When Amoko was in Primary School, one of his teachers, Yousif, who was a Muslim Arab, and who taught most of the subjects saw him reading a book. He said, “What are you reading?” Amoko said, “I am reading “Christian Education”, and from there we started arguing. He said that Christianity is finished and Islam is the last religion, so I have to become Muslim. I said, “No!” We were arguing and talking, and then I became angry.
Because he was my friend, he said, “No, let’s not fight: you go read… there is a book in Italy,” (he did not know about the Bible) “You go to Rome, there is a book there that Mohammed’s name is written in: you go and read it, and if it says that Jesus is God, and that Mohammed’s name is not written in that book, then you come and tell me, and I will become Christian.”
So then I started reading the Bible, not reading it for me; but reading it for him, saying, “I want to know whether Mohammed is there, whether the Bible is corrupted, whether Jesus is God or not God.” So for the whole of one year starting in January I read the Bible, and on the day before Christmas, I had that experience of really opening my heart to God, to Jesus, because I read the Bible alone and under the tree and found the true answer. I gave my life to Jesus, and I continue in that.
Amoko became strengthened and committed in his faith and his life then took on new purpose as a result of an AE mission in Juba South Sudan in the early 1980s.
Fast forward 33 years.
Amoko’s ministry is now to Muslims, and he keeps looking out for Yousif to tell him about the truth he found.
“Wherever I go now, God put a fire in me to reach the Muslims. I thank God for bringing Yousif into my way, to challenge me to read the Bible and accept Jesus, and I am involved in the ministry because of this.”
“My vision is to see the Bible change lives. I want to see either Muslims, or Sudanese, or Africans, or the whole world: people’s lives’ changed. And so I put it in the form of “transformation”. I have seen many lives changed, society changed, families have changed. I live for that.”
Amoko is now completing is Bachelor of Theology in Nairobi, focussing on mission and Islamic study and is due to graduate this year.
“I am very happy for what God has done in my life through AFRICA EVANGELISTIC ENTERPRISES since 1983 through Bishop Kivengere and Rev. Stifin Mgoma”, he said. “Thanks for being connected and praying with us continuously.”
Praise the Lord — for you and the life-changing work you make possible!
Amoko pictured here with Ben in Nairobi.
Usually when we’re preparing for upcoming missions, we’re talking about sub-Saharan nations – but this time we’re reaching North! Together, we’ll be reaching out across the Sahara from south to north for the sake of delivering the Good News to both French and English speaking nations.
It’s a time of crisis for many North African nations: widespread political instability, the rise of extremist Islam including the Islamic State group, millions of refugees and displaced people looking for security and shelter, and a marginalised Christian population increasingly under pressure.
Our brothers and sisters in sub-Saharan nations are ready and willing to take the message of Christ to their northern neighbours – and your prayers are greatly appreciated as we prepare for three missions in March, June and December this year.
Please, as you pray over the coming months, remember to lift up the following:
- For sub-Saharan churches and leaders to engage in the mission, and its vital preparations
- For willing sub-Saharan African students to be fully equipped for cross-cultural mission in North Africa
- For the North African Church and leadership as we seek to encourage, equip and support them
- For the growth of a widespread support and prayer network for the Church in North Africa
With more than 70% of this region classified as “unreached”, your next mission has the potential to bring the message of Christ to thousands of North Africans, for the very first time. What an opportunity!
At African Enterprise Australasia, it is our great joy to work in partnership with supporters. Some of these have felt called to go the distance in long-term partnership with us. Diana Dow is one such woman.
Di has partnered with African Enterprise since 1978, first encountering AE with her husband Mal at an AE ministry speaking tour. As a teenager in England, she had heard speakers discuss the impacts on their lives in the East African Revival period. When a visit of one of those speakers, Ugandan Bishop Festo Kivengere was advertised in New Life newspaper, Di and Mal went to hear him in Melbourne. They also had a chance to meet AE Founder Michael Cassidy. There they were introduced to the mission and ministry of African Enterprise and have been supporters ever since, over the years inviting others to hear speakers and become supporters too.
Di and Mal are dynamic prayer warriors for AE. Throughout the 1990s, Michael Cassidy spoke of AE’s ‘behind the scenes’ work in South Africa during the Apartheid years and the call for 24/7 prayer. Di recalls being woken up at night in 1994, in the lead up to the South African elections, to pray that Apartheid would be abolished – and it was. She continues to pray for AE on a regular basis, as a part of her local church. Di also joined the Melbourne AE Prayer Group in the Addisons’ home in 2012.
In 2012, Di was able to participate in the AE 50th Anniversary Jubilee in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. She speaks joyfully of conversations with AE Team Leaders, including Michael Cassidy and Wilfred Mmari (AE Tanzania Team Leader). A particular joy was to share in the planting of 50 trees in recognition of the elders of AE, including Festo Kivengere. Before the Jubilee, as part of the PMB mission she participated in visits to hospitals, a medical clinic and Nichols Primary School. The School had been the site of ‘Bonginkosi’, the AE feeding program run during the Apartheid years of which the Dow’s had been supporters. She saw Zulu dancing and visited the Nelson Mandela Memorial just recently opened.
Journeying to Africa in 2014 as part of the Feminine Heart of Mission to Kenya and Rwanda further strengthened her partnership with AE, and her loving, servant-hearted devotion to Africa. A special joy was going to Gahini, where the East African Revival had begun.
With Mal, Di has been a vibrant part of our Victorian AE family. Since 2012, she has spoken in churches, to help spread the message of AE and to encourage support. Di mentioned that she can’t help but tell everyone she meets about AE because of holistic way we approach sharing Christ with Africa – through word and deed, in evangelism and aid and development, in pastor training and reconciliation.
“We love that AE is a partnership, with Africans determining their future, deciding on projects tailored to their needs and the privilege of supporting them by prayer and some finance. The calibre of the AE teams we have met gives us confidence in them and what they decide.”
We are so thankful for the support and prayer of Di and Mal and the faithful community of prayer supporters across the globe. We look forward to many more years of serving together alongside her and Mal!
If you would like to be involved in regularly praying for AE, please get in touch with us on (02) 9889 1799 or ae@aeint.org.
Di taking part in the tree planting project during the 2012 Jubilee
Welcome to our new website!
In 2016, we supported our African brothers and sisters in 10 countries throughout Africa, to see missions reach over 550,000 people with the Gospel! Big missions in Kumasi, Ghana, Kakamega, Kenya, Gulu, Northern Uganda and Livingstone, Zambia, were key to this success. On the new website, you can read stories from these missions, see photographs, or even sign up for the Short-Term Missions projects taking place in Tanzania, Uganda and Ghana in 2017.
Read more on Missions >>
You can find prayer diaries, the African Harvest newsletter, videos and mission reports and more on the new site, as well as dates for events taking place this year. We are reaching even more cities in 2017, with AE Missions scheduled for Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, DRC, Ethiopia and the far north of Africa!
Check out our resources >>
We aim to help you get to know our team leaders even better by showing you who works where. If you have a passion for the work happening in a certain country, let us know so we can keep you up to date with how your prayers and support are directly contributing to the mission in that country.
Find out more about us >>
Most importantly, the website is a space to celebrate the thousands of lives brought to Christ and the development activities that make a practical difference. AE evangelists are proclaiming the Gospel in Ghana, Uganda, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi and Ethiopia.
See some of the Aid & Development projects you support each year >>
In February, Zimbabwe is also the prayer focus country in our Prayer Diary. We’d encourage you to be regular prayer warriors with us to support the Great Commission. Please share these stories with your friends as God ignites the heart of Africa and help others to get involved in supporting this wonderful ministry in Africa.
Together we CAN see Africa transformed!
Victims of violence in South Sudan have found a graphic way of taking their problems to God. They’re putting details of their suffering down on paper and then nailing the written material to a wooden cross, symbolising the way Christ died for the sins of the world. The action is bringing immediate benefits, according to African Enterprise’s Uganda missions director, Augustine Akimanzi, who was present when it took place at a recent meeting featuring AE’s Peace and Reconciliation program.
“People who’ve suffered enormous prejudice felt they were handing their burdens over to God”, he said. “And as they stood, one by one, sharing their experiences, I could see the weight being lifted from their shoulders”.
The meeting, held in the South Sudan capital, Juba, and organised by AE Kenya, was one of a number designed to equip community leaders with the skills needed to bring peace in areas rocked by years of tribal violence.
“It was immediately obvious to me that the people of South Sudan have been left traumatised by recent conflicts”, Augustine said.
But he believes the AE Kenya missions are making a difference.
“I was greatly impacted by the teaching and I could clearly see that the training has started a genuine process of reconciliation among those in attendance”, he said.
When Edda Kumwenda’s marriage fell apart and she was chased from the family home at the age of 20, she turned to friends for help. They talked her into becoming a prostitute.
Edda found herself waiting at roadsides for customers, sometimes standing in rain all night during the wet season and returning to her accommodation empty-handed. She endured this miserable existence for three years. Then one day she met someone who proved to be a real friend. Edda was searching for a woman who was also working the streets and had gone missing when she heard that the woman had given up prostitution and joined a Christian vocational school.
“At first I couldn’t believe it”, she said. “Then I thought that maybe she really had changed”.
She went to the school and found her former colleague. She also found Agnes Kalawe.
“This woman of God preached Jesus to me and asked me to surrender my life to him”, Edda said. “I did so and she prayed for me. I feel that my life is secure now”.
Her new relationship with Jesus has led to another great change in her life. She enrolled in the African Enterprise training project for vulnerable women in Malawi and has learned to operate a sewing machine and design clothing products.
“My ambition is to open my own tailoring shop after I graduate”, she said.
