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Monthly Archives

July 2024

Around Africa

By Liberia, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia

News from Liberia, South Sudan, Rwanda, Zambia, Uganda and Tanzania.

Liberia

Revd Aberdeen Gargli (on left in photo above), Principal of the Evangelical Theological College of Liberia and Revd Clinton Gbawah, Legal Representative of the Evangelical Church Network of Liberia, met to talk about eVitabu at the college in Monrovia. The two men have been connected through their shared links with APF and eVitabu.

South Sudan

APF partner in South Sudan, Saints Revival Committee, distributed Bibles to pastors from over twenty denominations in rural Aweil South County with support from an APF local language Bible grant.

Tanzania

10Giving contacted APF recently wondering if we could help them distribute spare copies of the brilliant children’s book The True King by Nancy Guthrie and Jenny Brake. APF partners Love and Care for the Child Ministries, Faith Babies Home and Walubu Jude were able to distribute hundreds of copies to children in central Uganda. The book, written for children aged 3 to 7, is beautifully illustrated and introduces children to the big story of the Bible — the story of the True King who rules over his people in perfect goodness and a kingdom that will last forever.

Zambia

Bike grants were received by eight pastors in Zambia. Also, Lawson Limao from Word of God ministries received a grant to install solar lighting in the homes of pastors without access to electricity.

Uganda

Revd Esomu Francis (in pink shirt)is pictured here with local pastors from Karamoja Region in northern Uganda. Francis is the founder and principal of Atirir Bible School in Teso Region. APF supports ABS trains pastors and church leaders in theology to certificate level, and also helps Francis travel to remote regions to run workshops with untrained rural leaders. Francis told us:

“These native pastors are an active and vibrant part of the ministry in Abim and Otuke Districts of Karamoja. They are pastoring rural churches, doing extensive evangelism outreach into unreached areas and planting churches to expand the Kingdom of God. Since these church leaders make their living through farming, many struggle to meet the financial needs of their families, theological education for themselves and fees for their children. Ministry travel expenses and food are also challenging factors.”

Kenya

While Dave was in Kenya in April, he was invited to talk about eVitabu and Digital Theology at the Baptist Convention of Kenya’s general assembly. This is the denomination’s largest annual gathering where around 2,000 Baptist Christians come together.

July 1, 2024
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July 2024 newsletter

By Impetus

July 2024 Impetus.

Welcome to Impetus.

At the time of writing I am taking a break from checking through the footnotes of my final dissertation for the Masters in Digital Theology I commenced a little over two years ago. The title of my research project is ‘The Smart Pastor’ and it is an in-depth exploration of the training needs and opportunities for church leaders in Africa in our digital age.

I want to take this moment to publicly thank the trustees of APF for allowing me the chance to study. I realise this debt of gratitude places me in a similar category to the thousands of African pastors who benefit from access to training, resources and encouragement through the ministry of APF.

To celebrate the completion of my course I am inviting APF supporters to participate in an online digital theology taster session later in the year. This will be similar in content to the sessions I have presented in Africa over the past two years. Details of when these will take place will be published in the next edition of Impetus, but it would be helpful to get an indication of interest, so please drop me an email if you think this might be something you would like to join.

In the meantime, I hope you find the articles and updates in this edition of Impetus inspiring and informative. Thank you, as ever, for your prayers and financial support as APF works to enable effective ministry in Africa through our dedicated training partners.

In Christ,


Revd Dave Stedman
CEO

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July 1, 2024
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Let this Work Continue

By Farming, Training, Zambia

Lawson Limao from Word of God Ministries in Zambia has been supported by APF and Operation Agri to train rural communities to make compost. In the midst of Zambia’s cost-of-living crisis, he explains why something as simple as compost is so essential.

You are what you eat

Today, Zambia is in real crisis. The cost-of-living crisis is affecting so many people and dragging the majority down. Perhaps its biggest impact is on our diets. Low salaries and insecure incomes mean most just eat what they can, regardless of whether the food is good, healthy and wholesome. Afterall, you are what you eat.

Commercial farms run by big businesses try and keep the markets supplied but their use of commercial, genetically modified and infertile seed varieties relies on huge amounts of chemical fertiliser. These crops might be fast growing but large-scale industrial farming is leading to deforestation, soil erosion, and land and water pollution. It is pushing small-scale farmers off their land. It is also expensive. To maintain yields, more and more chemical fertiliser is needed but the cost of fertiliser is going up all the time.

Smallholders and fertilisers

You might think that the high food price is good news for poor small-holder farmers in Zambia who would benefit from a better price for their crops, but that is not really the case. Poor farmers still sell most of their crops at harvest when prices are lower to payback debts built up from buying farm inputs like fertiliser and seed, or to pay their children’s school fees. While they sell their crops at harvest when the price is lower, they buy food to feed their family throughout the year, even when the price is high.

While large commercial farms can access government support to buy chemical fertiliser at subsidised prices through schemes like the Farmers Input Support Program, most farmers live on small family farms of just a few hectares and simply cannot access the schemes. The majority of these farmers are also women, and they are hugely disadvantaged. It is a big political issue.

For many years now, people have been taught that the only way to get a successful crop is through using chemical fertiliser, so they spend more and more on it each year. As the soil structure breaks down, they need more fertiliser to produce a crop, so the problem simply gets worse. This pushes prices up and means the percentage of their income a family uses to buy food becomes an even greater part of the overall.

Organic fertiliser project

This is why the project we have been running with support from APF and Operation Agri is so important. We are running the project in Petauke District, in the area overseen by the Nyampende chief. This is in Zambia’s Eastern Province, not far from the Mozambique border, and it is an area heavily dependent on agriculture. Like much of Zambia, maize in the main crop here.

We started by working with local leaders and together we identified 400 farmers to be part of the project. Village headmen and headwomen, the local churches and agronomists were all consulted, and the farmers gathered for training.

We began by taking about the needs of the soil and the crops. We shared stories and people were all in agreement about how worried they were about the future.
How could they continue when the cost of inputs was making their lives so hard? How could they afford school fees, animals or food? Many were cutting down trees and selling charcoal so they could afford to buy chemical fertiliser.

We then taught about how to make different types of organic fertilisers such as thermal compost and organic liquid feeds. Thermal compost only takes a number of months before it is ready and replaces the chemical fertiliser normally used at planting. To make liquid feeds we demonstrated how to mix cow, chicken, pig or goat manure in an old sack and suspend it like a teabag in a drum of water. The organic infusion is so rich it can be diluted and used to feed the crops as they grow.

The project has been a great success as the training was so well received. Afterwards, everyone was saying how using what they thought of as waste to support their soil and their crops was going to be a big transformation. Knowing that another way was possible was going to save them so much.

They asked me to extend the training to other areas in Petauke District where friends and relatives lived so they could also learn these skills. They told us, ‘Uyu utumiki upitilize!’ meaning, ‘Let this work continue!’

Drought affecting Southern Africa

The good news story of the organic fertiliser project’s success has been seriously impacted by the ongoing drought that has affecting Southern Africa this year. We would normally expect rain in December through to February or March, however, this year many farmers are still waiting. The drought is partly due to the ongoing El Niño climate cycle, which has changed rainfall patterns during our growing season, but localised deforestation has made this bad situation worse. As part of the training, we shared how trees can support soil structure, fix nitrogen, and even cool the land which encourages clouds and rain. Please pray for the farmers in the organic fertiliser training project and others across Zambia as they struggle through the current drought.

July 1, 2024
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Remembering Revd Canon Apuuli Kinobe

By Training, Uganda

As you might imagine, APF receive a lot of speculative emails from wannabe partners from all over Africa (and elsewhere, as it happens). These correspondents often request school fees or iron roofing sheets for a church roof and once a 4×4 vehicle. We try to reply to the majority of these, usually explaining that we don’t have capacity for new partnerships and signposting them to eVitabu.

Occasionally an email catches my attention. One such came from Muringi Solomon during my recent stay in Uganda. He explained that he was the son of Rev Canon Apuuli Kinobe, a former regional worker for APF responsible for Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Who knew? It was certainly news to me! In our email exchange, Solomon outlined Canon Kinobe’s work for APF: coordinating trips for our founder Derek Blundell, visiting dioceses to identify the most worthy requests for training partnerships and delivering much of that training too. Solomon also sent photos that confirmed any lingering doubt I may have had about his story. He explained that his mother had often asked if APF still existed. His Google search showed that it did, hence his introductory message.

One of the benefits of visiting Africa and staying for several weeks is that it provides time to follow up on unexpected opportunities. So, while in Uganda, I was able to meet Solomon, his mother, Grace, and sister, Brenda, at their shop in Kampala. It was great to hear their reminiscences of sharing in ministry with Derek and Jill Blundell. We looked through an entire album of photographs of African ministry tours, regional events and sightseeing visits in the UK with APF.

Solomon continues to run a clerical tailoring business which APF helped to establish decades ago. I believe APF shipped ten sewing machines and paid for Grace and others to learn tailoring skills to help support Canon Kinobe’s ministry. Solomon claims the business is now the leading outfitters of vestments in the whole of Uganda.

eived a call from Bishop Data from Morobi Diocese in South Sudan enquiring about purchasing new vestments. We know Bishop Data and have supported priests in the diocese in recent years with grants for bikes and Bibles!

After bidding Solomon, Grace and Brenda farewell, I reflected that there is nothing new under the sun and that the vision APF has to empower African Training Partners, identify coordinators and even appoint an African Director is not without precedent. It also made me reflect and give thanks for Canon Kinobe’s life and legacy, and the seed that APF was able to plant many years ago which continues to provide for his family and clothe African clergy not just with beautifully handcrafted vestments but, we pray, even power from on high!

Canon Kinobe died in 2012 and his obituary was published in New Vision, one of Uganda’s leading newspapers. It makes good reading, so in memory of a former colleague, someone that a handful of supporters may remember or might have even met, you can find it in full here.

July 1, 2024
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Ministry in the Digital Age

By eVitabu, Training

By Revd Dave Stedman.

During my recent visit to Kenya I was privileged to be the one of the speakers at the Baptist Convention of Kenya general assembly. More than 2,000 delegates gathered at Kanduyi in Bungoma County not far from the border with Uganda for the event. In addition to sharing information about eVitabu, I was invited to speak about Christian ministry in the digital age. The talk was well received and several exciting new contacts were made, not least with the Kenya Baptist Theological College and the Aberdare Baptist Convention that covers eight counties in central Kenya, around 300 churches, and borders the Central Rift Baptist Convention with which we have partnered over the past decade.

Here is an edited version of what I shared at the convention:

The world has changed. We are more connected than ever. Twenty years ago, before my first ever visit to sub-Saharan Africa, a simple email exchange took several weeks. My contact in Uganda lived deep in the village and had to walk several kilometres to find a boda-boda (motorcycle) to carry him to a matatu (taxi bus) stage where he could get a ride into Soroti Town. On reaching town there may or may not be power and regardless, there was never a guarantee of an internet connection at the cybercafe. The round trip was both costly and time consuming.

Today, that same man still lives deep in the village but with his smartphone he can send instant messages, make video calls, take selfies, engage with social media and bank online. The world has changed, and this new digital age has implications for both ministry and mission in Africa.

As followers of Jesus, and especially as Christian leaders, how do we share the everlasting gospel in this ever-changing media landscape? Luke 4:14-30 provides some transferrable lessons that can help us navigate our response and engagement to the increasingly embedded, embodied and everyday reality of mobile media technology. You can like it or loathe it, but you cannot ignore it. For most it is impossible to avoid.

Jesus engaged with the technology of his day.

“Jesus took the scroll, read from it, then rolled it up.” Jesus often used the technology of the day to enhance his ministry: boarding a boat for a pulpit, fashioning a whip in the temple, even being executed on a piece of hideous technology. Human beings are technological creatures, participants in God’s creative process. We should not fear digital technology any more than any other form of technology but it should be handled with care; deliberately, intentionally and strategically for the Kingdom.

Meredith Gould wrote this prayer back in 2010. It is a contemporary take on Saint Teresa of Avila’s prayer ‘Christ Has No Body’ and is helpful as we consider our online engagement:

Christ has no online presence but yours,
No blog, no Facebook page but yours,
Yours are the tweets through which love touches this world,
Yours are the posts through which the Gospel is shared,
Yours are the updates through which hope is revealed.
Christ has no online presence but yours,
No blog, no Facebook page but yours.

— Meredith Gould

Jesus was in his hometown but announced a mission to the nations.

Jesus reads from Isaiah 61 with its Jewish notion of ‘jubilee’ – a day when debts would be cancelled, slaves set free, land laid fallow and the sick restored. This message met with everyone’s approval. You can almost sense sage heads nodding and the amens being raised. But he then suggests that jubilee is not confined to the ethnic nation of Israel but is for widows from Sidon and lepers from Syria. Jubilee is for foreigners, for Gentiles as well as Jews: a mission to the nations.

The Church has a long tradition of missionary endeavour, faithful servants travelling to the ends of the earth to share Christ. But I want to suggest in the digital age we carry the nations in our pocket, the ends of the earth are a swipe away. There are a myriad of new communities, cultures and people groups online not limited by borders. This is a mission-field as much, perhaps more, than the geographic nations. The church needs to be there, not just present, but active. We need a mission to the Metaverse!

Jesus faced opposition but was resolute and determined.

The suggestion that the gospel was for gentiles as well as Jews was not well received. The religious elite take Jesus to a precipice and want to throw him off the cliff. Somehow he escapes but the episode highlights the reality that the announcement of the gospel will not always be welcome, and may even make us unpopular. As much care needs to be taken online as with in-person interactions to share the truth in love. We must not to use anonymity to be unnecessarily provocative, unloving or unkind but promote peace and pastoral concern in every engagement.

The key phrase in the entire text comes in verse 21 when Jesus says, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing”. The time has come, the Kingdom is near. This means today, not just one day in the distant future, but now and every day, present and continuous. Today, this technology is our technology! Today, this freedom is our freedom! Today, this mission is our mission and today, the Spirit who anointed Jesus, is our Spiritual power-bank too! Most of us are called to mission at home, others to the nations, but who is being called to the Metaverse?

July 1, 2024
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