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All Posts By

Geoff Holder

A Long and Winding Road

By Uganda

In March, APF CEO Dave Stedman met with one of our newest partners, South Rwenzori Diocese in Uganda. A highlight of the journey was spending time with Diocesan Bishop, Right Revd Nason Baluku.

Abandoned by his parents aged twelve, Nason Baluku lived alone on a hillside and dug neighbours’ gardens to pay school fees. He is now Bishop of South Rwenzori Diocese following a career in parish ministry and an international role with a large NGO. His enthronement took place during lockdown and he brings a wealth of pastoral wisdom and corporate skill to the office.

I spent three days with Bishop Nason and his team in March. It was my first visit to south west Uganda. He is a kind but no-nonsense sort of man, the type I like and respect. He has spiritual oversight of more than 650 congregations spread across 84 parishes. About a third of the diocese’s population of over 800,000 are Anglican.

There are many memories: the intense afternoon heat of Kasese in the valley, the dramatic backdrop of the lower Rwenzori Mountains and a precarious car ride up the mountain to his home village of Kibalya taking in views of the snow topped higher peaks.

Two stories set this man apart:

Nason’s mother was in labour for three days up that mountain. She took several days to wake from the fatigue that followed his birth. Bishop Nason lamented the lack of healthcare for the densely populated mountain people. “Nothing has changed since 1967” he says. If you are sick, injured, in labour or suffering from malaria, there is no doctor, no clinic, and no pharmacy.

In extreme cases an individual will be carried down the mountain by four men. A state of the art four-by-four vehicle (donated to the diocese by the President of Uganda) took nearly two hours to ascend that hillside. In the rainy season it might have been impossible. But Kasese is the nearest hospital. If it is a life-or-death situation, the men run. It is reminiscent of the four friends who lowered a friend through a roof to receive healing from Jesus.

Bishop Nason has established a simple health centre in the village and has a vision to create a maternity unit so other women will not suffer as his mother did all those years ago, and as others have every year since.

In ministry, Bishop Nason combines strategic leadership with spiritual passion. There is a weekly deliverance service at St Paul’s Cathedral. He told me that on one occasion, a woman was brought to a service restrained, so great was her distress. She writhed on the floor “as if consumed by a snake”, held in the grip of an oppression most likely diagnosed as a deep psychosis in the UK. The bishop explained that he has a team of deliverance ministers, but he took personal responsibility for this woman, declaring he would not leave until she was healed.

Together with others they prayed for several hours until she was still. Months later that woman continues to be well. Whatever our theology, clinical experience, or cultural interpretation, this represents a triumph for prayer especially when the act of praying was made an absolute priority. I’m reminded of James 5:16: “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

I promised Bishop Nason and his diocesan team that the APF family would pray for them, especially as they seek substantial partners for the clinic and explore options for the training of new leaders.

Nason Baluku, an abandoned boy from a remote Rwenzori mountain village, was reunited with his parents in later life. His mother passed on a few years ago but the son she bore provides a home for his father and continues to pay school fees for several nieces and nephews.

April 1, 2022
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Ministry in Mozambique

By Mozambique

Beira is Mozambique’s second city. Its large container port is a gateway for shipping goods into Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia as well as inland parts of central Mozambique. In 2019, the city was devastated by Cyclone Idai and more recently, the Covid pandemic has dealt a further economic shock.

Carlos Tique Jone is a leader in the Baptist church in Beira. He lives with his family in the city. Carlos was the first eVitabu user in Mozambique and he uses a wide range of resources from the app in both Portuguese and English to support rural pastors. Rural pastors in central Mozambique have virtually no access to training.

Faith in Mozambique is characterised by a combination of African traditional religious practices blended with aspects of either Christianity or Islam.

In December, Carlos received an APF Covid grant to support vulnerable families in Beira. He describes how he used the funding and the impact it had.

Firstly, I would like to say thank you very much to APF for your support. It was great to be able to help some of the neediest in our churches, those who were seriously struggling to provide something for their families during Christmas and New Year time. Your support meant people were able to have a meal on their table and celebrate the New Year with joy.

We made food parcels and identified vulnerable people from the church and local community for the distribution. Each parcel had rice, beans, cooking oil, sugar, salt and fruit. We are very experienced at providing food aid and identifying beneficiaries for support. The Baptist church in Beira did a lot of this work following the emergency when Cyclone Idai affected our city.

Anita is a widow and a member of the First Baptist Church of Beira. She cares for her 15 year old grandson. They share a small room in a very poor part of the city.

Angelina is the mother of four children. Her husband does not take care of or support his family. She is a Muslim believer and is our neighbour. We always help her to feed her children when we can.

Pastor Ernesto had a stroke and is unable to work and get income to feed his family. He lives with his wife and son. The church cannot provide him with sick pay or pension.

Julia, standing next to me in this photo, lives in shared accommodation in the city with her granddaughter. You can find many vulnerable people like them in Beira.

April 1, 2022
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Download our January 2022 newsletter

By Impetus

January 2022 Impetus.

Thank you so much for reading our January 2022 newsletter.

I attended a very long and hot graduation ceremony at Kapsabon Pastor Training College in Kenya in November. I was given a minute to introduce myself and APF which I think I stuck to (unlike everyone else!) My address to the gathering was undoubtedly the shortest, with “all protocols observed” to coin the phrase of the day. It was a privilege to see women and men receiving their awards and being sent out to serve but I was tired, dehydrated and more than ready to stretch my legs at the end of the five hour extravaganza.

My highlight of the occasion was a joke in the keynote address. It went something like this:

A man had a dog. He loved the dog very much. But sadly, the dog died. The man went to see the pastor and asked if he would provide a burial service for the dog. The pastor declined, explaining the church did not offer rites of passage for dogs. The man was disappointed but as he was leaving, turned to the pastor and said, “I can pay $5,000 for my dog to be buried.” To which the pastor replied, “My friend! My brother! Why did you not tell me at the start the dog was born-again?!”

Many become cynical about African friends and money matters. There’s a seemingly bottomless pit of need, different understandings about budgeting and ownership, a lack of financial transparency to name but some of the cross-cultural challenges.

But I also hear myself in their appeals. For APF, there remains the constant need to chase down every donation, the pressure to maintain enough regular income to pay our staff and keep up with demands, not to mention the preparation of dozens of funding proposals to ensure we have growing funds to support our partners in Africa.

As we begin 2022, APF is looking to diversify and strengthen our leadership team to take on some of these activities. This will release my time so I can give more energy to implementing strategy, reflect more deeply on digital theology and foster key relationships both in the UK and Africa.

I’m not yet taking payment for canine cremations or barking burials, but I do want to see APF able to support more graduations (although I will happily sit them out!) and be better placed to help equip dedicated but under-resourced leaders with training, eVitabu and many other life-changing projects and initiatives.

Thank you for your generosity and trust. Please pray with me to stay focussed and trust the Lord for his provision in this new year.

Thank you for your continued support


Revd Dave Stedman
CEO

Download 'Impetus' here
December 22, 2021
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Vaccine hesitancy in Uganda

By Covid-19, Uganda

As news of a new coronavirus variant ‘Omicron’ emerges from Africa, we asked Rose Mugabi from Pastors’ Discipleship Network in Uganda about the vaccination programme there. With only 2% of Ugandans fully vaccinated, she explains how some churches have been complicit in spreading misinformation about vaccination which remains a very hotly debated issue.

The past two years have been very difficult for Uganda due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The country has experienced multiple total lockdowns that have driven many people into extreme poverty. Incidence of domestic violence and teenage pregnancy has spiked. Schools have not opened for the last two years and many businesses remain affected or have closed.

The government secured coronavirus jabs for mass vaccination programmes through the United Nation’s COVAX facility, which aims to provide equitable access to safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines globally. The hope was that vaccinations would ensure Ugandans were protected from the virus and schools, businesses and churches could open up again.

But the good news about the vaccine has not been received in good faith, especially in the Pentecostal churches. Many leaders of these churches have been misled about the vaccine through falsehoods circulating on the internet and social media platforms like Facebook.

Some have told me that they believe that the vaccine is really a microchip which goes inside you when you get the jab. They tell me that this is spoken about in the Book of Revelation and that the vaccine is the plan of the Antichrist. Others say that it is all part of a scheme by the western world to destroy Africa and take its abundant minerals and natural resources. They believe there is a plan to kill all vaccinated people within two years.

When I have these conversations, I always listen carefully to what is said but I also make sure they know that we are vaccinated, and our church fully supports the vaccination programme. For us, the vaccine is a gift, it is an example of God’s compassion for his people. He has given people the intellect and science to understand and tackle this enemy, and that we should trust that he is bigger than any virus and not live in fear of its cure.

The government has said that some jobs will now need employees to provide a proof of vaccination card, but in this climate of misinformation and rumour even this requirement has not turned the tide. To me, it seems like the non-vaccinated are waiting for the vaccinated to die while the vaccinated believe that it is only a matter of time before all non-vaccinated die. Here in Uganda, the vaccine is still a considerable debate.

December 22, 2021
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Relief on the River Bank

By Covid-19, Mali

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, APF have been providing small grants to partners to help them, their families, their churches and their communities navigate the huge challenges posed by Covid-19. The most recent grant was made to our new partner in Mali, Mission Évangélique Chrétienne Agape, based in Manatali on the Bafing River. Pastor Pascal Thera reports on how the funds were used.

I received the Covid-19 relief grant from African Pastors Fellowship and immediately I began meeting the beneficiaries. The message I brought was the same for everyone. I said in the difficult times we were living in, some of my friends, partners of the Mission, are helping us give assistance to those in greatest need.

Knowing the communities and what they were going through, I told them that God loves them and has many ways to prove it. I said that this was part of Christ’s compassion for them and that I am just a channel.

The first reaction was the surprise and joy of receiving a gift like this from the Mission. One of the beneficiaries was Bamoussa from Manatali. He couldn’t believe it with his own eyes when I arrived to see him. Shedding tears and with his voice knotted, he said that the problem of the return to school was a very real challenge but he was also living with something else. Since the beginning of the month, he was living under the weight of several illnesses and his prescriptions remained unpaid. The pandemic’s impact on his very small income also meant he had a delay in the payment of his rent. In this, God really came to visit him.

Mamady, another beneficiary, said that he was feeling the weight of this pandemic. He is blind and before the pandemic he made a living from begging. But it was now more than a month since he had gone out into the streets to ask for money.

The difficult walk to the corner was no longer giving any reward. Before, people could give him a thousand franc note (a little over £1) or even two thousand francs. Now, he so rarely received anything he just hid away at home in despair. So let us come to him and give him a lifesaving gift from the Mission and from a person to whom he has never paid attention to before. What a joy!

Kama told me that he had learnt that Christians are good and help their neighbours. He is from Niantaso, some 45 km east of Manatali where we have one of our mission cells. He is also blind. I remember his words very well. “It was like a tale for me and even for many of this village,” he said. “That good comes from the Mission is not surprising because since you started coming to this village everyone appreciates you and says that you are good. We will keep your blessing in a corner of our hearts and through me, you have offered this gift to the whole village.”

This small but important operation has seriously marked me in my Christian life. I rejoice that I have been able to join in with this good work for the Lord. With it comes a certain inner peace. I am experienced in doing development work, especially in agriculture, but this is the first time in my whole life that I have been able to bring cash grants to very vulnerable people in desperate and immediate need.

It reminds me to leave aside my own benefit and understand the true meaning of compassion. I experienced this through the sharing of a gift.

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December 22, 2021
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Download our October 2021 newsletter

By Impetus

October 2021 Impetus.

Thank you so much for reading our October 2021 newsletter.

Do you remember when the world was young and ZOOM was just an onomatopoeic word used in primary schools? Or when it became the title of a hit song by Fat Larry’s Band in the 1980’s? Now I suffer ‘Zoom fatigue’ and I have developed my own brand of ‘Zoom wear’: smart up top, casual down below!

I have spent a lot of time, too much time, on Zoom calls over the past 18 months. In the midst, some excellent contacts have been made and relationships developed.

I especially enjoyed meeting the Archbishop of Uganda, Most Revd Dr Stephen Kaziimba. We were introduced because in addition to the obvious synergy between his ministry and APF’s, we share a common concern for children and families living with disability.

Archbishop Stephen shared his vision for the conversion of heads, hearts, hands, homes and hospitals and we prayed together for the outworking of this defining motive.

Another excellent contact is Pastor Edward Kiwanuka. Edward is founder and national overseer of Deliverance Church Uganda, a network of more than 500 churches, schools and clinics in Uganda, Burundi, DRC and Kenya. The movement began at Makerere University in the late 1960s. Pastor Edward has already received funding from APF for local language Bibles and we are working towards online eVitabu introduction workshops with church leaders.

There is no doubt the world has changed; the word ZOOM will never be the same again. Here at APF, we’re adapting well to the new normal and planning for the future. I believe this edition of Impetus illustrates the agility of APF and ingenuity of our partners, finding ways to minister despite lockdowns and loss. But I also pray for more opportunities to meet friends like Archbishop Stephen and Pastor Edward and many others in-person during 2022.

Thank you for your continued support


Revd Dave Stedman
CEO

Download 'Impetus' here

APF 40th Anniversary Celebration

Join us at St Margaret’s Church, Whitnash (near Leamington Spa) on Sunday 3rd October* from 10am to celebrate 40 years of African Pastors Fellowship.

Start by joining us at for a Celebration Harvest Service.

This will be followed by:

  • Wonderful African catering and music
  • Keynote addresses
  • Recorded greetings from African partners
  • And more!

For catering purposes, please register your attendance by visiting https://bit.ly/APF40
Call us on 01227 681186 or email info@africanpastors.org for more information.

* The event was originally scheduled for June 26th but has been postpone due to closeness of this date to the planned easing of lockdown restrictions.

** If it is not possible to have a physical gathering because of Covid-19 restrictions, we will have an online event instead. Although in that case, you may have to do the food yourself!

Find out more...
September 20, 2021
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Empowering Leaders for Community Transformation

By eVitabu, Kenya, Training

Walter Rutto is a pastor trainer from the highlands west of Kenya’s Rift Valley. He’s passionate about holistic pastoral training. In 2013 he founded Transformational Compassion Network (TCN), one of APF’s newest partners. He shares some reflections on the church in Kenya and describes how TCN’s partnership with APF has helped sustain them through the pandemic.

In the forth century AD, a small Christian population brought change to the entire Roman Empire. From tiny beginnings, its impact was vast. Since then, the Church has pioneered social services, schools and medical care; it has been an inspiration for art, culture, and philosophy; an influential player in politics, ethics, and law. Imagine the 631 million Christians currently in Africa, making up 45 percent of the population, taking the same route as their Roman predecessors!

2000 years later in Africa, however, while the number of churches is growing fast, numerous difficulties and brokenness remain. They cause doubt about the truth of God’s presence in the lives of his people. We have many strict religious gatherings with different convictions, ways of thinking and tenets, all aimed at responding to local challenges. But it seems the more gatherings, holy places, and Christians, the higher the degree of brokenness, poverty, and hopelessness.

I believe the problem stems from the Church being disengaged from the deep cultural, social, and physical needs of Kenyan communities. Rather than serving communities at the level of their culture, a false separation exists that pits the sacred against the secular. It means the church offers extreme spiritual care (miracles and wonders), but it lacks social compassion and the physical touch.

Regardless, the Church is still the solution. A local church in the community is the most important strategic institution for bringing holistic transformation. The key is empowering, equipping, and encouraging local African churches to fulfil their God-given role in advancing his Kingdom.

It is for this reason that Transformational Compassion Network (TCN) established the Theology and Development programme. The training challenges the separation of spiritual and secular realms, changes mindsets and demonstrates the ways faith and society interact as central to holistic community transformation.

Since we began the programme in partnership with the Kenya Highlands University in 2016, 247 learners have achieved certificate-level training. There are two programme tracks for Christian leaders who already have higher education and one for those who have not been able to complete schooling. In August, we held our fifth graduation ceremony where thirteen students graduated from Kenya Highlands University. More will graduate in November at our new partner institution, Kaboson Pastors Training College.

When the Covid-19 outbreak hit Kenya and classes were suspended, the learners asked if they could continue studying online. At first, it was hard to plan and structure online learning. We did not know how to achieve it. Then we heard about an app called eVitabu developed by APF. The app could house all our training materials and help us bring the entire training programme online. APF support worker Rossa Wanjiru came and trained TCN staff on how to use eVitabu and it has been a big help.

We can do this in Kenya because digital connectivity is at now at over 85 percent. Many programme learners and programme alumni, who are hoping to enrol for diploma- and bachelor-level courses, are now using eVitabu regularly. Experience from our Sekenani class in Narok County shows that even those unfamiliar with smartphones can access the app after the training Rossa provides. We are now discussing translating the English programme material into several local languages.

For TCN’s Theology and Development programme to achieve its goals, partnership and collaboration from likeminded institutions and organisations is paramount. TCN is happy to share the programme through eVitabu to benefit pastors, church leaders and believers from across Africa. Appreciation to all our partners as we look forward to creating a framework of working together through eVitabu.

New Theology and Development programme classes began this September. TCN welcomes you to get involved by funding scholarships for learners from poorer backgrounds and supporting the programme in hard-to-reach areas. Please contact APF for information about how you can help.

September 20, 2021
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50 miles in three days for Covid

By Covid-19, Fundraising, UK

In July, APF CEO, Dave Stedman, and Projects Coordinator, Geoff Holder, accompanied by Geoff’s dog Dylan, tackled 50 miles of Offa’s Dyke Path in the Welsh Marches in three days. They were fundraising to help APF partners tackle Covid-19 in Africa and generous sponsors donated over £3,000 for the walk. Geoff describes some of the ups and downs (literally) of their hike. 

We set off bright and early from the Welsh market town of Monmouth. The first day took in green, rolling Monmouthshire farmland, the skyline increasingly dominated by Ysgyryd Fawr, a mountain known locally as The Skirrid.

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Neither Dave nor I had had a chance to do any real preparation before we started. By mid-afternoon we were both feeling it, but the long-term effects of Dave’s encounter with Covid were beginning to concern both of us. Fortunately, a banana, my brief history lesson about why the Mercian king Offa probably didn’t build his dyke along this part of the Welsh border, and a decent pause meant we were able to stumble on and finish the stage.

After the laboured climb onto Hatterrall Ridge, the second day took us up into the magnificent Black Mountains. With spectacular views in every direction we made good progress until I had to retrace my steps after losing Dylan’s lead somewhere near the summit of Hay Bluff.

The final stretch to Kington included the most varied terrain: lush river valley meadows and deep wooded dingles, craggy upland ridges and ancient green lanes. Our blisters and cramps were soothed by messages of encouragement from African friends affected by Covid-19.

2021 has been a good year for sponsored walks with APF staff and trustees raising nearly £10,000 from a wide range of different sorts of hikes, treks, strolls and rambles.  In addition to part of Offa’s Dyke Path, 70 x 70 minute dog walks and the entire length of the Chesterfield Canal have all been conquered.  

 Why not plan your own sponsored walk for APF next year? Get in touch if you’d like to have a go at a sponsored event or activity of your own. We can help you set up a sponsorship web page, share what your doing on social media and generate some support.

September 20, 2021
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Growing Greener in Zambia

By eVitabu, Farming, Zambia

It’s the early hours of the morning. The rumble of distant thunder and close-by chirp of crickets is suddenly drowned out by the first drops of rain on the tin roofs. Soon the whole community in Zambia’s Mumbwa district are awake to the comforting sound of rainfall. Planting will start at first light.

After a prolonged dry spell the heavy rain is very welcome. Not everyone is optimistic, however. “The rainfall pattern has not been consistent. We could be headed for a repeat of last season” complains one farmer.

Southern Africa has experienced normal rainfall in just one of the last five growing seasons.  Persistent drought, cyclones and flooding have wreaked havoc on harvests in a region dependent on rain-fed, smallholder agriculture.

Zambia is experiencing both climate extremes at the same time. Farmers in the south-western parts of the country are anxious about erratic and unpredictable rainfall patterns. In the north-east, they are battling flash floods.

It is unanimously agreed that the changes in Zambia’s weather patterns are caused by human-induced climate change, over-exploitation of natural resources and deforestation.

The group most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation are the poorest as they rely on natural resources for their livelihoods. The scale of the challenge facing poor rural communities feels overwhelming, but one pastor still has hope. Lawson Limao oversees a small network of Zambian churches called Word of God Ministries. “Where God is there is hope” he says.

One source of hope is the farming guides Lawson found APF’s eVitabu app. He uses eVitabu on his old Android smart phone. Using the guides on eVitabu and some funding from APF, Lawson trained around a hundred farmers last year. Despite Covid and lockdowns, the training went well, and more funding is heading to the church network so he can continue his training and reach many more farmers this year.

“The training I do I found on eVitabu” he explained. “On the app there are resources from Foundations for Farming and other experts which can help rural pastors and leaders do farming in new ways that are less sensitive to drought and look after the soil.

“God’s way is to preserve nature whilst making farming a profitable venture to undertake. This is what I love to talk about with pastors and their wives. The content of the training includes faithfulness and fruitfulness, farming for a profit, crop management techniques, composting, crop rotation and cover cropping.

“The programme I am doing with APF’s support in Mumbwa District is among the Ila people. This people group are mainly subsistence farmers and they have for some time been practicing conventional farming methods like ploughing. That has led to the poor soil structure and outright poverty despite God blessing them with adequate rainfall and land.

“It is my view that the training will benefit the community through the church to adapt to the new farming techniques. This will help improve their yields thus providing sustainable food security for their families and for church purposes whatever the changing weather brings.”

September 20, 2021
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Download our July 2021 newsletter as a PDF

By Impetus

July 2021 Impetus.

Thank you so much for reading our July 2021 newsletter. As we continue to mark APF’s 40th anniversary year, I have been reflecting on the years of my own involvement.

I was aware of APF from the earliest days of local church ministry. I was even interrupted while preaching one Sunday in the early 1990s when a church member unexpectedly brought a brand new bicycle into the church for APF to send to Uganda.

Back in 2013 when I was a trustee, we conducted a review of APF’s Africa and UK activity and set several strategic objectives for the future. In the intervening seven years, I took on an executive role leading the charity toward these goals. A key aspiration was for APF ministry to be active in Africa even when UK personnel were not there.
At that time, the possibility of having a network of African ‘Regional Overseers’ was also mooted, together with African representation at board level and perhaps, in time, an African Director, based in Africa. We felt that building a team of regional APF leaders would extend APF’s reach and influence significantly, release local leaders for contextualised ministry and demonstrate better value for money.

Although in the end we didn’t run with Regional Overseer as a name, we do now have a strong, established and growing network of trusted partners spread across several African regions. These leaders exercise brilliant, contextualised pastoral training and holistic ministry regardless of whether I, or my colleague Geoff, are in Africa or not. This pan-African network is the bedrock on which APF’s future is being built.

This edition of Impetus identifies and celebrates these individuals and their unique contributions. Please join with me in praying for these sisters and brothers; that APF will continue to enable them to thrive in ministry and that in them, God’s Kingdom comes through local African churches. After all, partnership is fellowship in action.

Thank you!


Revd Dave Stedman
CEO

Download 'Impetus' here

APF 40th Anniversary Garden Party

Join us at St Margaret’s Church, Whitnash (near Leamington Spa) on Sunday 3rd October* from 10am to celebrate 40 years of African Pastors Fellowship.

Start by joining us at for a Celebration Harvest Service.

This will be followed by:

  • Wonderful African catering and music
  • Keynote addresses
  • Recorded greetings from African partners
  • And more!

For catering purposes, please register your attendance by visiting https://bit.ly/APF40
Call us on 01227 681186 or email info@africanpastors.org for more information.

* The event was originally scheduled for June 26th but has been postpone due to closeness of this date to the planned easing of lockdown restrictions.

** If it is not possible to have a physical gathering because of Covid-19 restrictions, we will have an online event instead. Although in that case, you may have to do the food yourself!

Find out more...
June 29, 2021
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