Dear Friends,

Developing the Church of God in Africa

To follow on from the New Moon message, which reflects the difficulties and responsibilities of the officers and members of the Church of God in Africa and the responsibility of those chosen to represent and govern the countries, we will discuss what God is doing in developing the churches there.

What is most important in dealing with the problems there and elsewhere is the fact that all members of the Church of God must overcome in their situations. A good example of the problem of overcoming is to be seen in the development of CCG in Uganda. Uganda was torn by violence and war for a number of years from the 1980s to the 1990s. An example of tragedy and overcoming can be seen in the lives of the officers there.

The coordinator there is quite young. He was born in Hima Town Council area of Kasese District of Western Uganda. His name is Bizimana Bosco. His parents were both Roman Catholics who were killed by the rebels in 1997. He was left orphaned with his two elder sisters. His aunt assisted him with the fees to finish secondary school. He had to supply the materials, which was an effort. His father owned sufficient land and he and his sisters were able to grow maize and obtain their school materials to finish.

He became an Adventist studying the Sabbath and he attended the Adventist School in the Ishaka Bushenyi District. He obtained his Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) from Naalya Secondary School Namugongo, Wakiso. He also obtained a Diploma of Project Planning & Management (PPM) Mbarara Institute for Social Development. This was to prove useful in his later aid programs. He also completed studies in Software & Hardware Maintenance at Aptech Computer Training Centre, Kampala and in Risk Management & Insurance Training, at CMF Owino Branch

He met his wife Nyirabageni Odette who was also a Seventh Day Adventist and they were married in 2006. She had been studying CCG materials and she introduced him to the CCG doctrines and the extended plan of God as detailed in the Calendar and to CCG doctrines and its theology on the Nature of God. They have a young boy. Nyirabageni also had lost her mother who was killed by the rebels in 1986. She was raised an Adventist in Uganda and Bizimana found her support of great effect. From their web access they saw how they could establish a CCG church in their area and proceeded to contact CCG in order to do that.

The conflicts in 1996, 1997 and 2000 left many orphans and many dead and disadvantaged. With three parents killed in the hostilities they both began to help the widows and orphans and others in their area. They are involved in a maize milling program to assist in the food problems and assistance programs there. They were also in cooperation with Gicondo Ndugu who became the coordinator of the CCG Group at Kakiri, Uganda. They all work together in a spirit of cooperation simply to protect and help those most desperate among them to survive. This is the sense of cooperation and overcoming that is so necessary to the Churches of God in Africa. The story is similar through Rwanda and Burundi and the Congo DR and in Kenya and Tanzania.

CCG in Africa is made up from people of vastly different tribal groups from Pygmies to Hutu to Tutsi and Luo, Kisii and Kikuyu and all sorts of tribal groups all over Kenya and into Tanzania and all the way to Kinshasa in the Congo DR. They are composed of the tribes of Nigeria, and Ashanti/Fante in the West. They come from vastly different church backgrounds and speak different local languages but most are multi lingual and are able to communicate with one another.

A number have trained to be Catholic Priests. Many Adventists have joined CCG as well as Baptists and a great many other faiths including Muslims both in Sub Saharan and North Africa. We would have many more churches all over the world in larger numbers if we relaxed our doctrines on Vegetarianism and the Passover wine, but God does not want numbers. If He wanted numbers He would convert the entire Christian Church as well as Islam. He has not chosen to do so. Others have been in the Churches of God for decades and have seen all the sadness of the rent a crowd churches of the WCG break up with all the travelling circus mentality of that system.

In West Africa the headquarters groups that have joined us are what is in effect the original WCG system there. In the East of Nigeria they are from Aba, from Calabar and the Northern Regions. The senior elder there, James Udofia, has been a minister of the Church of God since he was ordained over 40 years ago by WCG. The other elders there are John Emeka of Aba and Inyene Mbakara in charge of the Northern Regions. They are all WCG ministry of very long standing. The church there left WCG in 1995 over the apostasy and formed a separate legal body. They have remained true to the faith. They sought contact with CCG in early 2007 after teaching CCG materials for the last three years. This week they went to Lagos to meet the West Nigerian ministry there under Richard Umo who has been in the WCG and offshoot system for many years.

They will coordinate CCG in West Africa, which will include the Church in Ghana located from Tema near Accra under Wisdom Samlafo. The Ghana group members are of Baptist background under a Baptist trained minister.

Our task now is to get the West Africans set up to do this larger and most important task.

The diversity in Africa is truly amazing. Some of our people came out of paganism and animism. Some had parents that were sold into slavery and abused by fetish priests and purchased out of it. Some were raised in polygamous families, both Pagan and Muslim.

In all these times of stress and deprivation and war these people have been honed down in the fires of adversity and are being tested for the faith. They have been called in when it has been time to deal with them. Some have failed. Most have overcome and are proceeding to develop a community that will stand before Christ and give an answer for their conduct and the way that they discharged their duties in the administration of the work. Many are babes in the faith and need help and instruction. Some do not even have Bibles. Some are widows and orphans. Some are ill from malaria and other diseases and from malnutrition.

We need to help all people around the world to develop the faith and their power in the Holy Spirit for the coming of the Messiah.

Please pray for us all in all walks of life and those who have need to help those who have not. It is important to help those who have nothing as when they are given the means to participate they can help others and enjoy a richer more fulfilled spiritual life.

Those who are helped have an obligation to help others of their nations and our missionary activities to overcome and obtain the necessities of life.

Ask God to help us all to develop in mind, body and spirit.

Remember we are all part of one body, which is the body of Christ as the Temple of God.

Wade Cox

Coordinator General