2025; THUS FAR HATH THE LORD HELPED US
The
Baptist family on the continent travelled length and breadth of the world and our
continent doing ministry and we attest to God’s faithfulness. So, like the
Psalmist, we say of a truth that ‘’ For the LORD is good; his mercy is
everlasting; and his truth endure to all generations.’’ (Psalm 100:5).
The move of God manifested strongly in the areas of
Missions with countless testimonies, the Lord sent forth His Words across
Africa through the Youth Mission Year (YMY) project with eight young
missionaries settling in Ghana, The Gambia, Guinea Conakry, South Africa and
Namibia to win the lost to Christ and Disciple infant Christians to maturity.
The call also entails Church Planting, ministry developments, empowerment and strengthening
of the cooperating AABF host Conventions and Unions.
In The Gambia, the Baptist Union of The Gambia now
has improved structure with the establishment of Youth Department, Women
Missionaries Union and strengthening of the Men’s Missionary Union of The
Gambia, they are also working directly with the few Baptist Churches directly
to drive internal missions growth. The Mission work in the northern part of
Ghana, precisely Yendi has led to great fruits with several Churches planted
directly by the missionaries in collaboration with our partners, Guinea Conakry
witnessed increase in missions and school-based discipleship. Namibia with its
tiny population and large expanse of land is experiencing door to door
evangelism in collaboration with the National Baptist Convention of Namibia
while our Missionary in South Africa continues to serve God’s purpose in the
public space with meaningful impact, Hallelujah.
The Lord has opened the door of Lesotho and Eswatini
to the ministry of AABF with the establishment of the Lesotho Baptist
Convention and Baptist Convention of Eswatini.
In addition to this newness, we also welcomed five Conventions and
Unions from three countries who are now full National Independent Baptist
Bodies (NIBB) of the All Africa Baptist Fellowship.
This year, Baptists on the continent of Africa met at
different places to strengthen our fellowship and togetherness. The All Africa
Baptist Women Fellowship (Eastern and Southern Regions) had glorious gatherings
in Uganda and Malawi respectively. Our All Africa Baptist Youth Fellowship (AABYF)
met in South Africa for their Continental conference, in October, the All
Africa Baptist Men’s Fellowship (AABMF) had a successful congress that also
brought in new executive council. The gathering took place in Harare, Zimbabwe
and the grand finale for the year was the colorful and memorable General
Council Meeting of the All Africa Baptist Fellowship (AABF) held in Bangui,
Central African Republic. The event was fully backed by the president of the
Republic, Professor President Faustine Touadera who is also a Baptist deacon.
The meeting was significantly attended by the General Secretary of the Baptist
World Alliance, Rev. Dr. Elijah Brown and it led to the adoption of a new constitution for
the AABF.
A lot happened to destabilize Africa and Africans
this year, most especially with the
issues of political interests, post-elections violence, acts of
terrorisms, attacks on Christian communities that led to displacement of the
brethren. The Warfare that devastated our families in Democratic Republic of
Congo, acts of terrorism against Christians in Nigeria, countless casualties in
the post-election crises in Tanzania, Cameroon, Cote D’Ivoire and many are yet
to fully recover from the onslaught. In all of these, God has been faithful to
His people and our continent is still one.
We are most
grateful to God for the opportunity to minister directly to some of our Baptist
families in their countries through the ‘’Be Baptist’’ workshops that focused
on advancing the knowledge of the Baptist people about their Baptist identity through
a system that encourages the participants to stepdown the impartations
received. The AABF train also visited countries like South Sudan, UgandaMozambique,
Namibia, Kenya, Central African Republic, South Africa, etc. we also thank God
for smooth transitions of leadership across our Conventions and Unions.
This year, the Lord manifested his manifold goodness,
presence and care with the testimonies of stability, landmark accomplishments
and progress across our Conventions, Unions and Associations. Our member bodies
in Zambia, CAR, Kenya, etc. The Children department of the All Africa Baptist
Fellowship also organized an highly successful online Young Preachers’ Contest
that entered its grand finale on october 10th, 2025 with Master David Oladipupo
from Nigeria coming out victorious in an highly competitive contest that
started with 32 participants across Africa. The top five winners were rewarded
with prizes.
Our testimony also came in the form of the progress
made towards the sustainability of the ministry through the establishment of
the Baptist Transport Company (B-Trans Limited) with the certificate of
incorporations received from its headquarters, Ghana. This year, the message of
B-Trans Limited travelled to the length and breadth of Africa, more Baptist
families are subscribing as shareholders while the General Manger of B-Trans,
Rev. Emmanuel Mustapha visited all the connecting countries for in-person assessment
ahead of the takeoff of full operation.
In a world that is gradually derailing with issues of
LGBTQ penetrating the global Church, we are grateful to God because as of
today, Baptists on the continent of Africa remains fully committed to the
original plan of God in terms of our sexuality. This is more reason why we must
continue to disciple our brethren who go to the diaspora in search of greener
pasture. We all must remain on the Lord’s side.
There are lots more to be grateful to God for, we
would however close here by cheerfully
affirming that AABF now have presence in 40 African countries, with 93 member
bodies leading about 23 million baptized Christians spread across about 56,000
Churches on the continent of Africa. The Church of God is truly marching on and
the gate of hell will never prevail in Jesus name.
Agogo Iyiola David,
Director of Communications & Media,
All Africa Baptist Fellowship.
For more information and inquiries, please contact:
Tel: +2347047800700, +2348027165242
Email: aabfoffice@gmail.com
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