GFA’s Missionaries in Africa
GFA World has forty years of missions experience, and we’ve recently felt led to expand and train missionaries in Africa to be national missionaries. Africa is a land bursting with possibility; 1.4 billion people live across its 54 countries with varied terrains, peoples and cultures.[1] Now, about half the population of Africa is under the age of 15, and despite the hard work of those countries local official, they still face tremendous challenges like a water crisis and lack of access to education and healthcare. GFA is already making a difference in Kigali, Rwanda.[2]
GFA World has begun work with missionaries in Africa by establishing a branch of GFA’s Child Sponsorship Program among those in need of Kigali, Rwanda starting in March 2021. This is one of Africa’s most densely populated nations. GFA is working to meet the tangible needs of the people and bring the Gospel to those who most need it. Active work is going on to set up a Bible College, and will soon begin training national Christian missionaries in Africa, who will be able to share the love of Christ with their own people, as well as start clean water projects, medical ministries, education programs, and much more.[3]
Rwanda is just the start of GFA’s work in Africa. The ministry there has already been successful in establishing a church with several hundred believers. This integral location will act as the hub of ministry as GFA World expands to additional African nations in the next few years, which include Burundi, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan.
“We aim to be servants to everyone, showing them Christ through our lifestyle. Jesus told his disciples to change the world, and as we expand into Africa, that’s our calling, too.,” GFA’s founder, K.P. Yohannan (Metropolitan Yohan), said about GFA’s missionary involvement in Africa.[4]
As GFA sets itself up in Africa, the needs are becoming more apparent. In 2015 alone, about 1.6 million Africans died of preventable or treatable illnesses like malaria, tuberculosis and HIV-related sickness because they don’t have ready access to or the money to afford the medications.[5] GFA is taking steps to be able to respond to this need with a medical ministry that will include healthcare training seminars, medical camps, providing medical care to those who most need it and distributing vitamins and supplements to provide missing nutrients.[6]
Africa is known as a dry continent—behind only Australia when it comes to accessible drinking water—340 million Africans have no access to safe water.[7] Thus, GFA’s clean water projects, like Jesus wells, are already underway in Rwanda and will be implemented elsewhere as our ministry expands.[8]
Poverty often forces families to sacrifice their children’s education to meet their immediate needs, but education is one of the main ways to escape the stranglehold of poverty. This is just as true in Africa where 32 million children, mostly girls, do not go to school, making GFA’s Child Sponsorship Program viable in Africa and extremely vital there.[9]
Equipping nationals to do missionary work in Africa is certainly nothing new to GFA World, which has done and will continue to do similar training throughout South Asia. The national missionaries trained in Africa will know their people’s specific customs and beliefs, and they can customize their ministry to reach certain African groups effectively and specifically. They are setting up the initial work in Rwanda to be a launching point to reach the rest of the continent. The open door to start ministry in Rwanda makes it a great base of operations from which to share the love of Christ and establish churches in so many more places where the name of Christ hasn’t yet been heard.
“We are looking at the whole continent. As we just started working with these children in Rwanda, our goal is hopefully in the days to come we will be able to see thousands of worshipping communities transformed as we care for the poor and needy, in the name of our Lord,” K.P. Yohannan stated.[10]
Please pray as GFA World continues to get established in Rwanda and the rest of Africa. Pray as we train up national missionaries who will work to reach the people in their own cultures and tongues. Pray for the African people who don’t have access to medicine, water or education, and pray for their hearts to be ready to hear the Gospel from GFA missionaries.
Also, please consider giving to help the effort to expand GFA World into Africa and Asia. It takes significant resources to start working in new areas.[11] But it pales in comparison to the difference it makes for the people, who are waiting for GFA’s missionaries in Africa to reach them for Christ and change their lives both here on earth and for eternity.
Learn more about missionary FAQs
[1] “Total population of Africa from 2000 to 2030.” Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1224168/total-population-of-africa/. Accessed October 27, 2022.
[2] “GFA World Expands Ministry to Africa.” GFA World. https://www.gfa.org/africa. Accessed October 27, 2022.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Pheage, Tefo. “Dying from Lack of Medicines.” UN: Africa Renewal. https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/december-2016-march-2017/dying-lack-medicines. December 2016-March 2017.
[6] “GFA World Expands Ministry to Africa.” GFA World. https://www.gfa.org/africa. Accessed October 27, 2022.
[7] “Africa’s Priorities for Sustainable Development.” UN: Africa Renewal. https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/april-2012/africa%E2%80%99s-priorities-sustainable-development. April 2012.
[8] “GFA World Expands Ministry to Africa.” GFA World. https://www.gfa.org/africa. Accessed October 27, 2022.
[9] “GFA World Expands Ministry to Africa.” GFA World. https://www.gfa.org/africa. Accessed October 27, 2022.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Ibid.