as part of the nation’s “Akwaaba, Anyemi” (Welcome, Brothers and Sisters) events that will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ghana’s national independence and the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the North Atlantic slave trade.

After learning about the Joseph Alliance, Ghana’s minister of tourism, the Honorable Minister Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, recognized that Stevens’ ministry could provide the perfect service component for Ghana’s Joseph Project and has person-

That day, Stevens resolved that every African American Christian needs to experience a mission trip to Africa because of what they can give—and because of what they can receive.

That resolve planted the seed that birthed a mission organization now known internationally as the Joseph Alliance, Inc. Incorporated by Stevens and the board of directors in 2004, the Joseph Alliance focuses on mobilizing African American Christians to mission work with an emphasis on the continent of Africa.

“Simply stated,” she says, “we mobilize the modern-day Josephs.” According to Stevens, a “Joseph” is anyone who has survived the pit of despair and the effects of slavery, injustice, or other hardships. Much like the biblical account of Joseph in the book of Genesis (chapters 37-47), modern-day Josephs emerge from those experiences with the understanding that they have been blessed with the favor of God and with access to resources that can help others in a time of need. Stevens feels that African Americans fit this bill, and through the Joseph Alliance she has provided a way for them to answer “the Joseph Call” as they help meet the needs of their brothers and sisters in famine.

With only a small team of volunteers, Stevens has channeled her 20 years of experience in nonprofit management and ministry to help develop the Joseph Alliance into a resource conduit for promoting the spiritual, educational, and material advancement of Africa. Stevens says the Joseph Call is an invitation to turn attention to the African American ancestral homeland: a call to visit, to serve, to learn, and to reunite. “It is marked by a spiritual responsibility, a cultural identity, and a reconciliatory opportunity,” says Stevens.

In just a few years, the Joseph Alliance teams have impacted hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives in Ghana. In 2006, they raised enough money to help lift 16 widows and mothers of young children out of their pit of despair and poverty by providing each woman with the startup capital to launch her own business. In 2007 the ministry continues to provide funds for training and development of these new entrepreneurs.

For the past two years, the Joseph Alliance has been the vehicle for taking Stevens’ Renewed Woman™ Conference to Ghana to help meet the spiritual and emotional needs of women. Hundreds of women from all walks of life—from queen mothers to street vendors—make their way to this conference in Accra to hear from the Joseph Alliance team of preachers and teachers who proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In the village of Tabre, six hours from the city of Accra, Dr. Gwendolyn Lee, a physician from Western State Hospital in Staunton,Va., coordinated a Joseph Alliance medical mission.

The team provided problem-focused medical screenings, overthe-counter medications for a variety of skin ailments and

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of American missionaries, according to African American Experience in World Mission: A Call Beyond Community (Vaughn J. Walston and Robert J. Stevens, eds., William Carey Library, 2003).

Stevens asserts that in the 20th century most African American congregations focused their missions giving on local communities—investing only small amounts in foreign missions. She sites the example of one church group that wanted to financially support the Joseph Alliance’s work in Africa but was told by the pastor to invest the money in local needs instead.

“Fundraising is definitely our greatest challenge,” she said.

When asked how she thinks this can be overcome, Stevens says, “It’s unfortunate that we even have to make the distinction between black churches and white churches. However, the fundraising challenge is to help white churches see the investment value in preparing and sending African American mission teams, as well as helping more African American congregations adopt an international perspective on missions that reflects a commitment to those in need both near and far.”

Towards that effort, she plans to offer pastors’ discounts on future Joseph Alliance mission trips and would like churches and Christian businesses to underwrite or provide scholarships for that purpose. Stevens hopes that Christians of all races and ethnicities will see the value in this work and begin to support Joseph Alliance efforts in Africa. Says Stevens, “I am convinced that when more pastors experience missions and preach missions, more congregations will do missions.”

Another method Stevens plans to employ in this massive undertaking is to implement her vision for a sister church initiative, whereby churches in the U.S. would adopt churches in Africa. This would result in the American church becoming more mission-minded, while also gaining a rich knowledge of African heritage, history, and culture.

A wider vision towards this effort to augment the number of African American missionaries involves serving as a bridge for those churches and organizations that have a vision for Africa but don’t know how to get started. Stevens says several people are already developing plans for missions in Africa as a result of their trip to Ghana with a Joseph Alliance missionary team. Medical professionals have been asked to share about the medical tours they did in Africa, and doors are already opening for other team members to provide ministry in Kenya, Uganda, and Liberia.

“That’s what it’s all about: introducing African American Christians to the joys of short-term mission work, helping them launch their own ministries there, and showing them ways they can provide financial support where needed,” says Stevens. “Our teams have brought people together from all Continued on page 39.

ally invited Stevens and the Joseph Alliance to be the country’s major U.S. ally for bringing people to Ghana for missions work and service.

Lamptey says that African peoples everywhere have been “taught to believe that Africa is a definition of failure and ugliness. The time has come to put an end to the negative and begin the positive.” Through this partnership with the Republic of Ghana, Stevens says the Joseph Alliance will provide an avenue for travel to Ghana and involvement in addressing needs associated with ministry development, education, healthcare, homelessness, child welfare, economic empowerment, and more. Additionally, because they have developed the cultural and logistical expertise necessary for foreign mission travel, the Joseph Alliance is the principle source to which Lamptey refers the many people and Christian ministries who call his office wanting to do mission work in Ghana.

In its efforts to assist Ghana’s Ministry of Tourism in promoting the Joseph Project, the Joseph Alliance is appealing to U.S. faith-based organizations, churches, and individuals with an interest in short-term missionary service projects in Ghana. In addition to the service projects, travelers will get the rare opportunity to experience some of Ghana’s cultural activities and visit historical sites such as the coastal castles where captured slaves were imprisoned before boarding slave ships.

Stevens says each team of missionaries will have a Ghanaian guide who is well-versed in the history of Ghana and who can point out and clearly present information on sites of historical and cultural significance. Interested individuals or groups can learn more from the ministry website (thejosephalliance.org) and find out how to travel with the Joseph Alliance when it returns to Africa this summer. Most of the Joseph Alliance team members raise funds for their trip by asking for support from family, friends, co-workers, and churches.Travelers have the option of going for one, two, or three weeks.

Stevens says, “One of our goals is to increase the presence and financial support of African American Christians in mission work. Unfortunately, few mission teams in any part of the world have been fully integrated when it comes to race.” Statistics show that although African Americans make up about 12 percent of the U.S. population,African American Christians are significantly underrepresented in missions, comStephen prising less than 1 percent Stevens

donated repairs comp Osu Ch uters for the ildren s home. /

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absolutely anything in music.The question is whether or not someone makes a “place” for it to be heard by any number of people. Artists decide what they want to put in music, oftentimes based on outside advice and pressures. Then labels decide if they want to record that music and distribute and promote it; other people decide whether or not they want to program it into radio stations they have influence over; and then the people that are listening to those radio stations have a decision to make based on what selections have been presented to them. So there’s a lot of filtering going on.

I’ve always wondered at the categorization that goes on. Christian rock: What makes one song more Christian than another? Does it need to have a lot of references to God and to praising God? I feel like a lot of my songs are just talking about life; they contain values that resonate with and reflect Christian values, but my music would never be categorized as Christian rock, because I make no direct references to God or Jesus. My lyrics are often illustrating very dark circumstanc-

es, situations, or feelings. I am holding up a mirror and saying, “Look at this” with metaphors. I am taking an emotional snapshot of something elusive, in a way that I couldn’t do with just words.

I am looking at things—coldly sometimes—not glossing them over. I feel like I am speaking truths about dangerous things that will fog your vision if you don’t take them out of yourself and shine a light on them.

To me the songs are reminders to myself and others.There are real demons in our culture, and they suck on us constantly, in the dark crevices of our minds; they’re everywhere, so many terrible messages and influences that want to kill life. I feel like my songs help remind me I’m not crazy. I’m being fed craziness every day by the values our culture seems to hold most dear: money, power, and physical beauty.

‘first-timer’ say that they want to come back again and do even more in Africa.

It’s really rewarding to hear that.” over the country and from all avenues of The Rev. Tracy Clark, an associate life. They are housewives, administrative pastor in Richmond, Va., traveled with assistants, college students, healthcare the Joseph Alliance mission team in 2005 providers, educators, retailers, corporate and returned again in 2006. “I thought executives, ministers, and others.Yet most I was coming over here to help my importantly, they are all ‘Josephs.’” brothers and sisters in Africa,” she says, LaRhonda Dean, who serves as proj- “but now I know that I have come over ect coordinator for the Joseph Alliance, here to work with my brothers and sisis a high school English teacher in the ters, and what I thought I had to give Atlanta, Ga., area. She enjoys spending was nothing in comparison to what I part of her summer vacation in Africa, have received.” She adds, “I can now but when asked what aspect of her identify with the African in my African involvement with the Joseph Alliance American.This experience has completed brings her the greatest joy, she responds, something in me that I didn’t even know “The greatest joy comes when I hear a was missing. I found a part of myself here,

and I will never be the same.”

Stevens and the entire Joseph Alliance team extend the invitation to all modern-day Josephs in America. The grand vision is to expand into all of Africa, says Stevens, “facilitating a system of connections and serving as a liaison between needs and volunteers.” She hopes individuals, churches, and organizations will feel the passion and get on board—hear the call and answer—then watch the results as the Joseph Alliance launches mission teams to advance the kingdom of God from shore to shore. ■

MW: How do you conceive of a live show? Is it a place of vulnerability and honesty, or of getting “into character” and performing? What’s your relationship to the audience?

SF: A live show is a one-off chance to connect with a unique group of people in the space of one hour. What am I desperate to get across to them, and to myself? Do I want to inspire us all to live and be more awake and feel? Am I just showcasing an album or am I trying to create more reasons to live? I don’t want to numb people out; I want to express something we aren’t always good at putting into words. Ideally I want to inspire people to live and create their own art, I want to feel connected to life, to people, to give us all hope, wake ourselves up and shake our minds and hearts up a little bit.

MW: How has your upbringing in the church impacted your artistry? Do you think there’s a place for one’s faith in popular music?

SF: Well, I think there’s a place for

Calling All Josephs continued from page 29.

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Matt Weed lives in Philadelphia when not touring with his band, Rosetta. He also runs a recording studio and does photography and filmmaking on the side.

Through her company Perfect Proof (perfectproof.net), Vanessa Burke provides freelance editing and writing services.