The Gathering raises $384,000 for women and children’s health facilities in Cambine
The Gathering celebrates its 20th year of ministry this fall. For 15 of those years, the St. Louis-based UMC has partnered with the Missouri Conference’s Mozambique Initiative to dig fresh-water wells across Mozambique.
Fresh-water wells change lives by bringing access to clean water to remote locations. Yet the country’s rainy season and well-digging crew capacity put a cap on the number of wells the Mozambique Initiative can coordinate digging for each year.
Knowing this, The Gathering wondered how its generosity might make further impact in Mozambique. Around the same time, Bishop Joao Sambo, elected and assigned to the Mozambique conferences in spring 2025, made his first visit to Missouri as bishop. During his time at The Gathering, Bishop spoke about all the work going on in Mozambique, both connected to the Mozambique Initiative and beyond.
This led The Gathering’s Executive Director of Operations Dave Dietrich to connect with the UMC’s General Board of Global Ministries to learn about projects happening in-country. Kathleen Griffith, GBGM director and team lead for global health, recommended a project in Cambine.
One of the first wells The Gathering supported was in Cambine, a mission and village in central Mozambique. Griffith shared the need for a new mother’s waiting house, children’s clinic and laundry facility at Cambine to accompany a newly constructed maternity ward. The Gathering decided to dedicate its entire Christmas Eve offering to constructing these facilities.
“We will continue to dig and repair wells with resources we already have, while using this year’s offering to fund a gift that will make an immediate difference in the lives of women and children in Mozambique,” Rev. Matt Miofsky wrote in a letter to the congregation about the project. “I can’t think of a better way to honor the birth of Christ than to help provide women and children in Mozambique the healthcare that we so often take for granted.”
The estimated cost of the project was $350,000. The Gathering raised $384,000 to support this work.
Now, The Gathering is not only working with the Mozambique Initiative but with a project led by the broader United Methodist connection via GBGM.
“It’s where the structure of denominations, like the United Methodist Church, start to stir up a richness and beauty that you get to take advantage of,” Dietrich says. “There are multiple entities that you can collaborate with that, as a whole, are having this monumental impact in ways that would be far more difficult to do on your own.”