Famine has been stalking Ethiopia in recent months. So there was great joy and thankfulness in the town of Debre Sina when the generosity of AE supporters provided basic food assistance to the poorest of the poor citizens who were facing serious deprivation and even starvation. They gratefully received 55 lbs of wheat grain, 1 gallon of edible oil and a blanket per family. 
One recipient was Lakech Lissane, a mother of three who had her first child at age 14, pictured at right with her daughter and AE's Ethiopia team leader, Melisachew Mesfin. While giving birth to her third child 16 years ago, she became seriously ill and was taken to a traditional doctor who was unable to help her. By then it was too late to treat her problem and the doctors amputated one leg.
Her husband and the father of the three children left her after the amputation. Now Lakech is living in a rented house with one daughter. The other two children are not living with her. She sent them to relatives because she was too poor to provide food for them. Lakech says, “I try to earn a living by crocheting. People who need some crochet buy the material and I do the crocheting. They pay me for my labor. That is all I do. From this income I am unable to support myself and my daughter. Today I am so happy to be remembered by God and get this provision of food and blanket. God is so good that He remembers even a person like me and gives me what I need most!"
The support of generous AE friends also provided exercise books, blankets and food to orphans and children who only had one parent. All were extremely excited and thankful.
Elfinesh Dabi's family arranged her marriage when she was only 16 years old. This young Ethiopian woman has known little but sorrow since then.
Her first child died in the womb. Then, when pregnant with her second baby, she fell down by the side of a road, injured, and could not get up. A kindly stranger took her to a hospital. But her baby died soon after delivery.
After she ended up divorced at a young age, she decided to commit suicide. Her brother came home one day to find her with a rope around her neck... and prevented her from taking her own life just in the nick of time. But Elfinesh was miserable. "I am sleepless, "she says. "I never sleep even for an hour in a night. I am so much troubled that life is meaningless to me. I am tired of living and weep every time."
But then she came to hear the Gospel during AE's evangelistic mission to Akaki-Kaliti, a suburb of the capital city of Addis Ababa. "When the preacher was praying," she says, "the evil spirit inside of me started to manifest and I was delivered! I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior. Since then, for the last four nights I have been sleeping more than 7 hours a night."
"This is a new experience in my life!" Elfinesh rejoices. "I am seeing a great change. Now I have peace of mind and I want to continue with it!"
Because of friends who pray and give generously to AE, desperate young women in Africa can find relief from their suffering and meaning in their lives through Christ. Your support makes all the difference!
Fekadu Tolu has been desperate to find answers. Growing up in Ethiopia, his parents took him to witch doctors and he worshiped ancestors as part of the traditional religions. But, he says, "I don't have a settled mind. I hear voices inside of me and I am guided by these voices as to where I should go and what I should be doing."
Then he heard about AE's evangelistic mission to Akaki-Kaliti, a suburb of Addis Ababa, the country's capital, when he was looking for a house to rent. "A woman invited me to come and see," he says. "I came in and heard the word of God. When the altar call was made, I willfully stood up from my seat to accept Jesus."
Looking back on the past, Fekadu says, "I have lived a miserable life. I even felt there was no purpose for living. But now I think I have made a right decision. I have made a new beginning in life and I want to follow this path."
Fekadu will be welcomed into a local church in Akaki-Kaliti, where he will connect with other believers and grow closer to Christ through the rest of his life. Only through your partnership is AE able to reach out to lost people like Fekadu. Thank you for your support!
Sadi Karangwa's T-shirt says, “Born in the USA.” But of course he wasn’t born in the USA. He was born in Africa. And that wasn’t his choice.
But it meant that he lost his father when he was just a little boy to a disease that could have been treated here in America. It also meant that his mom couldn’t earn enough money to feed him, his brother and two sisters. So Sadi was constantly hungry. There was no money for him to go to school. And so he ended up living on the streets, dressed in ragged clothing, going to sleep cold and shivering, afraid of being beat up by older street kids or abusive adults.
But then new hope came to Sadi! Friends like you took this little boy to heart and gave generously so that he could have just a few of the blessings that would’ve been his if he had been born in the USA. Your support enabled AE to share the love of Jesus with Sadi by inviting him off the streets to live in a new home where he’s surrounded by care. He also has a warm bed and a pillow.
Sadly, the streets of Africa are filled with little kids like Sadi who want the same thing he craves – a “normal” life where they have enough food, a place to sleep... and a family. They especially want this at Christmastime.
And the good news is that you can help other young children like Sadi who are still living on the streets of Africa this Christmas... by helping us offer them a home, an education and a faith in Jesus.
With your help, we can give young African children like Sadi a new life of hope... by surrounding them with love, giving them healthy food and an education and introducing them to Jesus Christ. Please won’t you return the most generous gift you can right now to give hopeless kids like Sadi the help they need?
Maputo, capital of Mozambique, is a city filled with people desperate for the Good News of Jesus Christ. Just how desperate was illustrated on Sunday, Sept. 25, when AE launched its citywide evangelistic mission to Maputo. After AE's Stephen Lungu shared his testimony of being rescued from the streets as a kid, the man in the photo to the right cried out from the midst of the crowd to God in anguish. He was desperate for God to rescue him also. So he ran forward, eager to embrace his Savior. Stephen assured him that “God can take a nobody and make them somebody!”
As tears cascaded down the desperate man's face, Stephen said, “My mother threw me away. But the Lord knew where I was. He loved me, and He loves you!”
In response, a previously lost man put his life in Christ's hands for the first time, now experiencing tears of joy, of relief and of new hope.
As the meeting drew to a close, many young boys, amongst others, responded to the invitation to meet the same God who had so totally transformed Stephen’s life. It was a joyous evening, with much dancing and praise under the open African sky, as many people came into the Kingdom for the first time.
But could two men who had nearly killed one another find forgiveness and friendship? AE has seen this happen firsthand.
Mbawa, the nickname of Antoine Harushimana, grew up in a poor Hutu family outside of Bujumbura, the capital city of Burundi. Unable to finish his studies, he joined the National Army. After his training, he left to join the Forces for the Defense of Democracy (FDD), a renegade Hutu group bent on overthrowing the Tutsi government. Mbawa rose quickly to become the leader of training for the FDD and became a feared household name in Burundi, especially within the Army.Colonel Deo Ntiyankundiye, the current Chief of Operations for the National Police Force of Burundi, grew up in a wealthy Tutsi family. The Tutsi government of the day unjustly imprisoned Deo’s father, accusing him of corruption. Anger and bitterness motivated Deo to join the Army, in hopes that he could one day overthrow the Burundian president to avenge his father’s unfair treatment. His military abilities led to his elevation to a high position as an Army officer where he was soon positioned to avenge his father. Deo actively started to gather support from fellow soldiers against the president.
After years of fighting against one another and seeking to avenge wrongs done to them, both Deo and Antoine were transformed through an encounter with Jesus Christ and came to be reconciled with one another in AE's Reconciliation and Trauma Healing workshop. Today, having grasped the implications of their faith, not only have they been healed from bitterness by forgiving one other and others who caused them pain, they now work together in ministry and help lead AE's Reconciliation workshops in Burundi.
Over the course of this year and beyond, Antoine will join a team that will develop AE's Reconciliation and Trauma Healing work in the neighboring and troubled Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The Eastern DRC has suffered for many years the consequences of a complex and longstanding conflict similar to the one in Burundi and Rwanda between Hutu and Tutsi. Peace in this region is long overdue.
Eighteen-year-old Mamy came to AE’s evangelistic mission to Kikwit, Congo, unable to speak. She could only make a furious dog-like cry. With tears in her eyes, she came forward with her mother, after hearing the hope of the Gospel message. As a social outcast, she was desperate to find release from her seemingly inexplicable condition. Since her father died four years ago, she had lived in a prison of fear and anguish. She could not bear to be around other people and didn’t even want to come to AE’s evangelistic gathering. Thankfully, prayer intercessors which AE had organized, encouraged her mother to come with her.Moved profoundly by her story, the evangelists prayed fervently for Mamy’s salvation and healing. Finally, she was mercifully delivered! Mamy immediately began to rejoice and enjoy the company of other people. She was no longer an outcast. And she was no longer capable of making the fearsome dog-like noise which kept her imprisoned for four long years. Jesus Christ freed Mamy to be a glorious light of hope to others in her city. She will now be welcomed into a local church and discipled by a pastor. And the news of her miraculous transformation will draw more Congolese to faith in the Savior.
3,400 New Congolese Believers!
The crowds multiplied as AE’s Gospel outreach to Kikwit progressed. Seven thousand came to the opening rally of the mission in June. Then 8,500 gathered the next day, with the third day attracting 15,000 to hear how Jesus could give them the hope they were so hungry for. So many eager new believers came forward to receive Christ that counsellors were hard-pressed to keep accurate count. But at least 3,400 people made decisions to follow Jesus during the mission week.Some of these new believers were inmates in the Kikwit central prison. Because of the pitiful condition of the facility, AE was eager to shine a Gospel light in an unforgiving place. With a total of 136 men and one woman in the prison, 50 inmates were shoe-horned into a narrow cell with no beds and infrequently provided food. Evangelists brought not only Christ’s Good News, but bread and soap to the discouraged prisoners.
In keeping with AE’s aim of sharing the Gospel in every possible venue, evangelists preached at a nursing college, where 400 students decided to put their lives in Christ’s hands. Yet so many more people in Congo have yet to hear about Jesus.
African Enterprise’s Foxfire youth evangelist program began in Zimbabwe in the early 1980s as a strategic outreach to young people carried out by young Christian evangelists. At that time, the young people to whom the outreach was targeted were soldiers – mostly in their late teens and early 20s – who were in the process of being demobilized as a result of the ending of many years of bush warfare between the white Rhodesian government and the black liberation forces. These young fighters, many of whom had been engaged in years of fighting, knew little of normal life and were in many cases unfit to live and function productively in civilized society. So they lived in camps together for months after the end of armed conflict, awaiting permission to return to their cities and villages. Thanks to the intrepid AE Foxfires who had the courage to go out and preach the Gospel to them in their demobilization camps, hundreds came to Christ and found their lives transformed.The transformation of young people, by young people, through the innovative and dynamic presentation of the Gospel of Christ remains the aim of the Foxfire program today. It has expanded from Zimbabwe into Kenya, Malawi and South Africa. South Africa now boasts four Foxfire teams, each with approximately ten members, based in the cities of Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pietermaritzburg and Port Elizabeth. Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe each have one team with approximately six to ten members each.
The Foxfires extensively employ dance and drama, both to attract the attention of young people and to convey the love of Christ through media that youth are accustomed to. Many Foxfires have come to faith in Christ from difficult backgrounds where they have experienced violence, broken families and even sexual abuse. These experiences enable them to know how to overcome anguishing setbacks and find healing in Christ, and to relate to peers they meet in their ministry who have struggled with the same sorts of disappointments and pain that they have. After presenting the Gospel through drama, dance and other exciting means, the Foxfires will take time to counsel interested young people in one-on-one sessions afterwards.
A key element of the Foxfire ministry is the teaching of “lifeskills,” especially including a biblical perspective of sexuality and how to avoid contracting HIV and Aids. With HIV rates at astronomical levels in many African countries, the Foxfires’ teaching and counselling of Christian lifeskills is likely saving countless lives. Foxfire lifeskills instruction also includes a youth-oriented, godly perspective on drug abuse, teen pregnancy, suicide and other issues which young people in Africa struggle with.While the Foxfires make a Kingdom impact on the lives of thousands of young Africans each year, winning many of them to faith in Christ, the Foxfire program is itself a training ground for future African Christian leaders. After graduating from the program, some Foxfires go on to Bible school or seminary, to prepare to serve as pastors. Some pursue jobs in the marketplace, where they are equipped to impact their workplaces for Christ. And some Foxfires return for another year or more of work in the Foxfire program, functioning as leaders and mentors to younger incoming Foxfires.
Africans have suffered countless wars and indescribable violence. Genocides have ripped countries apart. And young children have even served as soldiers, witnessing horrors that sear the minds of battle-hardened men. How can hope and healing be brought out of such conflict and tragedy.
Thankfully African Enterprise has developed several effective workshops and seminars which minister to those harboring deep wounds from conflicts and wars. Sufferers learn to share their grievous losses, to forgive those who have hurt them and to find healing and new life in Christ. Often, former enemies embrace. New trust is formed. And the peace from these restored relationships spreads throughout cities and nations. Not only that, but many who've found healing receive training on how to train others, creating a dynamic, exponential multiplication of healing and hope.