Today marks the start of the Global Evangelist Forum in Accra, Ghana! Hosted by African Enterprise Ghana, this is an exciting collaboration that will raise up a new generation of evangelists through West Africa.
The Forum is a platform for reflection, exchange, and training, and a spiritual retreat for evangelists and those aspiring to ministry.
Over the next 5 days, evangelists and budding evangelists from across Ghana and the surrounding region will gather to be trained, encouraged, and spiritually fed in Gospel work.
In doing so they will join a global movement that exists on 3 continents: Africa, America and Europe. We at African Enterprise are excited to be part of this venture as it spreads across Africa!
The Forum is for apologists, artists, youth workers, Christians in full-time and part-time work – any who are passionate in their ministry for Christ. In Accra this week, they will find a space for spiritual refreshment and stimulating reflection on the theological foundations and historicity of the Gospel message. Their minds will opened to the pertinence of the Gospel to our time.
We hope to awake vocations in the hearts of many by spreading and enlarging the vision of evangelism.
We WILL see the cities and people of Africa changed by the Gospel!
Henok Sileshi is a bright, hard-working lecturer at the medical school of Jigjiga University in Ethiopia. With a Master’s degree under his belt, and upcoming enrollment in a PhD program, he is the poster-child of educational success.
But 14 years ago, things looked quite different for Henok.
In 2003 he was a student in high school wondering what to do with his life.
That’s when he joined African Enterprise Ethiopia’s discipleship program. It gave him roots and allowed him to grow.
“The discipleship program of AE is foundational to Christian life and ministry. The program helped me to get rooted in Christ and has drawn me nearer to the church and to Christian ministry.”
This year, he returned to the discipleship program, this time as a teacher.
“I would like all the children and youth in the church to be enrolled in this program and become disciples of Jesus. Participating in the discipleship program is one of my life ministry goals.”
200 000 Ethiopian students enrolled in AE’s program in July, and Henok was there, teaching a course on evangelism. His goal: to give teenagers a strong foundation in Christ.
One of those students was high school senior, Selomie Ayele.
“AE’s discipleship and leadership development program has helped me define my vision for the future,” Selomie said.
“After college, I want to be involved in social action and evangelism. I want to be a woman who fears God in all her ways, knows what she believes, has a concern for children – especially orphans – and testifies about salvation in Jesus’ name.”
Attending AE Ethiopia’s discipleship program, honed her goals for the future.
“My vision by 2030 is to become a woman of purpose who serves the whole of mankind with the whole Gospel!” she said.
She, like Henok, she is the future of AE. And she will carry the fire of the Gospel with her for the rest of her life.
Read more about our mission and social action projects in Ethiopia.
When the men and women of Chankhungu, Malawi woke with the dawn on a cool Monday morning to set up their stalls in the dusty market, they thought it would be a day like any other. But around lunchtime, a van of young people from the city arrived and started pulling out some strange equipment.
Word spread quickly that strangers had arrived and people from homes all through the village started gathering.
They watched the newcomers’ leader in quiet conversation with the market chairman and saw him clear a large space. Everyone gathered around the edges.
As the newcomers positioned themselves in the middle of that space, children pushed their way to the front of the crowd, curious.
It was still for a moment. Then the newcomers began to dance.
After a week of corporate fasting and break from ministry, the Malawi Foxfire team plunged back into work with vibrant enthusiasm and danced, sang and preached their way into the lives of the people of Chankhungu.
The crowd clapped and swayed in response as one of the young men performed a solo song and the group launched themselves into an acrobatic routine.
The people were hooked.
Then this strange performing group, who called themselves the African Enterprise Foxfires, acted out a skit about the creation of the whole earth. They talked about the first man and women that ever lived, how they went against their own God and made the whole of humanity sin, and how God’s own Son had to die to safe everyone.
One of the young men got up with a microphone. He said his name was Alinafe Katengeza, and he talked about how he was a sinner but had been saved by a man called Jesus.
As they listened to the Gospel, some in the crowd began to feel something in their hearts. When the young man from the city asked if anyone wanted to also follow Jesus, they found themselves raising their hands.
It was the first time for many of them to repent of their sins.
When it was over, they gathered around the young people, the Foxfires from the city, and listened to how they could grow in their Christian lives by praying to God, by finding other believers to spend time with and by reading the book of God, the Bible.
Chankhungu will never be the same again.
Troubled Students turn to Christ!
Hooligan No More
Martin is a self-described hooligan. “I’ve always been proud of being so wild, of being feared by the other students,” Martin told us. “I’ve never before felt remorse for my actions. That is until the AE missions team arrived at my school.”
As AE’s mission in Kigali, Rwanda continued throughout last week, many people were being touched by the Gospel across the city. The mornings mostly consisted of school outreach followed by mission volunteers being sent into the streets to preach to people in markets and businesses. This type of ministry is part of the well-established stratified evangelism model that African Enterprise champions. We take the Gospel to the people, wherever they may be. Whether that’s on the street corner or the president’s office.
In a school of 310 students, Martin was renown for his wild ways. “When the mission team came this morning, I wasn’t too interested, but when they began speaking about the Gospel and the love that Jesus has for me, I was immediately convicted of my sins and I knew that I needed Jesus in my life.”
“…When they began speaking about the Gospel and the love that Jesus has for me, I was immediately convicted of my sins and I knew that I needed Jesus in my life.”
As the AE team called for people to raise their hands to accept Christ Martin was among the first to respond. Upon seeing his hand in the air, a gasp went up among the other students because they couldn’t believe that the boy they had feared was responding to a call for salvation! Martins humble response to the Gospel touched the hearts of many other students who then also felt emboldened to raise their hands to receive salvation. In total, 300 of 310 students responded to the call for salvation at Martin’s school!
180 Degree Turn
Samuel is another student in Martin’s school was also deeply impacted by the Gospel message that morning. “When I heard them preaching, I was deeply convicted because I have begun watching pornographic films. I know that this behaviour can lead me toward a terrible life but after hearing the Gospel I am taking the decision to stop watching those movies completely and I want to live a life that honours God.”
Another student named Nelly told the mission team that she had been having inappropriate relationships with boys and felt convicted by the message of the Gospel. She raised her hand to receive Christ and told the mission team that she was going to honour her body and give her heart to Christ. Praise God!
We are so thankful that this kind of ministry is still permitted in schools in many parts of Africa. Students and young people are in desperate need of the saving message of the Gospel as the challenges of the world begin to effect them at an earlier age. Teachers regularly thank us for coming to speak to the children as they are often overwhelmed by the issues the children have and find it difficult to address on their own. Pray that this kind of ministry will be able to continue for many years.
“Students and young people are in desperate need of the saving message of the Gospel as the challenges of the world begin to effect them at an earlier age.”
You can also join us in praying for these students and the thousands of others who heard the Gospel during the Kigali Mission last week. Ask that God would nurture the good seeds that have been planted in their hearts and that they would grow to produce much fruit.
Stay tuned as we continue to publish updates on the mission over the next several days!
Kiboko has been practicing witchcraft for 30 years, nearly half his lifetime. In that time, he has become the most powerful and feared witchdoctor in his community. He even serves as the witchdoctor to all other local witchdoctors!
Husband of four wives, Kiboko has 25 children, 30 grandchildren, and 3 great-grandchildren! His influence in the community is notable and he is greatly feared. Many believe that he holds the power to destroy lives in an instant.
“Because of his fearsome reputation, most local evangelists and pastors have never attempted to share the Gospel with him…”
Because of his fearsome reputation, most local evangelists and pastors have never attempted to share the Gospel with him or even approach him! That is until African Enterprise Malindi mission volunteers arrived at his doorstep.
The Power of Boldness
When Kiboko saw the group of evangelists approaching his compound, he grew incredibly agitated. He became hostile and told them he wanted nothing to do with them. One man from the team, however, ignored Kiboko and stepped boldly into the compound. Kiboko was so shocked by this act that his demeanor instantly changed. He became soft-spoken, submissive and invited them into his home.
“Kiboko was so shocked by this act that his demeanor instantly changed.”
The AE Mission team shared the Gospel with Kiboko and his large family. He listened intently to the story of salvation in Christ and he, along with 36 of his family members made confessions of faith in Jesus!
The team assured Kiboko that pastors from a local church would come to visit him and his family again soon to minister to them. The team then returned to the mission center rejoicing in the power of God.
Only the Beginning
Please pray for Kiboko and his large family. Ask that God would continue the work in his heart that has only just begun. Pray that the local pastors would have the boldness to approach Kiboko with the truth of God and that Kiboko will be able to break free from the bondages that a life in witchcraft brings.
We in AE are rejoicing because so far during the Malindi Mission, 61,210 people have heard the Gospel. 8,983 of those have made confessions of faith in Christ! Praise God!
“…So far during the Malindi Mission, 61,210 people have heard the Gospel.
8,983 of those have made confessions of faith in Christ!”
Our team will soon be wrapping up the mission and handing the follow-up work back to the Malindi community. Pray for diligence among the local churches as they work hard to connect with those who have confessed a new faith in Christ.
It is good sometimes to ask significant questions which point us to what we want to be and where we want to go as a country. Once that vision and goal are established we can seek to move towards it. But clarity of purpose is essential. In the American civil rights struggle in the fifties, a popular song carried the words, “Keep your Eyes on the Prize.”
So let’s put a few questions to ourselves. Firstly, what kind of country do we want? What building blocks are needed? I believe our answer would be that we want a country which is non-racial, democratic, with good justice systems in place, plus economic prosperity, national strength, unselfishness, and a concern for the poor and marginalised. I believe that sort of vision is really worth striving for.
Then we ask what kind of people do we want to be? I believe we want a country of good people. That kind of answer might seem naïve or simplistic, but the fact is that goodness is a basic building block for any country.
Alexis de Toqueville, the nineteenth century French philosopher, was asked the question after visiting the United States, “Wherein lies the greatness of America?” He replied, “I sought in the fertile fields and the boundless forests and in her rich mines and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her Democratic Congress and her matchless constitution, and it was not there, not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret and the genius and the power. America is great because America is good and if America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” Whether America is still good and still great could be debated, but the principle is still valid, and the Bible affirms it. Says Proverbs 13:24, “Righteousness exalts a nation.” A righteous nation will go up and the corollary is also true that an unrighteous nation will go downhill.
The late Oginga Odinga, the Kenyan politician, said at the end of his life, “We wasted 30 years of independence. We did everything, but we forgot virtue.” For example, if South Africa was full of Thuli Madonsela’s we would be a great nation. I believe that is self-evident.
Another key question. What kind of Constitution and laws do we want? I believe we want the Constitution and laws which acknowledge a transcendent accountability and basis. One modern political thinker in the States has said, “Why have law and order deteriorated so rapidly in the United States? Simply because for many years it has been commonly taught that life is a random, accidental phenomenon with no meaning except the purely materialistic one. Laws are merely a matter of human expediency since humans are allegedly accidents, so are their laws.”
Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Power undirected by high purpose spells calamity. And high purpose by itself is utterly useless if the power to put it into effect is lacking.” The late and great Edgar Brooks, parliamentarian, academic and historian, observed even more pointedly, “Democracy
is not a heresy but democracy divorced from God, freedom and immortality, and from every moral imperative, is certainly a heresy, and certainly a dangerous one.”
Now we ask what type of government do we want? For the State to function for the good of all, what type of government does God require? In the light of what I said above, He first of all wants a government of righteous character and moral integrity. A good government will also protect the underprivileged, the powerless and foreigners. A godly government will also understand that it is not autonomous but is God’s servant for the good of all (Romans 13:3). A good government will also recognise that the centre point of its conscience is the Church of Christ in the country. A good government will likewise protect the impartiality of its courts and justice system and be committed to a free press and freedom of speech. It will encourage those who are law abiding, punish wrong doers, and collect taxes for State administration.
We also need to ask what kind of morality we want. A strong and good country will not embrace the postmodern notion of ethical and intellectual relativism. Rather will it hold to the notion that some things are right, and some things are wrong and some things are true and some things are false. Perhaps the final and very key question is this: “What kind of families and parenting do we want?” The family is the basic building block of any society. If the family crumbles, the nation will crumble. Young people need to be taught that sex is for marriage and marriage requires the lifelong commitment of the two partners. Easy divorce should not be encouraged. And children should be raised in the nurture and discipline of the Lord and with two loving and caring parents.
All of this adds up, I believe, to the national prize we covet. And we must, “Keep our Eyes on the Prize!”
Article provided by AE Founder Michael Cassidy, for Gateway, May 2017.
