Ministry Update: November 2007

Thou art coming to a King; large petitions with thee bring.
For His grace and power are such, none can ever ask too much…
John Newton

Dear friends,

Our petition is large indeed—approximately the size of Africa!

Pastors in Africa are pleading for our help.

Cults and aberrant Christian groups are preying on their flocks. Pastors want tools and training so they can recognize and resist them.

Few African pastors have formal theological training, or even a confident grasp of the Scriptures. Books, tracts, and other resources to help them understand and answer false teaching are practically nonexistent.

In answer to our prayers, urgency has met opportunity.

We’ve been invited to establish the Africa Center for Apologetics Research (ACFAR) in Kampala, Uganda. Lord willing, by this time next year, CFAR East Africa director John Divito will be in Kampala with his family. Still needed: $6,000 a month—basic support for a missionary family of six in this East African capital.

Can God do it? I’m firmly convinced that He can, and He will.

Especially if you pray.

Not long ago we were invited to South Africa to train pastors and seminary students in two cities next spring. We’re also sending materials to pastors in East and West Africa (one of whom is translating our manual on discernment into the Ewe language, spoken by millions in Ghana and Togo). And we’re being asked for help in dealing with Western issues you might not associate with Africa, like the “emerging church” movement and The Secret.

This summer my dear friends Jack and Vicki journeyed to southeastern Uganda on a church mission trip. Knowing they would spend two weeks among dozens of African pastors and ministry leaders, they asked CFAR for resources. We sent a load of manuals, pamphlets, and tracts to help these African believers recognize and resist the cults that are multiplying in their midst. When they returned, Jack and Vicki described the pastors’ response to the materials as “RAVENOUS.” This week one pastor wrote to them:

Indeed, we have serious problems with cults in Africa, particularly Uganda. There are foreign and indigenous cults which are causing serious problems to the Christians. Unfortunately, there are very few preachers who talk about cults….

Vicki, probably God brought us together so that the fight against cults may expand to Africa beginning with Uganda. Through your prayers and mine, God will open leaders’ and Christians’ eyes for them to see.

The cover story in the July issue of Christianity Today illustrates another dimension of the problem, lamenting that “the gospel of wealth now pierces the heart of Africa’s dynamic, growing church.” Already this year, tainted televangelists Morris Cerullo, Creflo Dollar, and Benny Hinn have brought their “crusades” to Uganda. This month a fresh wave of pastor-related scandals swept over the country as newspapers exposed fraud, theft, and sexual abuse at the hands of self-appointed pastors; ominously, the government is threatening to intervene. (Some Ugandans even express the wish that bloodthirsty dictator Idi Amin could return to give the charlatans savage justice.) Where the ministry of the Word is weak, confusion reigns. By God’s grace, you and I can help change this!

CFAR is unarmed without intercession. Lying ahead are obstacles and opposition we can hardly imagine now. Yet God has provided the means by which we can persevere—and prevail. Pastor and prayer warrior Stanley Gale writes:

Prayer brings us to the throne of grace for Christ’s resources against our spiritual enemy. Through it God grants us wisdom to discern, protection from spiritual harm, and grace to press on.

Prayer as a weapon of the spiritual warfare seeks the face of our Lord against an enemy that is strong, crafty, subtle, resourceful, and relentless. Such prayer is wielded in faith—faith that knows, trusts, relies on, and serves God.

The next major phase of battle is to establish the Center in Africa. And I’m praying daily that God will provide what is needed to send the Divito family to Uganda as soon as possible. Will you join me?

And will you and your church consider joining hands with the Divitos so the work of the Africa Center for Apologetics Research can begin?

A continent full of pastors is waiting.

In Christ our Hope,

Paul Carden, executive director

P.S. To begin partnering with us to send the Divito family and launch ACFAR, click here.