Sudanese Alliance Church is Born

The EMERALD (Europe and Middle East) Region of the AWF (Alliance World Fellowship) sent one of the young scholars trained this past year to impart the DNA of the Alliance to a city in North Africa to introduce more than 40 refugee believers from another background to our history and distinctives.

Two days of training engendered great excitement as the two-pronged foundation of our movement was shared: a passion to reach the lost, and living a life of holiness the way the Lord worked through our founder, A.B. Simpson. The fit of the Alliance began with a focus on the Italian refugees of New York and is perfect with our four refugee fellowships. Our brother was elated to meet the Sudanese people and embraced them warmly dispelling cultural gaps as an Arab Christian with our people who escaped genocide at the hands of leaders trying to force a culture and religion upon them. The Lord’s presence was everywhere present, and the meetings concluded with one of our leaders washing the Arab brother’s feet. Perhaps not surprisingly he responded with an immediate request to wash the feet of one of the believers — which he did with ardor.

God the Holy Spirit has indeed brought “beauty out of ashes” (Isaiah 61:3) even as the Messiah will do one day. He has already done this for our 45 believers. The beauty is seen in several ways. The Sudanese Alliance Church is distinct in that all the members are in Bible school training for leadership. There are six deacons, and six deaconesses who function as servant leaders, each initiated with foot-washing and prayer. In complete contract with their past – with multiple wives, unfaithfulness and much abuse – 19 couples have taken life vows of one man and one woman for life in Christ. Twenty-nine children make up our fellowships and are learning the Word of God. Worship which had included no music in their past is now vibrant with new songs being written each week in their mother tongue and accompanied by worship dance. Four films have been produced with the mission agency Cru and translation is well under way of the Word of God.

The DNA of the Christian and Missionary Alliance shared was, “It’s All About Jesus.” His face is seen clearly in this new Alliance family.