LAKELAND — As many as 50 people from villages in the Quéssua area of Angola gather for worship each Sunday at Quéssua United Methodist Church. The congregation, like the building in which it worships, is a shell of its former self. Both show the ravages of more than 30 years of war.

The Florida Conference hopes to begin the process of rebuilding the Quéssua congregation by funding revitalization of the church building. This will also be the first step in helping the Eastern Angola Conference rebuild an area that was once the spiritual center of the United Methodist Church in Angola.

Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker in a letter to pastors and church leaders challenged the conference to raise $150,000 to fund the rebuilding of Quéssua United Methodist Church.

The Quéssua complex was a thriving missionary center for the United Methodist Church. It is located near the city of Malange in Eastern Angola, where the Eastern Angola conference offices are located. The complex included an elementary schools for boys and girls and a hospital, college, school of domestic sciences and theological seminary. There were also residences for missionaries and school and hospital administrators and dormitories for students.

Many of Angola’s leaders are considered “sons of Quéssua” because they were educated at the United Methodist schools. The country’s first president, Dr. Agostinho Neto, was a United Methodist and son of a pastor. Because of the close ties between the United Methodist Church and the government, forces opposed to the government destroyed United Methodist churches and ministries. The Quéssua complex was among the first to be hit.

Whitaker has asked each Florida congregation to give $2 per person, based on average worship attendance, plus $10 during the offering taken at the opening worship service at the 2003 Florida Annual Conference Event May 27-31 in Lakeland. Seventy five percent of the offering will go to the Eastern Angola Conference, and 25 percent will be used by the Florida Conference Task Force on the Council of Bishops’ Initiative on Children and Poverty to fund ministries within the Florida Conference.

Bishop José Quipungo of the Eastern Angola Conference said rebuilding the Quéssua church will help facilitate rebuilding the rest of the complex. Members at the church will work to help rebuild the other buildings, Quipungo said.