WAD News Interview: Treasure Manu on division's financial report
November 12, 2009 Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire
By Ansel Oliver
Church leaders in West-Central Africa emphasized the need for self-sufficiency at this year's Year-End Meetings.
In his report to delegates, Treasurer Emmanuel Manu highlighted some challenges facing the church here. West-Central Africa Division is a volatile region, politically and economically, he said. Currencies fluctuate - the division this year lost nearly 30 of its tithe because of varying currency rates. Also, transportation in the region is expensive - it can be cheaper to fly to Europe or the United States than to travel across the division territory.
But many good things are also happening, Manu said. The division held earlier this year its first Stewardship summit, which brought together nearly 300 participants to Ghana, the only country in the division that delivered a clean audit this year. Similar conferences are scheduled around the division next year to emphasize responsible living and wealth management.
Manu, a former bank officer and auditor, met with West-Central Africa News for an interview as the Year-End Meetings came to a close. Poignant excerpts follow:
West-Central Africa News: What was your main message to delegates during your treasure's report?
Emmanuel Manu: We have to move toward self-sufficiency because we have been dependent on appropriations for many years. Whenever you are dependent on somebody you're not independent. If you're not able to look for profitable ventures to promote the work of the Lord, whenever preparation is not there it means the work will not go [forward]. But once you're able to come up with your own ideas and generate your own income then you can move forward.
How can the church help members?
One thing we should do is to encourage our workers to develop an interest in savings. That way when a minister retires, or even before he retires, he will be able to find a place to live and to keep his family. Also we need to find a place for our church members, because most of the time, unless we get appropriations from outside, our church members don't have a place to worship.
What percentage of members do you think tithe?
Well I haven't done [research] on that myself. Our general secretary did one [a survey] in one of our countries and according to the report I received from him, the faithful tithe-payers were less than 5 percent. So we're of the opinion that if we're able to get even 40 percent of people faithfully returning their tithe to God, we'll be closer to self-sufficiency.
What do those figures imply?
It means we have a long way to go. We're dependent on appropriation and outside resources. But if people are returning their tithe faithfully, we will have enough here.
The division's goal is to become self sufficient by 2015. Is that a reasonable goal?
Oh yes, definitely. By God's grace we will do it. The problem is the exchange losses between currencies in the division. Once we solve that we will be able to do it. The General Conference might send us funds for special projects, such as the 10/40 Window initiatives, but as far as operational funds we should be able to handle that.
Ghana had the only clean audit return this year. Why were there so few clean audit returns?
In the first place, we train our pastors, but we hardly train our business people. A reason is the wage factor. It's very difficult to attract competent people into the service of the Lord. If you look at this division, those workers who are chartered accountants, very few, maybe two or three, want to work in the denomination. They go and work outside because of the salary they can earn. It's only those people who are really dedicated and committed ... to serve the Lord on a fulltime basis.
Why are you reading the book titled The End of Poverty?
Because I realize that my people are really struggling in poverty and unfortunately they have no other means, they don't even know how they can really move or get away from poverty. In a sense they believe there is no way out. Then, by reading that book, it tells me there is a way, provided you discipline yourself, provided you have positive thinking and also encourage savings. The book says if you are poor you need some kind of help. And that help shouldn't be giving you food to eat immediately. The help is supposed to be some kind of investment for you to develop help for your own self.
What kinds of things are going well in this division?
This division has taught me many things. One thing is that this division is a division of prayer. The people love to pray. Individually. And we've experienced it even in this office. We've experienced many things, like the illness of our former president, our undertreasurer who recently died. There are four or five cases like that that are very serious. But during that I realized that people will gather themselves together and pray. The prayer of these people here is something that I cannot describe. And then another point: fellowship. Togetherness. That's another thing that I really love. Because without this love people aren't together on many things and they are not able to plan or they see themselves as enemies. But here it is not so. We are more or less brothers and sisters. If that wonderful fellowship can continue, I believe many wonderful things can happen.
What encouragement do you have for members?
It is not easy to be a Seventh-day Adventist in these last days. Challenges abound everywhere. Poverty. Sickness. All those calamities are happening and we see many of them in this part of the world. My encouragement for my people is that they should not give up because we have a God, we have a Savior who is with us. And he is not going to abandon us. We should look up whenever we are down. I just want to encourage them that they should not give up. If they focus on Jesus Christ then soon and very soon we will be there and there will be no more problems.