Many experts agree that Africa is dying. HIV/AIDS, war, genocide, poverty, disease … so many tragedies have taken their toll on the continent’s people. Yet the church is alive and well, often growing with little outside support and few leaders. And in the face of their many disadvantages, the African people often enjoy a depth of relationship that goes beyond what many Westerners experience in their churches.
But to build a lasting body of Christ on solid foundations the people need theological training to keep them from mixing their local religions with Christianity. They also need the kinds of humanitarian efforts that have long-lasting effects and can bring about true change and growth. FMWM has several such ministries in Africa, such as hospitals, micro-enterprise efforts, Bible training centers and the International Child Care Ministries program.
How can Christian workers best help and support the ministries in Africa? FMWM needs ExT missionaries for Africa who can teach Bible and theology, help with community development, train and mentor leaders, work in hospitals and train medical workers, evangelize, disciple and plant churches.
Here is a sampling of some current needs in Africa:
What is happening to the church in Malawi? Pastors have been well trained in the Free Methodist Bible School, but most of them have little more than their Bible for reference and sermon building. Only two in the entire nation have electricity in their homes and most have only bicycles to get them from anywhere from three to 10 preaching points. Only a few pastors have cell phones so the majority have little communication with their fellow pastors. For some of the pastors, it has been several years since they finished their training and the opportunities for continuing education are limited.
Imagine what might happen if into this situation would come a missionary couple with ministry experience to encourage, train and just spend time with these pastors. Their effectiveness has begun to decline, but it could reverse direction if there was just someone there they could work alongside and learn from. Do you want a chance to multiply your ministry? Malawi offers you a wide-open opportunity. We need one more pastoral couple in order to have a missionary presence in each of the three regions of this tiny but populous nation. Is God compelling you to join the Malawi team?
Mozambique FMC is in desperate straits! The church there owns a hospital built by missionaries 75 years ago. It was abandoned during the civil war and fell into disrepair. A European organization put well over a million dollars into refurbishing it and building new buildings. It is back in operation with local nursing staff as a clinic, only able to give basic first-aid treatment because there is no doctor. We desperately need medical doctors and more nurses for this facility. The government is not supporting the hospital financially so the church needs mission staff to help and to give the facility direction. Nhaloi (pronounced Nyaloy) Hospital, located about 10 miles from the Indian Ocean, is the only medical facility available for about 100,000 people.
Mozambique also needs a pastor or seminary graduate to lead a Bible training school.
West Africa needs the gospel. The Free Methodist Church has work in Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Cameroon, Gabon, Liberia, and opportunities to expand into Equatorial Guinea and Guinea Bissau. National leaders are trying to build the work but they are doing it without tools, with very little money, and not much encouragement. They have vision and they are pouring their lives into their vision! We need a West Africa team!
We need a couple in Ghana who can teach leadership and pastoral training seminars, and maybe open a Bible school. The people need theological training to keep them from mixing their local religions with Christianity. Who can call them to accountability? This couple would also have opportunity to help in the country of Togo, next door. Ghana could also use workers to assist with construction and someone to organize and administer a women’s business college. We need another couple in Cameroon to do the same thing, assisting with a brand-new, reorganized FMC. This couple could also expand into Gabon.
Rwanda: Kibogora Hospital needs missionary liaison to connect hospital with the city of Kigali (hospitality, coordinating supplies, shuttling), physicians, nurses, a long-term maintenance worker, and a trainer for the hospital administrator.
Creative Access Country: physicians, nurses and physical therapists needed
Congo: trainee needed to work alongside Linda Stryker and learn International Child Care Ministries program; physicians and medical personnel for Nundu Hospital (dependent upon political situation)Togo is an exciting place to work, despite the discomfort of heat, humidity and dust. A very small group of Free Methodists in Togo was left with no trained leader, funds or support a few years back, but the local leader moved forward despite the obstacles and wonderful things have happened. There are about six churches there now and the work is growing with very little outside support. The Togo FM church is only looking to the Lord for their needs and some quite extraordinary things have happened.
There are about a dozen lay leaders in Togo who need training. With the right missionaries, Africa Area Director Henry Church believes that a Bible school could be started so that God can accomplish even greater things with the FM church in Togo. Will you pray for Togo, that God will continue to support and inspire the work, as well as raise up leaders and trainers to go there and further it? Has God laid it on your heart to be a missionary to Togo?
Has God laid it upon your heart to serve His Church in Africa? To journey in that direction, take the last step and find out how to apply. Direct specific questions to ExploreMissions@gmail.com.I want to check out opportunities in ...