Always relying on His promise that He will not forsake us, I would like to wish everyone a new year filled with blessings and success in all our endeavors.

During the first phase of AWF’s Global Response to COVID-19, three African countries have had many fruits and blessings. Our brothers and sisters from Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, and Mali ask us to continue praying for them. May God bless many more lives through them.

Earlier this year, we witnessed the first steps of the Sudanese Alliance Fellowships in North Africa. They are translating the Word of God into the believers’ mother tongue, training new leaders and deacons, and much more. They continue to grow wonderfully despite this difficult time.

The Global Alliance Family has been serving thousands of vulnerable communities in more than 50 countries since the pandemic started. The local churches are distributing food, masks, soups and medicines and are creating awareness of proper hygiene habits and the use of protective measures. The AWF Global Response to COVID-19 will help those local churches with more funding to reach an additional 170,000 people who will experience the love and mercy of God through the hands of His servants.

This was what the president of an African national church said during one of four meetings this week to organize a global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It summarizes our leaders’ understanding that the challenge before us is beyond our capacity, but God has given the necessary provision to His people, and we have the resolve to share it with those most in need in the communities we serve.

In addition to the pandemic that everyone is experiencing, Guinea and other West African countries have faced persecution. The Protestant Evangelical C&MA Church of Dorata (N’zérékoré), reputed to be one of the largest in Guinea, was destroyed by fire the evening of March 22, 2020, following political and ethnic clashes.

The Alliance in Africa is willing to expand its missionary effort, especially targeting unreached people groups inside their countries, in North Africa and among the diaspora population. This is the conclusion of the discernment process that took place during the AWF Africa Missions Consultation in Cotonou, Benin, January 23-25.

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.

We wish a blessed year for each son and daughter of the Kingdom, may it be rich in grace.

The African Youth Union of the Alliance gathered in August for their Biennial Congress. The event brought together more than 1,300 young people, who shared and learned about the foundations of our faith and what God wants His righteous people to do. May God continue to bless this movement, its leaders and participants.

Reverend Marcel Bunda Bunda is the new President of the Alliance in DR Congo. During his term, he hopes to see the church become more mission-oriented and living a prayer-filled life. Let us pray that the Lord will send His Holy Spirit to guide him and his family.

The Church of the Believers, the C&MA Church in Liberia, celebrated its 37th anniversary at the end of May 2019, in the city of Monrovia. The event united members from all over the country in a weeklong celebration filled with worship, God’s Word, recognition and prayer. May God continue to bless their ministry and guide reverend Liberty as he leads the Alliance family in Liberia.

The only Portuguese speaking Alliance National Church in Africa, the ICAA (Igreja Cristã de Aliança em Angola) is concentrated in the oil-rich province of Cabinda but plans to expand its presence in the “mainland” Angola, planting new churches in the provinces of Malanje, Moxico and Zaire.

The members of the International Commission on Theological Education (ICTE) met in Nyack, New York, to discuss ways in which the AWF can encourage the Alliance National Churches to continue to embrace and promote an Alliance ethos within their ministries and contexts.