Archives

Salley, a South Carolinian, is associate Vice-Chancellor for Institutional Advancement for Africa University in Zimbabwe since 1992, the major fundraiser for the United Methodist pan-African university.  He brought to the study stories of his experiences while traveling for AU.

Using the conference metaphor of “bridges,” Salley said Africa University has a “bridge of dreams” dedicated in 1994.

The scriptural story is also about a bridge, as it brings together two sides, the wounded man on one side, the priest and Levite passing to the other side, and the Samaritan from the other side crossing the road.

Salley told of one day “passing by on the other side,” like the priest and Levite, a blind man sitting against a wall on a street; he had $200 in his pocket. As he turned around to go back to the man, he saw a small boy come by and put a coin in the man’s hand. The experience has never left him. “I have the responsibility to assist where I’m able,” he said, “and I lied in ignoring him.”

“The word of the day is mercy,” Salley said in Saturday’s study, and quoted DS Conrad Link who had said, “Mercy is a forgotten word.” Mercy is a bridge, Salley said.

The Samaritan ministered to the hopeless wounded man lying in the ditch by the road.  “If you find yourself in a ditch, call on Jesus,” Salley said.  Love has mercy, God has mercy.

Another experience Salley shared was on the long flight from Zimbabwe to the U.S., via Rome, when a young man had a seizure. A doctor onboard did everything he could to assist the man on the floor 12 feet from Salley’s seat. And everyone, of many religions, prayed. Forty-five minutes from landing in Rome, the man suddenly “got up and sat on the floor.”

He was taken to a hospital, with no logical reason for his blackout. And sometime later, he contacted Salley. That man, Dan Umba Kwalanga, is working now in Davao City, Philippines, for the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

“Wherever you are in life, God is with you. God will never leave you. God has plans to get you (out of the ditch) on the road to living,” Salley said.

The Africa University choir sang throughout the study, and as they left the ballroom, they kneeled and greeted folks singing “I’ll meet you in the morning, in the sweet by and by.”