A week-long mission effort in Jinja, Uganda has been yet another success story for African Enterprise. A variety of methods were successfully used to engage with the community, including going door to door, street evangelism and a targeted leadership event.
The mission combined leaders from many denominations to promote their goal of unity in the body of Christ. Over 400 evangelists were trained to participate. Church leaders came together to hold a targeted TV broadcast, in which they were able to discuss why unity in the church is so important.
Perhaps some of the most impressive outcomes came from going door to door. In just 6 days, evangelists were able to reach 30,552 people! They also employed methods such as street evangelism and mobile trucks, where public address systems were used in open air to broadcast the gospel message. Preachers travelled alongside and were on standby to pray with anyone who accepted the alter call.
A leadership event hosted by community leaders attracted a large number of attendees from Jinja. The theme was centered around how to be a leader of integrity in this era. At the conclusion of the event, 5 leaders accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Most notably was the Mayor of Jinja himself, Mr. Kaslo Alton Okocha.
Encouraging numbers of people were reached through mass media. Mobile trucks are estimated to have connected with 250,000 people throughout the mission. The street ministry engaged with approximately 70,000 and TV with another 15,000. These figures demonstrate the ability to evangalise safely during COVID. The message was shared with enormous numbers of people in a way that didn’t require mass gatherings.
Despite the ongoing challenges of the pandemic, God continues to equip us with new and innovative ways of making sure we can share the gospel, and have an effective impact on our communities.
It was a moment of complete surrender. Ruth stepped out from the crowd and towards the AE preacher. She answered the alter call and gave herself fully to Jesus. She repented before Him and experienced His life saving forgiveness for the first time.
Ruth is just one of the 906 high school students who accepted Jesus during the mission. Each one found hope in the risen Christ to change their lives. Ruth reconciled herself to His love and grace and allowed it to bridge the gap that had separated her from her family.
Alongside heaven, we celebrate the lives changed through the Zomba leadership mission. We give thanks to the 48 churches and the hundreds of volunteers who were involved. Their dedication saw over one thousand people make commitments to Christ during the school and leadership outreach.
This action-packed week facilitated the AE team to outreach to 8 Malawian leadership groups. These included the medical and legal professions, politicians, university lecturers, traditional leaders (chiefs), civic council members, business and student association leaders. Each group attracted at least 50 participants, with AE speakers exhorting the leaders to let Christ lead the way. It was humbling an inspiring to see an average of 20 people make commitments to Jesus per event!
One such person was a nurse whose life had taken a difficult turn. After losing her job, relationship, and friends, she realised that there was nothing left except Jesus. She needed him to restore her hope. As she listened to the guest speaker, she understood that it is never too late to turn to Jesus. As the speaker shared the story of how Jesus had forgiven him, she knew He would also forgive her. “In spite of my challenges, my joy and peace will always rest in God,” she said.
We thank our incredible supporters, who enable AE to comprehensively reach out to the Zomba community. It was a privilege to invite such a large cross section of the leadership community to hear about Jesus. Thank you for continuing to equip God’s people to bring the good news, unite churches, and give renewed hope to this city.
Zomba Mission Testimony
One of the new converts, a health worker from Zomba Central Hospital explained how impactful the program was to her, she marked the event as a turning point for her life. After graduating from college, she got a good job that compensated her well. She expressed that she was getting a salary that she was “not able to handle”. On top of the well-paying job, she had a fiancé and they had plans on settling down in the near future. She lived an economically and socially satisfying life, but had no major concern about the things of God. It was not until a few months ago that her life’s trajectory took a bad turn; she suddenly lost her well-paying job and broke up with her fiancé without an apparent tangible reason. She invested huge amounts of money with her friends, but they took all her money and left her with nothing more than a disturbed life. Her mental state worsened to the extent of needing medical help and counseling.
She was convinced that her attendance at the Zomba Leadership Mission dinner was not a coincidence, explaining that recent events in her life pointed her towards Christ: she met an old-time friend some three weeks ago whom she knew as a wayward person, but to her surprise, this friend seemed to have changed and she found out that he had received Christ and that is what prompted the change in his life. From that time, she had seriously been contemplating about the changing power of Christ. “I lost a lot of money, I lost friends, I lost everything. I hoped to not commit suicide because the thought often comes when one is in a bad mental state. I have longed to be for Christ and I have wanted my life to really change. I was really touched by the guest of honor’s testimony, I looked at her and I saw that it is never too late. If God indeed forgives, that same God has forgiven me”. She added.
With Christ, she believes that her joy and peace will remain full. In spite of the challenges that she currently has, she is glad that she has made the decision to follow Christ and she will rest the hope of her future in Him.
At AE the gospel is at the core of what we do. Our missions are holistic and aim to engage entire cities with the good news of Jesus Christ. We have a passion to meet the urgent need of theological education for church leaders in Africa and is committed to helping train godly leadership, equipping church ministers to be faithful to the Gospel, and to grow the church. Unfortunately, in many parts of Africa the local pastors are not trained at all which often leads to pastors unknowingly spreading a false Gospel.
Pastor Training Courses (PTC) are an important way that African Enterprise works in partnership with the local church in Africa. These courses are offered to those already in Christian leadership positions in their local church or other ministries. AE wants to equip them with solid skills in understanding and teaching God’s word so that they may be even more effective in what they do. Training the local church leaders is a big need and through AE we provide the necessary training programs.
All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Tim 3:16-17
Let us pray for the Pastor’s Training Course,
- That AE, through the PTC bring the richness of the Gospel to life in the local churches
- That the PTC keep bringing the African church to maturity in Christ by the delivery of training to the church leaders that result in a better understanding and handling of God’s word.
- For financial support to make these courses self-sustaining
- For the lecturers to have an increased mission awareness in their home churches
- That the true Gospel of repentance and forgiveness in Jesus’ name would be preached in all of Africa, and that false ‘gospels’ would be revealed.
Let us pray for the discipleship and follow up of new believers
- That the church will effectively support the new believers on their journey
- That enough resources will be available in order to assist the new believers to stay active
- To give understanding of God’s Word but also embed trust
- That lives can be transformed to accomplish His purpose
- To provide opportunities for personal growth and spiritual formation that strengthen the new believers in their Christian walk
- That the African church will be empowered to help all the new believers study the bible and apply its truths in their daily lives.
Let us pray for the unity of churches in approaching new believers
- That the true Gospel will be shared and a fire will be ignited
- For the effective follow up of new believers
- Please grant our leadership a plan for growth and development
- For more churches to enroll in our school of evangelism and partner with us on mission
Africa’s place in Global Christianity
Opponents of Christianity declare that it is dead. Despite their untimely celebration, our faith is very much alive. All over the world. In Africa, its pulse beats strong. In a continent that the world may have forgotten, God is weaving His redemption story.
More Christians now live in Africa than on any other continent. As of 2020, around 49% of Africa’s population identify themselves as Christian. From less than 10 million Christians in 1900, there are now an estimated 685 million Christians on the continent. Recent growth of Christianity in Africa is partly due to population growth, but also due to African-led evangelism.
African-led evangelism and discipleship is critical for the future of Africa’s faith. Christianity is not the only influence in Africa. Islam is advancing aggressively across the continent, and in many regions, syncretism of Christianity with traditional religions has marred the truth of the Gospel.
The continent with the world’s fastest population growth, and youngest population on earth, needs to be nurtured by an African Church that is strong in faith and sound in doctrine. For 60 years, African Enterprise has been a trusted champion of the African Church. Reaching across denominational boundaries, AE is passionate about equipping the Church for true evangelism and discipleship.
It is estimated that, by the year 2060, 4 out of 10 global Christians will live in Sub-Saharan Africa. As the Church, we are the body of Christ on the earth. It could be said that, at this moment in history, the beating heart of global Christianity is in Africa. If so, we would do well to remember our brothers and sisters there.
“All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.”
(1 Corinthians 12:27, NLT)
“To evangelize is to spread the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins and was raised from the dead according to the Scriptures, and that, as the reigning Lord, he now offers the forgiveness of sins and the liberating gifts of the Spirit to all who repent and believe. Our Christian presence in the world is indispensable to evangelism, and so is that kind of dialogue whose purpose is to listen sensitively in order to understand. But evangelism itself is the proclamation of the historical, biblical Christ as Saviour and Lord, with a view to persuading people to come to him personally and so be reconciled to God. In issuing the gospel invitation we have no liberty to conceal the cost of discipleship. Jesus still calls all who would follow him to deny themselves, take up their cross, and identify themselves with his new community. The results of evangelism include obedience to Christ, incorporation into his Church and responsible service in the world. (1 Corinthians 15:3,4; Acts 2:32-39; John 20:21; 1 Corinthians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 4:5; 5:11,20; Luke 14:25-33; Mark 8:34; Acts 2:40,47; Mark 10:43-45) – The Lausanne Covenant; nr.4 The nature of evangelism
What makes African Enterprise unique is the fact that our evangelists are locals. They speak the same language as those around them and they come from the same backgrounds, but, what sets them apart from the other locals are their love for Christ, their commitment to Christ, their passion to spread the Gospel and their education and training.
Our evangelists are all trained using AE’s School of Evangelism, a formal course equipping local church leaders and pastors with solid Biblical knowledge to assist them in evangelising to locals. This training forms part of our Stratified Evangelism Process.
Mission preparation and planning starts 2 years before the mission. Mapping the mission field, dividing it into zones, building relationships with church leaders, equipping local evangelists by training them in the school of evangelism, selecting and training facilitators and mobilising the church. All of this leads up to 1 week of city-wide mission. After the mission week, new believers are followed up, nurtured and ensured that they belong to a church.
When COVID-19 hit Africa, our teams decided to rise above this challenge and used a new tool called Home Based Evangelism (HBE) to continue evangelising the cities of Africa. City-wide missions don’t look the way they used to, but HBE has proven to be a mighty and effective tool to bring people to Jesus. Still following our Stratified Evangelism Process, evangelists are now trained online instead of face to face, the message is no longer spread through a massive event but rather through TV and radio broadcasts and through evangelists walking in the streets, going from home to home to tell people the Good News, to give them hope in these uncertain times. Our teams are on the ground, local and ready to evangelise.
In the last year we’ve reached more than 6 million people with the Gospel and 63,516 were nurtured into churches.
Our Mombasa-West mission in Kenya just concluded a few weeks ago and we have 8 more missions planned for 2021. Please keep our teams in your prayers as they spread the Gospel across Africa, sometimes in very dangerous circumstances. Keep praying for those that made decisions to follow Christ. Pray for their faith to continue to grow and strengthen.
