The C&MA churches in Central America are young and small and its largest national church (Guatemala), with more than 9,000 members, is an exception in the region. With the theme “Deeper Life in Jesus Christ,” the AWF family in Latin America met in Guatemala to bring encouragement and deeper understanding about the Alliance and its missions to the pastors and leaders of the region.
The leadership of AWF-APAC (Asia Pacific Region) chose Japan as their meeting venue to encourage the century-old Japan Alliance Church to continue to share Jesus Christ in this country. Japan is totally open to missionary work but still has a population of less than 0.5% of evangelical Christians and an evangelical annual growth rate of -0.4%.
The work in Ecuador began 120 years ago through the efforts of Guillermo Fritz and Eduardo Tarbox. Later, missionaries Homero Crisman and Guillermo Reed joined in the work. The national C&MA was established in 1945. Today, the church celebrates the 120th year of work in Ecuador, grateful for God’s sustaining at each step. The church remains completely committed to continuing the task to see societal renewal in Ecuador, and to forging and forming generations that shine for God’s glory.
Inter-ethnic partnerships within Christian and Missionary Alliance national churches continue to grow the C&MA in Bolivia, raising up new leaders to reach new cities, starting, within Bolivia and expanding outward.
Mission work which began in the villages is now a thriving national ministry, seeking to nurture believers and provide theological education to equip Christians to reach non-believers locally and abroad.
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 National Conference and the 25th Anniversary celebrations of the National Alliance Church in Russia (ECMU) took place May 23-25 in Novorossiysk, Krasnodar Krai, Russia.
More than 25 Alliance pastors and leaders from various ministries connected to the Christian and Missionary Alliance in India shared their present ministry and future plans to plant churches and conduct mission among the large unreached people groups of the country.
As more National Alliance Churches are sending missionaries cross-culturally, mission leaders meet to discern prayerfully the next steps to fulfill God’s mandate to proclaim Christ to all nations.
The AWF EMERALD 2019 Regional Conference was the biggest AWF regional conference in history with more than 140 delegates present from both the region and from the wider AWF family, including Latin America.
As we enter into this New Year, it is only natural for us to reflect on what God has done over the previous year and consider all that was accomplished by His mighty working power. The blessing of a solid and strong partnership with the leaders of the member-countries of the APAC (Asia-Pacific) region was a precious gift the Lord has given His churches in blessing His ministry.
Excitement is in the air as the AWF EMERALD (Europe & the Middle East) Region prepares for their Annual Conference of 2019 in Frankfurt, Germany. The theme is “Living the Fourfold Gospel”. Our brothers and sisters will be sharing experiences, learning from one another and encouraging each other. Let us pray that this event will be a huge blessing to those participating and that it will reach many lives.