The Lottie
Moon Christmas Offering® enables IMB missionaries to live and work at the
forefront of lostness and extend our witness through their full-time ministry. Southern
Baptists send missionaries from their churches, through IMB, to go into the
world making disciples in the name of Jesus. In that partnership, Southern
Baptists provide the funding to send and support these missionaries and their
ministries. The more resources they provide, the more missionaries can be sent.
Mike and Heather McAfee have
plans for putting wings on their vision to reach Abidjan with the Gospel.
This sprawling West African
city, getting on its feet again after a decade of war and turmoil, is not an
easy fix. As the economic capital of Ivory Coast, more than 6 million people
and 60 indigenous language groups live here.
“And that’s not counting the immigrants that come from
other countries such as Burkina Faso, Liberia, Ghana or Mali,” Mike says. But help has come
through U.S. churches committed to sharing this task. The McAfees envision
partnering Southern Baptist congregations in the U.S. with local Abidjan
churches.
“They would go into areas of
the city that do not have a Baptist presence and work together in evangelizing,
reaching out to the community, telling [Bible] stories … to start small groups
that will eventually become churches,” Mike explains. In July of
2013, Valley Baptist Church in Searcy, Ark., sent a team to explore partnering
in this sacred effort. Valley Baptist Church is now working with a local
congregation to plant a new church in the Attécoubé area of Abidjan.
“Our vision is to encourage our pastors [here] to look
outward where God is working in people’s lives and see if we can’t go there and
start planting churches,” Mike says.
Pray for the McAfees as they
tell the story of Jesus to the people of Abidjan and for U.S. churches sharing
in this task.
Pray for churches to be
planted in every corner of Abidjan.
Scripture to Claim: And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the
world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. Matthew 24:14
