Persecuted believers

Today, we stand with all those who because to seek to obey and follow Christ are suffering persecution. some are ridiculed, others are refused unemployment, some are mistreated or lose their jobs because of standing for what is right in Gods eyes. Remember also to pray for God's grace and strength on all the Christians around the world who are in prison for Christ. Intercede for all those who are suffering torture, deprivation, and hostility for Jesus. Ask the Lord to provide for the widows and children of Pastors who have been maimed for life or have been martyred. Pray for healing for those men and women who suffered severe physical and emotional humiliation as their bodies and souls were degraded. Pray for the victims as well as those who are traumatised as a result of witnessing what happened to their loved ones at the hands of their persecutors. Pray especially for the children. Pray for courage and strength for all those who have suffered so they may be able to forgive the perpetrators and let go so that no bitterness may delay their own inner healing and that they may not become contaminated by the hatred and evil that infected their persecutors.  Cry out to God for mercy for His people and also ask Him how you may help! Hebrews 13:3 “Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.”

Free college education

Alison college in Ireland offers free college education by means of online distance learning. We strongly recommend anyone anywhere to make use of their services in order to develop one's professional knowledge. Even if you are serving in full-time Christian ministry you can benefit from studying psychology, social work, project management, healthcare and so on. All courses are completely free. However if you do eventually want the diploma certificate to be printed and send to you then you pay about 120$. For more information see: http://alison.com

Most courses are equivalent to UK QCF 3 (FETAC 5)

Free ministry and Bible college training

As about 60% of pastors are untrained worldwide and half of all churches lack ministers there is an urgent need for more to be trained. It has been the desire of Africa Outreach to set up such a training but as we did our research we discovered that a dear Baptist brother in the Philippines has taken the initiative. Although the material is distinctively Baptist and we may think differently about several theological matters and Bible interpretations we still highly recommend this site for anyone in need of ministry/Bible college training: http://baptist-distinctives.blogspot.nl/2008/02/things-to-come.html#howtoenroll

Academic articles

For easy access to Dr. Erwin van der Meer's articles on mission, Africa, Witchcraft, ritual violence, spiritual warfare, demonology, children's rights and other topics see the academia website where they can be viewed or downloaded for free.  Dr. Erwin van der Meer, although now based in Europe, is still closely affiliated with the ministry of Africa Outreach: https://independent.academia.edu/DrErwinvanderMeer

News from Malawi

Greetings from Malawi to all our friends and family in Christ.

The part few months have been challenging but we have thanks to the Lord as he had taught us to survive one day at a time and put our trust in him. Despite the many difficulties which we all have been facing we are all still smiling and praising the Lord.

It has been a good start to the girls academic year with some good reports coming in from the school food the two young girls in our home, that kids Anna and Caroline getting particularly good reviews of the progress which they are making.

We have had some visitors come and stay in the home with the girls for a couple of weeks this has been good for the girls and the visitors, Karina Dingemanse and Jooske Crucq from Holland, who have all enjoyed each other's company and learnt from each other.
Ethan and I, are well and we continue to pray for Sevana' s health as she continues with her struggle with physical pain and balance it out with work. We also pray that the financial situation improves so that we may carry on with the work which we are here to do.

The funding has gotten so low that we are now in a situation where we had to resort to supporting the girls while they live in their own homes (as long as their safety is not put at risk). We will keep the home open for all emergency situations and as a safe place for all our girls in times of need. We are planning to improve on our family counseling for the girls to ensure on a smooth healing process in the homes.

We are thankful and feel blessed by all those who have continued to support financially and through pray through these tough times, may the good Lord continue to bless you all.

Warm regards

Shingayi, Sevana and Ethan Munjanja

Boko Haram

In May this year the 12 year old Mary was among the hundreds of girls aged 10-18 who were abducted from vilages and Christian boarding schools by a militant Islamic group in Northern Nigeria, often referred to as BOKO HARAM. The spokesman for this group referred to Islamic law and said that it allows making slaves of non-muslims. Their leader Abubakar Shekau claimed that Allah instructed him to make them slaves and sell the girls. Mary witnessed how other girls were kept under control by threats and beatings and those who rebelled were raped and killed as a deterrent. Mary herself was raped for not accepting Islam but eventually managed to escape, many of the others were not so lucky. In the words of Abubakar Shekau: “The girls that have not accepted Islam, they are now gathered in numbers...and we treat them the way the Prophet Muhammad treated the infidels he seized.” In other words these innocent victims are treated inhumanly as the spoils of war. Equally disturbing is the deafening silence of Muslims around the world. If a group of extremists had committed such horrible evils to Muslim girls, Christians worldwide would be appalled by it and condemn it.  We need to pray for all those suffering under the harsh yoke of Islam. As Africa Outreach we do not have the capacity to do much to help these girls but we do call all Christians to pray for these innocent victims and to help make the world aware of what has been happening there for many years now.

Documentary

Our project among the so-called ''witch children'' of Malawi received ample attention in a TV documentary aired on national TV in the Netherlands last Friday. We congratulate our representative Sevana Munjanja-van der Meer's excellent role in the documentary. It is our prayer that the documentary will contribute to more intervention to prevent witchcraft-belief related violence against children in Malawi and elsewhere.

For those whose dutch is rusty you can still understand the part featuring Sevana as it is in English about 6 minutes into the documentary: http://www.npo.nl/peter-r-over-de-grens/16-05-2014/TROS_1357978