A Ministry of Empowerment

a Ministry of

Emp o w e r m e n t e q u i P ping c h u rc h es to transform t h eir comm u nities

by HELEN OROMBI

A

t the age of 9, Florence Muindi had a life-changing experience. “At school during recess, my classmate shared that she had accepted Christ as Lord and Savior, and she really wanted me to experience it, too. So she explained in a way that I understood enough to make that decision. When we went back into class after recess, I asked the teacher if I could make an announcement, because my friend had made clear that if you accept Christ you have to confess him. So I explained to them what had happened, and many people in that class actually made a decision out of that confession!”

So began the native Kenyan’s lifelong passion for sharing and incarnating the love of Christ. When her father died in a tragic accident some years later, Muindi, who was just getting ready to graduate from high school, began asking God some tough, existential questions. “What was Dad’s purpose in life that you would believe he had completed it and would take him home?” led to “What is my purpose? In what particular way do you want me to bring glory to you?”

As she sought God’s will for her life, Miundi began to understand that she would one day minister to the poor by bringing health to communities. College led to medical school, which led to a master’s program in public health followed by further training in systems management to learn how to respond to crises that affect large populations.

While in Ethiopia with a mission agency with her husband, Muindi felt God leading them to create an organization that would give them the structure and accountability they needed to do good work among the poor. In 2000, they founded Life in Abundance International, a nonprofit that PRISM 2008

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Right: Children stand outside their home in the slums of Addis Ababa.

Opposite: Doctor Muindi ministers to a patient during a mobile clinic. is headquartered in Ethiopia and currently works in seven African countries.

Led by an international team of country-specific directors/ boards, Life in Abundance takes a unique approach by dealing exclusively with churches. “When we sense God calling us into a particular community, we begin by finding a church in that area that is looking to transform its community,” explains Muindi. “Once we find a church—or even just a small group of believers, which is often the case in those countries that are hostile to Christianity—we do a community diagnostic, either through prayer walking or through medical outreach clinics, which help us prioritize and decide which needs can be addressed through the church. Then we design churchbased ministries.”

Some of the most common ministries launched by Life in Abundance are HIV/AIDS outreaches and ministries to street children.They also do dental care, eye care, and homevisit medical care ministries, health education training, water and sanitation projects, and holistic transformation initiatives.

Poverty alleviation through income-generation activities and microenterprise is another aspect of their work.

By way of example, Muindi recounts the transformation of Mekanisa, a slum community in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. “The church we decided on working with in Mekanisa was very small,” she says. “They had about 25 members and were meeting every Sunday in a tiny rented room. It was filthy and located right next to a crowded refugee camp, so lots of people passed by every day asking for help from the church. They were feeling pressure to meet needs, but they didn’t know how and didn’t have many resources.”

Small as it was, the church was already hosting a compassion project, sponsoring 320 children from surrounding slum homes.The pastor asked if Muindi would do a health screening for these children. The results of the screening were alarming. According to Muindi, 85 percent of the children had an active disease process, with the five top diseases being worm infestation, skin diseases, eye infections, respiratory infections, and AIDS-related illnesses; 60 percent were dealing with more than one. Although they all walked away with medicines for their conditions, Muindi knew that, due to their current living conditions, most of them would be right back where they started within three months of treatment.

Clearly curative care was not the solution.

“Years before, God had called me to a three-fold ministry to the poor: heal, feed, and deliver. Heal their diseases through health education, treatment, and primary healthcare interventions. Feed the hungry through nutrition education, food provision, income generation, micro-entrepreneurships, and skills training. And deliver them from the cycle of pov-

erty—break the yoke of Satan, the slavery to sin.”

Determined to help the church help its neighbors, Life in Abundance began training a team of church members to do community healthwork, which involved home visits and health education. They invited the families of the 320 children to hear the results of the health screening and emphasized that medicine was not the solution—the community itself was responsible to ensure health for all. From among those gathered, more team members were selected, more training ensued, and a life-changing, community-owned movement began.

“They soon mobilized families to do things like sweep the streets, clean the public toilet, create an environment where the children could play safely, and begin to address the gangs in the area so there could be peace,” Muindi recalls. “They formed committees in the community so they could be empowered to speak as one voice.” The church became the place where people gathered to plan, pool resources, and receive some services. A team was trained to go out into people’s homes to pray with them and introduce them to Christ. “People began to be saved.”

“We met a group of women, most of whom were lepers who had settled near the local leprosy hospital and whose only source of income was begging,” she continues. “So we got a grant and started a revolving loan program at the church.

We trained the church folks in microenterprise—how to look at the market to see what opportunities exist to generate income. By beginning small, they slowly built confidence in themselves and eventually came to believe that they could not only help themselves but also go on to help others.”

Fast forward to today: The church has grown from 20 members to 700 members and planted two additional churches in the neighborhood, each with 200 to 300 members, and transformation is visible.

“There used to be a lot of insecurity in that community because of the gangs, but that has completely changed as

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point and meeting place of the community efforts. We do not set up institutions. If working with orphans, we look for families through the church who are able to take them in.

We do not own the ministry; it belongs to the church. We are there to facilitate and see it grow, but once we feel that a church has embraced it and are running with it, we move on to a new church.”

Muindi insists that the work of Life in Abundance could not go forward without its corporate commitment to Scripture-reading and prayer. “We go into areas where there is great suffering and injustice, places where evil is thriving.

It’s not something we can tackle by strategy or because we have medical training; we know that we are coming against the kingdom of darkness. But we do this because of Christ.

We’ve given our lives so that others may have life and have it in all its fullness.” n

people have begun to find their place in society,” says Muindi.

“We targeted the gangs, did retreats for them, invited them to fun events, and most of them changed. In fact, two of the former gang leaders are now youth pastors in this church.

That is transformation—when people begin to change inside in such a way that there is a physical manifestation of change.

The community has cleaned up. The church started a school so the children study right inside the church. Just the church coming to an understanding of their mandate to serve and bless the community is evidence of transformation. Today, Christians are respected in that area because they are doing exactly what they are supposed to do as a church.”

Instead of creating new institutions or launching new nonprofits, Life in Abundance empowers existing churches to do the work of the church. “Our goal is to empower the church to be the change agent. We provide pastoral training and leadership development; we teach them how to write a grant proposal and relate to partners outside the church.

Instead of building an office or new building, we work from the existing church building so that it becomes the focal

A native of Uganda, Helen Orombi is a doctoral student in ministry at Palmer Seminary in Philadelphia. She also works as an outpatient therapist with urban children.

Defender of Widows, Father to the Fatherless continued from page 19. a positive impact on the lives of the widows.

In recent years GOWAN’s activities have attracted the attention of the Kaduna State government. “In the past, Muslim leaders hated Christian communities,” says Agang.

“But now they see churches supporting Muslim widows and orphans. This has attracted the attention of Muslims in government and they are reaching Christian communities with social services. Now, Muslims from other parts of Kaduna State are asking us to extend our programs to their communities.”

“They are tired of the wars, violence, and the killings,” continues Agang. “‘Please come to us—this is the type of thing we want,’ they always plead with us. So I believe something positive is happening through this ministry, and it is encouraging. That is why we would not shy away from this approach we have taken.” n

burn Christian churches. “So we see our task as empowering these Muslim youths so that they are not idle and susceptible to being manipulated by their politicians to wreak havoc on the church,” says Shamang. “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop. That is why we have extended our activities to these Muslims. We believe that it would be difficult for politicians to recruit these youths to cause violence if they are engaged in productive activities.”

On the whole, Shamang says their ministry strives “to create a dynamic community that imbibes the spirit of tolerance. We are happy that we now have Muslim women and youths working alongside Christians in our communities.”

He also says they have seen a reduction of religious violence in the area.

GOWAN’s ministry is nondenominational and encourages interaction of Christians irrespective of their church affiliation.

In this way true Christian unity can be attained in the body of Christ. “This has now broken the suspicion that had existed between churches in these areas,” Agang says. Reports from the various churches in the area show that widows are among those who actively support mission work. The ministry leaders see this as further evidence that GOWAN is having

Obed Minchakpu (obedminchakpu@yahoo.com) is a “media missionary” with a diverse educational background in theology, journalism, physics, and mechanical engineering. He also ministers to persecuted Christians in Nigeria, where he lives with his wife and four children in the city of Jos.

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