Three Missionaries Return to Homes

 

UPDATE 7/13/2018: The last of three United Methodist missionaries seeking to leave the Philippines after being placed on a government watch list arrived July 13 in her home country of Malawi. Miracle Osman, 24, of Blantyre, Malawi, has reunited with her family there, the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries and church representatives in Malawi announced. Read the latest.

UPDATE 07/07/2018: A United Methodist missionary held 56 days in a detention center in the Philippines has arrived home in Zimbabwe. Another missionary detained in the Philippines has returned to the U.S., while a third is working out her departure from Manila. Eveline Chikwanah has the story and the Rev. Taurai Emmanuel Maforo has photos for United Methodist News Service.
Read story by Eveline Chikwanah and see photos by the Rev. Taurai Emmanuel Maforo for United Methodist News Service.

Posted June 26, 2018
Calling for a missionary’s immediate release from the Detention Center in the Philippines, the Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church today took the unusual step of calling upon the government of the Republic of the Philippines to expedite the discharge of a young adult United Methodist missionary who has been the victim of repeated bureaucratic delays that have caused him to be incarcerated for more than six weeks.

The Council and the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church, the agency from which Tawanda Chandiwana received his Christian commission, are launching a worldwide campaign to call public attention to the plight of Tawanda and two other missionaries who were in the country fulfilling their commission to show God’s love in the world.

Despite continuing efforts by the staff of the regional United Methodist conference, Philippines-based attorneys and officials with The United Methodist Church, Mr. Chandiwana of Mutare, Zimbabwe, Adam Shaw of Brunswick, Ohio, and Miracle Osman of Blantyre, Malawi, have experienced repeated difficulties getting the legal documents and clearance they need to leave the Republic of the Philippines.

Mr. Chandiwana and Ms. Osman are Global Mission Fellows. These missionaries are young adults from all over the world between the ages of 20-30.  They are sent by The United Methodist Church to serve for 20 months in works of justice and mercy through participation in such ministries as peace-building, creation care, English teaching, human rights advocacy, and social work. Many Filipino young adults are part of this program, serving in such places as Japan, South Africa, Ireland, Barbados, and Uruguay. 

Mr. Shaw is a former Global Mission Fellow in the Philippines who now serves there as a global missionary with The United Methodist Church.

“We vigorously protest this treatment of our mission personnel, placed and supervised in collaboration with The United Methodist Church in the Philippines,” said Thomas Kemper, general secretary (chief executive) of United Methodist Global Ministries, the worldwide mission agency of the denomination with 12.5 million members in the U.S., Africa, Europe, and the Philippines.

“It is unconscionable that Tawanda has been held for six weeks,” continued Kemper. “We are respectfully asking that these young people be allowed to leave.”

On June 26, the full Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church joined their episcopal colleagues in the Philippines and Global Ministries in appealing to the Philippines’ government to free and allow Chandiwana to leave the country. They also asked for immediate action by the Bureau of Immigration that would allow Ms. Osman, and Mr. Shaw to leave voluntarily. Read more here. 

A Call for Prayer

The Council of Bishops called upon United Methodists to pray daily at noon, wherever they are, for the three missionaries for as long as the three are held.

Mr. Chandiwana was taken into custody on May 9, 2018, while attending a training seminar at the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute in Davao City.  He was charged with overstaying his visa, though he had initiated the process of having a missionary visa changed to a tourist status since he was nearing the end of his 20-month missionary term. The charge was expanded when he was found to be on a “watchlist” of suspected subversives.  He denies any wrongdoing and faults a delay in filing visa paperwork.

The passport of Miracle Osman was confiscated while she was applying to extend her tourist visa and waiting for her missionary visa to be approved. Seizure of her passport has made it impossible for her to leave the country voluntarily.  She has requested a return of her passport, which is the property of the Republic of Malawi.

Adam Shaw has been informed that an order to leave is imminent but it has not been served.  

All three were detained at police checkpoints in February while taking part in in international ecumenical fact-finding investigation of alleged human rights violations in the southern Philippines area around General Santos City. The area is under martial law in response to disputed reports of terrorist activities.

The United Methodist Church in the Philippines is an organic part of the denomination, represented in the legislating General Conference by lay and clergy delegates.  It has three episcopal areas in the country in Davao, Baguio, and Manila.

The bishops' appeal pointed out that “Global Ministries has enjoyed cordial relations with denominational and ecumenical organizations in the Philippines for many years.  We have placed young adult missionaries in Mindanao since 2006. We hope to continue to work productively with Filipino partners.”