AFCI World News

20th Year Graduation from Faith Institute in N. Africa

BY: Mufid Nagib, National Director

This year’s graduation, the twentieth, is the first after Faith Institute became accredited by Middle East Association of Theological Education (MEATE), last April. It is also the first graduation after the separation of the South. This time the number of students graduating was 14. It was a joyful occasion though the absence of our brothers and sisters from the South left its sad impression on us. Graduates families, church leaders and members joined us to celebrate this occasion.

One of the graduating students shared her testimony: “What stands as something special before me all the time is the love and care I found from the Faith’s staff. My life has experienced great transformation during these three years. Ministry for me before joining Faith was one of the most impossible things for me to take part in. I was so timid to talk to people. Through the outreach and different ministries I participated in my fears are broken and now I feel free to share my faith with others. Because of the culture in which I live, my understanding of the nature of Christ was distorted. The courses on doctrines helped me to solve many things I considered mysterious in the Christian faith.”

We are undertaking a massive project for reviewing, editing and improving the quality of our courses. This is a step forward towards upgrading to a Bachelor’s level in 2017. This includes adding application and reflection questions for each lesson. Some courses will be merged together and other new ones will be added. Jackson, a graduate of Faith who holds Master’s degree from Lebanon Baptist Seminary is in charge of this project. Pray for wisdom and inspiration as he reviews the courses and work on them. He and I meet for three hours weekly for consultation and follow up.

Reaching out in Rural Nigeria

BY: Samson Olushola, National Director

Moses and Felicia have a demanding ministry of visiting and sharing the Gospel with farmers.The farmers are working on the farm every morning and afternoon. In the evening, Moses and Felicia visit their homes to share Christ. Recently, over two evenings from 6 to 9, they visited 14 families, including the chief who lives on a large compound with 10 wives and many children.

Compound of the Chief

As a result of eating with the families of the village and showing their concern, the chief asked to be baptized with his entire family. Having heard that Christ shed his own life-blood to give us peace, love and a relationship with our Creator, the chief exclaimed, “He is worthy to be worshiped and adored.”

Tribute to the Memory of Mrs. Deborah Olushola

BY: Fred Amoah-Darko, Regional Director for Africa and the Middle East

On behalf of AFCI, I write this tribute to the memory of Mrs. Deborah Olushola to acknowledge some unique godly virtues that must serve as challenge to all of us.

Personally, I have known Deborah and her husband Samson, for the past seventeen years. In her partnership with her husband as servants of God with Ambassadors for Christ International Nigeria, my personal testimonial to her memory is:

“This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.” (Isa 66:2b, NIV).

Deborah gave her utmost to serve Her Savior and Lord with diligence, faithfulness, humility and reverence to God. She was a bulwark to her husband in ministry. The entire AFCI workers who have met and interacted with Deborah, as well as those of us who have visited Nigeria and received the warmth of her hospitality and partnership in ministry, treasure the virtues that Deborah allowed the Lord to develop in her.

I pray that Deborah Olushola’s life example of humble and faithful devotion to her Lord; her love and loyalty to her husband; her commitment to her children and family, continue as a shining example to all of us. At best, beloved, her memory can best be retained by each one if we commit to a daily life of godliness just as Deborah Olushola lived when she was here on earth.

The Ambassadors for Christ International worldwide family of Nationals in Ministry extends our heartfelt sympathy to our dear brother, Rev. Samson Olushola-AFCI Nigeria National Director, children, entire family and ministry team.

May the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, strengthen you by the Holy Spirit.

Deborah went to be with the Lord on Friday, March, 23, 2012.

Ethiopian Evangelism: Soccer Stadiums & House to House

BY: Shiferaw Feyissa

For two weeks we focused on two cities, reaching out using two evangelism methods. The two cities are called Dire Dawa and Harer located eastern part of Ethiopia about 600 km from the capital city of Addis Ababa. The total population in Dire Dawa is 400,000 and Harer 200,000.

Pre-Mission Program

Our outreach teams went to the two cities and were involved in personal evangelism for one month. They went door-to-door, handed out hand bills to others, and also practiced friendship and visitation evangelism. During one month of activities, the 12 outreach teams talked to more than 500 people each day. In one month they personally talked to at least 15,000 people and 2,675 people decided to accept Jesus as their personal savior for the first time.

The Event

The main event was preaching a Gospel message in the soccer stadium for three days running. In Dire Dawa, after my message on the first night, I invited people to respond and 73 people came to the Lord. During the three days program in Dire Dawa 241 people came to the Lord. In Harer another 234 people came to the Lord. In addition, the believers who attended were greatly encouraged and emboldened to continue sharing their faith with their neighbors.

Pastor Training in Woliso, Ethiopia

BY: Worku Mohammad

Pastor Shiferaw Feyissa focused on the book of Colossians and spoke on the greatness of Christ and His humble spirit to save the world. It was a serious challenge for most of us to think again and again about our Lord. Many of us overlook simply about how great and humble our is our Lord. We all recommitted our lives to servant leadership.

Pastor Birhanu Wolde Mariam focused on leadership of the church particularly the practical part of it and shared in detail his experience of being a pastor for over 20 years in the United States with the Ethiopian community.

My focus was the doctrine of evangelism, especially as we seek to reach out to those of other faiths, giving emphasis to personal and relational evangelism.

The total number of the participants was over 90. At the end of the training, certificates of completion were given and the delegates encouraged us to provide even more training opportunities.

Leadership Seminar in Ethiopia

BY: Shiferaw Feyissa, National Director

In January we held a leadership seminar in Wolisso. It is located western Ethiopia, 135 km from Addis Ababa. There were 110 church leaders attending the leadership summit.

Topics shared were vital to ongoing ability of these leaders to train others and reach out in greater ways with the Gospel.

Subjects covered were:

• Christian Leadership, by Pastor Berhanu Feleke
• The book of Colossians, by Pastor Shiferaw Feyissa
• How to share Christ with people from other religious backgrounds, by Brother Worku Haile Mariam

It was a time of learning from each other, reviving spirits, and awakening leaders to the potential they have to reach out in greater ways with the Gospel. The leaders came from 13 different denominations. What a joy is was to see such a diverse group of people willing to learn together and encourage each other.

New AFCI Team Member in Ethiopia

On January 18, 2012 the AFCI team in Ethiopia visited Kolfe Kale Heywet Church and took part in the dedication of Worku Haile-Mariam Mohammad to the ministry of AFCI Ethiopia. This is Worku’s home church.  AFCI Regional Director (Fred Amoah-Darko) delivered a message on commitment from Romans 12:1-2. To conclude the service, a number of pastors, elders, and evangelists gathered with the AFCI team to pray for Worku and his wife, Tiruwork Siefu.

Worku remarked to those attending, "I hope by the grace of God I will fulfill the AFCI vision worldwide as well as Ethiopia in particular." Worku has a wide experience in ministry, including teaching at the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology. He is a well respected church leader in Ethiopia.  Shiferaw Feyissa, National Director for Ethiopia, said, “Worku brings many gifts to the AFCI team that we need. We have known each other for many years and we have worked together in ministry from time to time.  I am excited to now be working more closely together. Worku will be part-time with AFCI at present, but we are confident that this will grow to be full-time in the future.”

Evangelism Festival in Ethiopia

In the first day of meetings the ground was full and an estimated 25,000 people attended. A local mass choir from several churches lead in worship. After the crowd gathered, Shiferaw Feyissa, National Director for Ethiopia, gave greetings to the crowd shouting with his big voice “Jesus!” several times. When the crowd respond with “Jesus” it looked like the ground was shaking.

After preaching, Shiferaw appealed for people to respond and many souls committed their life to Jesus. Shiferaw wrote, “Many of the people attending are involved in local religions and participate in witchcraft rituals while at the same time claiming to follow Jesus; sadly they are following in mixed belief system. Two things came to mind.  First, how Satan is cruel and wants people to suffer, and second, how southern Ethiopian traditional religions have led people astray. For those that responded, there was a group of trained counselors to help direct the new believers.”

Shiferaw goes on to write, “The first day of meetings had a full-size impact and it was big news in Dodolla area. In my observation and other witnesses for five days of meetings, more than 3000 people came to the Lord! We are full of praise at seeing God work in the lives of those who came.”

Multiplying Church Leaders in the DRC

BY: Paul Hanak

While visiting Congo with our Regional Director, Fred Amoah-Darko, both of us sat down for a conversation with Dr. Kadony (National Director for the DRC) and his wife, Cathy. What a rich experience we had listening to how God is using them in this vast nation. Dr. Kadony’s original home is in the eastern part of the nation, where there has been unrest and much bloodshed for many years. When the nations in this region of Africa were geographically divided by colonial powers from Europe, some of the tribes were split between nations. This is surely true in looking at the border between the DRC and Uganda.  This is where much of the fighting has taken place in recent years, and continues even today.

Even though the Kadony’s have been living in Lubumbashi (in the south of Congo) for many years, for three months every year, Dr. Kadony travels to the eastern part of the nation to work with pastors in an extensive training program. The need for theological and practical training is great, and God has prepared Dr. Kadony for this work in a wonderful way. With a PhD in International Relations, he works as a full professor at the university.  However, when he joined AFCI a few years ago, he went back to school to earn a theological degree so he could better minister to pastors across the country.

Now, he and Cathy have a vision to identify and train pastors in all 11 Provinces of Congo. They have started in one of the most needy Provinces, in the eastern part of the nation, and as we sat together we worked on a plan to have ongoing training conferences for pastors there in the next 3 years. The plan is to identify a few leaders and take them  systematically through training materials already developed and tested by AFCI over the past four years in Ghana, annother African nation with similar needs. While this plan unfolds in the future, Dr. Kadony will also be identifying pastors and leaders in other Provinces to develop a similar program for pastors there.

Focus on the Heart Training for Women in Ghana

For the past two years, Chris and Barbara Hanak (leaders of AFCI’s Focus on the Heart ministry) have been traveling to Ghana to work with Ruby Amoah-Darko in an intensive training of a few women leaders in the basic courses of Focus on the Heart. Now, after working through the basic courses in a small group context, the women in Ghana are qualified to teach these courses to others and can work to multiply the number of women being trained.

Having worked with two groups of women through several of the FOH courses, there are now 20 women who have completed the training. In the coming months some of these women will team up in pairs of two to form other groups and take the ministry to the next phase of development.

The impact of the training on the lives of women in Ghana has already been great. As one of the women attending the courses expressed, “I had no idea how being trained to listen and care for others would impact me and my ability to minister in my church. I now have a new understanding of what it means to help other women dealing with issues effecting their lives. The impact of these courses will be felt for a long time to come. It is exactly what the church in Ghana needs, and I pray God will use me to spread this knowledge.”