{"id":4037,"date":"2018-06-01T12:00:05","date_gmt":"2018-06-01T16:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/?p=4037"},"modified":"2019-12-18T13:20:35","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T18:20:35","slug":"alumnus-of-the-year-regina-horst-chacha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/2018\/06\/01\/alumnus-of-the-year-regina-horst-chacha\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumna\/us of the Year: Regina Horst Chacha"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Macson McGuigan<\/p><\/div>\n

At 5:30 every morning on a visit to Tanzania this spring, Regina Horst ’85 Chacha<\/strong> led children\u2019s devotions, which included first singing and then teaching from her late husband\u2019s book Prayer Power<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is wonderful,\u201d she said, \u201cto see the children praying, learning to take their needs and the needs of others before the throne of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teamwork Ministries\u2019 City of Hope is a ministry in Ntagacha that the Chachas founded in 2007 and which Regina has led as its international executive director since John Chacha ’84<\/strong> was killed in a truck accident in 2015. It includes two schools with some 500 students, a home for 100 orphans, and Amani \u2013 \u201cpeace\u201d \u2013 Medical Center, located where rival clans once fought, in part over cattle theft.<\/p>\n

City of Hope has been honored with the Mwenge wa Uhuru<\/em> (Freedom Torch) three times: for bringing peace to the area, for its agriculture work and water collection cisterns, and for its secondary education offerings. The Dr. John Chacha Secondary School has chemistry and biology labs in a country with \u201ca great shortage of science teachers,\u201d and this year opened a technology lab with 50 laptop computers that Chacha said is \u201cunlike anything else in the region.”<\/p>\n

Last year Vanity Fair<\/em> nominated Chacha to its Hall of Fame. The surprise of it all \u2013 that this daughter of a now-retired Virginia Mennonite pastor has graced the pages of the glossy magazine, but also that her lifework means she routinely travels between the eastern coasts of the U.S. and Africa \u2013 doesn\u2019t negate what Vanity Fair acknowledged: \u201cthe challenges remain immense.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example: acquiring increased funding for dormitories and teacher housing are \u201cessential,\u201d she said, for the school to attract more boarding students and additional quality teachers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am thankful that I can trust God to direct me concerning my travels and my activities,\u201d Chacha said. \u201cThe needs at City of Hope are so great that it is easy to feel overwhelmed, but God helps me to stay focused and to take one step at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chacha\u2019s concerns also extend to the broader community. At the City of Hope\u2019s annual conference in December \u2013 themed \u201cLeadership Challenges in the 21st Century: Is There Hope?\u201d \u2013 an 11K run on community roadways brought attention to a subsequent outdoor evangelistic event, and athletic tournaments hosting village teams culminated in an awards ceremony that included sharing against substance abuse and female genital mutilation.<\/p>\n

Chacha is joined in her work by her six children: Two sons have had extended stays at City of Hope and handle photography and videography for its marketing and publicity; the older son and daughter-in-law serve on the board; her oldest daughter served as hostess for the guest house; another daughter now runs a sewing program to train older girls and village women; and her younger daughters will spend this summer there.<\/p>\n

When stateside, the family maintains intimate connections with Tanzania. At Christmas they \u2013 and 33 Tanzanian children who were attending the Mountain Mission School in Grundy, Va. \u2013 had a \u201clively African Christmas celebration,\u201d and at Easter, prepared a traditional Tanzanian meal together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At 5:30 every morning on a visit to Tanzania this spring, Regina Horst ’85 Chacha led children\u2019s devotions, which included first singing and then teaching from her late husband\u2019s book Prayer Power. \u201cIt is wonderful,\u201d she said, \u201cto see the children praying, learning to take their needs and the needs of others before the throne […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":242,"featured_media":4038,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,944],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","category-springsummer-2018","issues-spring-summer-2018"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/242"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4037"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4121,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4037\/revisions\/4121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}