Who We Are
“Pray for me! I am looking for a way to get saved,” a Ugandan student implored his roommate a couple of weeks before AE’s Greater Kampala Mission in July 2009. Thankfully for this student, Stephen Lungu, AE’s International Team Leader, went to Kampala to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ to every sector of the city. Stephen’s passionate preaching convicted both the Ugandan student and his roommate such that they gave their lives to Christ with joy and thanksgiving. One of them had been involved in armed rebel activities in the past and so Stephen’s story of having found forgiveness in Christ for his own violent past spoke powerfully into this young man’s life.
The enthusiastic response to the Gospel demonstrated by these two young men was characteristic of the thousands of Ugandans who found Jesus because of AE’s outreach efforts. One of the mission committee members, Benoni Mugarura-Mutana, noticed a young man listening intently to Stephen’s message and fiddling with the strap of a bag hanging from his shoulder. When, at the end of his message, Stephen invited any who wanted to give their life to Jesus to come forward, Benoni smiled as he watched this young man bolt forward, running up to the platform to find Christ.Several police officers, who were asked to guard the mission platforms and equipment at night after the evangelistic rallies were over, asked AE’s David Masiko, “Why don’t you tell our boss so that we could come earlier and listen to the message?” David did just this and, after the mission, received a request from the police for Bibles, which he gladly took to them so that they could read God’s Word.
Prior to the evening evangelistic rallies, AE organized medical outreaches to provide vital health services to citizens of Kampala, many of whom stayed around afterward to hear the Gospel and participate in the rallies. On top of this, AE partnered with Scripture Union and other student ministries to evangelize the schools and universities around Kampala in the month leading up to the mission. As a result, thousands of students have come to know Jesus because of these efforts.
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AE Uganda
While African Enterprise ministers throughout the continent, the organization has Teams permanently based in ten African countries: Congo (DRC), Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
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AE Teams
Michael Cassidy is the Founder of African Enterprise (AE), and has been involved in evangelism, teaching and leadership ministries since 1962, the year he launched AE with a mission to Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Since then, he has led numerous missions to cities throughout Africa, as well as in other parts of the world, including Australia, Belgium, Costa Rica, Israel, Nicaragua and Panama. To further the accomplishment of AE’s mission – Evangelizing the Cities of Africa through Word and Deed in Partnership with the Church – he has established evangelistic teams in Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe and support offices in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland/Northern Ireland, New Zealand, Switzerland and the United States.
Michael has been instrumental in calling several major gatherings of church leaders, including the South African Congress on Mission and Evangelism in Durban in 1973, the Pan African Christian Leadership Assembly (PACLA) in Nairobi in 1976 and 1994 and the South African Christian Leadership Assembly (SACLA) in Pretoria in 1979 and 2003. In 1985, in the deepening polarisation of South African society, he launched the National Initiative for Reconciliation. This attracted church leaders of widely disparate denominations and races for the purpose of reconciling with one another and implementing this practice in their respective churches and communities. He was one of the leaders of the historic National Conference of Church Leaders at Rustenburg in 1990, and in 1993 chaired a Consultation on Human Rights and Religious Freedom in Pietermaritzburg. In 2009, he spearheaded the National Initiative for the Reformation of South Africa.
He has also been involved in South Africa in behind-the-scenes facilitation of initiatives which have brought together a wide spectrum of political leadership in dialogue. These efforts have been widely acknowledged as important contributions to the miraculously peaceful South African election in April 1994. In 1996, at the request of President Nelson Mandela, he and other church leaders were deeply involved in spearheading Project Ukuthula, an extensive and successful peace initiative in KwaZulu-Natal in the run-up to the province’s local government elections. Most recently, he has been involved with the Marriage Alliance of South Africa, an interdenominational Christian concern seeking to keep marriage in South Africa heterosexual and monogamous.
Michael has written numerous books, including A Witness For Ever – The Dawning of Democracy in South Africa, which recounts much of the work of some of the backstage players in the run-up to South Africa’s 1994 election, as well as a two-month devotional called Michael Cassidy’s Window on the Word. Some of his other books are: The Politics of Love, The Passing Summer, Chasing the Wind, Bursting the Wineskins, The Relationship Tangle and Where Are You Taking the World Anyway? African Harvest by Anne Coomes tells the story of both Michael Cassidy and of the African Enterprise ministry. He has most recently written Getting to the Heart of Things – Reflections on Christian Basics and What On Earth Are You Thinking for Heaven's Sake?
Michael was born in Johannesburg and grew up in Maseru, Basutholand (now Lesotho). He was educated in South Africa at the Parktown School in Johannesburg and at Michaelhouse School in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands. He holds a Master of Arts in Modern and Medieval Languages from Cambridge University (1958) in England. He earned a Bachelor of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary (1963) and received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Azusa Pacific University (1993), both near Los Angeles. In 1983 he was admitted to the Order of Simon of Cyrene, the highest honor accorded a layman by the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International made him a Paul Harris Fellow and he received the St. Michael’s Award from Michaelhouse School in 1997. He and his wife, Carol, live in Pietermaritzburg and have three children and seven grandchildren.
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Michael Cassidy
AE Malawi sponsored a National Prayer Breakfast at Sanjika Palace in Blantyre on Friday morning, May 8, 2009. Dr. Bingu Wa Mutharika, the president of Malawi, was present, along with most of his cabinet, and more than 120 prominent church leaders, parachurch organizations and NGO representatives, traditional authorities, civil servants and media personnel.
Church leaders then spent over half an hour leading the gathering in prayer for peace and security, free and fair general elections, unity and co-existence, the proper conduct of political parties during campaigns, the HIV and AIDS pandemic, the judiciary and legal practitioners, the Malawi Electoral Commission, sustenance of democracy and national development, food security, unity and the prophetic role of the church, bribery and corruption. They set a shining example for unity amongst a diverse group as many different denominations and persuasions were amongst the organizers.
Presidential candidates were then asked to comment on their commitment to a free, fair and peaceful election which they all unhesitatingly did. Then President Mutharika and the other presidential candidates were invited to stand together in front of the high table whilst the officiating clergy gathered around them. Led by Senyonyi, all prayed for God’s blessing on the candidates. During the prayer President Mutharika put his arms around the two candidates standing, heads bowed, next to him. It was a special moment when leaders raised by God were united by a common goal which was more important than party lines or squabbles. As the prayer ended, I heard a man behind me say, “This is beautiful!” After this, President Mutharika said that it was very clear that the Holy Spirit had been present during the event, and asked that the blessing which had been pronounced on the attending presidential candidates also be extended to the absent candidates.
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AE Malawi
Stephen Lungu has served as International Team Leader of African Enterprise since 2006. Born in Harare, Zimbabwe (then Salisbury, Rhodesia), Stephen was the oldest of three children born to a young Zambian mother and a much older Malawian father. The hopelessness and despair his mother felt as a result of an abusive marriage resulted in her abandoning her three children in a Harare market when Stephen was 7.
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Stephen Lungu
"I believe Africa will become the fulcrum of world mission in the twenty-first century," says AE Founder Michael Cassidy.
As such, AE is a global partnership that believes in a bright future for Africa under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Our aim is to proclaim the Gospel to the residents of the major cities of Africa, making a special effort to reach the leadership of the continent, since godly governance can result in major transformations of whole countries.
Our mission – To Evangelize the Cities of Afria Through Word and Deed in Partnership With the Church – is carried out by Africans themselves, who already understand their local cultures and speak their fellow citizens' languages. We reach out to Africa in four ways:
- Evangelism – preaching the Good News of the Gospel via citywide missions
- Reconciliation – ministering healing to those who have experience the trauma of war and violence and teaching people who have experienced conflict to reconcile and work together for their common good
- Community Development – teaching the poor practical skills through which they can earn a living and equipping them to run their own business and teach others how to develop economic self-sufficiency
- Leadership Training – equipping pastors and laypeople to think biblically and live out their faith in their place of work and influence.
AE has Teams of African nationals living and working in ten countries: Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. In addition, we minister each year to many other African countries via our evangelistic missions, reconciliation work and leadership training courses.
AE's Statement of Faith is the Lausanne Covenant.
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