At African Enterprise Australasia, it is our great joy to work in partnership with supporters. Some of these have felt called to go the distance in long-term partnership with us. Diana Dow is one such woman.
Di has partnered with African Enterprise since 1978, first encountering AE with her husband Mal at an AE ministry speaking tour. As a teenager in England, she had heard speakers discuss the impacts on their lives in the East African Revival period. When a visit of one of those speakers, Ugandan Bishop Festo Kivengere was advertised in New Life newspaper, Di and Mal went to hear him in Melbourne. They also had a chance to meet AE Founder Michael Cassidy. There they were introduced to the mission and ministry of African Enterprise and have been supporters ever since, over the years inviting others to hear speakers and become supporters too.
Di and Mal are dynamic prayer warriors for AE. Throughout the 1990s, Michael Cassidy spoke of AE’s ‘behind the scenes’ work in South Africa during the Apartheid years and the call for 24/7 prayer. Di recalls being woken up at night in 1994, in the lead up to the South African elections, to pray that Apartheid would be abolished – and it was. She continues to pray for AE on a regular basis, as a part of her local church. Di also joined the Melbourne AE Prayer Group in the Addisons’ home in 2012.
In 2012, Di was able to participate in the AE 50th Anniversary Jubilee in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. She speaks joyfully of conversations with AE Team Leaders, including Michael Cassidy and Wilfred Mmari (AE Tanzania Team Leader). A particular joy was to share in the planting of 50 trees in recognition of the elders of AE, including Festo Kivengere. Before the Jubilee, as part of the PMB mission she participated in visits to hospitals, a medical clinic and Nichols Primary School. The School had been the site of ‘Bonginkosi’, the AE feeding program run during the Apartheid years of which the Dow’s had been supporters. She saw Zulu dancing and visited the Nelson Mandela Memorial just recently opened.
Journeying to Africa in 2014 as part of the Feminine Heart of Mission to Kenya and Rwanda further strengthened her partnership with AE, and her loving, servant-hearted devotion to Africa. A special joy was going to Gahini, where the East African Revival had begun.
With Mal, Di has been a vibrant part of our Victorian AE family. Since 2012, she has spoken in churches, to help spread the message of AE and to encourage support. Di mentioned that she can’t help but tell everyone she meets about AE because of holistic way we approach sharing Christ with Africa – through word and deed, in evangelism and aid and development, in pastor training and reconciliation.
“We love that AE is a partnership, with Africans determining their future, deciding on projects tailored to their needs and the privilege of supporting them by prayer and some finance. The calibre of the AE teams we have met gives us confidence in them and what they decide.”
We are so thankful for the support and prayer of Di and Mal and the faithful community of prayer supporters across the globe. We look forward to many more years of serving together alongside her and Mal!
If you would like to be involved in regularly praying for AE, please get in touch with us on (02) 9889 1799 or ae@aeint.org.
Di taking part in the tree planting project during the 2012 Jubilee