Open Arms Ministries
Switz City, Indiana
Open Arms is a Christian provider
of family and youth services, including a preschool, foster parent training
and child placement, teen and adult education, and a group home. Their
approach is to be proactive in a reactive environment, while providing
safety, security, and stability for children, youth, and their families.
Africa Development Mission
Harare, Zimbabwe, Africa
Denford Chizanga is the founder
and director of Africa Development Mission in Harare, the capital city
of Zimbabwe. ADM exists to plant new churches and develop church leaders.
Denford writes,
As one working within an organization
that receives 99 percent of its support from churches in America, I
can testify about the value of money in the operations of an organization
like Africa Development Mission (ADM). Seventy percent of our people
are unemployed and 40 percent are infected with the HIV/AIDS virus.
Support from our overseas partners has enabled us to plant new churches,
train leaders, and address some of the social and economic challenges
our people face daily.
Even though money has gone
a long way in helping us do ministry in Zimbabwe, it is even more encouraging
when our partners support us through prayers and, where possible, visiting
and being on the field with us. That human touch goes a long way in
strengthening our relationship with our partners while giving our partners
an opportunity to experience the blessing of being practically involved
in the work.
ADM’s primary ministry is
to recruit preachers and support them in planting and leading congregations.
So far we have been able to start three congregations in the village
area of Mhondoro and one in the urban area of Ruwa near Harare. Preachers
have also been trained and sent to Zambia and Tanzania to do church
planting there. Our plan is to make inroads into eastern, western, and
northern African countries and plant churches there as well. These regions
are predominantly Islamic.
ADM has been sponsoring school
children (providing for their education), helping individuals and groups
with income generating projects, and donating food and clothing to alleviate
the physical suffering caused by the economic environment. Our plans
are to increase our education fund and sponsor both secondary and Bible
college students. We also want to develop our missions and leadership
training program to offer a formal, accredited Leadership and Management
Certificate.
Zimbabwe Church Development Ministries
Zimbabwe, Africa
Stephen Chikwati is founder
and director of Zimbabwe Church Development Ministries. ZCDM also exists
to plant churches and train church leaders throughout the nation.
Stephen writes,
The focus of Zimbabwe Church
Development Ministries is preaching, teaching, and youth ministry in
rural Zimbabwe. Through our various ministries God has blessed us and
allowed us to plant new churches, build a church building, offer counseling,
and help the disadvantaged and unfortunate in our community.
All this calls for money and
it is not easy. The state of our economy is very pathetic at the moment.
Inflation sometimes rises at a rate of 1,200 percent. This makes planning
difficult and budgeting complicated. Prices of goods are not constant.
Quotations given in shops only last for 24 hours. Most of the time when
you go to buy, prices will have gone up.
Our work involves traveling,
yet our roads are poor and fuel is expensive. Maintaining vehicles can
be costly and time consuming. The work of the Lord has to be done despite
these challenges. We believe God will continue to provide and allow
us to keep on working.
We’ve found it very difficult
to speak to large crowds without some kind of public address system,
so we plan to buy a small generator (we often experience power outages
without any warning) and a PA system.