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Horn of Africa Update
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Dear Board members and friends of the Horn of Africa Mission,
I wanted to give you a quick update on what is happening in our HOAM ministry from this end. It seems like God has lined up so many tremendous opportunities for us, we just have to show up! I am really amazed.
April was a very busy month with three major church planters’ training conferences. What a blessing it has been to engage in the lives of so many who are committed to planting new churches, many in remote and hostile communities.
In the past three weeks we conducted national worker training conferences in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Kenya. The majority of the 450 attendees were church planters among unreached and under-reached people groups throughout these three countries plus Somalia, Djibouti, Sudan, Uganda, and even a visiting church planter from Congo.
These training conferences for national church planters focused on starting with a simple church –a church that is culturally relevant and more easily and quickly replicated throughout the areas where there is no church. National church planters are taught to strip away there own church culture when they enter a new area or people group and focus exclusively on what the Bible presents as church. Eliminating many of the extra-Biblical requirements that have been added to “church” makes planting new churches much simpler and these churches are better able to replicate.
In Ethiopia, 116 national workers graduated from our Mobile Mission School creating an expanded “workforce” to plant hundreds of new churches throughout the country. The goal of our Ethiopian team of church planters is to plant 300 new churches during this next year bringing the total to about 600, then to double the following year. In one area where we are planting new churches in Ethiopia, two Mosques have closed as a result – one is used as the church building for the local Christian believers.
In Tanzania we now have 30 national church planters. They too have taken up the challenge to double each year, establishing churches that are solidly grounded and true to the Word. Two weeks ago we visited one of the three new churches that have been planted on the island of Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania where the population is 99% Muslim! What a joy to see this Christian community in this area that is so hostile to the gospel.
Last week we held our third training conference in Nairobi Kenya. Appreciating the nice break from the oppressive heat of Tanzania we were thrilled with the response from the 80 attendees in Kenya. Twenty-five were newly appointed national church planters who will begin their assignments this month. It was great to participate in their eagerness as we studied the Word together discussing how to go about planting new churches – churches that will replicate themselves within a year. These church planters also went from the training with great enthusiasm and determination to be God’s instruments to see a rapid expansion of new church throughout Kenya.
Assisting and teaching in these training conferences were Beat Jost (on the subject of tentmaking – from Chad), Jerry Trousdale, David Watson, and myself from CityTeam Ministries, Aila Tasse from Lifeway Mission, Minas Hiruy from Hope, Markos Zemede, and Aychiluhm Beyene from PACC college, a Horn of Africa associate. Our newest partner, Tut from Sudan was also with us.
More training seminars are scheduled for Uganda and Sudan within the next few months. However, the focus now will be to monitor and follow-up on those who have been trained helping them to implement the principles they have learned. Mentoring is critical to staying on track with the goals.
Lynn and I are enjoying the ministry God has called us to here – training and mentoring national workers to plant the seeds of the gospel and establish churches – new communities of Christ, often in communities hostile to the gospel. We are seeing the beginnings of what we believe will be an explosion of new churches throughout East Africa.
Please pray for the national teams which we are developing particularly in Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, and Tanzania. Also for the hundreds of national church planters who have been trained and sent to many remote communities throughout the region. Pray also for the national churches in these countries that they will awaken to the challenge and opportunities to reach their entire nations for Christ. No less should be our objective!
Thanks so much for letting us to be part of the Horn of Africa team.
God bless,
Dave
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