Dear Friends,                                                                                                 

One of the challenges to evangelism in Africa is the chronic suffering and needs of many of those living in African cities. Hunger, disease, poverty, poor infrastructure and sanitation, homelessness, crime, unemployment...  the struggles which so many in Africa experience, just to make it through the day, leave your heart aching.

We do not preach an “empty” gospel, or a rhetorical message which does not impact every aspect of our daily lives. Jesus Christ showed us through His very life and death that the love of God is gritty, practical and ready to give up everything, even life itself, to address the needs of others. How can we then not sacrifice, even just a little for others who are suffering?

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. 
And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?
Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”
1 John 3:16-18

A crucial element of an African Enterprise city wide mission is the “social action” component. Whilst it is not possible to address every physical need in the city, we work with the church to identify needs in the community.  This illustrates the word which is preached to every strata in the city during the mission week.

During the November 2009 mission to Monrovia the local churches identified a slum township area called the “Buzzi Quarter” (also known as the Lorma Quarter) which desperately needed assistance. Amazingly, although it is a stone’s throw from the State House, it had fallen into a stinky, unhealthy, dirty state of disrepair.

The community of Buzzi Quarter comprises about 20,000 people, most of whom are former and retired soldiers, and their families. Because of its close proximity to the University of Liberia, many students also live in the community. The majority of the residents live on less than one dollar a day. Up until March this year, only two Government latrines existed within the community, but these had deteriorated to a completely unsanitary condition.

 People using these facilities often contracted communicable diseases and illnesses thus increasing infant mortality rates. They were forced to relieve themselves on the nearby beach, or by using plastic bags, which were then disposed of into the uncovered drains which ran between the tiny dwellings.

 Because of its location at the bottom of the city, the community was also constantly undergoing flooding from undirected grey and waste water from make shift bath houses.

Together, the local churches and African Enterprise, met with local community leaders and committed to assisting them with the challenges they faced each day. Official meetings commenced early in 2009 during which community, youth and church leaders discussed how best to ensure community ownership of the future developments. Church leaders and congregations led their community in a clean up which was aimed at reversing the prevailing mindset of hopelessness and instilling a sense of dignity.

Over the next few months, health and sanitation training was conducted with community leaders, who then trained others in their neighborhood to increase their awareness of health risks. Evangelistic events were held in the community during this time, and large numbers of residents, young and old, gave their lives to Christ, including the community headman. Finally a ten room latrine building was constructed, and a deputation sent to the State House to ask the local authorities to address the needs of Buzzi Quarter.

On Wednesday, March 31, 2010 the newly constructed latrine building was dedicated and officially opened. Incredibly, the Vice President of Liberia, His Excellency Dr. Joseph Nyumah Boakai, walked through the slum community to the church hall to the site of the dedication. He was surrounded by an entourage of security staff, but took the time to express his utter dismay at the conditions of the community. Also in attendance were AE’s Pan African Missions Director, Rev. Songe Chibambo, heads of international and local NGOs, the Secretary General of the Association of Evangelicals of Liberia, Mrs. Victoria Wollie, Chairman of the Christ Mission to Monrovia, Rev. K. Zubah Kollie, Church leaders, students and residents.

The Vice President cut the ribbon to officially open the latrines. They were described by some onlookers as “beautiful” – maybe an unusual description to those of us who do not live in Buzzi, but quite possibly a description of what the latrines represent, the deeply concerned heart of God for his people in Buzzi who no longer felt forgotten.

Please pray for the community of Buzzi Quarter, the churches and the government of Liberia.  Please continue to support AE.  Together we can uplift the poorest of the poor through word and deed.

Yours in Love, grace and gratitude of Christ,

David Richardson, Executive Director/CEO

African Enterprise Canada

Dear Friends,                                                                                                           

We have some serious and exciting news to share!  Once again African Enterprise is ready to embark on an historic mission outreach in Southern Sudan.

YOU have the opportunity to impact this unique evangelistic and service opportunity with your gift.

First let me tell you about the situation in Sudan. This is heart-wrenching stuff.

Oil was found in the south by the Muslim government based in the north. They needed to clear the way for oil extraction and a pipeline to the north coast. Western and Eastern super-powers bought the oil and Canadians built the pipeline. The South wanted a share of the oil revenue, the North said no and sent Troops and helicopter gunships to bomb and strafe the southern villages. Thousands died and many more fled.  A whole generation of children has grown up amid landmines, invading tanks and militia forcing them to become child-soldiers.

James, now 40, was taken as a child and taught to kill. He was “on the notorious death march …. Where he and other young Sudanese boy’s walked a thousand miles to flee the genocide” wrote an observer. “He spoke of drinking urine to stay alive. He spoke of watching others die while hundreds of thousands fled to the Darfur region of Sudan and surrounding countries.”  An estimated 3 million+ have died and it must stop!

Sadly, this – and even worse – is the tortured story of the people of Juba in Southern Sudan. Decades of genocidal war forced upon them by the Arab and Muslim Northern Sudanese military have left behind trauma, bitterness and hardly any infrastructure.

That’s why AE is staging a Kingdom counter-invasion of Juba!

Capitalizing on a fragile peace, we will send in our most experienced evangelists from September 12–19 to rescue the shell-shocked residents from despair.

We are praying and believing that thousands of Sudanese will give their broken lives to Jesus Christ and that God will heal them and their nation, and through it be glorified!

AE Rescue Ministry in Ghana                 

Beatrice felt she had no choice but to sell her body.

Ghana—Beatrice Aryetey fell into    poverty and no one was there to pick her up.  What was she to do?  She asked a friend for help.  But this friend actually persuaded her to go into prostitution!  

Though she had gone to church in the past, Beatrice said, “One day I was spotted by one of the leaders in the church and in order to avoid embarrassment I stopped going to the church.  I therefore became deeply involved in prostitution.”                                                           

It’s tragic that Beatrice allowed herself to be used and abused the way she did.  But thankfully it’s not the end of her story.

The Lord cares about his precious daughters, like Beatrice, whom he created.  And AE cares too.  “I happened to be among those fortunate ones,” says Beatrice, “who were recruited by AE into their rehabilitation project.  Ever since I completed the training, I have not stopped going to church.  Also, I have found favor in the sight of God.”  Women like Beatrice hear the Gospel every day as they learn to leave their old life behind.  Most put their life in Christ’s hands as they learn of his love and grace.

And, they learn how to provide for themselves through honest means - by becoming proficient in a trade, like batik and tie-dye, or sewing, or baking, or soap-making.  "The small batik business I have started is growing gradually," says Beatrice.  "I hope the Lord will take me far with this business."

Imagine if we had more resources to enable us to find more women like Beatrice much sooner, before they had to resort to desperate measures like prostitution!  We can’t wait even another day.

Please help us do this by sending a gift today!

    My Dear Friends,

Six million people have died over the past dozen years in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, which has suffered from Africa’s first “world war” – a conflict that has sadly gone all but unnoticed by the wider world.  But AE has been working hard in this fractured place to build peace, bring healing and facilitate reconciliation, with Reconciliation Ministries Director Emmanuel Kopwe training up scores of leaders to multiply the peacemaking effect throughout Africa’s “Great Lakes” region.  

As Emmanuel Kopwe (left) says, “Many outside organizations and multinationals come into a post-war situation and bring in a lot of physical assistance and humanitarian aid, which is all very necessary and important. However, if we do not deal with the trauma and woundedness of the population, there cannot be sustainable development.”

This has sadly been the case in eastern Congo over many years, as various peace treaties have been negotiated and signed, the United Nations has sent in more than 20,000 peacekeepers – currently its largest force in the world – and yet true peace has not come. As the prophet Jeremiah lamented, “They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace”

The violence in eastern Congo has complex roots and has been graphically illustrated by its brutality, especially to women and children. Half of the deaths have been children under five years of age, various militias have used rape as in instrument of warfare and some 500,000 people have been driven from their homes.  (Left: U.N. Soldier with eastern Congolese children)

The 1994 Rwandan genocide is one of the main catalysts of the wars in eastern Congo, when an army of Tutsi exiles from Uganda invaded Rwanda, seeking to bring a halt to the genocide, and drove the genocidal Hutu militias into neighbouring eastern Congo. In an effort to rid the region of the Hutu militias, the newly installed Tutsi-led Rwandan government supported Congolese rebel leader Laurent Kabila, whose insurgent movement ended up defeating the Congolese army, ultimately deposing the country’s long time kleptocratic dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, in 1997. Kabila now ruled a country as large as the U.S. east of the Mississippi and whose capital, Kinshasa, is some 1,200 miles from eastern Congo. (Map right: AE is involved in peacebuilding work near Goma, north of Lake Kivu)