Mama Marceline needed a miracle. Despite doctors’ visits, she wasn’t getting better. One day, she traveled 10 kilometers (6 miles) from her village, Élalé, to the neighboring village, Evodoula, to meet a local pastor. The pastor shared the gospel, and Mama Marceline accepted Christ as Savior. She realized that “when you have Jesus, you have life.”

Mama Marceline’s life immediately changed. God healed her and filled her with joy. She prayed that God would heal her friends and neighbors and that they would experience a new life like she had experienced. Mama Marceline also began praying for another miracle — a church in her village.

The 6-miles from Élalé to Evodoula was too far to walk every week and she could not afford a motorcycle taxi. She had no way to meet regularly with other believers, hear gospel-preaching, and she had no place to invite her neighbors.

“A church within walking distance is essential,” says AGWM Central Africa Area Director, Mike Ness. “If people don't have a healthy, gospel-preaching church within walking distance, they’re truly missing out on what God wants to do in and through them.”

God answered Mama Marceline’s prayers. A month later some land in Élalé became available, and her husband purchased it. They hastily constructed a thatch roofed shelter. Another believer, Boniface Nomo, came to lead the congregation.

The church in Élalé struggled. Many villagers were hostile to the gospel. They said that Boniface was an outsider and ignored him. The church remained small with only seven adults each Sunday.

Élalé’s water source was polluted. Villagers frequently became sick with typhoid fever, diarrhea, and dysentery. The village chief reported that, at any given time, 70% of the villagers were sick. AGWM Africa missionaries and their national church partners offered help.

Africa Oasis, a compassion and water-solutions resource of AGWM Africa, provided water filters. Missionaries David and Carol Schmidt took the filters to a distribution team.

After meeting with the Élalé chief, the distribution team, — led by Cameroonian pastor, Lawrence Kang, along with the Schmidts — went door to door, setting up filters and teaching villagers how to use them. At each house they shared the gospel. Pastor Lawrence used the filters as an illustration about how God purifies people from sin. “The filters offer clean physical water, but Jesus offers ‘living water,’” Pastor Lawrence explained.

When people began using the filters there was an immediate change in their health. Two weeks after the distribution, the chief reported an 87% reduction in sickness. As the people saw the church’s loving compassion, they accepted Boniface and invited him to share the gospel in their homes. The church grew from 7 to more than 50.

The newly enlarged congregation quickly outgrew the thatch-roofed shelter. They asked God for a better, permanent shelter from the rain and sun.

Africa Tabernacle Evangelism, another AGWM resource, raised the funds and supplied the materials to build a tabernacle, the steel frame for a church building. David and Carol Schmidt arranged to have the materials delivered to the site. With the help of a U.S. construction team, they built the steel structure.

For the two years Boniface had lived in Élalé and led the church, he felt God calling him to minister full time; but he had no training. Another AGWM Africa resource, Africa’s Hope, stepped in. Africa’s Hope is an education-oriented resource that supports professors and Bible schools across Africa. With help from Africa’s Hope, Boniface received a Bible education through the local Bible school. Boniface is now the pastor in Élalé.

Four years after Mama Marceline accepted Christ, her village has what many take for granted — safe drinking water, a healthy church, and a biblically trained pastor. Where once there was sickness and lostness, there is now clean water and a gospel-proclaiming church.

This radical change in Élalé is an illustration of what AGWM Africa missionaries work for: “A healthy church within walking distance of every African.”

“It’s good to be reminded of what planting a healthy church looks like,” says Ness. “All these people and ministries have helped establish a healthy church. And yet, you can also point back to one woman who prayed for a church.”

The mission of AGWM is to reach all peoples everywhere with the gospel. AGWM Africa is committed to fulfill this mission by partnering with the national church in planting healthy churches so every African can have access to the gospel. Because of this partnership, the national church in Africa is planting churches, proclaiming the good news, and seeing lives changed.

For more stories on church planting in Africa visit: Worldview V11 N2 - Flip PDF | FlipBuilder

By Alex Goodrich