Missionary Involvement in Africa – Who Are Some Notable People?

Missionary involvement in Africa has been instrumental in bringing the Gospel to the continent. Perhaps the two most famous Christian missionaries in African history are:

David Livingstone (1813-1873) who is perhaps that most notable missionary in the history of Africa. Christianity Today describes him as “Mother Teresa, Neil Armstrong, and Abraham Lincoln rolled into one”[1] because of his unwearied effort to evangelize, explore the undiscovered and fight against slavery. He is credited with developing a dangerous road into the interior of Africa to bring the Good News to unreached people.

Mary Slessor (1848-1915) was the first solo woman missionary in Nigeria, arriving there in 1876.[2] She fought for the women and children in the villages who were being ruthlessly killed. She stood strong in the face of opposition and was able to share the love of Jesus in a remarkable way.

Over the decades, Africans have stepped into leadership to reach their own people groups. For example, GFA World equips national missionaries to meet physical and spiritual needs in their own countries. National missionaries are being trained and equipped to reach the people with the Good News.

Church leaders and Rwandan officials have come together to bring children out of poverty in Kigali, Rwanda. Through our Child Sponsorship Program in the slums, children receive tangible help like nutritious food, school supplies and clean water. Our aim is to help those in desperate need by breaking the cycle of poverty and setting lives free through the transforming power of the Gospel.

“Everything we do focuses on bringing real hope and the love of God to those who’ve lost all hope, [so] we appreciate the open door we’ve been given to start saving lives and serving the poor in Rwanda,” K.P. Yohannan, the founder of GFA World, says.[3]


Click here, to read more about this article.

Click here, to read more blogs in Gospel for Asia.Com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Is the Poverty Cycle?

Image
The question, “What is the poverty cycle, or cycle of poverty?” is one that must be answered to address and end poverty across the globe. Put simply, the term refers to the trend where the vicious effects of poverty and deprivation pass from one generation to the next, with no seeming way out. [1] Someone born into poverty has fewer opportunities than their wealthier peers. They must focus on survival above all, leaving little room for anything else. One illness can wipe out a family’s savings, but the unclean water sources and lack of protection available to them invite sickness. Walking to retrieve water can be time-consuming yet must be a daily priority, and many children must work alongside their parents for the family to afford food. Thus, school is often a far-off dream. Having had few opportunities to acquire skills, the kids grow up to repeat the cycle of poverty with their own children. This story was all too familiar for Nalah. His father worked in the tea fields, trying to e...
Read more

Where Can I Learn How to Break the Cycle of Poverty?

Image
There are many methods for how to break the cycle of poverty which one can learn about. From education assistance to income-generating gifts like sewing machines or farm animals, there is hope for families who have been poor for generations. GFA World works in communities in all these ways through sponsorships and gift distributions, and one by one, we see lives changed as families escape poverty. Raina’s life had been dominated by poverty. She was part of a highly underprivileged people group that faced discrimination and deprivation from others in the region. Despite that, Raina had been able to attend school up until tenth grade, but she discontinued her education when it became too much for her parents to afford. Rather than receiving her certificates of completion, she had to join her parents in the field to earn money to put food on the table. After she married Ander, Raina continued to work in the fields to supplement his income with her own. In search of better job opportunitie...
Read more

Poverty Mindset

Image
Poverty is often viewed as a set of circumstances, but the poverty mindset is a huge part of poverty. The generational poverty mindset is described as a hopelessness that comes from the cycle of poverty. If your grandparents grew up in poverty, followed by your parents, and now you are also living in poverty, there is often a poverty mentality which believes that you cannot escape the hardship that surrounds you. Without hope, the blinders are set and it is difficult to remove them without a change in mindset. For many, generation after generation have been trapped within this cycle. It’s all they have known. So the pertinent questions are these: How to break the cycle of poverty and change the course of a life? At GFA, we have learned that these are the most effective keys to breaking this poverty mindset: Child Sponsorship Child sponsorship through our GFA World tells a child how important he or she is. Children understand that someone across the world is investing in them, sending...
Read more