Letter from Niangoussou UMC to Christ UMC MOBILE AND SAINT JOHN ALABAMA Mobile.

 Message from Niangoussou church. 

"My soul bless the Lord! May all that is in me bless his holy name!

My soul, bless the Lord, and do not forget any of his blessings! "

(Psalms 103; stanzas 1 and 2)

 it has been given to you to glorify the name of our Lord and Savior JESUS ​​CHRIST in our village.

We at this moment come to greet you and thank you for the tremendous and beautiful Church that you offered to us in the Niangoussou, the community of the province of Jacqueville. May our God reward you beyond your expectations. We apologize to you for leaving you for a long time without giving you our news.

Our small community is getting bigger every day. The missionaries assigned to us carry out their evangelistic work honorably. Currently, it is the missionary Madame Grah Béatrice who is stationed there under the supervision of Pastor Baba and the Very Reverend Suzanne Sédji, superintendent of the District of Jacqueville.

At the start, there were about ten of us. At present, our community has about thirty members. Charity is observed between us and also towards other members of the village who are in need.

Every day we do morning and evening cults, and every Sunday of

district preachers come to officiate our celebration. We often have prayer vigils, religious film screenings, and visits to many choirs throughout the year.

Currently, the Akouri people have four Methodist missions fields in our eleven villages. There is still a lot to do. The Akouri people are among the many peoples still unreached by the Bible.

We expect to give you an inventory at least once a year.

Please accept, Mr. President of the Alabama Annual Conference, our gratitude and best regards in Jesus Christ, our Lord, and our Savior.

Mission and many crucial needs at the same time

               Mission and many crucial needs at the same time

 

Access to clean water and sanitation infrastructure has a direct impact on key health, education, and other social outcomes. Many villages in Divo area are facing to have clean water. Climate change and an increase in unpredictable and extreme weather is a growing challenge. The country has now a long periods of drought  which affect clean water supplies while flooding can pollute clean water sources and cause outbreaks of disease.

The clean drinking water project have a positive impact. From improved access to safely managed WASH services, to healthy behaviours adopted by communities, to a strengthened role for artists’ groups as change leaders, and increased social capital, all resulting in healthier and happier communities. We are in need to provide clean water to 25 villages and construct small churches. 

 

Our mission is to ensures that water and sanitation facilities are available and sustainably managed in the vulnerable communities in which we are planting new churches.

Let’s stand together as a church of Christ, and provide safe water and sanitation for the most vulnerable communities in Cote d’Ivoire  through innovative partnerships, creativity and life-changing together.

                                                                                Jean Claude M. Maleka

for any partneship possibility send your e-mail: 

  jmaleka@umcmission.org or malekamasuka@gmail.com

 

                                                      

                                            Testing children before the worship program.

Clean Water is a need

 

Clean Water is an extreme need in many villages.  Our visions are to give access to live’s basic needs, including clean water and nutritional food. Pray for the project and you can champion in raising funds to give hope to humanity. You can spread the love by your generous gifts. 

You can support by contributing to our advance number #3021990. at www.umcmission.org  link

 https://advance.umcmission.org/p-511-evangelism-and-church-planting-project.aspx 

Preaching the Gospel everywhere. All cultures matter to God.

 Preaching the Gospel everywhere. All cultures matter to God.

                            The picture at Kouassiblekro village. 

Preaching the gospel among people of different cultures needs the capacity to adapt to another culture. It is a process of adjusting with patience and, in some cases, with culture shock. When these happen in the new communities, we start learning. When we compare our culture with the new one, we might be shocked, but when we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us in the process of entering the new culture, that will happen. Hierbert said, “God is not a tribal God, but the God of the world; that the gospel is for everyone; and that the church is one body that breaks down the walls of ethnicity, class, and nationalism that divide humans into warring camps.”[1]

            Missionaries should be Christians who are open-minded, who are able to accept people as they are. In doing so, they will have an opportunity to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Missionaries are called to love all people in their place of assignment.

            It is important for missionaries to have knowledge in social sciences such as anthropology, sociology, psychology, and history. These sciences have tools to understand people and their culture better. Though I speak Kiswahili, my Kiswahili spoken in Congo is different from Kiswahili spoken in Kenya and Tanzania. While preaching in Kenya, I was using a translator to avoid any misunderstanding with the community. Hiebert says, “anthropology can provide us with many insights into such specific mission tasks as bible translation.”[2] It also helps missionaries to understand the processes of conversion. 

                         Missionary Francine sharing food in Alepe village. 

            Love is the key to open a new community. A missionary must give love through words and good works while sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. Each culture has its values, norms, and customs which the missionary should learn and respect for him or her to be able to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the new community. When the missionary shows respect toward the values of the new community, it allows the community to accept him or her.  

            Living in a foreign country allows the missionary to learn humility and solidarity. A new community is a place where the missionary should learn to practice humility, respect, and listening to others. God is present in all the processes where the missionary is trying to adjust in the new community. God always sends people to the missionaries, so that they can advise and teach them. Living in a foreign country needs the attitude of a student who wants to learn, and that of a teacher who want to teach. If we listen to the local voice, God will give us the opportunity to find our entry point into the new community. 

            Elmer says, “The ways we are effective in culture are also the primary ways we serve others. We serve people be entering into relationship of love and mutual commitment. As the apostle Paul says, we loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well (1 Thess 2:8).[3]

            When missionaries felt the capacity to enter in relationship with local people, they will not have a chance to serve longtime on their place of assignment. When we develop an attitude of servanthood, we can work like Jesus who came in the human form to live among humans (Jn 1:14) and served in Jewish culture. 

            To serve in another culture, a missionary should behave humbly and avoid exhibiting superiority over others. Only by being humble can we connect with other people. When missionaries serve in a different cultural background, they should develop the attitude of welcoming people in their presence, communicating with respect with other people. They should learn to build relationships based on trust with local people. We are not just teaching others, but we also learn from others while serving. For instance, in my case, I have learned to mobilize local resources from my place of assignment, Cote d’Ivoire, to my supporting churches in the US. Mission field in another culture is an opportunity to serve Jesus and grow spiritually and socially. 

            It helps to form growing and deepening relationships with people and with God. Elmer says, “when God chose to connect with human, he did so as a servant.”[4] While serving in a new culture, a missionary should be a servant like Jesus. In my experience as a missionary, I have developed the humility to work local leaders, to allow myself to grow and serve them. 

            If a missionary learns the local language, it will open the door for him or her to understand more about the community. Language is a powerful tool to share the Gospel and receive feedback. Ruffle says, “learning a new language calls for a sense of humor and good dose of self-deprecation.”[5] This is just to insist the importance to learn the new language. 

If you are willing to support missionaries, please visit our Global Ministries at www.umcmission.org and give it to advance #3021390 for Jean Claude or #3022068 for Francine. Our project advance is #3021990. Thank you. 

Our Prayer requests: 

Pray for our supports for us to continue on this journey.
Pray for evangelism and church planting ministry.
Pray for all our collaborators.
Pray for our Children (BERTHE AND EPHRAIM) for their studies. Pray for water for life ministry to have sponsors.

Pray for our health.
We are in need to raise friends to our vision as well as to raise funds to keep us serving in God’s mission. If you are willing to support us financially, send a check

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[1] Hiebert Paul G. 1985. Anthropological Insights for Missionaries. Baker Academic. Grand Rapids, Michigan. P 9-10.

[2] Ibid. 15. 

[3] Elmer, Duane.2006. Cross-cultural Servanthood, serving the world in Christlike Humility. IVP Books, Downers Grove, Illinois.  p13. 

[4] Ibid.21. 

[5] Ruffle Douglas. 2016. A missionary Mindset. Discipleship resources. Nashville. p. 74

The Mission of God's People is for the entire church.

The Mission of God People.

After reading Wright’s book the Mission of God's People. I would like to share my thought. The Mission of God People is through and through a Biblically based book. It is thoroughly theological. It is not dull, however. It is theology for a living. He says, "No theology without missional impact; no mission without theological foundations."

Wright explains to us why we were created, and why we have been re-created in the new birth. There is a goal in it all. That goal is to bring glory to God. From Adam to Abraham to us, and to the ages to come, the mission of God's people is to magnify the greatness of God.
Wherever we go, and whatever we do, we are to love, worship, value, honor, and demonstrate the worth of God. That is the Mission of God's People. It's not simply something that we do: it's who we are. It is our identity. It is our calling.

As God's people, Wright argues that the mission of God entrusted to us is "God's determination, through the whole biblical narrative, to bring about the redemption of his entire creation from the ravages of sin and evil."[1]

God’s Mission to Be Known

The purpose of God is to be known. God’s desire to be known is observed most clearly in two Old Testament events: the exodus and the exile. In both occasions, in salvation and judgment, we see God’s passion make himself known to the world through his interactions with his chosen people. Ultimately, both events point forward to Jesus, who will fulfill the mission of the God of Israel.

The African context: God’s mission with the people called The Methodists.

Our God’s mission is to make disciple of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. New church starts are a priority for The United Methodist Church.  A critical path in making disciples for Christ requires venturing into communities where no vital church exists. It also calls for healthy churches to branch out and assist in planting new ones. New Church Starts is a team of leaders drawn from local church whose mission is to train and equip new church planters who will start new congregations throughout the continent. The immediate objective is to train and equip many  church planters who will start many churches we can.

New Church Starts is simply about reaching out to more people with the Good News. God is calling us to multiply vital ministry in ways that will reach more people, more young people and more diverse people in our communities. The mission of The United Methodist Church is to “Make Disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world” (Matt. 28:18-20; Matt. 22:36-40). This mission will be achieved through vital congregations that equip and empower people to be disciples of Jesus Christ in their homes and communities around the world.

What involve the mission of God’s people?

The mission of God's people involves the whole church. Mission is not just for missionaries. God is a sending God, and knowing him means being sent into the world on his mission. God is the one who created mission, who can audits it,  who can governs it, and who can redeems it.

What it means for the whole church to be engaged in God's mission: The answer is serving God and blessing others wherever we are living and working.  Christians are always participating in God's mission, just by the way that we live. Therefore, "there is no biblical mission without biblical ethics."

The mission of God's people proclaims and demonstrates the whole gospel. We must resist false dichotomies. The gospel is historical and ecclesial, faith and obedience, a message to be heard and to be lived, personal and cosmic, etc. One of the reasons why Christians truncate the gospel is that we are looking only at portions of the Bible.

The mission of God's people needs to be grounded in the whole Bible, the whole story of Scripture.
The mission of God's people is oriented toward the whole world. If we draw our mission from the entire Bible, our mission will be geared inevitably toward the entire world. By the whole world, Wright means all of the creation as well as every nation. Wright indicates how creation care tests our motivation for mission and embodies a biblical balance of compassion and justice. In addition to creation care, the mission of God's people also includes serving society in all spheres, whether economic, political, legal, familial and others. Of course, God's mission also includes proclaiming the gospel through preaching and teaching, with the ultimate goal that others will join us in praising and worshiping our glorious God.

If you are interested to support the work of church planting, and evangelism, please you can contact me at jmaleka@umcmission.org or malekamasuka@gmail.com;  for further information. 

You are all called to be in God's mission. THANKS BE TO GOD

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[1] Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God's People (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan,
2010), 17).