Around the World, September 2016
Huambo — Children in Africa need Vacation Bible School too.
That’s what members of the Westover Hills Church of Christ in Austin, Texas, provided during a visit to this southern African nation, where Danny and Katie Reese, workers the church supports, serve on a mission team.
The Westover members taught children at an Angola-wide missionary retreat, Katie Reese said.
“As a mother of small children, sending our kids to such a well-crafted VBS program was one of the highlights of the retreat,” she said. “The Westover team also really enjoyed hearing stories of God’s work from missionaries all over Angola.”
HONDURAS
A worker with Mission Upreach teaches sign language in Honduras. Santa Rosa de Copán — In Matthew 13:9, Jesus said, “He who has ears, let him hear.” Mission UpReach, a ministry supported by Churches of Christ, works to teach the Gospel to those who cannot hear. The mission’s deaf ministry uses bright-green buses with “Iglesia de Cristo” (Church of Christ) on the front to draw individuals and families of this 27,753-soul community in to church.
In a recent newsletter, workers with the ministry detail their efforts to teach Honduran sign language (Lengua de Señas Hondureñas, or LESHO) to a young woman named Suri in the neighborhood of Barrio Belén. As a result, Suri’s parents and three of their children were baptized.
THAILAND
Khon Kaen — Businessmen, a university student and a retiree are among the participants in a weekend ministry training program launched by missionaries Kim and Rebecca Voraritskul.
The new program is an alternative to intensive programs that require students to sacrifice two years in training with little expectation of working full-time as a preacher, the Voraritskuls wrote in a recent newsletter. The missionaries will help pay for the student’s bus fare and gas to reach the program, plus meals during the training. The cost per month is roughly the same as supporting a full-time student, they wrote.
Celebrating rebirth in Africa
(PHOTO PROVIDED BY LAWRENCE ODURO)In the shadow of the African Renaissance Monument, a 160-foot statue outside the West African city of Dakar, Senegal, Christians gathered to discuss their continent’s rebirth through the Gospel. Members of Churches of Christ from more than 10 nations attended the seventh Africans Claiming Africa for Christ conference, discussing African-led evangelistic efforts.
Arnold Dzah, a native of Ghana, serves in Dakar and has helped plant new congregations in predominantly Muslim Senegal. The next conference is scheduled for 2020 in Swaziland.
Christians from Ghana, Nigeria and other parts of Africa review notes.
