The Church’s Current Situation in Africa

Church registration in Tanzania

We thank the Lord that we were finally able to successfully register the church with the Tanzanian government recently. Over the past one or two decades, various groups of people attempted to register the church in Tanzania. These people, including the Shanghai breakaway group and former church leaders who have since been excommunicated, tried to do so with ulterior motives. Thanks to the Lord’s protection, their attempts all failed. In 2022, we started looking for a reputable law firm to assist with this endeavour. We finally made progress earlier this year. Recently, we received news that the government is prepared to approve our church registration in Tanzania. The Lord works in mysterious ways at times, but everything will eventually come into fruition for the glory of His name.

Expansion of the pastoral work in Africa

Since the 1980s, we have been focusing on regular pastoral visits to spread the Gospel of Truth to various English and French-speaking countries across Africa. However, the pandemic necessitated a shift towards leveraging technology to support our pastoral and evangelistic efforts. We have adapted to this sudden change by sending audio and video recordings, as well as conducting online meetings, services and seminars. This digital approach has allowed us to stay connected with each other and continue our ministry despite the challenges posed by the pandemic.

We realised that a substantial number of brethren from China are scattered throughout Africa. Recognising this opportunity, we have made efforts to contact and gather these members for weekly online services. So far, we have organised online worship gatherings with members in Mauritania, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Botswana, Namibia and other countries. At the same time, we have still scheduled annual pastoral visits to maintain personal connections and support our community of faith. Moreover, through our Chinese brethren, we have been able to evangelise to their local workforce. By God’s grace, several individuals in South Africa have accepted the truth through this avenue and have recently been baptised into the church. We pray that the Lord will continue to guide and bless our Chinese brethren, enabling them to remain strong in their faith while living in foreign lands. May they also become conduits for evangelising to their local communities, sharing the Gospel of Truth with those around them.

Commissioning workers in Ghana

The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. It has never been easy to identify, train and ordain workers in Africa to labour for the Lord in this fertile continent. Since 1998, we have started to ordain preachers in Ghana. As time passes, a new batch of workers is desperately needed to replenish the gradually decreasing workforce. We thank the Lord that three brothers in Ghana have decided to dedicate themselves to full-time ministry. After several years of theological and practical training, these three brothers are now ready to be deployed. In April this year, they were officially commissioned as full-time workers of the church. We pray that God will guide their work and grant them the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit to continue the good fight in the spiritual battlefield.