I made a commitment to my friend Robert Brown that if he would invest his life in Africa, I would hold the rope.  He asked me what I meant.  I told him that I had no idea, but God told me to say it.

This is what holding the rope with Robert Brown and Churches Together has come to mean to me and to the church I shepherd, Alice Drive, in Sumter, South Carolina:

• Robert and CT have fired us up to care about HIV/AIDS orphans in Africa.
• We’re now partnering with Open Baptist Church in Old Naledi, Botswana, to support their ministry in teaching and feeding HIV/AIDS orphans.
• People I couldn’t motivate to give to save their grandmother have given generously and sacrificially to help.
• People I would have never thought of as “missionaries” are going to Africa and are coming back – changed.
• And it’s reached into my own family.  My daughter has been working diligently to earn her money to go to Africa this summer with a group from ADBC.

Bottom line?  Robert Brown and Churches Together have lit a fire in our hearts to be part of God’s solution to the worst humanitarian crisis of our day.  In God’s amazing plan, we are being changed more than the people we go to serve.  It is a win all the way around.

I want to thank all of you who helped Churches Together in 2008.  God used you to help us:

• Encourage several emerging partnerships between North American (NA) & African Churches;
• Challenge many NA Pastors/Churches to “get in the game”;
• To coach Churches so that their partnerships will be truly transformational;
• Move from being 2 branches of Churches Together (African & NA) to one united Kingdom partnership
• Form growing relationships with several strategic/gifted African leaders
• Participate in the Watoto Conference in Kampala, Uganda in September … where we connected with 153 African Churches seeking partnerships with NA Churches
• Meet, challenge, and encourage several NA Pastors/Churches who are good candidates for beginning partnerships with African Churches in 2009

Churches Together assisted in providing an occasion and venue where the initial discussions for this partnership took place.  It is possible that both churches will look to CT for ongoing counsel as and if the partnership proceeds. 

I enourage other church leaders to use the vision, desire and capacity of Churches Together to explore and/or engage in partnering with an African church to address the incredibly dark impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa.  The staff and US and African board members of Churches together have an unusual depth of experience in church-to-church partnerships.  CT also has a philosophy of partnerhsp which focuses on local empowerment and an aversion to partnership activities that risk creating dependency on the part of the African churches that partner with American churches.I can think of no other area of contemporary brokenness in our world in the early Twenty First Century where the demonstration of Christ’s Kingdom is more needed.

Bob Moffitt, Elder and Missions Chairman, Camelback Bible Church

What a trip!  While we were in Uganda, we got to see the Gospel!  We often HEAR the Gospel here in North America, but we got to SEE the Gospel. We met with a cell group where we saw:

• A woman testify how God’s love expressed through the cell group led to her recovery from her AIDS-related death-bed!
• A woman who had lost her family to the war in the Congo, tell how the cell group lovingly welcomed her so that she was no longer alone.
• A young boy who had gone blind due to malaria restored to health and sight (running around the room like any active young boy!).
• A young man who had lost hope … tell how the members of the group had so loved him that he now has hope in Christ and is studying to become a doctor.
• A Muslim-dominated area being transformed by the love of Jesus lived through these African saints. In 2 years, they have led 23 women to faith in Jesus and given birth to 11 new cell groups!

Many people have heard of the Watoto Children’s Choir from KPC Church in Kampala and they (and the whole Watoto Children’s Ministry) are amazing. But I was even more impressed with the way that their cell groups are reaching out to families ravaged by HIV/AIDS. They are the kind of Church in Africa that is busy making a difference – and the kind of Church that we want to partner with. I don’t know how many Churches in Africa are like KPC, but there are others.

These Churches are engaged. On fire. And they are ready for North American Churches to come alongside them – to partner with them – to pour gas on their already existing fires!

Are you interested? Want to help? Great – We’re here to help you! While we were at the Watoto Conference, we (CT) were part of a breakout conference about Networking/Partnership. Gary Skinner and the leaders of KPC/Watoto know that the HIV/AIDS pandemic that has killed millions and left millions of orphans behind is FAR TOO BIG FOR ANY ONE OF US TO FIGHT ALONE! The Church must work together! The one Church … on the 2 continents (Africa & NA) … must come together to fight HIV/AIDS. And CT exists to coach you through that process of connecting with great African Churches.

Contact us.
Let’s work together so that we can SEE the GOSPEL transform lives and communities in Africa as well as here in North America!

Kampala, here we come!

I’ve said that CT is a movement, well 12 of us are about to get on planes to fly to a catalytic event in Kampala, Uganda.  You can read about the Watoto event at (www.watoto.com).

They had their first conference in 2006 where people from about 1,000 different Churches came together to “get in the game” against HIV/AIDS – for the Children & People of Africa.  About 400 of those Churches were from North America.  Yet, the sad news is that we don’t know of a single one of those Churches that has actually launched a partnership with an African Church.  CT has been invited to serve as a resource for helping Churches, African and North American, to do more than just talk about partnership.  We want to help Churches on both sides of the Atlantic begin to work together in ways that are mutually beneficial as well as transformational!

What an opportunity!  Please pray for us – that we will fully seize the day and maximize the incredible potential of this event.  And get ready, because we won’t be able to launch all of these great new partnerships without YOU!

What is CT?
I guess you could call us an “organization,” but I’d much prefer the term “movement.”  Jesus invited people by saying, “Follow me.”  He was going somewhere.  Always doing something – changing the world!

I’d like to invite you to join our movement!  We’re not sitting still – not in the face of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa.  This is the greatest crisis of our day.  I’m really glad that rock stars and politicians are helping, but that is not enough.  It’s time for the CHURCH to rise up and act as the hands, feet, and heart of Jesus!

Maybe you don’t know about the tragic situation in Africa.
Maybe you know and you’re ready to take action, but what?
Well, that is why we’re here.  We want to help you.

If you’re going to stay seated … playing it safe and easy … then don’t waste your time looking at the website.  But, if you’re ready to do something … to take action … to be part of a movement of Jesus-followers, then come on!

I dare you:  DO SOMETHING!
Look at this website to see how we can help you.  And then get in touch with me so that we can help you to move.. to follow Jesus.. to change your life.. your church.. Africa.. The World!