MOPS Africa: February 2023

I would like to start this month's post by highlighting the incredible work of several pastors around the continent of Africa. Without our dedicated pastors, we wouldn't have the successful ministry that we do. MOPS provides support and resources to local churches to help engage families by welcoming moms together to share life, motherhood, and Jesus. And the pastors provide key spiritual and infrastructure support to make the MOPS ministry happen in their communities. It is a beautiful relationship that has helped many churches flourish.

Pastor James Wheager from Côte d'Ivoire has been serving with MOPS Africa since 2019 and has been directly responsible for starting and training over 70 MOPS group in four countries. This past week he made an incredible trip to Liberia for the purpose of expanding the reach of the ministry to even more moms. He traveled to Monrovia, the capital city, after contacting a Pastor he knew and proposed to him sharing about MOPS with this community. James traveled over 36 hours on buses, motorcycles, and even rafts to reach Liberia! He arranged a two-day seminar and went door to door inviting women to come learn about the ministry. We are both praising God that it was a very successful endeavor, and we have nine women who are preparing or have already signed ministry agreements to start new MOPS groups. Pastor James is a true servant of God, who has regularly gone to great lengths to minister to moms all across West Africa.

Another pastor who has been doing great work is Pastor Ezekiel from Mali. While speaking with him last week, he shared that: "A Pastor can spend two years without having a single new person come to faith in Mali. But, this year, four moms have come to be baptized after attending our MOPS groups. If our moms are the ones that God wants to use, then we as pastors here are with you!" Pastor Ezekiel then decided to travel to the remote area of Bla, Mali to present MOPS to a region on the outskirts of the Sahara Desert. This expansion in Mali, a truly persecuted region of the continent, requires our materials to be translated from French to the local language of Bambara, and we are going to make sure that happens. This relationship is an incredible opportunity to reach some truly unreached areas with the gospel.

Several other pastors, including Pastor Sammy of Kenya and Pastor Alison of Uganda have been faithful ambassadors for the ministry and have tirelessly contributed to the start of many groups across their regions. This past week, Pastor Alison spoke at a pastor's conference, and said that he always shares about the MOPS ministry when he talks to other pastors. And Pastor Sammy is working with an opportunity to open up a center at a local church to support the many MOPS groups in the North Rift region of Kenya.

Pastor Sammy at the site of the new center, Kenya

Pastor's conference in Kasese, Uganda with Pastor Alison

Thank you to all of our pastor, named and unnamed, for all you do to help support MOPS Africa! We are so grateful for you.

Additionally, this month we have two more events to highlight:

Sylvia Nyameche in Kenya took a trip to the eastern part of the country, Mombasa, to start a new MOPS group and check in on two of the existing groups there. The launch was a success.

Bukola in Nigeria reignited her MOPS group, which had not been able to meet physically for over a year. They had a beautiful reunion, and I am so excited for the way God is working in Bukola to flourish as the leader God called her to be!