LMAfrica Newsletter February 2021

EGYPT
No. of localities: 1
No. of saints in church life: 30
No. of saints attending the Table meeting: 15

The Lord’s testimony took the ground in Egypt one year ago, during the 4th Annual Conference in Cairo in January 2020. It was a glorious time testifying the fruit of the prayer in the Body and the labor on this land in the past decade. The church is small, but shining. Two local saints have gone through the Full-time Training in Pretoria (FTTP) and a third local saint will start her fourth term of training this February.

Since the pandemic, the church life in Cairo has been entirely virtual. While we are very limited in having physical meetings, virtual gathering also has had advantages. In December 2020 we were able to participate in a conference for the entire continent of Africa entitled, “The Will of God-One Person, One Way, and One Goal.” Recently we have also been enjoying bi-annual trainings which are now available in Arabic! Such supply in the Body helps the saints to develop a taste for the training atmosphere. We are also encouraged to dive into the deeper truths of God’s economy.

Since many of the young people in Cairo have become weary of Zoom meetings, we are struggling how best to shepherd them. At the beginning of 2021 we started a Bible Reading Challenge with them, which seems to have really been reviving them.

This month (4-6 February) we will have our annual Cairo Winter Conference. It will be our first time to host this conference on Zoom. We believe the Lord is sovereignly arranging this so that the Arabic speakers from all over the world can attend. We are planning to register and participate in the Cairo International Book Fair 2021 (30 June – 15 July) which is the largest literary event in the world and attracts up to 5 million people.

In the December 2020 issue of the Newsletter, we covered 3 countries in West Africa: Ghana, Nigeria and Burkina Faso. In this issue, we continue to introduce two other countries in the region: Togo and Benin..

TOGO
No. of localities: 3
No. of saints in church life: 123
No. of saints attending the Table meeting: 84

Togo is a mountainous country in West Africa covering an area of 56 600km 2 with about 7 million inhabitants.

The first Lord’s Table was held on 6 August 2017 in fellowship with the saints from Ghana, Nigeria, Benin, and the Ivory Coast. Since then, the saints in Togo have continued to practice the church life. Due to the pandemic, the saints have been gathering in small groups from house to house; they also use technology to fellowship and share their enjoyment. Physical meetings in Lomé, the capital city, are still not possible, but gatherings in other localities such as Agbodan, Agoe, Kpélé and Attitogon have resumed.

The saints also enjoy fellowship with the saints in Africa and all around the world. Before the pandemic, the saints in Togo attended conferences and trainings in Ghana and Benin. Brothers from Ghana coordinate to shepherd the saints in their enjoyment of the Lord and in His word. And the Lord adds more to the church day by day. At present, there are three localities with lampstands; in two other localities saints are gathering and pursuing the ministry.

The Republic of Benin is a country in West Africa with an area of 114 764 km 2 and about 12 million inhabitants. The political capital of Benin is Porto-Novo and the economical capital is Cotonou.

The vision of the Lord’s recovery was unveiled to His children in Benin in 1995 through the brothers in Nigeria. The practice of church life began in Benin about two decades ago. Since that time, Benin hosts the West Africa Blending Conference every year (except last year due to the pandemic). The saints also attend annual conferences and trainings in Nigeria and Ghana.

At the beginning of pandemic, the saints started meeting in small groups from house to house and also online. When the lockdown was lifted, a blending meeting was held in Bohicon, Benin from 25 – 26 July. Over 80 saints participated from different parts of Benin including some new contacts from Kétou and Djougou.
Currently, there is one lampstand in Bohicon, Benin. There are seeking ones who gather to pursue the ministry in three other localities. The number of new contacts in different cities of Benin amounts to 350. Our prayer is that the Lord will help us take care of these contacts, and that lampstands can be raised up in these cities. We thank the Lord for His supply in the Body, for the supply of the Recovery Version Bible and ministry books. We pray that the Lord would help us shepherd the new contacts through the distribution of literature.

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