Outreach: Africa!
In what seems like a lifetime ago, as a pastor of a small church in a small town in north central Texas, I watched my first Reinhard Bonnke video. Bonnke, a German-born evangelist, has been for many years the Billy Graham of Africa, preaching to crowds of hundreds of thousands regularly. But unlike Graham, Bonnke prays for the sick as well as preaching Christ to the lost. The fruit from his ministry is abundant and amazing. In some of Bonnke’s crusades over a million people make professions of faith in Christ.
As I drank in Bonnke’s passionate preaching, the many and dramatic testimonies of miraculous healings, and the masses of Africans making commitments to Christ, it was overwhelming. Through much of the video I cried like a baby. Something in what I saw touched the deepest recesses of my being and seemed to beckon me to follow in Bonnke’s footsteps.
At the time it seemed impossible. I had no money, no connections in Africa or even in the U. S. that could possibly make an African ministry possible. Africa was half a world away, but it might as well have been across the galaxy. The likelihood of me ever having a significant ministry in Africa seemed slim to none. And yet something was planted in my spirit that would not let me go.
Paul spoke of how the Holy Spirit worked “effectively in Peter toward to Jews” and “effectively in me toward the Gentiles.” Apparently the Holy Spirit not only gives specific gifts, but also fashions His instruments with specific population targets in mind. As I look back over my own life and ministry it is apparent that God’s calling on me toward Africa began long before that viewing of the Bonnke video. Years before, when I preached the first time in a nearly all-black church I was amazed at the measure of the anointing on my preaching. I was pastoring a white church at the time, but when I preached among the blacks I was a different man. My preaching seemed twice asAfrica powerful and a whole lot more fun! I went back to my white congregation and rebuked them light-heartedly for their coldness. But it was not really that my church was cold and the black church was hot. I was just discovering a grace in my life God had given me to reach His black children, a grace I had not asked for nor knew until then that I had.
For many years after that Africa seemed as far away as ever. The closest I would come was to occasionally preach in a black church. When I passed out tracks I was often drawn to go into black communities and found myself more at home there than in the white neighborhoods. I knew God was in this somehow, but for the longest time I couldn’t imagine how He would ever make much use of this grace He had given me in this area.
It was while I was serving as an assistant to Dr. David Reagan at Lamb & Lion Ministries that the door to Africa first swung open for me. Through an email relationship with a Kenyan pastor named Gideon Mudenyo the decision was made for me to go to Kenya and hold a church leadership conference and evangelistic meetings in the evenings. Years of bottled up yearnings and prayers were finally released in those five days of meetings. While the meetings were not on the Bonnke scale, for me they were far more than anything I had ever experienced. Hundreds came to Christ, many healings were reported, and the local churches gained significant growth as a result of the meetings. Once again my preaching seemed to have far more anointing and power than I ever experienced in the U. S. By the time the meetings were over I hardly needed the plane to fly home!
Since that first trip we have seen these blessings repeated many times in various African nations. Clearly Africa is a harvest field that is ripe and ready. We are certainly not the only ministry in the African harvest fields, nor the largest, but we are eager to do our part in gathering in the precious souls Jesus died for, and in equipping African pastors and church leaders. As a teacher my desire is to teach people from all the nations the Biblical truths relating to evangelism, revival, the Holy Spirit, the Last Days, and other cardinal doctrines that have become bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. But along with teaching God’s word to people from all over the world, I will always have a special passion for ministering to my African brothers and sister. Even though I do not feel the Lord would have me to travel to Africa at this point in my life, through video teachings and charity outreaches, I always want to be involved in the wonderful people of this great continent.
We were in Africa when Covid first surfaced in a big way in the United States. We feared we might not be able to make it back to the U. S. but thank the Lord, we did squeak into the country just before travel began shutting down. We knew that we would have to take a break from doing in-person African meetings, so we focused upon sponsoring missions in Africa, along with charitable work.
When Covid dissipated and travel became possible again, we did not find the green light from the Lord to resume our in-person missions. We now had enough African contacts that we could conduct missions through our friends, and save the money required for us to travel overseas as well as the hotel and food costs. And while I prayed about this significant transition, the Lord put it on my heart to create the “JESUS COURSE.” Here are the major African ministries we are now conducting:
THE JESUS COURSE
Benedicta and I have put together around twenty videos which all center on the Person of Jesus Christ: who He is, what He taught, what He did, what it means to abide in Jesus, and how we must keep Jesus central in all ministry, whether Sunday School classes or major evangelistic crusades, and everything in-between. We have assembled two teams, one in Nigeria and one in Kenya who will take these videos to various towns and cities and who will show them to pastors, church leaders, Bible teachers, or young people who feel called to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have purchased large-screen televisions and powerful speakers for these teams. For Africans, many of whom do not own televisions personally, the idea of being able to come together and watch these videos on large TV’s is exciting. And the meals we provide are a special bonus. This series normal runs for four days, usually Wednesday through Saturday.
FREE MEDICAL CLINICS
For Africans, sickness is just a normal part of life. Many will suffer from many bouts of Malaria. And because conditions are often not always sanitary, infections are common. Foul, unclean water can also be a problem. To make matters worse, many Africans need their income just to feed their families and pay their rent and often medical clinics are seen as a luxury they cannot afford. As a result, they will only see a doctor or go to a hospital or medical clinic during a life-threatening emergency, and sometimes not even then. So, when we hold a free medical clinic, they are excited and show up in large numbers. We see old and young people, and we see many eager Mommas who bring their little babies to be examined. Our medical clinics are limited, obviously. We cannot provide surgeries, for example. But just the knowledge that they or their little child will be seen by a medical professional gives them hope.
FOOD FOR WIDOWS
African widows are often in dire straits. There are few jobs and careers available for women, especially women who have reached middle age or older. Second, there is no government assistance, no welfare, and no food stamps. If you are poor, you had better have some child or relative who will help you, or you will simply starve. In some cases, the widows do have grown children who will take them in and provide their daily needs. But sadly, sometimes their grown children have scattered and don’t stay in touch, and in other cases the children are so desperately poor that they have little to give to the mother who raised them. The reality is that dirt-poor widows is a common component of African life. We cannot feed all the African widows, of course, but we can help the desperately poor local widows, known by the local pastors. And they are very grateful.
THIS IS OUR MISSION
This is what we do. We teach the Bible to people all over the world, and we minister to the Africans, both spiritually and materially. There are many ministries doing a lot of other activities, but this is what we do. It may be that in the future the Lord will lead us into new and different forms of ministry, but for now we fell confident that this is Christ’s calling and direction for us. We would love your support. It requires money to do what we do, and we could not continue for long if it were not for generous, kind-hearted people like you who will make regular donations to Spirit of Grace Ministries. Thanks for thinking of us!
Break the Chains!
Audio Devo: "Why is there suffering?"
People have debated this question for millennia. And we cannot speak concerning specific individual questions of suffering, but the Bible clearly speaks as to why suffering has always been a part of the human experience.
Missions Outreach
A major part of Spirit of Grace Ministries is our ministry in the great continent of Africa. In the above video Dennis shares exciting news about a recent mission which involved our “JESUS CONFERENCE,” plus a free medical clinic, and the provision of food for local widows in Bungoma, Kenya.
