East Africa – update March 2008

In March 2008 Christians for Israel International held excellent and very blessed meetings in Kampala (Uganda) and Nairobi (Kenya). These meetings were well prepared by our local partners.

We sensed a great openness to our ministry from the leaders of the main evangelical/free churches in these countries. There seems to be an enormous potential to reach the heart of the church in Central/East Africa with the message about God’s love for Israel. There remains a lot to do; in particular we still need to reach out into the established churches (especially Anglican and Roman Catholic).

We now have an excellent team of committed church leaders, with excellent contacts in the churches throughout the region. We need to keep building on this foundation, not to lose momentum. In general, we feel that there are good prospects of developing a financially self-sustaining C4I ministry in East Africa within 2-3 years.

Conference and meetings in Kampala
On 26 March 2008 we held a one-day-conference at Tick Hotel in Kampala. This conference was attended by 100+ very motivated pastors and church leaders, selected by Drake Kanaabo. Drake assured us that he would have no problems to invite more than 1000 key pastors to attend a meeting. Drake is 47 years of age, married to Josephine, they have 2 adopted sons who were orphans (grown-ups now) + 2 sons of their own + one adopted girl 1 year old. Drake is an itinerant evangelist with many, many contacts in Uganda and many other African countries. He has preached already in 41 countries worldwide!

Willem Glashouwer taught with fire the whole morning and afternoon. At noon we offered all the participants a lunch, which is very common in Africa, because people have to come from far and transportation is not (or not very well) organized.

We met very lovely and outspoken born-again Christians whose hearts are so very much open to the message of God’s plan for Israel and the nations. After having suffered so much under the dictatorship of Idi Amin (who was a Muslim), the country and the people have been able to turn to the Lord in the open again, and are so hungry for the Word!

At the end of the conference the pastors committed themselves to supporting Israel in a moving ceremony in which they all filed past an Israeli flag and made a pledge to support and defend Israel and the Jewish people.

In the evening we had a formal dinner with a selected group of approx. 12 important church people. These included: the leaders of the 2 main groupings of free (evangelical) churches in Uganda; some senior pastors; a leading Christian Member of Parliament; a Brigadier-General; and a Christian businessman. Each gave his commitment to support the C4I ministry and some of them gave very important advice on how to proceed with the preparations for a severe and advanced conference: not preaching, but teaching on the topic of Church and Israel. It was noted that pastors in general are very poorly educated on these subjects; they need serious teaching in an informal, intimate setting on God’s purposes with Israel and the Church. Questions to be addressed include:

 Is there salvation for the Jews?
 Are they (will they be) born-again? When, why, how?
 How can we be guided in praying for Israel? What should we pray for?
 What is a Jew? What is a rabbi? What is an orthodox Jew? What are Messianic Jews?
 Why don’t the Jews believe in Jesus as the Son of God?

Most of the Africans don’t have a clue what a Jew looks like, or what happened with them during the ages, like Inquisition, Pogroms, Holocaust, as they only know of what is written in the Bible about Jews. Fortunately they are not as indoctrinated by replacement theology as the Church in Europe.

Meetings in Nairobi
On 28 March Willem Glashouwer was interviewed by Leo Slingerland for a television program to encourage the Kenyan people. This will be broadcast on Family TV, a satellite broadcaster.

Andrew Tucker and Jos van Westing met with the proposed C4I- East Africa board: Pastor Stanley Mwalili, Mr. Peter Aninminyi, Pastor Nelson Gichohi, Brother Hudson Mukunza, Pastor David Juma, Mrs. Sally Kimani and Nancy Githae (office manager for East Africa). In the coming months Christians for Israel East Africa will be registered as an NGO in Nairobi.

On Friday evening Christians for Israel International hosted a formal dinner in Nairobi with Kenyan key church leaders and the Israeli Vice-Ambassador Shahar Azani and his wife Eleanor, and the first Security Officer of the Embassy and his wife. This was a deep and moving event. After viewing the very impressive DVD “Head, Heart, Hands”, Willem explained the vision and mission of C4I clearly. After the dinner the Ambassador showed a number of short DVDs, and there was a lively exchange. In a series of spontaneous presentations, the Kenyans leaders expressed their love for Israel and the Jewish people, and their commitment to work with the Israeli government and to stand in the gap for Israel in Kenya.

We believe the Lord is doing mighty things in Africa, and that this is the time for God’s message about Israel and the Church to be spread in East Africa. Please pray with us as we take our next steps in faith to serve the Lord Jesus Christ in this region.

Stanley Mwalili, Chairman, C4I East Africa
March 2008