Central African Republic
This was where we had our first real result, in seeing a mission planted. It was in the early days of Nations, and was very much a joint effort with the World Horizons family.

Rob Reeve who was leading World Horizons France at the time and was also very involved with the beginning of Nations, met a French missionary in the early 1990s who had spent his life in the CAR but was a little disillusioned. The Church had grown, but was not mature. Rob suggested mission as a way of bringing them to maturity. The missionary was fired with the idea.

He introduced Rob and Rowland Evans (the founder of Nations) to A, a Central African pastor who had, most unusually, come to faith in Christ while studying in China, where the church is often severely persecuted. Since returning to his home country, A had been increasingly stirred by the desire to see Central Africans called into and equipped for mission. He now invited Rob and Rowland to come and share about mission, and how his people could be involved. Many Central African Christians at that time had never considered that they even could be missionaries. Missionaries to them were white people who drove Land Rovers.

The message of mission as the responsibility of every nation fired the people. This led to A starting a mission school which many of us have taught at. They targetted Pygmy people within their borders first of all, and then Muslims. Some of the trainees crossed borders into Chad.

The mission training started in an outbuilding in A’s yard, and in time a dedicated Centre was built. Nations en Marche (Nations on the March) was born.

Some of the early graduates from the mission school worked among the Pygmy people (they prefer to be known as Citizens, and Pygmy is a derogatory term to them. I only use it for the sake of clarity). Though these people are largely nomadic, the missionaries set up an elementary school for the children, a literacy project for adults and a small primary health care centre, and a little Citizens village grew up. They also started to learn how to cultivate the earth, as the culture until then had been largely hunter/gatherer. This had many false starts, but some success.

Some found faith, and a church with open sides and a roof to protect from the Rain Forest climate was built. They in turn took expeditions into the forest to spread the gospel among their people. Several Citizens churches now exist, and for a number of years prior to 2013 and the start of the current political and security crisis in the country, a conference for Pygmy Christians was held in the forest at around every Easter time.

The workers have faced many struggles, not least political unrest and constant danger. Also lack of finance. Yet the work continues.

Outreach to Muslims began and still continues alongside much persecution, including threat to life. A’s wife O had such a fruitful ministry among Muslim women that she was forced to leave the country under a death threat.

Burkina Faso
In God’s providence this led to the family settling in Burkina Faso, and A going between the two nations. O still pursues a fruitful ministry among Muslim women and children. A has been able to do much to motivate churches there to reach out to Muslims too.
One fruit of his labour was a Mullah called F. A led him to Christ, and he is now a fearless evangelist among his own people and other Muslim groups.

A has been working with Burkinabé church pastors over the last few years to set up another mission for the West African countries, called Go Sahel. Its aim is to motivate and train believers in these countries to reach out to their Muslim neighbours, challenging some to move North into very strongly Islamic areas.

The whole area of West and Central Africa is becoming increasingly unstable, politically. However, the Lord’s work continues, as you will read in the updates below.

A also travels to Europe and the USA to motivate people, especially fellow Africans, into involvement in mission.

(N.B. We have included some backdated material to give you more background information, should you require it).