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"The task requires that we work collaboratively to maximize effectiveness. This means that churches and Christian ministries on both sides of the Atlantic must work in tandem. "
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BOB WALDRON, Executive Director
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Robert Moffatt, a missionary to South Africa, told David Livingston, "I will take you to a hilltop whence you can see the smoke from a thousand villages, in not one of which the gospel of Christ has been preached." Livingston’s heart was pierced and he committed his life to Africa.
Even today, much of Africa, from interior villages to Islamic north, has yet to be reached with the message of salvation in Christ.
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Five Strategic Steps
The task of reaching Africa’s "thousand villages" and numerous cities is a daunting enterprise unless we have faith in the one who promised "Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance" (Psalm 2:8).
The task requires that we work collaboratively to maximize effectiveness. This means that churches and Christian ministries on both sides of the Atlantic must work in tandem.
- Establish in Rwanda our center of operations for the continent of Africa. God has created a favorable environment in Rwanda for impacting the continent. His Excellency, Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda, looks favorably on Churches of Christ. The Lord has moved his government to grant legal recognition to Churches of Christ and to provide a select piece of property.
Missions Resource Network is opening its African offices in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital of 800,000 people. We will use this center to reach out to all of Africa.
- Place two American church-planting teams in Rwanda. The first team of three couples and a single woman, who grew up in Africa, will arrive on the field in 2008. The second team, comprised of veteran missionaries to Togo, will arrive in 2009. All other church-planting efforts in Rwanda will be initiated by Rwandan Christians.
- Enlist 100 Africans to plant churches across the continent by 2020. Because today there are as many members of Churches of Christ in Africa as there are in the United States, we can double the size of our missionary pool if we enlist Africans to serve as missionaries to unreached areas, including the Muslim north.
- Empower African churches to send and oversee them. Sam Shewmaker, MRN’s coordinator for African Church-Planting, and his wife, Nancy, will urge African congregations to become stewards of God’s mission for the African continent. It is time for African churches, on a broader scale than ever before, to send out and oversee a wave of African missionaries.
- Initiate Church Planting Movements in Rwanda and the rest of the continent, resulting in 1,000 churches and 30,000 believers by 2020. We envision establishing vital, reproducing churches in 20 strategic centers. These churches will plant additional congregations throughout the continent.
When Jesus’ disciples were faced with what seemed to be an impossible situation, they were told that success was possible only if they engaged in prayer (Mark 9:29). This bold, new strategy for reaching the entire continent of Africa warrants the same.
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