Impetus. Faith and patriarchy in Africa. January to March 2019 APF Prayer and Newsletter. APF news from the UK and in Africa

Transcription

1 January to March 2019 APF Prayer and Newsletter Impetus. Faith and patriarchy in Africa ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: Rerouting the roots: Training in Africa Bringing valuable data to evitabu APF news from the UK and in Africa Enabling effective ministry in Africa

2 From the CEO Welcome to the first edition of Impetus. Impetus is our newlook quarterly journal. Besides a freshening up of the design, the biggest change is that the publication is no longer called News and Prayer. Whilst this was a perfectly adequate description in the marketing style of a well-known brand of quick-drying wood stain ( It does exactly what it says on the tin! ) it s probably fair to say this wasn t the most inspired name for a newsletter with prayer points and arguably lacked a sense of intentional progression. Rather than simply describing its function, I believe the word Impetus captures a sense of where the we feel APF is now at: a strong sense of momentum, progress and drive, led by what God is already doing in Africa in and though our many wonderful partners. As you read though this edition, please take time to join us in prayer. Prayer really is the impetus for all the vital work we re involved in across Africa. And we hope you re as excited as we are about the news and updates described within. As always, thank you so much for taking time to read and pray. We hugely appreciate your continued partnership with us in the gospel and enabling effective ministry in Africa. Dave 1

3 in the UK Church Visits Dave and Geoff are still taking bookings for speaking engagements to share the vision and work of APF in local churches. Dave s diary is already quite full in the first half of 2019 so please drop us a line if you would like to arrange a visit. Golf Day The annual APF golf day took place at Broome Park Golf Club in October. More than forty people took part and enjoyed some late autumn sunshine, great hospitality and a talk from APF supporter, Revd Rhodri Walters, Minister of St Peter s Baptist Church, Broadstairs. The event was won by a team of young golfers representing St Mary Bredin Church, Canterbury. Altogether, the golf day raised over 1500 for APF. Bikeathon On Sunday 18th November, Dave pedalled an exercise bike outside his local church for twelve hours! Starting at 7am and going through to 7pm, Dave was raising awareness of the value of a bicycle to rural African pastors. The bikeathon raised nearly 2,000 in sponsorship which will enable many pastors from rural communities in Africa buy a bike, a vital tool for their ministy. Fundraising for APF Could you organise a fundraising event or activity for APF in 2019? Whilst we wouldn t want to put you off taking part in a sponsored sky-dive, you needn t be an adrenaline junkie to support APF. Why not organise a coffee morning or a quiz night, set up a stall at your church fair, or take on a sponsored walk or bike ride? Please get in touch for more ideas and support in putting together a fantastic fundraiser. We ve got resources and literature available to help you promote APF in any way you d like. 2

4 Around Africa Jubilee Trees In Uganda, there is growing concern about deforestation and its impacts on soils, crops and rainfall. Around 80,000 hectares of forest are cleared annually, primarily for unsustainable charcoal and timber production. APF, partnering with Climate Stewards and the Baptist Union of Uganda, are helping churches turn the tide. Supported by APF, Revd Peter Mugabi, General Secretary of the Baptist Union of Uganda, is spear-heading new tree-planting projects in church plots while Climate Stewards are developing an online tool called CQuestr which calculates how much carbon each new Ugandan plantation will capture. help the churches to cover the costs of the tree planting. In addition, the plantations will provide income from sustainable timber or fruit, support local wildlife, prevent soil erosion and mitigate climate change. More to follow as the exciting Jubilee Tree project takes root Carbon captured by the trees (a process called sequestration) has a monetary value that will Ufafanezi wa Agano Jipya At long last, an order for the reprint of Ufafanezi wa Agano Jipya (our three-volume New Testiment commentary set in Swahili) has been placed. In partnership with SomaBiblia Tanzania, 1,000 complete sets are being printed in India. In addition to the new books being made available again in SomaBiblia s bookshops across Tanzania, APF partners Heavenlight Luoga, Timothy Saulo, Emmanuel Mhina and Amos Nkini will each receive stock to distribute locally to pastors, bible schools and theological seminaries. Rural pastor training A small grant was made to Atirir Bible School, Uganda, to enable Revd Francis Esomu to travel to remote Karamoja region and spend a week teaching Karamajong church leaders in Moroto during December. Bible and Bike Grants In the last part of 2018, APF made grants for local language Bibles in Malawi, Mozambique and Uganda. Bikes grants were also made to New Life Christian Church, Malawi and New Nation Church, South Sudan. 3

5 evitabu Thanks to a substantial donation, New Covenant Church International, which serves the Maasai people of Kenya and Tanzania, will receive 25 Android tablets for installing and running evitabu. User training will be provided when Dave visits Narok in Kenya in February. Anglican clergy from the Diocese of Kirinyaga who have Android phones or tablets were also given the opportunity to register as evitabu users during the discipleship training event in December. Daily Bread Solar Bakery In October, Geoff (Projects Manager) met stakeholders for the solar bread bakery project. The bakery has been registered as a Community Based Organisation, a steering committee appointed, and plans drawn up for the bakery building. When the building is completed, the solar oven can be moved to the site. Income from the bakery will be used to support a local bible school. Let There Be Light (Rwanda) Geoff Holder (Projects Manager) and Andrew North (Trustee for Rwanda/ Burundi/Eastern DRC) met with representatives from the Diocese of Kigeme in southern Rwanda, to finalise plans for a Let There Be Light solar project in pastors homes. Solar power will provide pastors from rural parishes with bright household lighting and extra income from phone charging micro-businesses. This exciting new solar project is receiveing funding from Maidenhead Malachi Trust. Victor Turikumwe Rwanda church closures Thank you to everyone who responded to our request for donations to support Victor Turikumwe s theological education. Victor has now been appointed to take over from Japhet as overseer of Église Évangélique de la Bonne Volonté network in Rwanda. Many Rwandan churches are struggling to meet the government s new regulations which govern church buildings, registration and leadership qualifications. Victor s theological degree is vital for this church network to continue to function legally. Senior Free Methodist pastor Revd Charles Munyamahoro is also planning a response to the church closures by offering a Diploma of Theology qualification to rural pastors. Under the new regulations, a pastor without at least a diploma qualification will no longer be able to lead their church and the church must close. In December, Charles received a grant from APF to travel to Uganda where he visited several universities to explore accreditation for the diploma course. 4

6 Rerouting the roots: Pastor training in Africa The statistics tell an uncomfortable story. Across the developing world, an estimated 3.2 million pastors are untrained or undertrained. In Africa, one study suggests that an incredible 90% of church leaders may never have received even one day of formal theological education. By far the fastest growing church group across the continent are independent African church networks. But these networks lack qualified theological teachers, bible schools and funding to resource pastor training. Even in Anglican and Catholic dioceses with established theological training programmes, resources are scarce. Nevertheless, since the 1960s an authentic African theology has emerged that has encouraged theological reflection in relationship to the cultural contexts in which African people live. Building on the platform created by great African theologians like John Mbiti, Mercy Oduyoye and Jesse Mugambi, African theology is enabling Africans to feel at home in their Christian faith. African theology is deeply practical and focused on justice for the poorest. It rejects a separation of spirituality and physicality commonplace in traditional Western culture. Rather than the wholesale rejection of Africa s rich cultural heritage, African theology is helping Africans to know Christ more abundantly within it. Since 1981, APF has been dedicated to improving access to training for African church leaders. In the past, APF Directors played a central teaching role in APF training conferences. Derek Blundell, Ralph Hanger and Ian Enticott were all known for their inspiring teaching ministries and are still remembered fondly by APF s longer standing partners. But the growth of authentic African theology, alongside the teaching ministries of former APF directors, has paved the way for APF s current approach - supporting pastor training programmes run entirely by our African partners. While our partners doing the training are all experienced Bible teachers, they can also speak with deep cultural and contextual insight. They understand intimately the issues facing remote African churches and rural communities. What s more, it s cost effective. Just 2,000, for example, has enabled Pastor Heavenlight Luoga to run seven workshop series across north-west Tanzania during

7 Spending four or five days with pastors and church leaders in each training venue, he s tackled a wide range of themes, from micro-business to hermeneutics, from family relationships to Christology. Heavenlight writes: I would like to thank all those who give to APF for supporting this teaching ministry in Tanzania. It has enabled me to reach hundreds of pastors in 2018 and help them to grow spiritually and understand many areas in the Bible. I dig day and night in reading and studying the Bible, commentaries and also other resources I have from evitabu. Some pastors arrived so discouraged because of hardship in their ministry and families matters, but through these teaching seminars they are revived and go back to continue with their ministry. After attending a four-day workshop in Ilgambe, a village in north-west Tanzania, Pastor Wilson Mshimo explained the impact of Heavenlight s training on his ministry, church and community: I was thinking to give up on Christian ministry. Times were hard. I wondered why God was allowing this. But the training from Pastor Luoga in my village has really helped me move forward. Now we pastors have changed because of the teaching. Now we are focusing on building the Kingdom of God, not our own as we used to. In our village there was another pastor who was feeling isolated and the church he was leading was struggling. We all came together to see how we could help him and encourage him. Now we are happy and rejoicing in the Lord. In Christianity and African Culture, Prof Jesse Mugambi says that when people of a particular culture accept the Christian faith, they are challenged to bring into being a community of believers (a local church) which is in tune with the needs of that situation. Through the dedicated work of Africa s pastors, this is happening across cities, towns and villages every day. By supporting training workshops run by our brilliant African partners like Heavenlight, APF is playing a very important part in this movement. While the roots of APF s historic training ministry remain as strong as ever, the route by which this happens is now firmly grounded in African soil. If you re able to support vital pastor training programmes like Heavenlight s, please label your donation to APF for pastor training. 6

8 Faith and patriarchy in Africa By Rose Mugabi Khalayi 7

9 The place of women in African religion is complex. In the past, a common African belief was that God created woman after making man because he wanted to improve on his art. He wanted to reflect beauty, intelligence, tenderness, compassion, patience and tolerance. The story goes that God had tried but failed miserably with man. All he had got were muscles, a bit of a brain and little else! Despite this, the reality is that men rule in Africa. Parity remains out of reach. In some cultures, women are considered the property of the men who father them or marry them. Boys are prioritised at school because sooner or later a girl will get married and no longer belong to the family. After a husband s death, some ethnic groups expect the wife to marry a brother-in-law to get children in the name of the former husband. In other areas, it is taboo for a woman to talk when men are having a conversation. When someone asks, Who is there? a woman answers, It is nobody, just me. Traditional customs are deep-rooted but African Christian women are leading the fight for parity with men. Women across Africa are asserting their equality in the gospel and churches are beginning to embrace the giftedness and contribution of women in leadership. Nevertheless, women still face major roadblocks to full involvement in church life. In many African churches, cultural male privilege is reinforced by misinterpreting scripture. Ignorance of the full context of passages like 1 Corinthians 14:34, 1 Timothy 2:11-15 and Ephesians 5:22 means thousands of churches claim that the Bible prohibits women from teaching and leadership roles. Women might be permitted to exercise their gifts in singing, children s work and serve in the kitchen, but public ministry like preaching is done solely by men. Women do most of the work but men do most of the leadership. Women are still marginalized when it comes to leadership. Men are not helping women to come up and embrace their leadership roles because women are looked at as threats. Juliet Nabwire Wabwire, Women leader at Ebenezer Ministries, Uganda Yet African women are transcending every social, political, economic and patriarchal barrier before them and are emerging as great leaders in the African church. 8

10 Faith and patriarchy in Africa Their personal journeys have not been easy, but they have been spurred on in the knowledge that Jesus s mission was genderinclusive and completely transformed the lives of women. For Jesus, there was no double standard, no exclusion and no limit placed on women s God-given calling. At Pastors Discipleship Network, my focus is on equipping, discipling and caring for women leaders. In partnership with APF and Next Leadership, we are organising a training event that will bring together 300 women leaders from across East Africa to develop their leadership, stewardship and accountability skills. This is an opportunity that will see them ready to effectively participate in ministry at both church and community level. Women need training to be able to perform their roles of leadership. There is so much ignorance about leadership and how it is done in many rural churches. In rural churches, women leaders who are married to non-believing husbands face a lot of hardship. Please join with me in prayer, asking that God would empower the ministry of women and men in full partnership. Pray that African women will no longer face unnecessary hurdles in the church and that male leaders would support women in leadership alongside them. Pray that scriptures covering the contribution of women in the church are interpreted accurately and in context. Pray that churches come to the realisation that limiting women just serves to limit the advancement of the gospel. And pray that women will support each other to unearth their giftings in leadership in the African church. Rose Mugabi is Women s Ministry Coordinator at Pastors Discipleship Network, Uganda. Over the last seven years, she has seen over 700 pastors wives and women leaders equipped with Biblical, business and life skills. Rose has two master s degrees including an MA in Global Leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary, California. Scovia Namusuubo, Women leader from Buvuma Islands, Uganda 9

11 (Continued) Women and land in rural Africa 1 Women farmers make up 3 Nearly 80% 2...of the workforce in Sub-Saharan Africa But men control most of the land. In Tanzania, the share of land owned by women is: 16% 60%...of land in rural Africa is held under customary tenure. Traditional rules often discriminate against women in inheritance, access and control over land. The 1988 Land Law Reform 4 guaranteed minimum representation to women in Uganda for key decision making. However, women chair just 4% of District Land Boards. Data from: landesa.org/resources/wlr-africa 10

12 Bringing data to evitabu The Yale professor and statistician W. Edwards Deming once famously said, In God we trust. All others must bring data. He probably meant this a little flippantly, but it s true that good data is really important when managing any project or initiative. Data comes in two main sorts. Quantitative data deals with numbers while qualitative data explores words. In the Bible, we find both. In Acts 2, Luke gives us some quantitative data around the numbers of people coming to faith. In 1 Kings 19, we re told that 7,000 Israelites remained faithful to God. But quantitative data only gets you so far. In Matthew 7, for example, Jesus makes it clear he s interested in depth of relationship, not just numbers. This is qualitative data, information about qualities, information that can t be so easily measured. and the most frequently downloaded resource from the whole of evitabu are African language Bible extracts. But analytics cannot tell us how pastors are using the resources they ve downloaded from evitabu, which resources they ve found most helpful, how evitabu has impacted their ministries or which new feature they d most like to see in the next update. To answer these sorts of questions, we need qualitative data. As church leaders use APF s evitabu to access the fantastic library of resources on the app, their activity automatically generates quantitative data covering things like the number of logs-in by each user and which resources are being downloaded. We call this sort of automatically generated data, analytics. The analytics tells us that since March there have been 19,671 individual content downloads Cham leading SWOT analysis workshop 11

13 We approached getting this sort of information in two ways. Firstly, Revd Dr Kate Coleman and Revd Cham Kaur-Mann from APF partner Next Leadership gathered together the two largest cohorts of pastors using evitabu for monitoring workshops. The pastors from the Baptist Union of Uganda (BUU) and Pastors Discipleship Network (PDN) met in Kampala, Uganda where Kate and Cham led them through detailed SWOT analysis to identify evitabu s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Mentoring sessions with individual pastors helped them set their own objectives so they could get more out of evitabu and use it to better support their own training and leadership objectives. Secondly, APF s Projects Manager, Geoff Holder, travelled the length and breadth of Uganda and Rwanda to discover how other pastors were making the most of the resources on evitabu in the field. Travelling with his brother, Jon - an amateur filmmaker and from September, a curate at Christ Church W4 in Turnham Green, London - they filmed in-depth interviews with church leaders who described the impact evitabu was already having on their ministries. In Morobi Refugee Camp, they discovered how Pastor Alex Sokiri, inspired by resources on evitabu from CPAS, had set up a camp football club for bored youths who had little to do and nowhere to go. At Atirir Bible School, the Principal, Revd Francis Esomu explained how theology books on evitabu provided by Regnum were helping him equip untrained pastors to read the Bible with deeper insight. In northern Rwanda, Victor Turikumwe explained how Tearfund s community development resources on evitabu were helping him run a community garden project and teach parents about good nutritional health. While data analytics and monitoring are great tools for understanding how things have been going and point us in the right direction, nothing beats a little prophetic insight! Please join us in praying that we would interpret all the data we ve gathered with wisdom and hear God s Spirit clearly as we trust in him for the development of evitabu. Please pray for APF as we prepare to release evitabu much more widely so many more church leaders can benefit. Geoff, Harriet and Alex in Morobi Camp 12

14 APF Dates 6th January Dave speaking at Christ Church, Stone, Staffordshire 13th January Dave speaking at Grow Church, Ashford, Kent 27th January Dave speaking at Canterbury Baptist Church, Kent 5th February Dave speaking at CAMEO, Canterbury Baptist Church, Kent 10th February Dave speaking at Green Street Baptist Church, Gillingham, Kent w/c 11th February Dave travels to Africa until mid-march 31st March Dave speaking at Woodbridge Quay Church, Suffolk Invite APF to your church Why not invite one of us to visit your church to speak during a Sunday service or at a group or event? Dates are now being booked for Dave, Geoff or an APF Champion to speak at churches and community groups in Give us a call on or admin@africanpastors.org if you would like to enquire about booking an APF speaker. 13

15 Prayer Points January 2019 to March 2019 During the first quarter of 2019 we will be using the Lord s Prayer as a rough framework on which to develop prayers for APF and our African partners. 30th December to 5th January Our Father At the beginning of a New Year we give thanks for APF being united with a global and historic Christian family and the growing reputation APF has with mission and development agencies, and with church denominations locally and overseas. having long-standing friends and partners in East Africa, some of whom, like Lloyd Chizenga in Malawi, date back for decades. support from individuals and churches in UK and beyond. APF could not continue without your generous giving and faithful prayer. Please also pray for wisdom around the appointment of an Administrator. Pray for Geoff who continues to coordinate both the charity s UK administration and manage a growing number of projects in Africa. 6th to 12th January Hallowed be your name As we look forward to the New Year we also look back and affirm our belief that God has called APF and set us apart for a specific work Give thanks for all who have benefited from APF s ministry since Rev Derek Blundell established the charity in The reputation, reach and impact of APF has been significant. Please pray for the major scaling-up of evitabu across the region and new project Jubilee Trees that will support pastors through tree planting in Uganda. Please pray that a sense of God s grace and beauty will inspire the work of our hands day to day in the APF team and office. Pray for Michelle Anderson and Dave Stedman, managing finances and providing strategic leadership to APF respectively. 14

16 13th to 19th January Your Kingdom come God s Kingdom is expressed through APF s partners preaching and teaching ministry Give thanks that more than 20 in-service training conferences were delivered across eight nations during Please pray that funding will be found to increase this in Give thanks that more than 2,000 local language Bibles were purchased and distributed across the region in Please pray that this valuable ministry continues to thrive. Give thanks that APF s Swahili New Testament commentary set, Ufafanezi wa Agano Jipya, is being reprinted. Please pray for APF partners involved in the distribution. Give thanks for the launch of evitabu. Please pray for the on-going development of the app and that access to it can be scaled-up so church leaders from across Africa can benefit. 20th to 26th January Your Kingdom come God s Kingdom is also expressed through APF s partners community development ministries Give thanks for Joseph Thiga who has taken Tearfund material from evitabu and pioneered agricultural education at Iliksin Primary School, Nyeri in Kenya. Give thanks for Victor Turikumwe who has used various resources from evitabu to encourage leaders and has introduced a home garden at Jenda Children s School, Rwanda. Give thanks that a grant made it possible to provide New Covenant Church International with 25 tablets for running evitabu and pray the app would support community development across Masaailand. Give thanks for a new Let There Be Light project being established in partnership with Kigeme Diocese, Rwanda with funding from the Maidenhead Malachi Trust. 27th January to 2nd February Your will be done Fellowship implies mutual exchange and edification. APF seeks to provide opportunities for the African church to enrich and teach the global church Give thanks for the opportunity provided by evitabu to be a platform for the publication of African biblical and theological resources. Give thanks for partners such as Revd Dr Richmond Wandera, founder of Pastors Discipleship Network based in Uganda but working across East Africa and with significant influence outside the region. Please pray for the continuing conversations, such as with Oasis International, the US publisher of the Africa Study Bible, for clarity as to how to work collaboratively to meet our shared objectives. Please pray the conversation with Angus Creighton at SPCK and Prof Jesse Mugambi in Nairobi around the need for modern African language Bible translations and commentaries. 15

17 3rd to 9th February Your will be done It is impossible to move around Africa for very long without becoming aware of displaced people, governance issues and widespread poverty. Please pray for: Pastor Alex Sokiri, founder of New Nation Church in South Sudan, currently displaced and serving some of the one million refugees living in camps in northern Uganda. Pastor Heavenlight Luoga and other APF partners reaching out to deliver servant leadership, agricultural and income generation training for Burundian refugees in Rwanda and Tanzania. The many churches in Rwanda that remain closed as they try to comply with government legislation which covers official registration, building conditions and accredited leadership qualifications. Influential African Christian leaders, seeking to balance ministerial duties and good governance with delivering legal, financial and urgent pastoral need. 10th to 16th February Give us today our daily bread Rural communities in sub-saharan Africa are among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and food insecurity Please pray for the local implementation team for the Daily Bread solar bakery in Teso sub-region, Uganda. The project will provide employment for local women and a sustainable income for Atirir Bible School. Give thanks for the success of Let There Be Light in Morogoro Diocese, Tanzania, where most beneficiaries have repaid the cost of installation and the project is multiplying. Give thanks that the first cohort participating in Growing Greener in Malawi have completed the three-year training and implementation programme. Growing Greener has seen yields increase in some communities by 200%. Please pray that committed local leaders are able to continue to support their communities. 17th to 23rd February Give us today our daily bread The core constituency that APF aims to reach through our partners are leaders serving in the most marginalised communities with least access to resources Give thanks that APF was able to provide many bicycle grants during A bike provides more than transportation for a rural pastor and supports financial and social mobility. Give thanks that APF is sometimes able to respond to urgent medical costs or other pastoral need. Please pray for more resources so we can respond to more of the urgent requests we receive. Please pray for the family of the late Elebu Moses from Teso sub-region, Uganda and especially for his son, Isaac, being helped to complete his teacher training degree in Soroti by APF supporters. Please pray for Bishop Rutherford Banda, founder of Africa Hope in Malawi who lost his wife Tsahai suddenly earlier this year. 16

18 24th February to 2nd March Forgive us and keep us Dave will be travelling in Africa during the second half of February and early March Give thanks for the hospitality of African partners. Whilst APF visits are always welcome, we are very aware of the additional work they can cause for already overstretched leaders. Please pray for Dave as he speaks at Baptist Union of Uganda North East Regional Conference, alongside Revd Dr Kate Coleman from Next Leadership. Please pray for Dave as he visits remote Karamoja with CMS missionary Martin Hayter and meets with Revd David Kereto in Masaailand. Dave will deliver training to 25 evitabu users from New Covenant Church International in Kenya. Please pray for plans to take a small team of serving UK clergy to Africa in the summer and for the next major APF visit in the autumn. 3rd to 9th March Forgive us and keep us This week we acknowledge our individual and collective shortcomings and declare our dependence on God Please pray that APF will consistently model the kind of transparent accountability and good governance we seek in African partners. Please pray that the Lord will cover our personal, organisational and cultural mistakes, granting wisdom to APF staff especially when engaging with African partners. Give thanks that the Lord has kept APF through many years, especially providing fresh vision, personnel and a more secure financial footing in recent years. Give thanks that despite limited resources, APF s reach and reputation is substantial and growing, especially through evitabu. 10th to 16th March Deliver us from evil An awareness of spiritual forces and a sense of connection to the ancestors is a feature of African spirituality which continues to exercise influence. Please pray For influential African leaders to speak with integrity into complex situations such as domestic abuse, bridal inheritance and early marriage with deep cultural insight. For leaders, such as Daniel Odour Gwara in west Kenya, who ministers to a network of churches that practise polygamy as a prerequisite to Christian leadership. That the grip of traditional beliefs in rural and urban contexts is countered by a holistic and authentically African expression of Christian faith. That the many self-styled prophets and prosperity preachers who manipulate the vulnerable might use their undoubted talents for the Kingdom, not to aggrandise or enrich themselves. 17

19 17th to 23th March Yours is the power APF is committed to contextualised ministry, we pray for some of the local leaders who are emerging as key APF partners. Give thanks for: Walubo Jude Tadeo and Ivy Kabagambe, both based in Kampala, who have helped with the coordination and management of major evitabu conferences this year. Rose Muhumuza who recently had her first child but who helped organise transport and accommodation arrangements for Geoff s recent visit to Rwanda. Revd Peter Mugabi (BUU General Secretary) and Mrs Rose Mugabi (PDN Women s Ministry Coordinator) who travelled to Nairobi last November to represent Dave and APF at a strategic meeting hosted by Tearfund. Revd Charles Munyamahoro (Free Methodist Church, Rwanda), Bishop Edward Amwayi (Grace Calvary Christian Ministry, Kenya) responsible for annual in-service training budgets for equipping grassroots pastors. 24th to 30th March Yours is the power We conclude this quarter with prayers for other significant APF partners not previously mentioned, remembering we have a God who is able to do more than we can ask or even imagine! Give thanks for our growing relationship with UK-based agencies such as Biblical Frameworks, Christian Aid, Climate Stewards, Next Leadership, OM Special Projects and Tearfund. Please pray for opportunities to re-establish the partnership with Revd Bertin and Esther Mwanga, Directors of the Congo Pastors Fellowship in DRC. Please pray for Revd Silas Ntukamazina, Legal Representative of the Union of Baptist Churches in Burundi. Please pray for Revd Joseph and Mrs Mary Kirinya, from the Kirinyaga Diocese in Kenya as we follow up on Dave s visit to speak at their clergy conference last December. 18

20 The vision of APF is to enable African Christian leaders, of all denominations, to minister effectively in thriving local churches that serve flourishing communities. Giving to APF If you would like to donate to APF, please visit /donate where you can make a one-off gift or set up a regular donation. Alternatively, post a cheque to our address or use one of the services below: Text APFG30 to to make a mobile donation (Donate 1 to cover the print and postage costs for News and Prayer) African Pastors Fellowship Station House, Station Approach, Adisham, Canterbury CT3 3JE Tel admin@africanpastors.org UK Registered Charity Number African Pastors Fellowship is a member of: