From Florida retirees to Congo missionaries

The Rev. Jonathan Baker, former Epworth United Methodist Church pastor, and his wife Donna said when they moved from Rehoboth to Florida a few years ago, it was because they were supposed to retire.

What they’re doing instead, since April 2015, is being full-time, year-round missionaries for the Peter D. Weaver Congo Partnership.

“[The mission work] is a calling. We had no idea we would be doing this,” said John during a Dec. 19 interview, one day after the couple celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary. “Sometimes our kids look at us wide-eyed and ask us what we’re doing.”

“We thought we were moving to Florida to play golf,” said Donna, laughing.

The pair may act surprised about the missionary work, but the Bakers have led a life dedicated to the service of others in the name of humanity. Jonathan, the son of a pastor, has been a minister for 41 years, spending 20 of them, from 1982 to 1996 and then again from 2008 to 2013, at Epworth in Rehoboth. Donna, a nurse by profession, has been a fixture of every church Jonathan pastors. The pair met in high school and married while she was finishing college.

Jonathan said Donna has been a devoted, understanding wife through his years of pastoring. It’s an 80-hour week, every week, he said when asked to describe his time commitment to his congregants.

Now, said Jonathan, they’re at a time in their lives when they get to travel and spend a lot of time together.

“We’ve been together a lot, but now we’re with each other 24/7,” he said. “This has been a real blessing.”

“We’re elated,” said Donna.

The Peter D. Weaver Congo Partnership, founded in 2002 and named after a retired United Methodist bishop, is a collaboration of the Central Congo Episcopal Area and a network of annual conferences, a regional body in the church. Epworth belongs to the Pennsylvania–Delaware Conference of the church’s Northeast Jurisdiction, which has 10 conferences total.

Jonathan, 66, is partnership coordinator, meaning he works side-by-side with local Congolese Episcopal leader Bishop David Yemba, to make sure the church’s outreach is best served. The partnership provides medical centers, feeding centers, trade schools, agriculture projects, ministries with children, social programs for young mothers and sewing projects.

It’s all run by the Congolese, said Jonathan. “They have the leadership, the talent, the drive. In most cases they just don’t have the resources,” he said.

Donna, 65, uses her nursing know-how to work with church leaders and health personnel to assess the most urgent health challenges and develop responses. For example, she said, she’s working on  two feeding projects that feed one meal a day of high-nutrition porridge to 700 kids.

“It could be their only meal of the day,” she said.

The Bakers are currently in Florida doing the other part of their mission work – telling the story of the partnership and raising the funds for its continued existence.

“I have to admit, it’s tiring,” said Jonathan. “We’re telling the story several times a day. We’ll be living out of a suitcase for months on end. But we love telling the story. We’re filled with a passion because we see miracles every single day. It lights our fire.”

For more information on the Peter D. Weaver Congo Partnership go to www.congo-mission.org.

Follow the Bakers’ journey on their blog at losakajesus.wordpress.com.