Africa is a continent composed of 54 countries. As of 2016 it was reported that its population have reached 1.2 billion people, accounting for about 16% of the world’s population. With this large number of people, do you have an idea about the current mission and church situation in the African continent? How can we assess whether the people in Africa have known our Lord Jesus Christ and are worshipping in Bible-believing churches?
If you are interested to know more about African mission, this issue is for you! We have invited several authors to share their papers about missions in their own African country, for us to know and understand the most recent happenings in the churches and missions in the African continent. Through our authors, we can learn about the joys of the accomplishments in sharing the good news to our African brothers and also have a better understanding of the needs and shortcomings of the African church.
First, we have the paper of Dr. Uzo Obed “Dealing with the ‘One Mile Wide But One Inch Deep’ Syndrome: An African Initiative on Transformational Discipleship.” Second we have “Mapping and Missions Research in Africa, Thinking Out of the Box” by Pierre Wedepohl. Third, Dr. Emmanuel Nwachukwu wrote African Missions – My Story. Fourth “Mission Mobilization in Southern Africa is shared by Nicholas Osameyan. Next is “Malawian Missions: Rising Above Limitations” by Innocent Magambi. There is also Africa in Missions: Africa Doing Missions in Diaspora by Emmanuel Bediako, one of the papers he wrote before he went with the Lord. We also added a Ministry Report on the East West Center by Timothy K. Park and a National Report on Zimbabwe Missions by P. F. Moyo. A bonus is also included : an interview with Dr. Reuben Ezemadu.
These authors wrote to inform and challenge us that there are still a big chunk of tasks to reach the unreached and give churches to the unchurched in Africa. We are grateful to MANI for the assistance they provided for us to acquire permits in publishing our contents for the AMA 56th issue!