Africa

In Africa, foreign support may rob God of his role as sustainer

/ Phill

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DENNIS M. OKOTH

Across my homeland, Kenya, orphanages are springing up on a regular basis. Unfortunately, many of these are started for no other motive than to eat out of the hands of the underprivileged.

It isn’t just orphanages. Some African Christians have launched Bible schools and academies that exist only for the trapping of foreign aid. Money meant to feed the poor and educate young Christians has become a salary for those who solicit the funds.

Does this mean that American Christians shouldn’t support missions in Africa? No, far from that. All labor that uplifts human dignity and importance should be undertaken with the painstaking excellence that it deserves.

My concern is for African Christians who rely completely on foreign donors for their livelihood. Doing so robs God of his role as a loving father who should be fully trusted to provide for all of our needs.

In my years of experience as an educator and counselor, I have come to see clearly that some of my well-meaning brothers and sisters of the faith view God as an instrument of manipulation to meet their daily needs — a cash cow of some sort. They see the Almighty as someone who must be impressed to milk out material gains under the guise of a Christian ministry or project.

Some of my countrymen have started their own business enterprises and tagged them as “Christian ministries” in order to draw foreign financial support. To them, keeping their wallets continuously lined with the dollar is a sure way of making ends meet.

Deserving, needy children in our societies have been used as bait to win foreign sympathy and support in order to earn a healthy living.

Loving the poor truly is inherent to following Jesus Christ. But I have seen the dignity of many African Christians destroyed when they become dependent on foreign support.

The benefactors who collect and coordinate this support often don’t know the consequences of their actions. It sometimes takes years for those who bite the bait to realize that they have been duped. If one tries to wake them up to this reality, they become reluctant to admit their folly. Doing so would require them to acknowledge their error to the supporters who contributed to the work with a sincere desire to help.

To break this vicious cycle, we must train our young and vibrant Christian soldiers that God can meet their needs through the skills he has generously endowed on all his children. We must teach them that hard work pays.

Tentmaking is a noble endeavor that honors God. It also sends a positive message to the younger generation that God blesses hard work.

The devil, who is the enemy of God and his children, would like us to see God differently. This prompts me to ask a question to people in Africa and America: Who is God to you? On a daily basis, we decide whether God’s leadership is better than ours, whether or not he is the source of our joy.

The strongest determiner of how much we enjoy life here on earth is hinged on how we perceive God. If we perceive that God has our best interests in mind, we will follow his leadership in every circumstance. We will leave our survival in his hands — not in the hands of a foreign financial donor.

I believe it is time we say “no” to financial arrangements that could be working against us — both the beneficiaries and the donors. We must stand up for what is right, even if we stand alone.

DENNIS M. OKOTH, a native of Kenya, is principal of Messiah Theological Institute in Mbale, Uganda, and works with a mission team of Americans and Africans. He will serve as a dean at LivingStone International University, a  church-supported university under construction in Mbale. Used with permission

 181 new house churches planted by tentmakers

/ Steinar Opheim

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Steinar Opheim

African tentmakers who have gone through the tentmaking course developed by Global Opportunities and Tent have started at least 181 new prayer groups and house churches the past six years.

According to detailed reports presented by Africa-director Tiowa Diarra in Tentmakers International (TI), 3,751 persons have now gone through a limited version of the GO Equipped TENTmaking course. The course participants have reached out to 15,100 people with the gospel and 181 new, Christian fellowships have been started.

– We are still missing reports from several nations, so the real numbers of people being reached and fellowships being started is even higher than this, says Tiowa Diarra.

He has been a leading figure in the African tentmaking movement that has been emerging the past six years. In 2004 he made connections with Global Opportunities European sister agency, Tent, in order to arrange a tentmaking course in his home country Mali. Since then the development of the movement has been like an adventure. In 2007 Mali hosted the first ever All Africa Tentmaking conference with participants from 17 nations. The second All Africa Tentmaking conference was held in Cameroon last summer. At present TI has national representatives in the majority of the African nations. The tentmaking course has been recorded in both French and English and is now distributed on DVDs to the national leaders in the movement.

– The tentmaking strategy is a good fit for the churches in Africa. Through tentmaking even churches that have small resources can take part in the worldwide misson task, says Tiowa Diarra.

He is now making plans for a third All Africa Tentmaking conference that will be held in Tanzania in 2013.

– By arranging these international events in different parts of the continent, we can introduce even more people to the tentmaking idea, says Tiowa Diarra.

Who is Tiowa Diarra?

/ Ari Rocklin

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I first met Tiowa at the tentmaking–business as mission course in Bergen Norway earlier this year. We had worked together via email for some time, but now we finally got to spend time together.

Let me introduce Tiowa to you in this edition of TMB. 
I asked him to respond to these four questions.

1.    Who is Tiowa Diarra?

I am married to Madeleine and have five growing kids.

I graduated from Mali University with a Master in Education, from Yamoussoukro Bible Institute with a diploma, and from West Africa Alliance Theological Seminary in Côte d’Ivoire with an M DIV. Then started pastoral ministry in 1986. Since that date I have been engaged in various leadership positions in Mali such as National youth leader and General secretary of Evangelicals in Mali.

Together with other lay people, we founded Partners in Mission organization with the aim of bringing the Gospel to remote areas in Mali and to train nationals for tentmaking.

2.    How did you end up being All Africa Tentmakers International (TI) rep?

After the TI Bulgaria meeting, Partners in Mission reviewed all the materials and took a significant step by engaging  in Tentmaker training and Church leader mobilization for tentmaking mission. In April 2005 we held a mini conference in Bamako, then planned the first All Africa TI Conference for August 2007. The same year we held the very first tentmaker training  in collaboration with TENT of Norway. The next year, in Cape Town, I was appointed as “pioneer for African regions”

3.    How do you see the future of the tentmaking-business as mission (TEMBAM) movement in and from Africa?

There are specific results we can see after five years of TI operation: more than 1750 tentmakers missionaries have been trained and deployed all over Africa; most  of them are working on personal evangelism and church planting. When the capacity of Churches will be enhanced in the future, it is obvious more results will be reached. There is a good perspective of African Tentmakers operating within and outside the continent.  The African diaspora in Northern Africa, in the Middle East, in Europe and Asia includes potential tentmakers that need to be trained and deployed intentionnally for mission. 

4.    How can people learn more about TEMBAM Africa and how can they pray?

Africa TEMBAM is engaged in training and training materials development, church mobilization, strategic reflection on optimizing the potential of the African diaspora.

Thank you, Tiowa. It is a blessing to work with you and to know you as a friend.   Please pray for the upcoming 2nd ALL Africa TI Conference in Cameroon on August 12-15, 2010.

Ari Rocklin

Ed: Tiowa is helping GLOBAL Opportunities in a very meaningful way by responding to requests that come to us from Africa.