Before the onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic, ordinary life was already a struggle for millions across the continent of Africa. Although COVID-19 is yet to hit Africa in full force, inadequate health systems are expected to render nations defenseless against the virus. Meanwhile, these nations, which were already wrestling immense poverty, are now groaning under the economic impacts of attempts to curb the spread.
For the past 59 years, African Enterprise has been sharing the hope of Christ with the cities of Africa. In partnership with the local church, AE aims to reach every sphere of society with Christ’s love. Our team, based in 11 nations across the continent, is determined to demonstrate His love in the face of the current pandemic.
Believing that “the Gospel of Jesus Christ is needed now more than ever”, our team has developed a model of Home Based Evangelism which will continue despite current restrictions on public gatherings. The HBE strategy utilises television and radio broadcasts, along with home facilitators, to assist with follow-up of new believers.
In addition to our ongoing mission work, our national teams have developed tailor-made social action responses to the current crisis. These responses include basic food parcels for families who have lost their income due to government-sanctioned lockdowns, and the provision of hygiene and sanitation products to individuals at risk. Our teams are also providing community members with COVID education via pamphlets and radio broadcasts, and several of our vocational training centres have begun producing and distributing reusable face masks.
There remains much work to be done, however. This pandemic reminds us of our own mortality. May it also remind us to truly live, by laying down our lives for our neighbours, and for those who share our common humanity, across the globe.
Home Based Evangelism.
The year 2020 started with all our teams prayerfully preparing for their upcoming missions. As COVID-19 was spreading throughout the world, the African Enterprise Evangelistic Teams realised that a major shift needed to be made. We had to reconsider the way we have been running our missions and evangelism for the past 59 years. Home Based Evangelism came as an answer to our call.
Our International CEO Rev. Dr. Stephen Mbogo communicated in the midst of this crisis:
“The gospel of Jesus Christ is more needed than ever before. AE will not stop proclaiming the hope we have in Jesus Christ in Word and Deed. Rather, we are very committed to continue reaching homes using the digital space through a new model that we have developed known as Home Based Evangelism (HBE).”
In partnership with local churches, we will endeavor to continue with our main calling, to evangelise and disciple the cities of Africa in Word and Deed
Home Based Evangelism will be implemented through the following steps:
- Pray – In preparation for HBE, AE Team leaders will be steadfast in prayer. Getting together a HBE prayer team, producing a bulletin for the HBE outreach and organising a 24/7 prayer chain.
- Prepare – The mission field needs to be mapped and media platforms available needs to be identified. Engaging different partners and senior church leaders.
- Engage – HBE home facilitators and homes will need to be identified and equipped to host HBE outreach. This step will also involve mobilizing support for the needy, training beneficiaries on sanitation and COVID-19 and sharing HBE promotion clips and flyers.
- Broadcast – Our team leaders will be preparing and recording messages for HBE Outreach Day. The messages will then be shared with the HBE home facilitators. A live TV or radio broadcast will be recorded and then first shared with a small number of homes. If everything is in order, the message will be broadcasted on the specific HBE Outreach day.
- Reach Homes – Homes need to be equipped for HBE Outreach. Teams and HBE facilitators will have fellowship with our invitees and identify the social needs in their homes so that AE can respond to their need. The AE team will also make connect with local churches.
- Evangelise and Disciple – The AE team will be sharing an evangelistic message and then making an invitation to follow Jesus Christ. A decision card will be available to complete. New converts will be discipled by the sharing of follow up materials. The needy will be served through social action and the AE teams will ensure the new converts are connected to a local church where they can join small groups and fellowship.
Through HBE, we are planning to reach a total of 44,150 homes and 765,124 people across all our teams and their HBE mission activities.
Please pray with us:
- Pray for our Team Leaders and their teams as they prepare for HBE.
- Pray for the recording and broadcasting of the messages to go according as planned.
- Pray for our home facilitators who will play a vital role in the success of this mission.
- Pray for those that give their hearts to Jesus to be able to connect to a Church and continue and grow in their journey.
Here to Support.
The AE teams in Africa are working hard to continue with their planned missions for 2020 through Home Based Evangelism (HBE). They are trying to find creative ways to reach out in their communities and evangelise, facing challenges that we cannot always comprehend.
Poor internet connection (or none), limited access to devices and exceptionally expensive data are of the few issues our teams are currently dealing with. In addition to this there are poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, marital issues, limited health care and a shortage of food and hygiene supplies.
Our AE African Teams are planning online training and evangelism where possible and outdoor events as soon as restrictions are lifted. They are also exploring options of training and evangelism through television and radio broadcasting in able to reach more people.
As the AE Australasia team, we are steadfast in prayer for our African teams and have been increasing our social media presence to create more awareness of the situations our teams are facing in Africa, but also to bring you joy and thanks for supporting us. Your prayers and support have helped us to make an impact where needed.
This is what we have been up to:
Radio Broadcasts
Listen to our CEO, Ben Campbell talking to Vision and Rhema radio stations in regards to Aid & Development and Africa in Lock-down.
Vision (AUS)
Rhema (NZ)
Social Media
Follow us on Instagram (@africanenterpriseau) and Facebook (@aeaustralia) to read more about how your support is changing lives in Africa.
Have you seen our Facebook post about these African kids singing Father Abraham? It’s been viewed by 7.6K people already! Our most viewed post so far!
Also follow us on Instagram for updates and encouragement.
Whether you are supporting us through financial gifts, prayer or just by following us on social media, you are helping to make an impact. We are very grateful for your support.
Discipleship in the midst of a pandemic.
The Kenya Foxfires Youth Empowerment Program 2020 started off with great expectations and zeal. Before the COVID-19 epidemic, the team completed their induction training and then participated in the following:
- A mission in Kawangware, Nairobi with Open House Global Mission Church. The team conducted one on one evangelism, open air meetings and outreach to street children. In this mission, 301 people were reached with the Gospel with and 45 making commitment for Christ.
- Reaching the teens at Nairobi Chapel Karen on Sundays. They have so far reached 250 Teens with 4 giving their lives to Christ.
- The team has also participated in community work at Soweto Kayole Clinic that is run by AE in one of the slums in Nairobi.
- School and University ministry, the team has reached 2011 students with 123 committing their lives to Christ.
As in any other part of the world, the Foxfires 2020 has also been affected by the Covid-19. The team had to move back to their homes and schools and churches were closed by the government. This resulted in the team having to find ways to reach out and make a difference in their communities through online platforms.
“We maintain contact as a team via zoom every Wednesday to pray together, strategise for ministry, encourage each other and remind each other that God is still in control.”
Here are some examples of how the team is continuing with their discipleship:
Lydia, an intern in Eldoret is making a difference by reaching out to university students on Whatsapp. A lot of students are feeling anxious and Lydia reminds them that God is in control. She encourages them to do online courses to keep busy and she also spends time in prayer for these students.
“I am very excited that at such a time I am making a difference among my fellow youths. Let’s all make a difference wherever we are.”
Branden is wisely spending his time back in Kakamega by learning new skills online and spending more time with God. He also reaches out to his friends with a message of
“Have hope and be positive.”
Denis chooses to be a beacon of hope in his community of Thika where he lives with his mother. They own a shop and Denis has made it his mission to disciple to the customers.
“I credit the great efforts of the Foxfires Program into making me fearless in passing the message of hope to many.”
With this approach: Ministry from a Distance, God will still minister to his people through this team.
- Pray for the Foxfires, that they will keep the fire burning.
- Pray for their protection and safety in this period of time together with their families.
- Pray for provision of everything they need that their parents will lack nothing.
- Pray for the country of Kenya and the world as a whole.
- Pray for the youth. That they not fall but will anchor their hope and faith in Christ.
Human, not heroes.
As part of their response to the coronavirus pandemic, Ghana’s AE team will be providing food parcels to impoverished community members. The team has also chosen to reach out to another vulnerable group at this time: healthcare workers. Across the world, healthcare workers are risking their lives, and the lives of their family members, to continue to provide care in the face of COVID-19. In this broken world, healthcare workers are subject not only to physical illness, but also to the depths of mental anguish found within the human experience.
In a nation like Ghana, the challenges seem insurmountable. Annual healthcare spending is a mere $ 67 per capita in Ghana, compared to $ 5,332 in Australia (World Bank). With a healthcare system that falls short of meeting the basic needs of its citizens, Ghana is utterly ill-prepared for this pandemic, and its frontline healthcare staff absolutely vulnerable.
The team of AE Ghana, under the leadership of Bernard Sachie, will be donating medical supplies to the Kasoa Polyclinic, near Accra. The supplies, approved by Ghana’s Food and Drug Authority, will include gloves, liquid soap, face masks, alcohol-based sanitizer and disinfectant.
The team members who are authorised to deliver the supplies, will utilise their opportunity to encourage the clinic’s healthcare staff with the eternal hope found in Christ alone.
Health care workers, who serve to bring healing to this world, are heroic indeed. But they are not heroes. They are humans who desperately need our prayers and support, now more than ever.
Find out more about African Enterprise, its missions and its response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa via https://africanenterprise.com.au/stories/
Masked, but not silenced
A Kenyan response to the COVID-19 crisis
In Kenya, more than 80% of the working population are engaged in informal employment, and it is the livelihoods of these informal labourers that are devastated by COVID-19 related Public Health measures. Informal labourers face the impossible choice of staying home as advised by government, or going out in search of work, in order to feed their families.
In response to the pandemic, the Kenyan government has now gazetted regulations which include hefty fines and/or imprisonment for disregarding its directives. Short of a total lock-down across the nation, directives include the following:
“Users of public or private transport and public transport operators shall wear a proper mask that must cover the person’s mouth and nose and also maintain a physical distance of not less than one metre.” (Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 41, signed by Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe)
In response to this government directive, AE Kenya’s Mathare Women’s Project has resolved to make 5,000 reusable cloth facemasks for distribution in the community. The Project has identified skilled dressmakers, previously trained by the Mathare Women’s Project, who will manufacture the masks, and has sourced appropriate fabrics (with high filtration scores and good breathability) from a local supplier.
2,000 of these masks will be sold, providing a source of income to the dressmakers. The remaining 3,000 masks will be distributed to local community members who, due to the nature of their work, are unable to stay at home.
Recipients of the masks include police officers, security agents, small scale traders in informal settlements, commercial motorcycle riders (“bodaboda”) and public service vehicle drivers. The distribution is to be co-ordinated by the staff of AE’s Soweto Kayole Clinic, and will be in keeping with government regulations. Importantly, the mask distribution will involve education regarding COVID-19 and its prevention, and will place due emphasis on the principles of hand hygiene and social distancing. In the face of Kenya’s pandemic, AE will continue to reach out to communities with the love of Jesus, in both Word and Deed, knowing that no mask can silence the Gospel and its eternal hope for this nation.
