U.S. Group Resumes Efforts to Get African Americans on Foreign Missions Fields

“Every time we’ve done a project, the money has been there. I think as Christians, we look at material things – like money – as the resource as opposed to God,” says Shirley Fitz-Ritson, executive director of Simon’s Branch.

Nine determined U.S. Christians left Atlanta recently and headed for Durban, South Africa to revive and solidify earlier efforts to spread abroad the Good News about Jesus Christ.

The nonprofit group is known as Simon’s Branch and its energetic executive director Shirley Fitz-Ritson said everyone was anxious to resume the annual trips that were suspended in 2019 as the COVID -19 pandemic shut down churches, schools, businesses and nearly all foreign travel.

Fitz-Ritson, who celebrated her 80^th birthday in May, told Women of the Word in an interview that she felt “disbelief at my age that I was still going, just a sense of incredulousness. Can this be happening, getting to go?”

Simon’s Branch is named for the Black man who helped Jesus carry His cross to Golgotha during 1^st Century Judaea. Simon lived in Cyrene, a place in modern-day Libya on the northern tip of Africa and had come to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover when he was forced into service.

Established in 2002 in Stone Mountain, Georgia, Simon’s Branch has had more than 600 people join them on the mission fields over the years.

“It’s been a long, blessed, difficult, interesting journey,” Fitz-Ritson said chuckling.

The 9 traveling ministers, missionaries, and church leaders from mainly Georgia, the Carolinas, Maryland and Washington, D.C. boarded the Atlanta flight on July 13, to begin the 15-hour flight to Johannesburg, the largest city in South Africa, and then another 1.5-hour trip to Durban, the third most populous city in the country. They were joined by three other members traveling from Zimbabwe. And, two Decatur, Georgia pastors arrived days later.

Far from being tourists, Simon’s Branch members worked, leading Vacation Bible Schools, conducting conferences for women and couples, preaching at different churches, and working at an orphanage for boys located on the outskirts of Durban. One member even directed a two-day music workshop for local church choir leaders and members and demonstrated the results at a well-attended concert.

Over the years, the group has sponsored numerous projects with most of the work targeting such South African towns as Botha’s Hill, Cliffdale, and Swayimane as well as locations in Zimbabwe and the Caribbean Island of Jamaica. For a brief period, the group worked with a local church in Liberia.

One of the first projects after becoming a nonprofit group was building a kitchen at an elementary school in Botha’s Hill, a small town outside Hillcrest in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, Fitz-Ritson said.

Simon’s Branch also assisted Botha’s Hill Pastor Vika Gwala in acquiring five acres of land that included 30 structurally sound buildings. Priced at $112,000 U.S. dollars, the group struggled to raise the deposit then helped negotiate a payment plan when financial commitments fell through.

Peace Baptist Church in Decatur, Georgia pledged to pay off the property debt and its two key leaders, Founder and Senior Pastor Tyrone Barnette and Executive Pastor Darron Randolph, traveled to the area days after the group to dedicate the property in an elaborate ceremony.

“I’m learning that we thought we knew how God was going to” help church leaders acquire the land, Fitz-Ritson said, summarizing all the twists and turns involved with the transactions. “But God really knew how he was going to do it. God already planned for Peace Baptist to do it.”

Earlier, the land served as a sanitarium for Blacks with tuberculosis during the country’s dark history of Apartheid. Later, people infected with the HIV virus came to the site for respite care when their illness developed into full blown AIDS.

Now Gwala, pastor of Thousand Hills Baptist Church, has grander plans.

“Before we had limited space,” he explained in an interview on WhatsApp. “The new premises are going to allow us to have a number of projects to reach out to more people in this area. At this time, we are so excited to get the property.”

Of the many plans of the pastor, operating a preschool is his first priority. He said overcrowding is a problem at most of South Africa’s government-run schools. An additional grade would be added to the new preschool each year until there is a fully operating elementary and high school, he said.

“Simon’s Branch has been a great help in our community, for South Africa and Africa at large,” Gwala said. “We have had a very good relationship with them for years. We consider ourselves partners with what they are doing in this community.”

Other work of Simon’s Branch included implementing Project Hope, a home health care program in Botha’s Hill. The goal has been to provide free home health care services to individuals impacted by AIDS. Over the years, 10 have been trained with their salaries paid once they are employed. Fitz-Ritson said Simon’s Branch wants to train an additional 20 workers so that the program can expand now that COVID concerns have dissipated.

Also, the nonprofit helped connect a church in Greenville, South Carolina with a pastor who works with orphans in South Africa’s Swayimane. A local tribe donated land for the orphanage in the suburb of Wartburg, which is in the district of Umgungundlovu in the province of KwaZulu-Natal (NL), about 1.5 hours from Durban. 

In Jamaica, Simon’s Branch works with the Rev. Dr. Lloyd Millen of New Covenant Bible Chapel. Every third Sunday, pastors and teachers associated with Simon’s Branch preach or teach lessons on Zoom, Fitz-Ritson said. For four years, a curriculum developed by Simon’s Branch was taught to help build a sound biblical knowledge base in the community. The material included such topics as Christian Counseling, How We Got the Bible, Christian Ethics, and Leadership.

Fitz-Ritson credited God and Holy Spirit guidance for the successes of Simon’s Branch.

 “I didn’t have a clue about any of this,” she said, comparing the initial work with the growth and accomplishments of the ministry.

Fitz-Ritson’s first taste of mission work in foreign fields came during her involvement with what is now known as Carver College and University in Atlanta. Carver officials wanted her as a fundraiser and grant writer. An invitation to head a large missionary group of students and adults on a two-week South African trip came in early 2000 during a turbulent time in her career.

Years before her move to Atlanta, external factors disrupted an appointment as director of the Richland County Department of Social Services in Columbia, South Carolina. Despite the challenges, she managed to find time to complete her doctorate. In 1998, she made a career move to Atlanta, where she worked as a consultant for the now-defunct Child Welfare Institute. Her expertise and dedication led to her appointment as vice president. However, she faced further disruptions in her job, which led her to accept an offer to join the Carver staff.

During that first South African trip, Fitz-Ritson remembered moping in the back of the van they were traveling in and complaining about her employment situation.

“So, what do you want me to do now?” she asked God.

Simon’s Branch was born when the adult members of the Carver group returned to Georgia in 2002. Fitz-Ritson said that first mission trip abroad helped her realize that most Americans needed to leave the United States to better understand the great need for Christ around the world. Also, she learned that many African Americans are needed on the mission fields.

Had she expected such achievements when the group started in 2002 as Simon’s Branch?

“Absolutely not,” Fitz-Ritson said laughing.

“Every time we’ve done a project, the money has been there,” she explained. “I think as Christians, we look at material things – like money – as the resource as opposed to God. If I believe that the Lord has put something in front of us to do, it becomes His responsibility. Sometimes the way He leads, it’s just unbelievable.”