Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock - Acts 20:28
We have some remarkable updates to share this month. The biggest highlights were the events that took place in Zambia in early May.
MOPS Africa held its first ever continent-wide leadership summit, welcoming 19 of the top leaders of 10 nations together. We had an incredibly successful three-day event, forming new relationships, being encouraged and trained as leaders, and setting goals for the upcoming years ahead. Sherri Crandall, Vice President of Global Experience and Leadership Studies, Nichole Tautz, Vice Chair for the Board of Directors, and Destiny Leahy, the Regional Manager for MOPS Africa hosted this event in Lusaka. They heard inspiring stories from around Africa of the many lives being changed through MOPS as these leaders work tirelessly to grow the ministry within their regions.
The theme of the Summit was from Acts 20:28: Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. We spent the first day talking about how to pay attention to our own walk, and the second day focused on how to be good shepherds of all that we have been appointed.
Those present included country coordinators, cohort leaders, and MOPS pastoral ambassadors who represented over 8,000 women and their families directly connected to a MOPS group within their regions. Though almost all of those leaders had been trained and visited in-person in their local countries over the last five years, this was the first opportunity to bring everyone together in one location to dream big together. They each brought a
contagious passion for reaching moms across the continent, and we are already seeing the fruit of our time together as they have reached back home, on fire for their work ahead.
One of the biggest initiatives the leaders left with was the goal of reaching unreached areas of their countries and even new countries on the continent to continue to multiply the ministry. MOPS Africa is currently our largest growth region in the world, expanding 10-fold in the last six years.
During this visit, we also had the opportunity to meet with a government representative of Zambia to share the ministry vision, train the local MOPS Zambia leadership team, attend a local MOPS group, and speak at the conference which launched the NGO Mothers of Destiny in partnership with MOPS Zambia. And finally, we were able to make key contacts in other parts of Zambia which have already started MOPS groups in new regions, as well! |
| The Director of the Minister of Social Affairs of Zambia |
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| MOPS Zambia Coordinators - leadership training |
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| Local MOPS meeting |
In the last few months, we have connected with pastors and churches around the country of Mali to share the good news of Jesus with many unreached women through this ministry. MOPS just finished translating our global curriculum into the local Malian language of Bambara, and one of our pastors shared this with us: "Pastors in our country can go for two years without someone new coming to faith. Since we have introduced MOPS and started using the curriculum, we have baptized almost ten women in our churches. Pastors in Mali are all in for MOPS!" Mali now has 20 thriving MOPS groups, and we just met with their MOPS Ambassador - Ezekiel - in Lusaka, Zambia for our Africa Leadership Summit.
Mother's Day was celebrated around the world on Sunday, May 14. Check out this great photo from Nairobi Believers Mission MOPS in Kenya celebrating the day together!
Here are some of our other updates from around the continent over the past several weeks:
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| Celebrating the newest little MOPS baby in Nigeria |
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| MOPS Benin seminar. Topics: Women of Faith. Being a Great Mom. |
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| MOPS Togo meeting |
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| Riziki MOPS, brand new group in Northern Kenya |
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| Pure Word MOPS, Nigeria |
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