The best way to be useful in the world, it s to be touched in our heart by the social environment that presents around us and seek to solve it. (By Rev. OUATTARA Koffi Tehua). SERVE THE CITY - ABIDJAN "While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, He was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols". Act 5:16 p.m. Vision See Abidjan become a clean city. Mission Gather the churches and mobilize leaders to take care of the city. Why this project? The Ivory Coast has early been very open in missionary work before his accession to national and international sovereignty intervened in 1960. Western missions were present to evangelize the country and install churches. The need to unite efforts for greater efficiency in the work has often led missions and denominations to work together. Today the country celebrates 50 years of evangelical presence. 50 years of work to earn the country to Christ at all levels. Despite the great effort in the field of evangelism, training and education, communication, publishing of agriculture through the construction of schools, health centers, Bible Institutes; much remains to be done. With a population estimated at 20,579,429 inhabitants, Ivory Coast is overflowed with 38% of Muslims, 22% of Catholics, 17% pagans and only 5.5% of evangelical missions are just under three million Christians with a weak presence of evangelical executives in different fields of activities and their influence is almost 1
insignificant in the national economy. The church must be God's instrument for transforming the nation. It must focus on holistic ministry for the nation's total change. In view of the foregoing, there is a lot of effort to win over the maximum of souls to Christ. Indeed, God has entrusted the management of the garden to Adam and Eve and he asked them to take care and cultivate it. Today God gives us the nation. He asks us to reflect its values to influence the whole society according to His ways. We cannot do this by staying away from people's lives and their everyday concerns. As the Lord Jesus Christ, we must have compassion for them and feel the problems as he did when he lived on earth in the image of the Apostle Paul in Athens: The Bible says: "While Paul was waiting in Athens, his spirit was deeply shocked at the sight of this city full of idols" Act17: 16. He pledged to announce the good news to change the city by the word of God. Today God puts in our hearts those desires and feelings and asks us to look with compassion on our society in order to feel as he would himself and commit ourselves to its transformation. When we look at Abidjan, we are struck by debris, piles of rubbish littering the intersections and public places. We are outraged by the food sold in the open air without any hygienic precautions. We are surprised to see the food sold along the streets without being protected. We are surprised to see plastics, paper thrown around in public areas, in the street. What constitutes a threat to public health. Despite government efforts, the situation continues and seems to be a cultural fact. The Head of State himself raised this problem and called upon 2
Ivorians to more responsibilities. In the mind of many, people seem indifferent to things that belong to public service. This view of things must change. We should all be concerned about our environment and contribute to its improvement. We feel challenged by the state of the city, which is why we are committed to take action to raise public awareness and support government efforts. Strategies 1)- 1 out of 10 churches identified to participate in the project 1 - Church of Pentecost 2 - Assembly of God 3 - Church of Revival 4-CMA Church 5-Church UEESO 6-Missionary Baptist Church 7-Evangelical Baptist Church 8-Alliance of Evangelical Churches of Cote d'ivoire 9 - Evangelical Foundation of Côte d'ivoire 10-Apostolic Church of Cote d'ivoire 2)-Establishing a team of 7 people for the Coordination -Project Coordinator: Pastor Kofi Ouattara Tehua -Assistant Coordinator: Yacouba Diawara - In charge of relations with women: Ms. Theresa Koffi, leader of women evangelical Association Treasurer: Mrs Edith Pitté - In charge of relationship with local councils: Rev. Hubert ATSE In charge of embassies. Kouassi Mathieu - Training Officer: Kouassi Sahuri 3
3) - A team of prayer and intercession is gathered every Tuesday and Saturday to pray for the success of the project (5 persons 2 men and 3 women). 4) - Collaboration with civil society, government, town halls, embassies, international organizations, associations of youths and women in the churches. The impact of the seven pillars 1)-Church. This is an opportunity in this project where churches will be united and work together to meet the needs of all people: It will open the eyes of the church on a project in which the church has not yet thought and experimented. This is an opportunity to highlight the concept of Christian service. Provide an opportunity for the church to play its role as salt and light of the world. 2) - The Family Allowing each member of the family to devote time to take care of the house. Organizing work at home so that everyone has a role to play in the cleaning of housework. The family members will develop the concept of service and cleanliness within the family. 3) - Media We have a Gospel radio including the Director, Evangelist Dieudonne Ngumbi. He is a friend. We have already his support for the mobilization and sensitization of the population and Christians. We have an evangelical association of journalists whose President is responsible for communication of Breakthrough Partners. I am the 4
National Coordinator. It conducts national television broadcasts. We will have on live interviews related to the media coverage of the event. We are thinking of setting up a newspaper to raise awareness. Organize the volunteering day on the air on national television. 4) - Arts and Entertainment. We have an association of Christian singers to whom we requested to organize concerts and shows. We are looking for ways, if needs be, to set to music in order to raise awareness of the whole population by the day. 5) - Education For this project, we will focus on civics and morality. Civics should be taught so that the public affairs be respected. We wrote to the Minister of Education so that awareness be done in our churches. Working to include the concept of service and volunteering in the school curriculum. 6)- Economics -Involving businesses are often the basis of the pollution of the city. -Seeking to reward those who will distinguish themselves by their efforts. 7)- The Government. What really intends to reinforce the government's actions. Working closely in particular with the Ministries of Health, Communication, Education, Youth, Religious etc. Activities - Training 100 people by reason of two by church - Organizing an awareness campaign at the level of government, private institutions, NGOs and the public, schools and the media. - Developing training of trainers so as to make them capable of 5
forming a good deal of people - Organizing a day to clean public places (hospital, build a school, markets, national institutions, market and streets etc.. - Organizing a national day of cleanliness at the national level - Establishing a national award for cleanliness. Some blockages and how to overcome them - The main challenges are on two levels: Firstly, at the level of the church. Some churches that we have met with are not enthusiastic. They are reluctant concerning their participation. Therefore, we chose churches with which we are accustomed to working. We hope with time they will join us. Secondly, there are some difficulties that are bound to the local authorities. Some want us to review our vision to make their campaigns in at their townships. The third level of difficulty is at the level of financial resources. Normally, such a programme should be supported financially by the authorities, but they will say it is not budgeted. Even if all the authorities we will not assist us some will certainly do! Thus, we diversify our sources of funding. There are volunteers who come from churches. All will not be animated by the desire to serve voluntarily. They will ask for money or for their transport or for the work done. There are also misunderstandings to be managed. In sum, we believe that providing training from the beginning, we can all avoid or minimize their effects. Therefore a good communication policy will be welcome. We think. What are the sources of funding? 6
- The Churches - Authorities - Embassies - Partners - Institutions - Government - Companies The measurable results - There are effective engagement of religious leaders, authorities; the entire population will be noticeable. - Awareness of the population will result in behavioral change. Food is protected before being sold. The papers are no longer dumped in the streets but in dustbins designed for that purpose. How to build bridges to bring together rich and poor, Protestant and Catholic We have a lot of knowledge among Catholic leaders. We intend to invite to preside over ceremonies. And give them the opportunity to kick off by taking a mop or a pick to lead by example. We will notify them and request their participation. Assuming that all are equal before God, I will invite the rich and poor during these occasions to humble themselves before God to be together and serve the cause of the Lord. Impact Project It is understood that organizing such an activity one time cannot make an impact but the Bible exhorts us not to neglect the weak beginnings. We will focus each year for 10 years until all the nation will be changed and transformed. 7
Partners: -Koffi-Ouattara Tehua - John Quam -Christel-Lamere Ngnambi - Breakthrough Partners - The Federation of Evangelical -The Embassy of USA-Abidjan. -The Government -The Mayor of the City - Christian Radio - National TV Stages of Evaluation - The team will meet weekly to review progress. We'll start with the mobilization of churches. This team will coordinate all activities till the end. We will appoint delegates in each church who will make every cult an opportunity of sensitization. -At the end of the activities we will stay in contact to plan the following projects. We will organize an evaluation seminar with participants to take stock. Project start and project end. The project really began in early September and will end in February 2011. Before the end of the year we will plan activities for 2011. The Gospel of Jesus Christ During the training we will teach the principles of evangelism to the 100 delegates to get them at work to evangelize. We will print Bible verses on paper advertisements. Jesus said: "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work" Jean4: 34 8
God has given us a task to publicize it and bring men to Him through everything we do. We believe this project will help to save souls through our presence in the world. 9