Meals with a Message
In a remote village of West Africa, each day is a struggle filled of gruelling chores from sun-up till sundown. In America, we are often annoyed when our preferred brand is not stocked at the local store where the people of this village have lived for years, some of them their entire lives with out access to a store or even a single restaurant. There are no snack shacks or convenience stores, if you need something you had better become friends with someone who has access to a bike.
To serve this struggling community, Cityteam International partnered with local Christian entrepreneurs to open a simple store that provides basic necessities to the community. This store also provides a place to train disciple makers and serves as a place of fellowship for the community. The success of this simple store inspired Mary, a trained disciple maker trained in the community store, to open a small restaurant.
Motivated by her desire to serve her community and provide employment opportunities for local youth, Mary used her culinary skills to open the communities’ first restaurant!
Through the proceeds of this small restaurant she was able to feed 18 of the poorest community members who were unable to provide for themselves since the devastation of the recent famine.
Mary is a testimony to all who enter her restaurant especially her young employees. It is a great source of pride for the parents of her employees, they are thrilled to see their children gaining valuable experience as they learn the restaurant business. Meals and the Message of Gospel are given to all who come through the doors each day.
Your support of our ministry in West & Central Africa provides valuable training and equips local leaders to reach their communites with God's love and serve those in need.
*Names are changed to protect the privacy and security of those we serve.
Finding Hope
In the West African culture it is perceived to be the wife’s obligation to provide children for her husband, childbearing is seen as both an obligation and a right. Those women who are unable to have children are often viewed as cursed and suffer from continual shame. Sandrine* found herself in this very situation, after years of marriage she was unable to have a child. Together with her husband she had travelled great distances seeking medical treatments and help from renowned “healers” who prescribed them to try many different types of sacrifices and rituals often involving contacts with the spiritual world. Eventually Sandrine had exhausted all her resources, spent all the money she and her husband had and sold all their livestock without any success.
Sandrine felt ashamed, she was desperate and convinced she was cursed through witchcraft. She was hopeless and finally accepted her condition as a fate, the will of Allah for her. On one of her lowest days she met Aida*, a disciple of Jesus trained by local Cityteam International leaders. Aida has been earnestly praying to make disciples in her village and when she meet Sandrine, she sensed that Sandrine had a heart that was open to the gospel and she was thrilled! As they spent time together a friendship formed and Sandrine shared her deep sadness with Aida. Aida began to pray and she also invited Sandrine to her house church. Sandrine was hesitant, but finally agreed to attend and even accepted to be prayed for by the group during the meeting. She was desperate for a child. All the members of the house church came alongside Sandrine and supported her and committed to pray for the miracle of a child even though doctors had deemed this impossible. In February of this year Sandrine announced to the church with tears in her eyes that God had blessed her with a child. We praise God for His gracious gift of childbearing to Sandrine and for answering the faithful prayers of this house church in our West and Central Africa region.
As a result of this miracle, Sandrine and her husband now faithfully attend a local Discovery Bible Study and have both decided to follow Christ as His disciples and are now sharing the good news with their friends. In order to train and equip Disciple Makers like Aida and Sandrine we need your support, partner with us to provide hope and share God’s love in West and Central Africa by making a donation today.
*Names are changed to protect the privacy and security of those we serve.
Local Leaders Reaching Out to Their Community
In West and Central Africa our local leaders are meeting the very real needs of impoverished communities by providing Medical Clinics, Eye Care, Clean Water by digging wells, a Radio Ministry and a Sports Ministry for the youth. Your support will help us continue these vital ministries.
The results have been amazing! Over the last 8 years we have seen the Lord raise up over 22,460 new churches with 778,580 new believers in 55 countries spread across 10 regions of the world.
To fulfill our mission in West & Central 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.