Malawi is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, often described as “the warm heart of Africa” because of the friendliness of its people. Around 65 times smaller than Australia (1), Malawi has an estimated population of around 21 million people (2). The average person in Australia earns nearly 100 times more than an average person in Malawi (3). Although 4 out of 5 Malawians rely on agriculture for income (4), less than 3% of the land is irrigated (4), which makes these small land owners particularly vulnerable to the effects of drought. Population growth has placed additional pressure on the nation’s agricultural sector (2) and a lack of strong democratic leadership (4) has weakened its economy in recent years.
In its mission to evangelise the cities of Africa, in both Word and Deed, African Enterprise has been proclaiming the Gospel and strengthening the Church of Malawi for over 30 years. AE Malawi has also been involved with water and sanitation projects, and since 2009, runs a women’s vocational training centre. Here, vulnerable women, many of whom have turned to prostitution, are trained in tailoring and given their own sewing machines, and thus provided with the opportunity to start their own small businesses.
In the last year, food insecurity has reached crisis point for many individuals in Malawi (5), with a sharp increase in the price of maize. Our church partners in Malawi have reported a decline in church attendance, as congregation members have been out in search of food. In response to this crisis, and in obedience to God’s Word to “look after orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27), African Enterprise is partnering with the local church to supply maize and legumes to families at risk. These include child-headed households, widows and the elderly.
In addition, AE Malawi founded its Management and Leadership Development Training Centre (MALDEC) in October 2019. MALDEC offers a short course in practical strategic management for community leaders of various professional backgrounds. At the recent graduation of its first and second cohort of students, Mr Rangford Chokotho, chairperson of the African Enterprise Malawi Board, encouraged graduates to use the knowledge gained from this program to contribute to Malawi’s growth and development.
At African Enterprise, as we partner with all levels of society in Malawi, from its most vulnerable to its leaders, we believe that this beautiful nation can look forward to a future filled with hope.
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Ethiopia is a rugged, land-locked country, rich in ancient history.
Home to the powerful Aksumite trading empire for over 800 years, the region is littered with the ruins of rock-cut churches from the 12th and 13th centuries. Currently, nearly half of Ethiopia’s population are members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.
In order to empower the Christian leaders of the future, African Enterprise once again hosted their Students Discipleship Program (SDP) in schools during 2019, offering young people a chance to gain a better understanding of the Bible and the Christian faith. Over the last two years, tens of thousands of students have taken part in the Program, and the results have been encouraging.
Dawit attended the program as an 18-year-old and described how “the SDP has helped me grow as a young Christian believer. In the consecutive years of my attendance, I learnt that God is the creator of the universe, that Jesus Christ died for me and I am saved through faith in Him… Because of this program I now am able to explain the Biblical worldview to my classmates.”
16-year-old attendee Eden said, “One of the most important lessons I have learnt through SDP is reading and understanding the Bible. Though I have the Bible I was not reading it. But now I have learnt the ‘keys’ of studying the Bible. Now I have started to read daily. I have also started to share what I have read to my friends in school. I have also become a youth fellowship leader in my church. I want to go deeper and higher.”
Not only does the course offer students confidence in their school years, it imparts life skills that serve them well into adulthood as well. Marine Engineer Anteneh Demissie was among thousands of attendees who took the course in 2003. Now spending most of his time on the high seas of Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean, Anteneh expressed that: “The training was a ‘turning point’ in my life. Though I was a young boy with Christian orientation I had many spiritual questions for which I was seeking convincing answers. In the SDP training, all my questions were sufficiently answered. I consider that moment as a ‘Reference Point’ in my life. For me, the training was like a city gate – a doorway to abundance. Because of it I have entered into an abundant life in Jesus that is full of joy and enthusiasm. I am so happy.
One of the many benefits of the program was helping me understand the worth of the Bible as the word of God and igniting the love of reading it. Since then I have developed the practice of reading the Bible on a daily basis. The program has also made me become passionate about Christian spiritual matters.
I am now a marine engineer travelling around the world staying in high seas for many days and weeks. But my inner-self stays cool and tranquil even when the outside is extremely violent. This is because of the Rock Jesus, the foundation of my faith, whom I came to know better through the SDP training.”
One of African Enterprise’s six strategic areas of focus is Integrated Youth Empowerment. The Foxfire training program demonstrates how this goal is being achieved in partnership with local churches and supporters all around the world.
In Zimbabwe, Foxfire teams have been deployed since 1980 and each year they successfully evangelise in word and deed. They engage in the community and culture; demonstrating a level of understanding that is greatly appreciated by those who are reached. This year, four young individuals are set to embark on this unique experience as they seek to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Nelson Thomo (Kingdom Revival Apostolic Ministries), Tafadzwa Shaani (Glad Tidings Fellowship), Tinotenda P. Masimba (Agape International) and Henry Tapfuma (Charis Missionary Church) are currently going through orientation, induction and training before their first deployment. This involves mentorship as they learn the role of Foxfire missions, church planting, evangelism, follow up and discipleship. They are also being equipped with practical life skills and the ability to prepare and preach sermons. This time of learning is a period of great spiritual growth for each individual as they explore personal devotions, prayer, fasting and other aspects of Christian living.
In the near future, Nelson, Tafadzwa, Tinotenda and Henry will be deployed according to the needs of the surrounding areas and the reports of previous Foxfire teams.
As the group moves forward, please be praying for:
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- A conducive economic, social & political environment;
- Their upkeep and good health;
- Provision for budgetary and financial resources, sleeping bags, clothing and mobile phones;
- The preparedness of the hosting churches, marketplace schools and communities.
AE team leaders can tell many amazing stories of redemption, and it’s not often that we have an opportunity to hear about their own journey, and what underpins their life-long commitment to evangelism. In this article, we cover the early life of African Enterprise’s Bishop Guide Makore and his pathway to evangelist and team leader of African Enterprise Zimbabwe.
Guide Makore was born on the 14th of November 1967, in the city of Gweru in Zimbabwe. Born third of five children, Guide’s earliest memories are of the care of his maternal grandmother, who raised both him and his siblings while his mother was a resident house carer on a nearby homestead. His father lived apart in a distant village, and rarely came to see his children and did not provide financial support.
To help earn money for his family, which was largely living in poverty, Guide’s grandmother would brew traditional beer to sell at the markets. Not wanting to waste any of the bi-products of the brew, she’d mix in the leftover fermented home-brewed traditional beer with his lunch, served in a disposable plastic container, “I remember that cup so well,” Guide reflects. “I didn’t realise that at a young age I was basically intoxicated as a result of these fermented herbs and I was constantly sleepy.”
At the time, people in his village were also under threat from guerillas and national forces fighting the Rhodesian War. For his own protection, his mother’s employer, who served in the airforce, invited her family to live at the homestead with his wife and children.
The location of the homestead also happened to be the home town of his father, and as a result of the new close proximity with his dad, he started to form a relationship with him and miss him greatly when he was away. To satisfy his yearning, he pleaded to be able to travel to be with his dad, and after a couple of years of this, his dad decided that Guide could come with him.
However, the idyllic perception of being close to dad did not come close to reality. On his first trip away, he was left to live with his paternal grandmother and did not see his father again for almost a year. As a result of inter-village family issues, he also did not see his mother or maternal grandmother again for the next 6 years.
Understandably, the situation came as a complete surprise to Guide, being abandoned for the second time by his father, but this time it was a far worse situation, now being raised by a new family and without contact of his mother and grandmother. “I thought my father was hiding somewhere in the house at first,” Guide said. “But as the weeks went by I asked my grandmother if he was coming back, and she said that he wasn’t.”
As months went by, his new grandmother enrolled him in the local school and life started afresh as an eight-year-old. In his new home he had access to more food, and a slightly better quality of life. However, the situation eventually took its toll on the young Guide, and he found eventually that he was crying day and night over his situation. It was his constant distress that eventually came to the attention of villagers, and through their intervention, his father eventually visited on occasion, but did not reconnect him with his mother.
Around 6 years later, Guide moved into an apartment his father owned in the capital city Harare and he finally made contact again with his mother during school holiday periods. Aged 14 at this stage, Guide started to become influenced by drinking and escaping the daily grind with his friends. However, God soon intervened in his life to prevent further escalation of his issues.
Coming across a tent crusade in the city, Guide finally heard about the loving fatherly nature of God, who’d come to save him through His son Jesus Christ. The words affected him powerfully, and at that meeting Guide accepted Christ into his life. Following the meeting, all the new converts met weekly at the tent church, and they were provided with a minister.
Sadly, the small group couldn’t raise enough to support the minister. When he left, they continued to gather, singing songs, praying and waiting for breakthrough to come as well as adding donations to a locked box the former pastor had left behind.
Then, some ladies in the church asked Guide to preach. Somewhat forthrightly they announced that they had tasked him with preparing a sermon for the following week. Somewhat taken aback by this ‘request’, Guide told them he didn’t have a Bible. The retort from the ladies was “That’s why we asked you a week early!”.
There was no getting around this, so taking up the challenge, Guide joined the local scripture union to find inspiration for his message and was given a Bible by one of the members. After preparing a sermon based on material he obtained, he found that he actually had a gift of preaching. The congregation were thrilled by his message! There was no going back from there, and Guide became the preacher over the next two years from age 15.
Two years after the tent crusade had completed, the original minister who preached there came to visit the village and was astounded to see that the group was still meeting! He wanted to know who was preaching, and they invited him to hear Guide speak. He was sufficiently impressed to endorse Guide’s role as a preacher. As a gift to the visiting minister, he received the original locked donation box the small church had been contributing to over all these years.
Guide continued to lead the church, and was eventually heard by a visitor from African Enterprise called Sheke Masila, who happened to run the youth evangelistic program. Recognising Guide’s ability to reach to younger people, Sheke invited Guide to join the Foxfires.
Guide became one of six Foxfire leaders, preaching in farms, cities and border towns. He was then accepted into a Pentecostal bible college.
The Principal accepted Guide in good faith, recognizing that Guide had no financial support but would pay colleges fees when he could, and he offered every service he could including food and board until Guide could achieve this. “God will provide”, Guide told the Principal, and indeed that came to pass, with an anonymous donor taking care of all his costs over three years.
With support funds received, he was able to assist not only his fellow students, but his sisters who needed assistance to attend school. After all the challenges, he reconciled with his dad and family and finally his dad provided some support and a new suit for his graduation day!
Guide’s ministry progressed as an evangelist and church planter, and he planted new congregations in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and even in the UK. He took on other roles with Bible Society (as Chairman) and leadership roles within the church and faith-based organisations, before finally being appointed Team Leader of African Enterprise in 2011.
Through his varied life experiences, in obedience to the Great Commission and Great Command Guide retains his passion to see every believer have their own bible, for lives and communities to be transformed through Jesus. He wants to encourage all of us to stay strong in the faith and reach others for Jesus. Who knows if there is another budding evangelist like Guide, just waiting for the opportunity to witness to hundreds of thousands of people and bring many into the kingdom of God, through Word and Deed.
For those of us reading his story, Guide provides with some final encouraging words. “God does not call the qualified but he qualifies the called”, he said. “Do not be limited by your background, upbringing or past experiences. Like in my testimony, God can turn your trials in triumph, your testing into a testimony, your rags into riches, stumbling blocks into stepping stones, your bitter lemon into lemonade according to Ephesians 3:20. I therefore challenge you in your sphere of influence to seriously consider giving chance and opportunity to those budding, passionate, gifted and talented people, quite promising, but lacking the means and encouragement.”
More details about AE evangelists and their countries of operation are found here: https://africanenterprise.com.au/our-locations/
Arba Minch, which literally means 40 springs, was founded in the early 1960s on the edge of Abaya lake, south of the capital Addis Ababa and toward the borders of Uganda and Kenya.
Local churches called on the AE team to organise a mission in the city, which has been heavily impacted by social problems including homelessness, prostitution, young people on the streets and drugs. AE’s focus on church unity, evangelism, social action and training were seen as essential to bring the churches back on track, and focus on building the church through offering true hope in Jesus to their communities.
One of the church leaders Rev Milkias, president of South West Mekane Yesus Church Synod that oversees 726 local congregations spoke of the reasons why AE was approached.
“With my current position as president of the synod, I have travelled to many places and congregations and the testimony I hear about AEE is very affirmative. AEE is church friendly, purpose-driven, focused and effective in its undertakings. It is a trustworthy ministry and we, in this area, partner with it wholeheartedly”, he said.
In preparation for this mission, AE conducted an initial series of exploratory meetings with city Church leaders to determine what the level of engagement would be. It was determined that Church leaders were absolutely committed to building their strength and ability to effectively reach out to a young and transient population, heavily influenced by ancestral spirit worship and post-modern relativistic views and prosperity doctrine eroding teachings of the church.
From early in the year, AE team leader Mel Mesfin conducted a series of training workshops to address key issues of church unity, bringing the leaders together to discuss their joint goals of winning their city for Christ. This successfully mobilised the churches together to be able to engage 150 evangelists from 32 church to drive the mission forward in December.
One of the missioners involved in the training and mission itself was Meheret, a year 12 student from Kale Hiwot Church in Arba Minch.
A graduate of the AE student discipleship program in 2018, she chose to take the next step to take a leadership role within the mission itself, and became trained as a mission facilitator. During the course of her training she said that that the process was a real ‘eye opener’.
“We were sent out to the market place for our induction, and completed a stage of one-to-one evangelism. That has been very insightful and I will share this to other students and youth in my church.”
Proclamation period
All church leaders and mission volunteers organized to reach out to the old city of Secha and business area of the new city Sikella during the mission period between December 24 and 29th, 2019. Mr. Berhanu Deresse, ex-AEE Ethiopia team leader led the proclamation commencement ceremony in the biggest church hall in the city.
Mission volunteers then went out into one-to-one street witnessing through handing-out tracts, visiting schools, daily university mission, repeated proclamation activities for prison inmates and mission week gatherings in the local churches.
During the mission, the following highlights occurred:
Impoverished children equipped to attend school
Participating churches raised funds to equip 114 children with school materials required for attendance. Parents were so touched by the generosity of AE supporters and the AE Ethiopia team who made this possible during mission. They were open to hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ, and were overwhelmed with joy, with many saying “there is hope to our children”. Our aim is to see children continuing with their education and attending church.
Street kids invited to have fellowship at the church
Street children were invited to a participating church for a meal and to receive school materials. Of the multitude invited, seven came and received what our supporters made possible, including a warm and welcoming environment and the opportunity to join a community that will care for them for the future. The good news of Christ’s love was preached to them, and mission facilitators will continue their outreach and follow up.
Leadership dinner
More than 30 government, business, and church leaders attended the leadership dinner. The theme of the meeting was good governance as explained by the Bible. The government representative appreciated AEE’s effort in convening leaders from different sectors in the city for this very relevant topic, and asked the church to pray for the continuation of peace and tranquility in the area as there were tensions in the community some time back.
Family counselling session
20 couples in leadership roles were invited to participate in a daylong family seminar to strengthen their marriages and families. It was a common cry that Christian youth of today are fast conforming to the pattern of the world and becoming unethical in many ways. Most church halls are filled with children and youth on Sundays, but there is a fast decline in moral standards. That is a huge challenge to the future of the church and African Enterprise’s involvement in discipling the next generation was much appreciated.
Preservation – Mission Follow-up
Following the celebratory closing rally, which also involved discussions with government officials and church leaders on future partnerships, the mission-overseeing committee deliberated on preserving the fruit of the mission. It was jointly agreed to continue the strategic partnership of AEE with the local churches for the coming six months.
The AE Mission chair, Rev Tsayas, was incredibly encouraging to all the church leaders involved. A leader of one of the largest churches, Rev Tsavas thanked the AE team leader and all those involved. “We commend AE for its vision and endeavour to raise new generations of God-fearing people through its outreach and discipleship programs”, he said.
The preservation strategy will now include integrating the new believers into the various partnering churches; building the capacity of churches for discipleship and nurture through training; and ensuring that new believers are integrated into small Bible study groups.
Through the support of AE donors, we intend to maintain our follow up of new believers and strengthening the discipleship program with literature and visits.
Testimonials
I abandoned Jesus and went into the pit, but he pulled me back
Tamirat came back from an “expedition” he chose to go for “exploration”. He left the house of God and went into the world at full speed some 14 years back. He sought what he calls “a happy and stress-free life” by immersing himself into drugs, drinking and all kinds of evil. He was blinded by his own decision and was not at all willing to listen to his believing mother’s advise to return right away.
As time went by he came to realize that the happiness he sought from the world was not actually there. He became miserably poor, despised by the community and lonely. He also got seriously sick and was abandoned by his friends. He saw himself being misled into the dark.
Tamirat came to the church and was met by mission facilitators and recommitted his life to Jesus. He says: “I am so sorry that I wasted half of my life. I terribly deceived myself. Hereafter, I want to make the best use of my life because I have now clung back to Jesus. He is so good that he accepted me back into the fold. I want to get stronger in the faith and then go out to preach the gospel to the many people who still live in the dark.”
I have chosen what is eternally correct
Berhane is a mother of two who made a recommitment to follow Jesus during the Arba Minch Mission. She says “I was a follower of Jesus until my husband forced me to backslide. I retreated from The Way for five years just to please my husband and live together with him. However, the five years were years in hell. These were the darkest years of my life- no joy, no hope. Finally, I chose life and came to church. It is now as if my soul has returned back to me. Life without Christ is walking in the dark. My husband is not happy about my move, but I have chosen what is eternally correct. I hope and pray that someday he will come back to Jesus.
