Education Provides An Open Door
After being trained by Cityteam International as a disciple maker, Mebrat*, a native African, felt God was calling him to a village in East Africa where approximately 98% of the community members were practicing Muslims. This specific village was known for being resistant to the Gospel, but that did not detour Mebrat, it only encouraged him to pray more fervently as he started his journey.
Upon arrival to the village Mebrat continued to pray asking God for guidance. He began to take special notice of the children who were playing on the dusty ground. He discovered that the nearest school was miles away in a neighboring village so their parents had chosen to keep them at home.
Mebrat was formerly a teacher, so he decided he would provide education for the village children. As there was no school building, he opened his home and started teaching 10 children in his living area. Each day a few more children would attend his classes and eventually they were crammed in like sardines learning basic skill sets and also listening to stories from the Bible. As the children shared with their parents what they were learning, the Bible stories started to circulate the community.
The parents were amazed at the evident changes in their children both in educational and moral aspects of their lives. God gave Mebrat great favor in the village. Community leaders told him, “You have been sent by God to help us, since you started teaching we have seen an amazing change in our children.” The local government gave him land to use for his school, which allowed the children to play organized sports in between classes.
As Mebrat continues to serve this community by providing education he has many opportunities to share the Good News with the children and their families and they are listening! Your partnership with Cityteam International plays a vital role in community transformation around the world. Faithful support from our donors enable Mebrat and others like him to reach those who are Lost and living in poverty with Hope.
*Names are changed to protect the privacy and security of those we serve.
The Difference a Motorcycle Has Made for Mosi and the Communities He Serves
Cityteam International is working to reach the lost in some of the most remote parts of East Africa. As God has continued to open up many new communities to receive the Gospel our local leaders are being stretched thin. One of our most significant challenges as this Disciple Making Movement in East Africa gains momentum has been transportation. Many of our disciple makers have to walk long distances each day and at times their journey can be up to 3 days to take the Gospel to an unreached community. In recent months we have seen God transforming communities through obedience-based discipleship where disciples are making other disciples and the cycle is continuing, with the help of motorcycles.
Mosi*, one of our key disciple makers, has risked his health, life and safety to share God’s love with isolated communities. He routinely walked for days to reach communities who had never heard the Gospel message. The people groups he met with were very receptive and churches were started in various areas, but some would stop meeting because they lacked a mentor. Because of the distance Mosi was not able to visit all the new disciples with any regularity. Through a gift from a generous donor we were recently able to provide Mosi with a motorcycle!
Since I received the motorcycle things have really changed, I can now travel to even the furthest villages and reach more Africans with Hope and the Good News.
A journey that used to take Mosi days now takes him only a few hours and when he arrives he has the strength to teach and share the Gospel message, when previously it would take at least a day to recover from the grueling trip. Along with his team members, Mosi has been able to visit the churches he has started, encourage them and continue to mentor local leaders that have emerged.
This Holiday season, you can give a gift that will impact hundreds of thousands of individuals. One motorcycle will equip a church planter to take the gift of Hope to countless villages throughout East Africa. Click the donate button below to give a gift that will have a life-changing effect for years to come.
Right now we need your help to equip 100 of our leading Disciple Makers like Mosi with a motorcycle. A small and economical motorcycle will allow them to travel long distances to unreached villages and tribal areas safely so God's love can be made known to the hurting and lost in East Africa.
*Names are changed to protect the privacy and security of those we serve.
Local Leaders Reaching Out to Their Community
East Africa recently struggled through the worst drought/famine crisis in 60 years. Millions affected – tens of thousands lost their lives.
Cityteam International provided life-saving support for 100,000 people through clean water, food and medical care. Our plan had 3 parts; save lives, stabilize communities, and use new relationships to make disciples and start new churches. Because we love God, we love our neighbor and now they want to know the God who loves them too. “Good News” you can feel has opened the floodgates to an incredible wave of multiplying disciples and planting churches. All this is possible because friends like you partnered with us to help our Kenyan neighbors who were in desperate need. Watch the Video.
On behalf of all of those whose lives were saved and changed – Thank you!
The results have been amazing! Over the last 7.5 years we have seen the Lord raise up over 16,000 new churches with more than 600,000 new believers in 49 countries spread across 10 regions of the world.
To fulfill our mission in East Africa we are focusing on training local leaders to both launch and sustain disciple making movements. The idea of a “movement” is to start something that can keep going without you. That is why our focus is not just to make disciples, it is to multiply disciple makers.
What we do does not revolve around professionals and programs. It is about giving ordinary people the vision to see that they are at the very center of God’s plan to win the world and then giving them the tools to start multiplying disciple makers where they live. One of the "tools" we are trying to provide for our key leaders in East Africa are motorcycles.