Roofs for Africa

Over the past two years of writing this column, we keep wondering whether we’ll run out of people to interview.

That has not been a problem! One interview leads to another. Someone sends an email suggesting another fascinating story of Christian service. And the weeks go by.

Through C.R. and Joyce Becker, we met John and Carol Fillmore, who recently returned from a month in Mozambique, where they previously had lived for a decade. We sat down for coffee, and they related their experiences in retirement. Here is that conversation:

John and Carol, tell me your story about being involved in missions and how this began.

I was a forester, but we always had a heart for missions. We started volunteering for overseas projects that we could do on our vacations starting in the ’70s. There was a program called “Work and Witness” that is a volunteer program of the Nazarene denomination — though it included volunteers from several churches who would take on two- to three-week projects. The purpose was to help in the building and administration of mission projects around the world. We loved doing that. When I retired in 1996, we decided we would jump into this full time.

Most people at retirement are planning trips in their RVs or working on their golf game, not starting a second career working on projects in other countries. Where did this decision take you?

Our first assignment was in Papua, New Guinea, and also into the Solomon Islands. When that was done, we were assigned to coordinate Work and Witness teams to build a seminary in Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique. We also coordinated the building of many churches. After this, a missionary family was taking a sabbatical, and we were asked to fill in for them in Tete Province. They decided not to return, and we took on this role of leadership for the next three years. Tete Province is in Northern Mozambique. We lived there for 10 years, returning to the United States in 2008 for health reasons. Now, we return to Mozambique every two years for three weeks to several months. We’ve traveled all over Northern Mozambique, providing roofing for 453 churches, two houses and four schools. It’s exciting to see the growth and the spread of the gospel in these past 20 years.

We understand the building of a church of believers but also the building of physical churches. Explain all of this process.

Shortly after arriving in Northern Mozambique, God impressed me that any church could have a new church building if they wanted to. They didn’t need to meet under the trees. They had all the building materials except the roofing. God led me to inform the churches that if they would tithe and renew their covenant relationship with Jesus Christ and build their church building, we would return to the United States and tell people in churches here what the Mozambican Christians were doing. If the churches in the United States or other donors wanted to help the Mozambican believers, we would bring all the funds donated back to help the Mozambicans with roofing for their churches. It was important for the people to take ownership of the project — it had to be their church. We told them that if they would make the bricks — this was the typical building material from the clay that was abundant — and build the walls, then we would bring the metal roofs to them. The roof was a huge item in a very poor country and created a nicely finished building. We would load up our little car, that had a roof rack, with 1 1/2 roofs and pull a trailer that had 1 1/2 roofs and deliver the roofing to the churches. This started our ministry called Roofs for Africa.

Mozambique, like many African countries, has gone through political upheavals and has many issues. Describe your time there. Did you feel safe?

The political situation has stabilized and through God’s protection we felt very safe there, certainly safer than many American cities! It is a large country, about the size of Turkey and a majority of the population is Christian but there is still a huge need for evangelism. They have a dry season and a wet season and when we bring volunteers we go in the “dry” season, which is our summer. They grow many wonderful vegetables and fruit and we survived very well.

I’m sure there is more work to be done. Do you have more trips planned?

I’m 80 years old and not up to full-time work, and the plane flights are more difficult to endure. But we aren’t finished yet! We want to have a crew going over in 2021 for three weeks to a month to roof churches, and help with the school and other work the coordinator may have. We are also planning to have a safari to one of the game parks. Each roof for a church costs $700 to $1,000 depending on the size; we have more than 100 churches waiting for roofing. Funding for the roofs is raised through speaking engagements and donors. We are available to speak to churches and organizations who wish to hear about what the Lord is doing in Mozambique. We need $10,000 for a project on the field and if volunteers want to go the cost is $5,000 each. That includes the project, airfare, transportation, safari, and food and lodging while we are there. A mission trip will change your life. The Great Commission is still there to go into all the world with the good news of the gospel. We invite anyone, men and women and youth to join us.

I might also add that there is a wonderful organization headquartered in Nampa called Hands of Hope. They collect surplus medical equipment from clinics and hospitals, load them into containers and ship them all over the world. Everything from hospital beds to diagnostic equipment is taken over. Carol and I have been collecting these medical supplies locally but we need someone who will take this project on as a ministry and coordinate the collection and delivery of these supplies to Hands of Hope in Nampa.

John, I am glad you shared your age and left Carol’s a secret! You are an inspiration to all of us retirees or soon to be retired. If folks want to know more or contact you about giving or being part of a trip, how do they contact you?

They can send me an email at fillmore3461@roadrunner.com or go to our Facebook page. Search Roofs for Africa.

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Bob Shillingstad’s religion columns appear Saturdays in The Press. Email Bob: bjshill@mac.com