Pastor shares experience of living in Africa
BY LINDA DeNICOLA
Staff Writer

SHREWSBURY - Members of the Presbyterian Church at Shrewsbury took an armchair walk through Africa this month.

The educational visit was part of the church's Walk in Africa program and was presented by visiting the Rev. Larry Bauerband on Oct. 8 .

Bauerband, a pastor at the St. Cloud Presbyterian Church in West Orange, shared slides of his recent experiences living and preaching in The Republic of Cameroon, West Africa, as part of the Presbyterian Churches USA partnership.

The PCUSA is a partnership composed of many Presbyterian churches in the United States and some African Presbyterian churches.

The Presbyterian Church, located on Sycamore Avenue, provided dinner featuring an African, or gumbo, stew.

According to Bonnie Tortora, a member of the church, the stew is an African recipe that church member Nancy Rodman researched at the Presbyterian Resource Center in Tennant.

In addition to the stew, informative maps and exhibits were displayed and drummers entertained.

Zak Adams, the drummer for the event, is a member of the Presbyterian Church at Shrewsbury Junior High Fellowship, Tortora said.

She explained that another member of the church, Mark Palframan, made available 5-gallon jugs of water for the guests to carry as an experiment in better understanding the life of people in Cameroon.

"They have to walk many miles every day for their water, which they carry home in this way," Tortora said.

Guests also learned that Cameroon is a prosperous country due to its agriculture and cocoa crop and has the second-highest rainfall in the world. Yet surprisingly, the people of Cameroon continue to live with primitive and substandard conditions.

The Walk in Africa event is part of an annual educational program presented by the Presbyterian Church at Shrewsbury. With the focus on learning more about African countries, Walk in Africa coincides with the October Crop Walk every year, and Janie Schildge, director of the local Crop Walk, was also a speaker during the event.

According to Tortora, the "walk" series at the church is an ongoing educational series. On Monday, Nov. 6, at 7:30 p.m., a Walk in Israel will be presented by David McKirachan, pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Shrewsbury.

"Full of personal observations of his recent trip to the Holy Land, David will walk us through with slides and his entertaining style of speaking," Tortora said.