New 5-year program is up and running in Uganda

The DNA Local Network in Africa, called Transforming Nations Alliance, has launched a dynamic Church-Based Community Transformation project in Uganda, and preliminary reports show that transformation is on its way.

Last week, leaders from about 20 local Ugandan churches came together for an initial training, and the power of unity was easy to see:

“I have been a church leader for many years, but I have never sat or participated with other church leaders from different denominations, especially from my village, in a training. I now strongly believe that if we work together as believers, the kingdom of God will be advanced faster.” -Ugandan pastor

Brief overview of the program

Over the next five years, the DNA in Africa will partner with 40 rural and urban (Kampala) churches, equipping them to become powerful, kingdom change-agents, using their own resources to bring hope, love and healing while addressing the most critical needs in their communities.

The program will walk leaders from these 40 churches through 10 training modules that expand on these three general areas:

1. Overcoming cultural lies with biblical truth → The program uniquely integrates a wholistic approach to ministry with an emphasis on worldview transformation that identifies and replaces satanic distortions—the root causes of poverty and brokenness—with biblical truth.
2. Wholistic community outreach → Trained churches will apply what they’ve learned by reaching out to their communities through “Seed Projects” that demonstrate God’s love in practical ways, using local resources.
3. Developing basic life skills → Church members will receive trainings on health, money management, marriage and family, evangelism, and discipleship–all from a distinctly biblical perspective. They will be equipped to demonstrate these things to other community members.

A Ugandan church leader outlines a potential Seed Project for his church

A tested model of community transformation

The Church-Based Community Transformation model builds upon an exciting program in Southeast Asia that, over the past several years, has seen unprecedented community improvements and truly miraculous moves of God. Starting with 30 local churches, the program has now grown to include more than 700 churches. As a result of the training, churches and their communities have experienced an array of measurable, positive changes, including increased income, improved health, higher-quality primary education, decreased community conflict, increased conversion rates, increased church attendance, and increased tithing. Click here to read one amazing story! All of this has taken place in areas where the church is oppressed. Today, government officials acknowledge the positive impact these churches have brought to their communities.

For more details on the DNA’s Church-Based Community Transformation program,
please e-mail info@disciplenations.org.

Possessing the kingdom of God: A live presentation by DNA leader Hein van Wyk

The kingdom of God is a mysterious but central aspect of the Christian faith.

Out of the 40 parables Jesus taught to his disciples and to others within earshot, 18 specifically were about the kingdom. In the four gospels, the phrases kingdom of heaven or kingdom of God are referenced 97 times!

Hein van Wyk, part of DNA’s Global Leadership Team and an excellent teacher, gave perhaps the most thorough  explanation that we have seen of the kingdom of God at the 2013 DNA Global Forum in Brazil. Here, you’ll find his presentation in two parts. Please watch and share with your friends and colleagues!

Possessing the Kingdom (Part 1) by Hein van Wyk from Disciple Nations Alliance.

Possessing the Kingdom (Part 2) by Hein van Wyk from Disciple Nations Alliance.

About Hein van Wyk

Hein van Wyk’s passion is Christ and the establishment of His Kingdom in every area of life. For the last 17 years, he has facilitated Kingdom development as it relates to leadership formation, collaboration initiatives, community upliftment, mission mobilization and strategic planning.  He has been a conference and motivational speaker on topics that include worldview, transformational development, missions, prayer and partnership.

Hein resides in South Africa and ministers nationally as well as internationally. In addition to serving on the DNA’s Global Leadership Team, he works from the platform of Hope for Africa Strategic Alliances and serves as Samaritan Strategy Africa‘s regional coordinator for southern Africa, as well as Africa director for both Churches Together and Experience Mission.

Hein is married to Helene and has three children: Jannandi (24), Heilene (20) and Daneiko (13).

Contact Hein at hein@hopeforafrica.co.za.

Vision Conference coming up in South Sudan, May 2013. Join us!

All are invited to a DNA Vision Conference to be held in Rumbek, South Sudan at the end of May. These conferences have a history of sparking life-changing vision, new ideas and partnerships. Please join us and pass this on to anyone who might be interested!

The Republic of South Sudan became an independent nation on July 9, 2011.

Contact Karobia Njogu (karobia.njogu@cms-africa.org)
with any questions.

A Family Story

DNA is a family of associate ministries, and one of those family members is Harvest. Harvest staff member, Chris Ampadu, also serves as DNA coordinator for West Africa. In recent months, God has opened many doors for him to share the biblical worldview with the staff of Mercy Ships, a Christian organization that brings healthcare–aboard giant ships–to those most desperate for it.

On February 17, U.S. television network CBS aired an excellent segment on Mercy Ships. Click here to watch the full segment.

“Spend a few days as we did, aboard the Africa Mercy, and you will see how two worlds meet: at the intersection of courage and compassion,” says reporter Scott Pelley from CBS’s long-running television news program, “60 Minutes.”

“Someone has to look at them; someone has to tell them that ‘You’re human, and I recognize that in you….’ It gets to a point where you cannot see it anymore. You don’t see the tumor, you just can see the person’s eyes … or if they only have one eye, because the other one is a tumor, you find their eye, and you find a way to connect with them.”

The ministry of Mercy Ships extends far beyond the physical realm. Last year, Chris Ampadu began training hundreds of people in the biblical worldview through this ministry. Mercy Ships crew members, local government officials, pastors and church leaders have received biblical-worldview training through this fruitful partnership.

The majority of those trained have been from a Muslim background, making this collaboration even more exceptional.

“This week, we had a wonderful conference for pastors and church leaders with almost 600 participants,” Chris said of a recent Mercy Ships invitation to Guinea. “Interestingly, the conference was held at Winners Chapel which was attacked by Moslems last few weeks. Now, the church has a solution–to love their Moslems brothers, and they have made plans to initiate seed love actions towards them … they have no option than to love them!”

In the months to come, watch for more stories about Chris and his partnership with Mercy Ships!

After a decade in the field, an American missionary has the ‘scales removed from his mind’

Philip Renfroe compares the years after his “second conversion” to waking up early in the morning and walking through a very thick fog. As the day progresses, the fog lifts, but early on, you can’t see where you are or where you’re going.

“Even though I had been a missionary for over 10 years,” he says, “in my heart, I cried out and said, ‘Lord, I had no idea I was blind from these things. But I’m asking you to remove the scales from my mind and to help me see the truth from a biblical-worldview perspective.’”

After working for years as a medical doctor in a rural Kenyan hospital–a 300-bed facility serving half a million people–Philip learned new things about Kenyans that changed his whole perspective.

All of this resulted unexpectedly from a great trial facing Philip’s Christian colleagues. But isn’t that just how our God loves to work–to take a hopeless, difficult situation and turn it into something profound and life-changing?

While working through a difficult conflict in the ministry, one of Philip’s colleagues suggested seeking outside counsel. Dennis Tongoi was brought into the picture–he is DNA’s representative in East Africa and the leader of DNA’s partner Samaritan Strategy Africa.

Instead of discussing strategy, budgets and business, Dennis talked about what it means to have a biblical worldview. He explained the impact of animism on African churches and the impact of humanistic secularism on Western churches, giving specific examples that resonated with Philip and his group.

“He was answering questions that I had as a North American missionary well over 10 years,” says Philip. “As he was talking, I can still picture in my mind sitting in the chapel of this Bible college where we were meeting … and the Holy Spirit came to me and said, “Philip Renfroe, you are a secularist.’ I knew in my heart that the Holy Spirit was right.”

Dennis encouraged the ministry leaders to change their whole approach to this certain problem, but his involvement didn’t stop there.

“Dennis Tongoi is a dear friend; I love him as a brother,” Philip says. “God has used him as a mentor to me.”

A few months after meeting, Philip attended a DNA Vision Conference led by Dennis. He soaked up more DNA teachings on biblical worldview and seed projects, deciding his missions organization, World Gospel Mission (WGM), needed to hear these things.

Infiltrating the organization

Philip and Dennis organized another Vision Conference, this time for 70 Africa Gospel Church leaders and 30 WGM missionaries. Out of that grew a vibrant ministry at the local Bomet Prison (learn more about that).

Philip’s next plan was to have Hubert Harriman, president of WGM, meet Dennis. This came to fruition in the lobby of a Nairobi hotel.

“As I sat and listened to him,” recalls Hubert, “the illustrations he used and his thoughts, it reminded me a lot of [famed theologian] John Wesley.”

Dennis (top right) conducts “Trainer of Trainers” workshops as a strategic way to multiply DNA teachings.

Hubert, a former pastor, began to see what Dennis meant by “humanistic secularism”–how he and the Western church had set a division into something that meant to be whole.

There are two rails, Hubert says: the rail of the spiritual (holiness) and that of the social (people’s needs). The tendency is to separate the two.

“I had the same tendency and realized these rails run together; they make a track. If we don’t run these two rails together–parallel–we will get off track,” Hubert says.

WGM is an organization more than 100 years old; an establishment like that doesn’t change quickly. But when its top leadership experiences a head-and-heart change, as Hubert did, movement can be swift.

Hubert and other top leadership dove deeper into DNA teachings, assembling a conference with 20 WGM country directors from around the world to talk about integrating physical and spiritual ministry. The board of directors then agreed to adopt a more intentional focus on wholistic community transformation, with Philip in charge.

This plan enables WGM field workers to go back to established churches and help them discover how to minister wholistically to their communities. New missionaries not yet deployed will be trained as well, and even the 30-plus employees in WGM’s administrative office in Indiana will have a two-day training this coming January.

Hubert wants to show churches: “Let’s not just deal with these four walls; there’s a community around you.”

Contact Philip Renfroe or Hubert Harriman at wgm@wgm.org.

DNA’s work in Africa: Finalist for World Magazine award

Last week, World Magazine released this year’s finalists for its prestigious Hope Award for Effective Compassion, and we were so excited to see the work of Chris Ampadu, West Africa Coordinator for Samaritan Strategy Africa (SSA), selected as the only international ministry on the list!

Read the full article here.

Chris, a native of Ghana, was one of the first DNA trainers in Africa. After attending a Vision Conference in 1999, he walked away from a successful business career to be mentored by DNA co-founder Darrow Miller. He has been a highly effective trainer and mentor of church leaders in West Africa since. Today, Chris serves on staff with Harvest.

Chris (right) is on the leadership team of Samaritan Strategy Africa. SSA and DNA share the same mission: To encourage, prepare and equip local churches with a Christian worldview (mind-set) to carry out wholistic ministry in their communities.

Since 2005, Chris and his fellow SSA colleagues have worked to raise up indigenous training teams in every African nation. Since they began:

• More than 400 African trainers have been certified
• National training teams now exist in 26 African nations
• More than 600 Vision Conferences have been conducted
• Nearly 30,000 African pastors and church leaders have been trained
• Thousands of Seed Projects have been implemented

These African leaders offer a shining example of DNA’s prayer to see local believers catch a vision for their communities and run with it in a way that multiplies impact.

The Hope Award began with 200 nominations, from which five finalists were selected. Each finalist received a $4,000 prize, and votes from the public will determine who wins the $21,000 grand prize.

World Magazine’s editor-in-chief, Marvin Olasky, and his wife saw Chris’ work first-hand earlier this year.

Click here to cast your vote by September 30!

SSA’s mission aligns perfectly with World Magazine’s criteria for the contest: “programs that are not just evangelical and not just economic, but unite body and soul.”

A full-length article in the September edition explains: “DNA sees Christian worldview teaching as the missing link between evangelism and economic development. Without that understanding, Africa’s Christianity takes a gnostic form, with extravagant worship on Sunday but no connection between that and their lives the rest of the week, or between the spiritual and the material.”

DNA is privileged to partner with Chris and SSA, acting as a behind-the-scenes catalyst and supporter for this movement which continues to gain speed. Just a few months ago, three new teams took root in Niger, Benin and Lesotho.

If you’d like to vote for Samaritan Strategy Africa to win this $21,000 prize, please do so here. To financially support the spread of a biblical worldview across Africa, give through our website (choose dropdown “DNA’s work in Africa”).

If you give $30 or more, we’ll send you a free copy of Against All Hope: Hope for Africa, written conjointly by the DNA and SSA.

A “new” way of evangelism takes root in West Africa

Indeed, wholistic ministry really is the oldest tool for evangelism–Jesus invented it. But in West Africa, where “open-air crusades” have been a preferred method for so many generations, today’s Christian leaders are discovering the power of extending Jesus’ love to the whole person, operating from a biblical worldview.

“The reception to our message was just overwhelming, and participants called for more time since it has been just a day’s vision casting,” says Chris Ampadu, a DNA partner working in Ghana.

In the past couple of months, Chris has helped conduct in Ghana:

• a mentorship program for Christian professionals from six countries.
• a training for 169 church leaders on “Love Action as a Tool for Evangelism.”
• an annual Wholistic Club meeting with 10 leaders, each of whom has 30-60 members demonstrating God’s love in profound ways at the grassroots level.
• presentations on wholistic ministry to more than 800 evangelistic leaders, followed by new plans for a four-day Vision Conference.

“A church elder from Katanga said [the church’s] demonstration of love to the needy and poor has shocked many people in the village such that two Moslems and three animist women have joined the club, saying they have never seen poor people coming out of their poverty to show such compassion and love,” Chris says.

Footprints at Vastfontein: Hope for Africa Vision Conference

We are grateful to Samaritan Strategy Africa for their permission to reprint the following report.

Hein van Wyck facilitates

Hein van Wyk facilitated Biblical Worldview and Transformational Development training at the Vastfontein School for Church Planting April 11-13, 2012. Participants came from various places in South Africa, including Parys, Hammanskraal, and Kwamhlanga.

Vastfontein is located 40km north of Pretoria and is surrounded by Hammanskraal and Soshanguve.

Vastfontein Community Transformation started in 1998 with a vision of releasing the potential in people to reach a bigger dream and a bigger future. The initiative has grown from a modest Christian school into a well-grown initiative that includes child care centres, the Batho Pele Christian School, a clinic, the School of Church Planting and diverse cross-cultural events focusing on transformation, education and AIDS awareness (www.vastfonteintransformation.co.za).

Africa has been mightily blessed. Her natural resources make her the wealthiest continent on earth. She possesses a rich heritage as the womb of the Judeo-Christian faith and her people, made in the image of God, hold enormous potential as developers of the Continent.

Despite the potential and blessings, rich natural endowments and unimaginable abundance, Africa is ravaged by poverty, disease, corruption, and conflict. This is the heartbreaking paradox that haunts the psyche of many Africans. For years international aid and development agencies have tried to deal with these problems—with limited success. A predominantly animistic worldview holds sway over the minds of many Africans—a worldview that sees man as a victim of nature, of other people, or of fate. This mindset shifts responsibility for Africa’s social ills to the spirit realm, leaving individuals little hope or motivation for working towards a better future.

Johannes Aucamp facilitates

During the training the concept of worldview was discussed at length. The training included an overview of God’s transforming story and the critical importance of a biblical understanding of man, history, and creation for the development of communities and nations. In addition to seeing how worldview works, the training explores how the Church has abandoned the biblical worldview and the consequences of that for our understanding of the nature of the Church and the Great Commission.

Through Biblical worldview spectacles, the training looked at the fundamental building blocks of culture. Satan lies not only to individuals, but also to nations. He replaces Kingdom building blocks of culture with his counterfeit building blocks, resulting in the impoverishment and enslavement of nations. During the conference participants had the opportunity to start dealing with lies believed in their own culture.

The Role of the Church in Society was discussed at great length; a role that includes the penetration of cultures through Biblical Truth, saturating communities by demonstrating God’s love in practical, sustainable ways and lastly to occupy all the domains of society through service.

Until next time; Soli Deo Gloria!

New Samaritan Strategy Africa Team in Tanzania

Dennis Tongoi, leader of Samaritan Strategy Africa, and his associate, Karobia Njogu, recently traveled to Morogoro, Tanzania on behalf of Samaritan Strategy Africa. The purpose of the trip was to launch a Tanzania team and introduce a Kiswahili training guide.

Samaritan Strategy Tanzania now has a leadership team and 20 trainers to independently facilitate Vision conferences in Kiswahili. Each has been to at least three vision conferences and have implemented seed projects in their communities. They each had very inspiring stories of obedience to Christ in loving their neighbour.

Dennis reports that one of those stories is that of Stephen Mbithi, a Kenyan missionary based in Arusha.

Stephen was at the very first vision conference held in Moshi in 2007. He has been to every vision conference since and has completed the TOT.

In his community the deaf and dumb are avoided and scorned as cursed. Following a vision conference he chose to start a church for the deaf and dumb. He now has a congregation of 50. Last month one of them lost a child and because the local community scorns them, nobody was willing to participate in the burial. Stephen and his church chose to take full responsibility of the burial – securing a coffin, feeding the family and neighbours during the mourning period, and burying the child. Members of the community were amazed at this demonstration of God’s love for the deaf. As a result six community members have begun to attend church on Sundays in Stephen’s Church.

Dennis says the need now is to visit the various seed projects and document the stories for the encouragement of others.

Samaritan Strategy Tanzania Team

What Was Behind Door 4

Rev. Meshak Okumu is Project Manager for Samaritan Strategy Africa and serves on the faculty of Carlile College in Nairobi. After declining three invitations (in 2000, 2001, and 2002) to attend Vision Conferences, he finally took a group of pastors to a 2003 training session … only to find out it was a DNA Vision Conference!

As Meshack says, “I think it was a good mistake for me to get to this whole idea of the DNA program!”

That Vision Conference, facilitated by Dennis Tongoi, was just the beginning. In this video, Meshak relates his journey from dualism into wholism.