Mama Marceline needed a miracle. Despite doctors’ visits, she wasn’t getting better. One day, she decided to travel 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 changed immediately. God soon 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 just like she had experienced. Mama Marceline also began praying for another miracle — a church in her village.

The 6-mile trek from Élalé to the Evodoula church 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.”

Wonderfully, 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 a small gathering of seven adults each Sunday.

Élalé’s water source was polluted and 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 filter team, — led by Cameroonian pastor, Lawrence Kang, along with the Schmidt’s — 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 shared.

When people began using the filters there was an immediate change in people’s 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.

As one need was met, another one became apparent. The newly enlarged congregation quickly outgrew the thatch-roofed shelter. They asked God for a better, permanent shelter from the rain and sun.

AGWM Africa worked with the national church to meet this need. 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.

God also met another need. 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, helped make a difference. Africa’s Hope is an education-oriented resource that supports professors and Bible schools across Africa. Cameroonian professors, who received support from Africa’s Hope, helped Boniface earn a Bible education through the local Bible school. Boniface is now the official 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 so good to be reminded of what planting a healthy church really looks like,” says Ness. “All these different pieces have helped establish a healthy church. And yet, you can also point back to one woman who prayed for a church.”

None of this is possible without the dedication of AGWM Africa missionaries and resources, African national churches, and local believers. Because of their efforts and partnership, we are planting churches, proclaiming the good news, and seeing lives changed.

By Alex Goodrich