Many of the African Enterprise city-wide missions begin with a component called ‘Serve the City’, in which the mission teams undertake a project to clean or fix up a part of the city. This helps to demonstrate their commitment to the wellbeing of the people they will meet throughout the mission, but also provides some immediate opportunities for evangelism.
During the recent Love Nairobi mission in Kenya, a team from International Christian Centre Imara of 73 people went out to the Imara neighbourhood and cleaned up a ditch of about one kilometre.
As the street cleaning took place, some of the locals stared from afar, while some approached the missionaries and asked questions.
Kelvin’s story
A young man named Kelvin approached one of the evangelists who was cleaning. He asked him who the team was and what made them to come to their neighbourhood and volunteer to clean it up.
The evangelist told Kelvin a lot about Jesus, and that He is the reason which led all of the team, local and visiting evangelists, to participate in the cleaning. As the conversation went on, Kelvin didn’t take long: he willingly wanted to receive Christ as his Lord and Saviour!
Afterwards, Kelvin was interested to join the team in serving the city, but first he asked the evangelist if they could go to his friends and tell them about Christ. So, they marched to Kelvin’s friends! The evangelist shared another story about the mercy and the goodness of God, and 10 people received Christ immediately.
This really lit up Kelvin’s heart and he again asked the evangelist if they could go and meet more of his friends. Not far away, they found them playing drums beautifully. When Kelvin’s friends saw him, Kelvin asked if they could allow the man that accompanied him with to speak to them. Again, the evangelist spoke about Jesus, and again, the friends heard the gospel and asked to receive Christ!
After his friends accepted Jesus, Kevin then joined the team in serving the city and later on he gathered with the team for lunch.
Through Kelvin receiving Christ, 20 more came to the Kingdom. Kelvin has been welcomed into ICC Imaara where he will be discipled as a follower of Jesus.
Henry’s story
Alice is a Kenyan lady who worships at ICC Imara. She decided to participate in serving the city and as she was cleaning the streets of Imara, she kept on praying to God that she would get the chance to speak to someone about Jesus.
While carrying out her task, Alice spotted a man standing behind her and the man asked what was causing Alice to have such a big smile on her face. Alice took the opportunity to tell this man, named Henry, about Jesus.
As it turned out, Henry had previously become a Christian, but had undergone many struggles since then which left him in doubt if God really exists or not. He didn’t understand why God would allow him and his family to undergo such troubles. Henry had lost hope in life, and that day he was just walking in the streets of Imara not knowing where he would end up at.
Henry mentioned that he was a Kikuyu man, so Alice decided to win Henry’s trust by speaking to him in their native language while sharing the gospel of Christ. And after this conversation, Henry decided to receive Christ again and his heart was unloaded and he managed to smile like Alice.
Now Henry too is a new member at ICC Imara. Alice has agreed to keep on following up Henry and assist him to get a job.
During Serve the City, the team were able to reach 150 people, 42 of whom gave their lives to Christ, and the team were also able to give out about 1000 tracts to all that used the Imara Route. A team member shared, “By the time we were done with the cleaning up, we left the neighbourhood clean, and the people of Imara in joyful feeling.”
AE is delighted to provide you with an update on our recently completed Mombasa Mission in Kenya. Many of our missionaries were under the age of 25, and traveled hundreds of kilometers to join us. It warms our hearts to watch young people become inspired to share the gospel.
Due to the locals’ belief in witchcraft, our teams experienced a number of challenges. Many families have a connection to this destructive stronghold, and the local pastors joined us in praying for a divine breakthrough.
Despite this, our missionaries remained confident of winning souls to Christ. Mercy Njuru from Nairobi expressed her gratitude for the opportunity to join the mission. “We carry the love of Christ, and we know the Lord will help us reach as many people as possible,” she says.
Our teams were then given the opportunity to minister to prisoners at the Mombasa Remand Home as part of the Social Action Program. Prison Chaplains welcomed them to the Sunday service, which was attended by over 234 inmates.
Local leadership in outreach projects is also an important part of ministering to local communities. A dinner was held to educate officials from the county government, as well as business leaders and religious leaders, about the need for transformational leadership.
Radio broadcasting is another method used in Mombasa to reach out to people with the Gospel. Our missionaries were given the chance to participate in prime-time programming, allowing them to interact with and answer questions from listeners.
School ministry has always been an integral part of AE’s citywide mission. Discipling children in Christ ensures that our future is in safe hands. We had the incredible honour of being able to minister to over 60 schools, with 178 students receiving the gift of salvation!
Our team met a young man named Issa, who 15 years ago married a Muslim woman and renounced his faith. Since then, Issa has been estranged from his family. The team was able to remind him of the love of Jesus, and encouraged him to open his heart and renew his relationship with the Lord.
During their travels, the team discovered that the Mombasa Ferry branch of the Mombasa County Police Force is one of the busiest in the county. Despite their massive workload, they invited us to come in and speak, and 6 of them gave their hearts to the Lord!
We then moved on to The Ebenezer Worship Centre, which is built in a quarry and surrounded by drug addicts who spend their days in a cave directly below the church. They were invited in for a hot meal, and the team was able to feed 38 addicts – while also feeding them the Word of God.
Standing guard at Redeemed Gospel Church, a base for the Reach Mombasa Mission, Joshua Mwamburisays told us he would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God, than dwell in the tents of wickedness. “Young people get into drugs and substance abuse in this region,” he says. “Hiding in the Lord is the only safe haven.”
“I’m where I am thanks to His mercies and I’ll never stop serving him. I’m blessed for this opportunity to take care of the missioners in this centre. The daily interaction with them strengthens my faith and I’ll keep being a missioner in my own ways.”
This is just a small sample of the amazing work that AE is doing in Kenya thanks to your support! God is so wonderful, and we continue to see Him move ahead of us in the life-changing mission of seeing more people come to know Jesus.
AE is grateful to God for the progress we have witnessed in our Mathare Women Project and the Soweto Kayole Clinic. It’s incredible to see disadvantaged women given opportunities to sustain themselves, and to witness lives transformed through the provision of health care.
AE currently has 14 vulnerable women enrolled for skills training in dressmaking and design. The women will help make dresses, face masks, and reusable sanitary pads. The products will be given to schoolgirls in the Korogocho slums who come from disadvantaged homes.
27-year-old Florence Juma from Nairobi enrolled in the Mathare Women Project after completing her secondary studies. She was unable to continue with her education at the time because her parents couldn’t afford it and has since been working to support her family.
COVID-19 significantly impacted Kenya’s economy, which made employment opportunities scarce. However, this only fuelled Florence’s desire to learn a skill that would help her create a sustainable livelihood. But she had no means to pay for vocational training herself.
When Florence heard about the Mathare Women Project, she immediately sent in her application and was accepted. She is so excited about the opportunities that dressmaking and design will give her. After she finishes her training, she hopes to start her own business.
The Soweto Kayole Clinic has also aided in the management of the pandemic’s effects on the local community. Job losses and homelessness as a result of lost livelihoods have had a significant impact on the population. In addition to health care, families have also been provided with food parcels.
Last year, the clinic was able to help 26,241 people, and praise God, it didn’t have to close for Covid. In fact, the clinic was a big part of getting people to take care of their health and was able to give out face masks.
Victor Nyikuli is the Senior Nurse in Charge of Children’s Welfare and Antenatal Care at AEK’s Soweto Kayole Clinic. Every month, on average, fifty newborns are vaccinated at the clinic. These children are often malnourished, and Victor takes the time to teach their mothers about the significance of proper nutrition.
“I am very excited and happy for the opportunity to work at this facility,” says Victor. “I love to contribute to the positive transformation of lives through health services.”
A shortage of resources is one of the issues facing the Soweto Kayole Clinic. The facility, according to Victor, is in desperate need of improvements to guarantee that it is safe and patient-friendly for the community.
Without the help of our AE donors, none of this work would be possible. Please join us in praying, as we trust that God will provide the money we need to make renovations to the clinic.
Ministry Update – March 2022
Thanks to your ongoing support, our AE teams have enjoyed some wonderful success in our outreach programs across Africa. By the grace of God, our Togo farming project has begun, with participants preparing the land ready for seed planting. They are also being educated on the correct way to grow vegetables for sustainability.
In Kenya, the local church leaders are helping to train up missionaries to reach even more people with the good news of Jesus. The Foxfire program has also had great success, with high schools now participating in forums to expand and continue the harvest. One young student, Boaz, says that he ‘feels strengthened to keep pure and serve God and His people.’
Our sewing school in Malawi has seen many graduates become trained in tailoring and professional dressmaking. These skills enable people to generate an income to meet their basic needs, and some have even gone on to open their own businesses.
The Hope for Girls Project will also soon launch in Malawi, with the aim of providing essential re-useable sanitary products to young girls aged 10 and over. This will be incorporated into the needlework program to ensure the sustainability of the program.
AE Ethiopia continues integrating new believers from the Kotebe mission into the mainstream church. New believer Gelan Megersa says she was met by someone on the street who told her about Jesus. “I was convinced and became a believer, and have been attending discipleship classes for the past 3 months. I have seen such a transformation in my life.”
In Uganda, the Omoo Youth Skilling and Production Centre has been training young people to bake cakes, mandazi, samosas, chapatis and buns to sell to the local market. They were able to raise more than 200,000 Uganda Shillings (approximately AUD 73.74) through the sale of their products.
Once again, AE has been able to outreach successfully in South Africa. In partnership with other ministries, we have been able to bring food relief to those who continue to suffer from unemployment, the ravages of the pandemic and the aftermath of recent unrest.
One recipient said that she had been praying for God’s intervention after both her mother and sister succumbed to COVID leaving her with the responsibility of caring for her brothers, all of whom are unemployed. Her response to our outreach was, “I feel I have hope now.”
Your prayers and support are invaluable to AE, and we give thanks to God for enabling us to bring some relief and minister to communities in desperate need. Please continue to pray with us that those whose hearts are moved by the Holy Spirit may grow in their journey of faith and be a witness to others.
African Enterprise has continued to offer PTC training to pastors and Gospel ministers in Africa. This course which is offered both online and in person has remained a treasured program by many. It enables the Gospel ministers to acquire knowledge that would make them be more effective in ministry.
The students in Kenya continued with the online study in 2021. It was not possible to conduct the in person studies due to COVID-19 restrictions. There were 33 students that remained active by conducting studies on various course and benefiting from the program. The course has remained an important tool in their ministry and remain grateful to the sacrifice done by many in sponsoring the program. There are other 61 that enrolled but have not been very active. We have encouraged them to resume their studies in 2022.
We are resuming the in person trainings in 2022. As part of 60th anniversary, AE Kenya is conducting a citywide mission in Mombasa as from 2nd- 12th June 2022, the second largest city in Kenya. Over the last three years, AE Kenya has been reaching the city with the Gospel targeting different zones. Currently there have 51 students that have enrolled for the PTC course. This number may rise to almost 70 as there are more students interested in the course. We want 60 students as per our 60th anniversary. The incorporation of the PTC course to the citywide mission will greatly help in the mobilization of Churches that otherwise they could have not participated in the mission. There are students from Churches that are not part of the pastors’ fellowship but when they heard about the program they have enrolled and they have since joined the planning of the mission. The Churches will participate in the mission with clearer understanding of the Bible thus producing reliable evangelists during the mission. We can confidently report that the PTC is indeed helping to spread the Gospel in Africa. Our first course will be as from 4th- 9th April 2022.
We will continue to share more stories and testimonies from Kenya on this amazing program that is transforming lives.
“The Program has been of tremendous in helping on reaching out/sharing the gospel as it has helped me to study the scripture thus knowing it better. 
Throughout PTC I have gained the basics of bible interpretation, am able to dissect Scripture and preach the word contextually/accurately.
Through PTC I have been equipped in defending of the word, by Interpreting Scripture correctly am able to give an answer to some difficult bible related question/texts that the unbelievers misinterpret or are unable to decode.
I have grown as a believer In Christ reading the word is easier since my understanding is sharpened. I am truly grateful for the opportunity and more specifically to individuals who give directly to AE in support of PTC. We are forever grateful. I can’t wait to dig deeper into the course.” – Derrick Muriithi
We will continue to share more stories and testimonies from Kenya on this amazing program that is transforming lives.
African Enterprise supporter David Le Rossignol, first heard about us through a visiting speaker at his local church in Tasmania. It turned out that his father-in-law was also an avid AE supporter.
David’s own father was born in Port Elizabeth in South Africa, and his wife’s father was born in Kenya. This was another connection that sparked his interest in the work of AE.
David, his wife and their two daughters visited Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe in 1991. They travelled for four months, and their African adventure was the fulfillment of a life-long dream to visit this beautiful country.
David says he always looks forward to EA’s newsletters because they inspire him to be in ministry in his own community in Tasmania. “Just to follow what God is doing in His world is amazing!” he says. He also finds encouragement in listening to messages from AE founder, Michael Cassidy.
David’s grandfather is buried in the St John’s Methodist Cemetery in Port Elizabeth in South Africa, and David and his family are proud to honour their African heritage by continuing to support the transformational work of AE.
