June updates

June has been great! Here are the updates from MOPS Africa:

Our only group in Ghana (located in Accra) had its first meeting earlier this month! How wonderful to see moms from a new country getting together in beautiful fellowship. Praise God for this awesome news.

MOPS Ghana's first meeting

Here are a few updates on my trip to Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda earlier this month, which I took with another MOPS USA leader - 

Kenya MOPS Coach Sylvia and I (and Lisa!) traveled to a church that I have connections with, just north of Nairobi. We presented MOPS as an good opportunity for the church to work with the moms in their community. We are following up with these leaders, and pray they are ready to start a group soon. We love meeting moms all over Africa, and truly believe that every mom needs Jesus. So, we will reach out to these communities, one church at a time, until we make that a reality!

Sylvia (top left) and I introducing MOPS in Githunguchu, Kenya

In Tanzania, I met up with the coordinator and pastor of the Moshi Tanzania MOPS group, to share with them the new curriculum and offer encouragement and love from their sister group from Colorado! 

Rosemary (right), coordinator of MOPS Moshi

And finally, Coach Favour and I traveled to Kigali, Rwanda to help introduce MOPS to group of moms through a connection we have made with Hope Haven Rwanda - an amazing school reaching the local community in powerful ways! We had 135 women attend a MOPS meeting, where we shared the Gospel message, did a photo icebreaker, spoke about finding One Word to keep focused, and did a craft! It was a lot of fun. The following day we invited the women back who were interested in hearing about leading a leadership team at MOPS. We covered the MOPS Leader Guide and the Global Curriculum. We had 70 women come back the second day, and had 12 leaders teams set up who are very interested in starting new groups. We are now praying for these groups to begin the processes of signing a ministry agreement form and kicking off their meetings!

Mom showing off her craft in the MOPS introduction meeting at Hope Haven in Kigali

Favour Mwaba sharing her experiences of being a leader in MOPS Africa

I also met with the leader of our ex-pat group in Kigali, comprised of American, British, and Australian moms. How great it was to hear what this group has been up to the past year. It is not easy being so far from 'home', and we pray these moms are able to find community and support through MOPS during this part of there time overseas.

In other beautiful news, MOPS Ambassador Amy traveled with a group to Kampala Uganda to attend a sewing school graduation for many of the moms in the MOPS group that she is partnered with. This relationship the group has with Amy is a beautiful thing to see.

And just this week, Kenya Coach Sylvia has also helped lead a MOPS training with another MOPS leader from the USA. One of our mentor moms (Jodi!) came to Nairobi with her church mission team, who comes annually to help with an organization, Missions of Hope International. She decided last year to do an Introduction to MOPS training with this group they partner with, and this year worked together with Sylvia to do another training to kick off a group here in the Mathare Valley. Well done ladies! It was a big success and the moms are very excited to start.

  

MOPS training at Mathare Valley with Jodi and Sylvia

Please pray for MOPS South Africa. They are holding their second annual MOMcon next month in Cape Town, and we can't wait to hear all about it!

And..... because videos are so fun - MOPS Cameroon had a great meeting this month! Take a look at the group going through Global Curriculum, Devotion #6: Joy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vai4lFHXX7s

Finally, our MOPS group in Lagos sent in this photo of their group learning how to make a food called shawarma at their most recent MOPS meeting. They had a new mom join this month, who later thanked the leader for a great time in fellowship with the other moms in the group.

May Updates

May was a very busy month!! And I didn't get a chance to update before I left on my trip, so this is just a little behind, but still worthy of much celebration. There are so many exciting projects underway in MOPS Africa.

Conferences

Our Jinja, Uganda MOPS groups hosted a big outreach, with 200 moms and 200 kids on May 25! Our Teen MOPS leader from Kampala, Sylvia, as well as another Kampala MOPS group leader were also able to attend and share about their experiences with MOPS. There was leader training, devotionals, and group discussions on relevant topics like handling marriage difficulties, how should Christian moms handle grieving, and how to live as a Christian amidst opposing cultural norms.

Vanessa (left) of Jinja MOPS and Sylvia (right) of Kampala Teen MOPS

Worship at the conference

North Rift Kenya Trip

Our northern Kenya MOPS coach, Pamela, traveled to five groups across Kenya to encourage them on their group MOPS projects and their individual financial savings for moms in their groups. She learned about the needs of each group and left the groups with great love and desire for MOPS.

Pamela (in green jacket) teaching the moms

I think my favorite part of hearing about this trip was how in one region, Pamela was so well received that the Pastor and Elders of that church cooked a meal (beef stew and rice!) for her and the moms of that MOPS group. In their own words - 'this is actually against African tradition, as it is for the women to cook and serve the men - and it was a rare and awesome occasion for our moms to be treated so well!'

Enjoying a delicious meal from the husbands!

Mother's Day

Moms around the world were celebrated this year on May 12, and Africa was no exception. In South Africa, our Capetown groups coordinated an outreach event, gathering baby supplies from the community as well as making cupcakes and cards. They hand-delivered 200 packages and encouragement to moms in two local government maternity wards. What a selfless and beautiful thing to do for a new mom!

Cupcakes are ready for delivery!

In Zambia the MOPS leaders in Lusaka coordinated the MOPS kids giving their moms roses and Mother's Day cards!

A mom receiving a rose and cards from her children

And stateside, on Mother's Day, I was able to share with my church congregation about what was going on with our African moms and how God has brought me on this journey with MOPS Africa in very unexpected and exciting ways.

Destiny sharing about Africa MOPS at Cedarbrook

Goats

We celebrate with some of our groups in western Uganda this month for a big initiative they are taking on. One of their groups has undergone a three year proof-of-concept project of goat rearing, starting out with a small number of goats as a collective group. Within two years, each mom in the group is on her second generation of kid goats and the project is thriving, so they have decided to invest in this project throughout several of their other regional groups, and this month, they have purchased their goats!

Water wells

Another big celebration in Kenya - a community MOPS-well was completed, allowing two MOPS groups and thirty surrounding families have access to clean water.

We thank God for so many amazing stories from our groups this month and throughout the year. We have more news to celebrate already in June - including several new MOPS groups launching. I'll be updating soon!