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.
Week of Prayer 2014
Churches share the task
Churches share the task
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
