Jamie and Arja Sanfilippo, along with their two daughters, Kanah and Talya, are serving in Southern Africa as Connecting Peoples Co-Facilitators for Mennonite Central Committee. They arrived in Macha, Zambia in February 2009 and have committed to serve for a term of three years.
Originally from the Kitchener-Waterloo area of Southern Ontario, the Sanfilippos are members of The Meeting House, a Brethren in Christ church with locations across the Greater Toronto Area. Since 2003, Jamie served The Meeting House as the pastor in charge of service programming and technical production. When The Meeting House entered into a partnership with MCC to double their capacity to work in Southern Africa, the position of Connecting Peoples Facilitator was created in an effort to keep the church and the greater MCC constituency in North America connected to MCC’s work in the region of Southern Africa.
Jamie and Arja’s role is best understood from two perspectives:
Communications | Creatively communicating peoples’ stories from Southern Africa – stories of hope, tragedy, joy and pain. Stories of development. Essentially, any story that reflects the life and work of MCC and its partners in Southern Africa. This storytelling will be done through various forms of media - video, blogging, photography and creative writing.
Logistical Support | Planning and hosting Learning Tours from North America. These small groups of people from MCC constituent churches will come for several weeks to various countries in Southern Africa to meet MCC partners and the people they work with. This will provide people with the opportunity to see, first-hand, the work of MCC and its partners. It will give them a glimpse into the lives of their African brothers and sisters - the successes that can be celebrated and the challenges that are being faced. Hopefully, each team’s presence will also serve as an encouragement to those they meet. The majority of these Learning Tours will be from The Meeting House, as a direct result of the partnership between the church and MCC.
The Sanfilippo family is living in the village of Macha, in the Southern Province of Zambia. Tucked amongst the traditional mud-hut homesteads of the Tonga people is Macha Mission Hospital, a leading health care provider founded and run by the Brethren in Christ church. The advantages for living in Macha were numerous – a distinctly “rural” environment as opposed to a big city, a strong presence of the Brethren in Christ church, satellite internet, quality Christian education for the girls and even a dirt airstrip with resident Cessna and pilot (to aid in travel!).
Jamie and Arja have held a passion for cross-cultural ministry for most of their lives. They are convinced that “missions” shouldn’t simply consist of telling people about Jesus, rather it considers peoples’ physical and spiritual needs together, as Jesus did. With this in mind, MCC, with their holistic approach to serving peoples’ physical needs - in the name of Christ - has been on Jamie and Arja’s radar for many years as they’ve considered how they might serve in ministry outside of North America. The partnership of MCC and The Meeting House to better serve the region of Southern Africa created a natural fit for Jamie and Arja’s skills and passions. They’re looking forward to the adventure ahead!