Kevin & Cami
Working in Southern Africa
This is a story I got from one of our closest friends, a South African missionary to Mozambique, and talks about the ladies at the church where we attended and I assisted there in the last couple of years! It was so exciting to see that Connie has brought them to this point, after a lot of foundational building.
For many years I have been teaching the women in church and this year we began going out to evangelize in the very poor community where they live. In most houses we were well received. We encountered a believer, a Christian woman who was praying to God for people to visit her. She married a Muslim man who beats her if she wants to go to church. We went to the house of a witch doctor who was welcoming, as well as women who sell traditional beers and so forth. We were not allowed in some houses where owners are Muslims, but with other visits we found that some Muslims welcomed us and we were able to preach to them, even though they are still so blinded by the teachings of their religion. We went into one house and found a young man in his early twenties sweeping the yard. He was almost at the end of his sweeping session, as if clearing the dirt for us to arrive. As we presented ourselves, he gave us chairs. We said to him, “We are messengers of the gospel of Jesus” and he told us, “I have been waiting for this message for a long time.” My heart jumped with joy; we shared the gospel and read scriptures for him, gave him All Nations gospel pamphlets and scriptures to read and he told us his aunt has a Bible. At the end of our talk, he told us that he is actually a Muslim but he needed to hear the message of Jesus. We prayed and left; the seed was planted and we pray that the Holy Spirit will work in the hearts of those who heard the word, even those who refused it.
-Connie Arão, South African missionary to Mozambique
Read more about Connie's work in our article https://afrigo.org/articles/connies-cultural-trials-and-triumphs/
Every Monday, I post a little missionary story. This is one that our Managing Editor came across when she interviewed a young Ghanaian missionary. It didn't end up in the final article for the magazine, but it kept coming to mind until I finally put it up yesterday. It moves me tremendously, not least because of all the faithful people in our lives who stand behind us. Be sure to follow the link at bottom to the full article about this inspiring young man and his family! - Cami
I have a faithful friend. We’ve known each other for a long time now. We went to the same secondary school (I was one year ahead) and were in the same house/hall. Later we went to the same university. When I went to the mission field the first time, he found out I was serving because I used to post the things we were doing, like raising funds for a motorbike. He was still in school. When he completed school in 2020 and went out on national service, he started supporting me with 10 per cent of his national service money as a tithe.
After his national service, he started working in one of the big companies in Ghana, and has continued giving. He had seen what we were doing and was very much encouraged. After his one year contract, we prayed together and he was given another two years. Since then, he has been faithful in sending me 10 per cent of his salary and he gives it every month consistently. Besides this, whenever it’s his birthday he also sows a seed into my life, giving me something for the people I am working with, like throwing a little party for the football team.
There has never been a month that he hasn’t supported. For me, leaving my degree and doing this full time was not an easy decision, and one thing that will take a missionary out of the field is lack of finances. But because of this friend’s faithfulness, I have felt that the Lord is a Provider.
- Reagan, a missionary in Northern Ghana
See Reagan’s story at https://afrigo.org/articles/a-turnaround-for-reagan/
Representative image by prostooleh on Freepik
Every Monday, I post a little missionary story. This is one that our Managing Editor came across when she interviewed a young Ghanaian missionary. It didn't end up in the final article for the magazine, but it kept coming to mind until I finally put it up yesterday. It moves me tremendously, not least because of all the faithful people in our lives who stand behind us. Be sure to follow the link at bottom to the full article about this inspiring young man and his family! - Cami
I have a faithful friend. We’ve known each other for a long time now. We went to the same secondary school (I was one year ahead) and were in the same house/hall. Later we went to the same university. When I went to the mission field the first time, he found out I was serving because I used to post the things we were doing, like raising funds for a motorbike. He was still in school. When he completed school in 2020 and went out on national service, he started supporting me with 10 per cent of his national service money as a tithe.
After his national service, he started working in one of the big companies in Ghana, and has continued giving. He had seen what we were doing and was very much encouraged. After his one year contract, we prayed together and he was given another two years. Since then, he has been faithful in sending me 10 per cent of his salary and he gives it every month consistently. Besides this, whenever it’s his birthday he also sows a seed into my life, giving me something for the people I am working with, like throwing a little party for the football team.
There has never been a month that he hasn’t supported. For me, leaving my degree and doing this full time was not an easy decision, and one thing that will take a missionary out of the field is lack of finances. But because of this friend’s faithfulness, I have felt that the Lord is a Provider.
- Reagan, a missionary in Northern Ghana
See Reagan’s story at https://afrigo.org/articles/a-turnaround-for-reagan/
Representative image by prostooleh on Freepik
The new issue! We worked hard on it and I think it is a particularly interesting one. Have a read at www.afrigo.org
Although the arts are becoming acknowledged for their role in missions, Africa appears to fall behind in this new move.
Our latest issue of AfriGO on the theme, "Arts in Missions: God's Voice through our Creativity," delves into the amazing possibilities the arts present for advancing global mission.
With our compilation of captivating stories, instructive articles, and resource recommendations, we invite you to experience how the creative arts we all love can serve the Great Commission we're all called to obey.
Enjoy this issue of AfriGO, and share with others! https://afrigo.org/issues/volume-9-1/
In partnership with AfriGO Magazine we are sharing one of their articles that explores the complex dynamics of being called to go as an African missionary, challenging traditional notions, delving into the Ubuntu philosophy, and hearing firsthand from Grace as she recounts the joy it was to be sent out by a supportive community.
Be encouraged as you see God at work in Africa, uniquely coming alongside their growing mission force.
He is powerfully sending everyone, everywhere.
Check it out here:
https://new.express.adobe.com/webpage/7v9HQRkV3cKpx
Health work opens remarkable doors for Gospel work around the world, and our new issue is on the theme, "African health workers: their vital role in global missions." Read amazing stories about making an eternal difference, and find resources to help you if you are a health professional and want to make an eternal difference! Enjoy this inspirational and informative issue of AfriGO, and share with others! https://afrigo.org/issues/volume-8-4/
Danish missionary Andreas Riis arrived in Ghana in 1832 and survived, unlike 80 per cent of the European missionaries. After eight years with no converts, Riis convinced the Basel Missionary Society to allow him travel to Jamaica to seek missionary volunteers among the descendants of freed slaves. This was because one of the paramount chiefs, Omanhene of Akuapem, is supposed to have said, “If you could show us some Africans who could read the Bible, then we would surely follow you.”
Twenty-three Jamaicans (and one Antiguan) volunteered; all of them committed and respected Christians. One of them, Catherine Mulgrave, had been rescued from slavery.
At their commissioning service, they stated: “When we go to Africa, we go not to a foreign country. Africa is our country and our home. Our grandfathers and great-grandfathers were taken from there and brought here. We go there to witness the Grace of God ... and our only prayer is that the eyes of the Africans whom we regard as our brothers may be opened to see Jesus Christ as Saviour of the World.”
Read the rest of the story at www.afrigo.org/stories
Next week, the story of Catherine Mulgrave, stolen from Angola, rescued in Jamaica, missionary to Ghana!
Representational photo, mouth of the Volga River in 1890-1890, Creative Commons
Freshly launched missionaries, we were placed with a local family to observe their culture. The father spoke some English, and went out with my husband for awhile. The mother, who did not speak English, left me at home with her daughter, who also spoke no English, and I had none of the local language. Before she left, she obviously instructed the daughter to stay at home.
As soon as the mother left, the daughter began to go out, and, feeling responsible, I tried to prevent her from going. She adamantly insisted, and when she left the house, I followed her. She was unhappy about this and motioned to me "go back, go back!" but I persisted. Eventually, she came close, looked in my face, and then meaningfully squatted down. The poor girl needed to go relieve herself and I would not let her do so in private! I shamefacedly returned to the house, and she came back within a few minutes.
When the mother came home, the girl told her mother what had happened, and they about fell over laughing. Years later, I speak the language fluently, and that family and I still joke about my misunderstanding, whenever we meet!
-Kenyan missionary to South Sudan
After a week of important/sometimes heavy meeting with fellow AIM Southern Africa leadership I returned imagining and more excited to do His good will in Namibia and Angola. Please pray for major talks going on.
Met with old friends, possible recruits and my old boss from Mozambique. It was awesome.
Today, finished my forth and final Mtb marathon of the year and now on our way to the cold coast to work and rest while gazing at the sea.
Last week, we shared about how a Christian fruit seller from the Tangale people group managed to open a Muslim-dominated area in northern Nigeria to the Gospel when the foreign missionaries were forbidden from even entering the region.
Other areas of the Emirate were also closed, but Tangale evangelists found a way to pe*****te, simply by visiting family members who lived in the area! From there, the Gospel began to spread outwards, and five Tangale couples eventually volunteered to go to Hausaland, truly rocky soil for the Good News.
By 1940, the Tangale Church had one hundred self-supporting workers, and had also sent twenty foreign missionaries to Muslim and animistic groups in other parts of Nigeria. By 1963, more than a third of the missionaries of the Evangelical Missions Society (which now has 1600 missionaries) were Tangale. They truly grasped the missionary vision of our Father and carried it forward to the lost!
-from the book Transforming Africa’s Religious Landscapes, Chapter 16: SIM and the Tangale Factor in the Christianization of the Hausa of Northern Nigeria 1915-1976 by Reuben Goje Maiture.
Read a longer version of the story at www.afrigo.org/stories.
The white missionaries kept trying to pe*****te Gombe town, a Muslim enclave within the Gombe Emirate of northern Nigeria. There was seemingly no way to bring the Gospel to that totally unreached place until Karau Pane, a convert from the neighbouring Tangale people group who had been trained in evangelism and language teaching by SIM missionaries, found a way in.
A hard-working man, Karau Pane cultivated mangoes, oranges, bananas and guava trees. He brought his fruits to Gombe market to sell, and discovered a field ripe for evangelism.
His customers found him honest and compassionate, and before long he made contacts and engaged locals in debates and discussions about Jesus, even with the Muslim teachers. The Bagarmi people eventually asked him to come and live among them, and for many years he was a determined itinerant evangelist, even into Niger and the Chad republics.
Because of him, Tangale evangelists were able to begin work in Gombe Emirate and the Gospel began to pe*****te. Read the whole story on our stories page: www.afrigo.org/stories
From the book: Transforming Africa’s Religious Landscapes, Chapter 16: SIM and the Tangale Factor in the Christianization of the Hausa of Northern Nigera 1915-1976 by Reuben Goje Maiture
SIM West Africa - SIM Afrique de l'Ouest
Did you know that in the first part of this year 32 missionaries in northern Nigeria were killed or kidnapped? Trauma on the mission field takes on a whole new meaning in that context. There are also the "regular" traumas of cross-cultural work and spiritual warfare. This new issue addresses the fact that missionaries need support, and how to give it to them. The whole team has worked hard to bring it to you, and you can read it at www.afrigo.org/issues/volume-8-3/
Wow! What a few weeks. I will do a series of entries so as not to get too confused! Please follow along....
A friend/supporter came to visit and he said, "I want to see where God is working in Namibia...and i found He is working everywhere!". It is so true and exciting. Beginning with the first ever Namibia Missions Conference AIM hosted with SIM here in Windhoek and ending after another 3500km travel to and from Livingstone, Zambia.
Ending our day in Katima. Had a great time with a group of pastors and discussing how to fund miaaions/pastors and the situation in Katima Mulilu. Tomorrow on to Zambia for a quick peak at Vic Falls and then meet some new partners at Sons of Thunder Missions station.
Not what I had hope for but what God intended!
Such a encouraging time to those in ministry who came to the conference and heard Ray share his enthusiasm and passion for the gospel and Mobilizing the church for Gods mission.