FAMILY MINISTRY IN
From 2001
AN ENORMOUS NEED
Families are under attack as never before, and in every country are increasingly deviating from God's original blueprint set out in the Bible. The two regions of the world where this is most pronounced are Sub-Sahara Africa and the former Soviet countries. God has placed in our hearts a deep passion to seek to help in these regions through family ministry.
Since we received the vision to go to Africa in 2001 we have been able to teach and minister in Ghana, (Accra), Kenya (Nairobi and Mombassa), Uganda (Kampala, Jinja, Soroti, Bugembi, Mbale, Masaka, Lake Victoria Islands and many other towns and villages), Tanzania (Arusha and Kilimanjaro), Rwanda (Kigali), Republic of Congo (Bukavu, Isiro and Ibambi), South Africa (Worcester) and Liberia (Monrovia).
Bruce also visited
Everywhere we go we widely distribute our books some of which have been printed in
We also conduct seminars on family issues and counselling in other places such as
The Sub-Sahara nations in
This region has the highest rate of HIV/AIDS and teenage pregnancy in the world reaching 40 percent of the population in some countries, the status of women is very low, domestic violence and child abuse is rampant, polygamy is common, sexual immorality is very high, orphaned children and teenage pregnancy are the highest in the world, female circumcision is still widely practiced, problems with street kids and drug addiction are rapidly increasing.
While the need varies from country to country the main general areas of need in African families which we have identified are what we refer to as "The Big 10" areas of need.
THE BIG TEN AREAS OF NEED
2. Family health - HIV/AIDS (among highest in world), malaria and other diseases.
3. High family dysfunction and brokenness, and associated rejection and shame.
4. Degradation and disrespect of women. Women are oppressed and men are depressed.
5. Domestic violence - physical, sexual, wife rape.
6. Sexual immorality - especially marital unfaithfulness.
7. Polygamy.
8. Teenage pregnancy.
9. Orphaned children.
10. Child abuse of all forms.
We have also identified what we call the Seven Social Evils.
THE SEVEN SOCIAL EVILS
(In
THAT DESTROY FAMILY AND SOCIETY
1. Sexual immorality and AIDS
2. Degradation of women (worst in world)
3. Marital unfaithfulness (95% of both spouses cheat)
4. Domestic violence (physical, sexual, wife rape)
5. Rape of daughters and orphans (many also get AIDS)
6. Teenage pregnancy (highest in
7. Widespread child abuse (physical and sexual).
Many of these social evils are serious crimes, which governments have made laws against, but the crimes are rarely reported and apathy about them prevails.
It is interesting to note that the seven social evils are all sexual issues. Sexual taboos prevail in these countries.
The world is evil not because of those who do it but because of those who do nothing about it.
Other areas of need affecting the family
There are many other areas of need which affect the family either directly or indirectly such as:
- A pervading sense of helplessness, hopelessness, fatalism and despair.
- Apathy and laziness, especially with the men.
- Inefficiency, disorganisation and corruption from the government down.
- Tribal and other wars.
- Witchcraft and curses – associated with a widespread spirit of fear.
- Poor communication network.
- Lack of creativity.
- Low life expectancy.
- Lack of good stewardship (poor management of finance and property).
- Disrespect of time.
- Unhealthy dependence on the West.
- Female genital mutilation (FGM – female circumcision) still widespread.
- Religious addiction (and legalism) pronounced.
- Alcohol addiction (home made brews like gin, etc.)
- Drug addiction among children.
- Sexual addiction.
- Rage addiction (domestic violence).
- Large number of street kids.
There is also major need in Christian leadership. Many church leaders have been poorly trained and fail in personal and financial integrity.
The Church has failed to address these issues. It has concentrated on evangelism and spiritual issues and lacked discipleship training - the application of biblical truth to the whole of life.
Large numbers of Christians exist in most of these countries, and they go to church regularly (their weekly entertainment), sing enthusiastically and listen but when they walk out the door and go home nothing changes. Husbands still beat their wives and parents still abuse their children and continue with their sexual immorality.
Children in Need
When family dysfunction is present it is the children who suffer most. The enemy’s primary attack has always been against children. This is certainly the case in
- High degrees of child sickness and death through AIDS and other diseases
- Broken homes.
- Very high proportion of orphans, whose parents have died from AIDS and other diseases.
- Polygamous homes.
- Teenage pregnancy often from rape.
- Very high child abuse of all kinds.
- Involvement of children in wars.
Cultural Strengths
There are, of course cultural strengths which must not be overlooked, and these generally include:
1. Strong family ties
2. Strong community spirit
3. Friendliness
4. Politeness
5. Modesty of dress
6. Relatively little pornography
Other very positive things are occurring in certain countries.
For example, in
OUR STRATEGY
History
We want to do something about these appalling conditions and social evils.
We have serious problems in relation to the family in
The work in Africa began in 2001 when we attended international YWAM conferences in
Previously we ministered mainly in the former Soviet countries and other countries and we did not feel any special call of God to minister in
Since then we have ministered in ten African countries in East, West, Central and Southern Africa.
Everywhere we go we widely distribute our books, some of which have been printed in
Let's Stand up Straight, which deals with unhealthy dependencies,
Happy Families, which sets out the biblical principles of healthy family life, marriage, parenting, sexuality, communication, addiction, and restoration from family dysfunction,
How to Talk with your Child about Sex, a sex education manual for parents and teachers.
Christian Counselling and Family Therapy (Eight Volumes), a comprehensive systematic series on Christian counselling and family therapy used in our counselling course in
In 2001 we were invited to come to
In 2002 we lead our first YWAM short-term mission team, which went to
In 2003 we led and taught in the first YWAM Family Ministries School and Foundations of Family Life Seminars with over 60 students all of which were black African and who came from 7 countries, including many church leaders. All completed the training program.
The results of this continue today in the form of ongoing family ministry by those who did the training in their various locations. A vibrant ongoing YWAM family ministry program continues each year in Jinja itself. This is the most effective way to reach Africans – by their own trained people.
Alongside the FMS were frequent seminars in churches and other places.
The
In 2006 we are able to pioneer another
The Seven parts of our Family Ministry Work
The seven parts of the family ministry work in
1. Pioneering, leading and teaching in YWAM Family Ministry Schools (FMS) in strategic locations. These are intensive five month training programs in family restoration and ministry.
2. Teaching in public seminars, churches, on national TV and radio, Rotary Clubs, schools, orphanages, and anywhere else we can, on family values, marriage, parenting, sexuality, addiction, family communication, family counselling, preventive health, and Christian leadership.
3. Leading annual YWAM short-term missions of persons from
4. Establishing and assisting the Ugandan Institute of Family Counselling (UIFC) conduct counselling and family therapy courses.
5. Printing our books on family values and counselling in Africa and distributing them widely.
6. Fund-raising in
7. Donate to family ministry projects such as orphanages, etc.
Bruce teaching about child protection in
In 2003 we visited YWAM Base in Mombassa and spoke about family issues with several YWAM leaders. We also generated interest in the
The health of a nation depends on the health of the families in the nation. Our objective is to impact the whole nation not just a small area. We believe this is happening, and it is encouraging to see positive changes little by little each year we return.
We used our two books, Happy Families and How to Talk with your Child about Sex as a basis for teaching and distributed them widely.
In 2002 we took the first YWAM Family Resource Centre Canberra short-term mission team of eleven AIFC students, YWAMers, church members and others to
Nellie and I taught at a large public seminar arranged by
The team was a wonderful team. They worked hard and well. They had a big impact on each country. For most of them it was a new experience. Their lives have been transformed and they will never be the same again and they will never forget the experiences they had.
Similar short-term mission teams continued each year in
In 2003 the first
We trained John and Jennie Le Clerc, also from YWAM Canberra, to be assistant leaders, in view of them continuing and leading the program in the subsequent two years. After that it was planned that Africans would the program. The first African leaders were Fred and Josephine Mukasa from Jinja who led the 2006 FMS.
This first FMS was highly successful being the largest FMS ever held by YWAM anywhere with 56 students and 20 staff (many of whom were staff/students) from seven countries. Many of the students were church leaders.
In the three month lecture phase of the 2003 training program Bruce did most of the teaching.
All 56 students completed the five month school. This is quite amazing, as we maintained a high standard for the school according to University of the Nations and Family Ministries policy and guidelines. Some students found it difficult, being weak in English language and literacy - but with coaching they made it.
The eight-week field assignment phase of the training program was held in
We used our new book, Happy Families, as a weekly text during the course. Let's Stand up Staight and our new book, How to Talk with your Child about Sex were also widely used. Hundreds of these and other books were distributed.
These 56 students were equipped to go out and disciple African nations, by teaching the biblical principles of family, marriage, parenting, sexuality and preventive heath care.
During the FMS we conducted many seminars in
We were also kept busy training staff to ensure the annual continuity of the FMS in Jinja, and the multiplication of family ministries throughout
Tima Bakker from YWAM Canberra lectured for a week of the school and assisted us for another 3 weeks. Her Fijian background went well with the Africans.
We raised $27,000 US for a FMS Jinja Student Assistance Fund prior to the school, which greatly helped many students who could not otherwise have done the course, and also enabled us to acquire all the necessary items to run the new and large program (a vehicle, photocopier, O/H projector, library books, stationery, printing, beds, chairs, tables, eating utensils, insect screens, curtains, etc.). We very much thank all who have given to the Fund. Many students asked us to convey their personal thanks to those who assisted them in this way. We also thank those who have prayerfully supported us and the family ministry program throughout.
In 2004 we taught for three weeks in the second
We also raised $10,000 US for this FMS prior to leaving, which substantially supported 24 full-time students for 5 months of intensive training, and a further 30 to attend up to 6 weekly seminars during the FMS.
We lead another FRCC (YWAM) short-term mission outreach team of eleven of our AIFC students in 2004. The team went out to four different village areas in south-east and central
As usual we conducted seminars – in fact, we taught on family values (the biblical principles of family, marriage, parenting, sexuality and preventive heath care) for 4-6 hours every day for our 21 days in
In 2005 we led another YWAM short-term mission outreach team of fifteen of our
While there we conducted seminars and spoke on national TV and on the radio, addressing the Seven Social Evils in public seminars, churches, schools, orphanages, and did five recordings for national TV and spoke for an hour on a radio station which reached into most parts of
Bruce also taught in the third
Another exciting first occurred in 2005. Forty three African students, mostly senior members of the community, commenced our Australian Institute of Family Counselling (
This AIFC DEP-DEV in Uganda discontinued in 2006 to make way for the new Uganga Institute of Family Counselling (UIFC) which we, together with Evelyn Kitalya from Jinja, set up to provide for Ugandan students and students from neighbouring countries. This is a three year bachelor degree program and commenced with 40 students.
In August 2006 we led another successful short-term mission to
In 2007 we visited Kampala and taught UIFC students for two days. Several AIFC staff have done the same thing.
Tanzania
The need is much the same in
While in Jinja during the 2003 FMS we visited the Arusha and Kilimanjaro YWAM Bases and conducted seminars on family values. We also taught in the Calvary Temple Church, a large AOG church in Arusha.
Nellie and I took a YWAM Family Resource Centre Canberra short-term mission team of eleven AIFC students, YWAMers, church members and others to
We (and team members) conducted seminars, taught, counselled and ministered for one week in
The week we spent in Bukavu in south eastern
We had a very full and successful second mission to north-eastern Congo (Isiro, and Ibambi) in 2007.
In 2007 we, together with two others Pauline Lister and Ruth Connor, spent 8 days in a very remote and primitive part of northern Congo, teaching and ministering to the Evangelical Church of Christ in the Heart of Africa, founded by C.T. Studd over 100 years ago, and also a Pygmy tribe nearby. We spoke to numbers of up to 2000 persons in churches and the open air and also to youth, theology and university students. We took the only way to get there, by small Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF) plane from Entebbe.
Isiro is the largest city of northern Congo with a population of 150,000. The whole of northern and eastern Congo has only recently (2003) come out of a devastating and destructive war. The poverty was pronounced. We saw only 4 motor vehicles in the whole time there! There was no town electricity, water or transport. It certainly was not easy for us to live in these conditions. But the people were wonderful and highly appreciative of our ministry.
The highlight of our time in Congo (central Africa) was our visit to the town of Ibambi. It took us over four hours to drive the 60 Km there in a Land Rover on a terrible road. Ibambi is the centre of the district in which the great missionary C.T. Studd worked (the wealthy English test cricketer of the mid-nineteenth century, who gave it all away to be a missionary in China, India and finally in central Africa) He founded the Heart of Africa Mission (HAM) which later became the Worldwide Evangelistic Crusade (WEC). He also planted many churches. We have been, for many years, a great admirer of him, and now to be at the actual place where he laboured for many years until his death – what a privilege! C.T. Studd was followed by Jack Harrison, Gordon Scoles and Norman Grubb. We actually stood by the graves of Studd, Harrison and Scoles, and an Australian missionary couple who worked with them, the Graingers. While there, we ministered to the leaders of the church they founded and built.
Ministry also occurred in
Bruce spent three weeks in
The whole mission was a great success and had a major impact on the Nation, making headline news in the newspapers. It is the first time such a team has ever gone into the prisons. Over 3,500 prisoners were treated. The Vice-President, Minister of Health and other senior Government officials attended a thankyou ceremony dinner at the end.
Bruce personally did oral surgery on over 300 patients with toothache and extracted some 400 teeth in difficult conditions.
As well as meeting the physical needs of the inmates, their spiritual needs were also addressed. Each prisoner was personally witnessed to and given a tract. At the end of each day the gospel was preached by a member of the team and over 2,000 accepted Christ and prayed the sinner’s prayer. I preached on the first occasion to 300 prisoners and over 80 percent accepted Christ. Prison Fellowship Zambia, a strong body of Christians, who have over 800 volunteer workers followed up these conversions.
Conditions in the prisons are appalling - grossly over-crowded, one meal a day, tattered clothes, practically no medical attention and no dental attention. Most prisoners have been disowned by their families. An average of two die each week in the larger prisons. The most common diseases encountered were AIDS, malnutrition, malaria, TB, and skin diseases.
The following is an extract from an article in the Sunday Times of Zambia 24 November 1996:
The 20 physicians, dentists, pharmacists and nurses from America and Australia who have been in the country for two weeks tended to over 3,500 inmates (over one quarter of the total prison population in the country) in seven prisons in Lusaka, Kabwe and the Copperbelt.
In addition to providing treatment and drug supplies, the CMDS team ministered to the spiritual needs of the inmates with over 2,000 being converted to the Lord.
Most people want nothing to do with criminals, they simple want them removed from the community and put into prison. The Prison Fellowship knows that the only answer to the problem of crime is a living reality of God’s love and forgiveness through Jesus Christ.
The Editorial of the same paper stated the following:
US MEDICS COMMENDED
While political leaders who claim to be in the game ‘only to serve others’ have driven people to cynicism, we have also tended to ignore those who are really doing service among us.
Mention the name of Mother Theresa and everyone around will be trying to outdo the other in a race to say the words compassionate, saintly or godly. All the while some others with similar missions within our borders are ignored because they do not appear on CNN.
For instance, the past few weeks a group of American and Australian medics have been in
Both the medics and PFZ need to be commended. But more than that, they should inspire us all to look out for the needs for those in difficult circumstances, such as orphans, prisoners and others.
While in Jinja running the new
After some time in Worcester in 2005 investigating this project we decided to pioneer and lead a new Family Ministries School in Worcester in mid 2006 with the assistance of John and Jennie Le Clerc also from Canberra, Australia.
This was a special and very successful program with 18 students and 9 staff from 5 countries, most of whom are YWAM leaders.
The objectives of the FMS in Worcester were to train leaders in Family Ministries and to train people to conduct an ongoing family ministry program in the many and very needy coloured and black communities in the Cape region of South Africa.
The AIDS rate in these settlements can be as high as 40 percent.
While in
An active YWAM family ministry program has continued and the Family Ministries School has been held each year in Worcester since.
Nigeria
In 2007 we, together with Pauline Lister, flew to Port Harcourt in south eastern Nigeria where we spent almost two weeks teaching and ministering in churches, and on the YWAM Base where we stayed. We taught YWAM Discipleship Training School students in the mornings and in churches in the evenings. We addressed numbers of over 1500. It was a very successful time of ministry.
Port Harcourt lies on the Niger delta and was very hot and humid. It is the centre of the flourishing oil industry in Nigeria. Very few western tourists go to PH because of the dangers - kidnapping of oil workers, and militia gang fights occurring frequently. In fact this exacerbated while we were there and the militia shootings were on the headlines most days with some 20 persons being killed.
This was a partly a pioneering visit to explore the possibility of pioneering an FMS there like the ones in Jinja and Worcester.
After discussions with Paul and Rachael Dangtoumba, the YWAM Base and National leaders, we decided to return the following year and run a Family Ministries School. We proceeded to plan for this school but not long beforev it was to commence there was an increase in hositilties in the Port Harcourt area and we were advised not to go.
Liberia
After the FMS in Port Harcourt was cancelled due to increased hostilities there we looked elsewhere in West Africa to pioneer a taining program in family ministry. We believe the Lord dircted us to Monrovia the capital of Liberia. The couple who were to be our assitants in the Port Harcourt FMS, and former students of ours in South Africa, actually lived in Monrovia and they wanted to run a Family Discipleship Training School there. We decided to help them do this and planned the school for them. We also decided to spend the first three weeks of the DTS in Monrovia teaching and helping it get established.
We spent a very successful and fulfilling three weeks in Liberia in West Africa. It is one of the poorest countries in Africa and is slowly recovering from two recent civil wars which have devastated the country. The many war damaged buildings, lack of electricity, bad roads, maimed people, many widows and orphans, high degree of begging, large numbers of UN vehicles present, a prevailing sense of helplessness and despair, etc. were clear evidences of this. It is not a tourist country and in fact tourists are advised not to go there.
We taught in the DTS for families in Monrovia for three weeks of it. We also conducted seminars in churches on the week-ends.
There was a wonderful group of 27 DTS students from Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Ivory Coast and Nigeria, all of which were very responsive to the teaching and ministry. Many of these people, we believe, will occupy significant places in the administration of the new Liberia.
To assist students from this very poor part of the world we set up a Liberian DTS Student Assistance Fund a month before leaving Australia, and through the generosity of many people were able to raise over $20,000. This money was used to cover the whole of the 27 students six-month full board and school fees, staff fees, classroom chairs and tables, mattresses, cooking utensils, a computer, digital projector, printer, and other necessary training items.
The prolonged jubilation that occurred when I informed the students of the gift to cover their fees was overwhelming. There was singling, crying, rejoicing, praising, hugging, etc. which continued for over 30 minutes.
As I was leaving Liberia I got an attack of shingles of the forehead and eye which has persisted to the present, but is now slowly subsiding. It has been very painful. It was probably brought on by the stressful time in Liberia.
