Mbengwi: Choirs Sing for Peace

Mbengwi: Choirs Sing for Peace

In response to a call from the Momo S.D.O in collaboration with church leaders in Mbengwi, massively the population  showed up for a special ecumenical choir presentation prayer service dubbed “Our Choirs Sing for Peace” (2 Chron. 20:1-16). This was in the afternoon of Thursday June 7th 2018 at P.C Station Congregation, Mile 19 Mbengwi. Turn by turn the Men of God mounted the pulpit to preach the message of peace in our beloved country Cameroon and pray for God to restore harmony, reconciliation, forgiveness and unity amongst citizens in the face of the ongoing socio-economic and political crisis negatively affecting the population. Same message was reechoed in the glorious melodies of the various choir presentations. The interdenominational church service had Christians and leaders from the Presbyterian, Catholic, Baptist, Apostolic, Full Gospel, Muslim and Pentecostal Churches like Assemblies of God, Anglican Church, Redeemed Christian Church of God and Jesus Evangelistic Bible Mission.

The Men of God had several prayer points/intercessions such as:
- Confession and Repentance for Cameroon
- God to Touch Hearts and End the Killings
- God to Grant Justice to the Anglophone Problem
- God to Remove all Barriers to Dialogue
- Displaced Persons
- Love Between Anglophones and Francophones
- God to Give our Leaders the Wisdom to Handle the Crisis

In attendance were the D.O for Mbengwi, Fouda Etaba Bernoit Nicaise, the Lord Mayor to the Mbengwi Council, Tebe Beatrice née Mbamuku Nduku, fons and commanders of the various military factions like the BIRs, Police, Gendarmes and the Penitentiary together with some of their elements. The surprise guest was the Commander of the Military for West and North West Region, General Agha Robinson, a son of the soil, accompanied by Colonel Pouma, Commander of the 33rd BIR implanted in the North West Region.

In his closing remarks at the end of the service, the seasoned administrator, Monono Absalom Woloa first began with a song (It is well in the name of Jesus) that set the entire church house in joyous noise, an indirect assessment of the attachment the people have to their administrator after which he invited the General to the pulpit to give a word. General Agha Robinson told the congregation:
“I have come here today to add my voice to this call for  peace. We have come here not to wage war but to bring peace to you. It is important for us to realize that violence does not solve problems, fighting does not solve problems and that taking up the gun does not solve problems. It is also important for us to tell our children that going to the bush does not solve problems.” he continued. “In September our children have to go to school. The peace we are praying for starts with us. We have to be the change we want. We have to be examples of peace. Tell those our brothers to come out from the bushes, sit down and let us talk peace.” he ended. Monono then cued in to quote 1st Samuel 16:14,15,23 which talks about the Lord’s Spirit departing from Saul and replaced by an evil one. God used music through his servant David to send away the torments of depression and fear that gripped King Saul when the Spirit of the Lord left him.

A special offering was collected to assist internally displaced persons caused by the conflict. At the end of the service, the Rev. Shu Lawrence Neba, Parish Pastor of P.C Mbengwi donated the peace plant to Absalom Monono and Gen. Agha Robinson saying “We want to thank God for the S.D.O that we have here. We thank God that he is a man of peace. We pray that he will grow as an administrator of peace wherever he is. On behalf of the pastors who are here, we want to give him a peace plant to put in front of his table and remind himself that we have all committed ourselves to peace in this division. We want to offer a second peace plant to our brother the General that we have all committed ourselves to peace in the entire nation” 

Talking to the press at the end of the event, the S.D.O in his assessment started by first thanking the Ministers of God, the choirs and entire population of Momo Division especially those in Mbengwi for contributing to its success. He said “We’ve realized that all of us were committed towards the success of this event and today we are singing peace and going back to our homes, communities and integrating with all other Cameroonians in our beloved country Cameroon. We are hopeful that the sermon preached by the Men of God, the prayers offered by the Men of God and the songs sung by the various choirs will keep us closer to God so that all what we do will be for the interest of God’s people. We do hope and we see a future that is promising. A future where all of us will live in peace, where there’ll be no more killings, no more displacements and no more burnings within our communies.” He concluded by saying “We of Momo Division have come out as a people today in one voice to say NO to violence, YES to understanding as Cameroonians and for us to forge ahead so that our economy that’s been destroyed will once more bounce back. Parents will be able to have the means to send their children back to school come September 2018. It is the spirit shared by all of us who have attended this special ceremony today and we are going back home satisfied”.

Among the key public figures that attended the service was Mayor Tebe Beatrice née Mbamuku Nduku of the Mbengwi Council. In her opinion, “It was a very grand worship service titled ‘Our Choirs Sing for Peace’ because when the people of Israel sang, the walls of Jericho came falling down. So we believe that in singing, we can seek peace. I think I’m a proud mayor and a very lucky one too because looking around us, we see that our clergy, women and men are doing a very wonderful job. The administration has just come in to unite all of us to seek for that one common thing that we all desire, PEACE, come what may. We have heard that we as mothers should ask our children who are in the bushes to come back home. We as mothers should ask our children who are in the military to put down their guns because we all need peace. We need peace so that we can go to the farm, we need peace so that our children can go to school we need peace so that we can be at our jobsites.”

Same opinion shared by the Rev. Epie Mark Kogge, Parish Pastor P.C Njembeng “Actually we are very convinced that our message today will have a very positive impact on the people. You know our community has been living in fear and the turn out today with the encouragements we have given has shown that the people believe only Jesus can safe them. We pray that the message shall go to the ends of the earth telling our brothers and sisters who have been taken over by the devil in the name of ‘odeshi’ to come back. We are strongly telling the military that killing the people is not the solution, repressive measures are not the solution. Let them come to the dialogue table. Let them see the brothers and sisters as human beings and not as animals to be hunted in the bush. The peace is not only for the civilians but as well as for the military because from both parties many are dying and we strongly say in one voice that all those dying are civilians of this nation, are children created in God’s image, are children who were delivered by women who went through the labour room and so their lives should not be taken for granted” he ended.