West Africa
| Michel and Lydia Ouedraogo attended our Jesus-Focused Youth Ministry Forum in Egypt. Michel leads Youth for Christ in West Africa. Not only did he bond with the Reach Out team, but he already had the vision for equipping youth leaders in the ten French-speaking countries of West Africa plus Cameroon and Ghana. We agreed to conduct a JFYM Forum in West Africa. Michel and his ten country leaders with Youth for Christ selected 60 key youth leaders to attend the Forum. Before we met Michel, Benoit Therrien, our Eagle Leader in Quebec, had begun to translate our resources into French. We took the new French translation of Jesus-Focused Youth Ministry and five other titles to West Africa. At the Forum the Lord fulfilled the youth ministry dreams of many youth leaders including Florence, one of the attendees. This lady wants to see every student in Cameroon know Jesus. She wrote us this note after the Forum: |  |
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| As I studied the material and attended the forum, everything the leaders were saying was exactly what I had been praying for several years. I cried the entire first day as I realized how God had answered my prayer by putting in my hands what I needed to reach the youth of my country. As a result of the change in Florence, she took four actions when she returned home. Here's one: She started the 12-week training through Jesus-Focused Youth Ministry with 16 youth leaders. They met every Tuesday from 5:00-7:00 p.m. at her house. She gave them the resources we had printed in French. They are very excited about making disciples and leaders in their church and city! | ||
The Need: |
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In French-speaking West Africa, an average 60% of the population is under the age of 26. These young people face the challenges of the aggressive spread of Islam, animistic religion, poverty, and more recently, HIV/AIDS. Islam is buying converts in this part of Africa with money and development assistance, and imitating virtually everything the Christian church does to reach youth...worship music, preaching and even local service projects. In Senegal, Mali, and Niger, about 90% of the population is Muslim, with Burkina Faso, Cote d Ivoire, Benin and Togo averaging 38%. Much of the remainder of these populations clings to animistic religions, with some very destructive customs and witchcraft. In fact, it is in Benin that Voodoo has its roots. These religions make reaching young people with the Gospel very difficult, and as a result only those of great faith and spiritual strength reach the youth. Also, with most of these nations being extremely poor, many young people just try to survive. Often where to find food and water presents the biggest need of the day. Compared with much of Africa, the incidence of HIV/AIDS is relatively low, but the spread of the disease continues to accelerate. The churches in most of these nations, though sometimes small, offer a spiritually vibrant faith to the young people who set the pace for the future of the church. (Information provided by Dave Bidwell, Africa Director, Youth for Christ International) |
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The Ministry: |
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| We conducted the Jesus-Focused Youth Ministry Forum in West Africa. We invited the five top youth leaders in Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mali, Centrafrique, Benin, Togo, Guinea, Niger, and Democratic Republic of Congo. Currently they are implementing Jesus-Focused Youth Ministry in their local churches. To do so, we translated and printed five of our Jesus-Focused Youth Ministry curriculum resources into French in 2006. The value of these resources, the only ones for youth ministry in their language, was expressed by Didier, a veteran pastor who had gone to his only other youth leader training three years before, also led by Americans. Not only was it impractical and theoretical, every book they held up was English. I only speak French. So when you made the training so practical, biblical and simple and then gave us twenty-five books to take home in our own language, I began to cry and thank God. |  |
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The Plan: |
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In 2008 under the leadership of Michel Ouedraogo, our key African leader, we will continue equipping the West African youth leaders. We will certify as Eagle Leaders the youth leaders who have implemented JFYM with a goal to have at least two trainers per country. We will select a new group of 50-60 youth leaders from these 12 countries and begin training them in Jesus-Focused Youth Ministry. Their training will be led by the newly appointed West African Eagle Leaders! We will translate and print the remaining five resources into French. These resources are used by the key youth leaders who attend the Forums. They are the only youth ministry resources available to them in their language. | |
The Resources: |
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These resources are available in French:
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- What is it?
- Jesus Focused Youth Ministry
- Jesus Focused Youth Ministry Forum
- Eagle Leaders
- National
- International
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