Our ministry is characterized by involvement in six major areas: church planting, pastoral training, women’s ministries, Islamic outreach, compassion ministries, and African missions empowerment on a regional basis.
We will be actively involved in these six areas of ministry with a focus on what has been termed the “Northern Tier Countries,” a territory comprised of several Sahelian nations stretching from Senegal to Chad. These West African nations are among the poorest in the world, and they represent a new frontier of the Assemblies of God work in Africa.
The transformation which the Gospel effects in people—both by its spiritual proclamation and its compassionate deeds—is still the greatest hope for the nations of our world, and this has been true of all regions of Africa. There is no reason to believe that the love of Christ is going to lose its positive transforming power in the “Northern Tier Countries” of West Africa. His love transcends political and religious affiliations to address the hurts and sins of men, and heals and lifts up people wherever they are.
Church Planting
It is fundamental to Assemblies of God church-planting strategy that churches be established which are self-propagating, self-governing, and self-supporting. Thus, the overarching goal of our church-planting ministry is to ensure that such thriving churches are established in every West African city, and that they be fully guided by West African leadership.
This involves discovering what each of the national churches are doing in their own countries along those lines and joining in their efforts to organize crusades, evangelism projects, and other means of reaching previously unreached areas. David’s grasp of several languages has allowed him to be directly involved in local evangelistic events. Whenever possible, we join hands with the Assemblies of God Task Force Evangelism program in this effort.
Pastoral Training
Pastoral training has always been the key to the future of evangelism, church planting, church development, and the training of tomorrow’s leaders.
It is central to Assemblies of God missions strategy that training should ultimately be provided by local leaders in their own cultural context. To this end, pastoral training and Bible school education are imperatives in the Assemblies of God missions efforts in West Africa. The goal of the educational process then is always to empower the national churches to assume the direction of both evangelism and training.
David and Linda have both had extensive experience in teaching and directing local pastoral training centers. They will continue these endeavors on local levels with a view toward turning leadership of the centers over to national leaders as was done at the Institut Theologique et Pastoral in Daloa, Ivory Coast, which is now wholly directed and staffed by Ivoirian pastors.
However, the Arzounis will make themselves available to teach advanced courses of the West Africa Advanced School of Theology’s extension program so as to facilitate the training of the future African teachers and Bible school directors.
Women’s Ministries
Our involvement in women’s ministries in West Africa focuses on three major areas: 1) outreach to the unsaved; 2) raising up women’s ministries leaders from among the national church; and, 3) counseling and helping to organize the national church’s women’s ministries programs and events.
- Outreach to Unsaved Women. The plight of women in Africa makes the need more pronounced than ever. While governments and other institutions are working to improve the condition of women through education and self-sufficiency programs, the basic spiritual needs of the African woman are ignored. It is our aim to mobilize Christian women to reach out to the unsaved girls and ladies of their communities. This is vital in Muslim communities, because no male is allowed to approach a woman other than his wife or other relatives, so we want to raise the consciousness of Christian women to reach their Muslim counterparts for Christ.
- Leadership Development. Linda will be partnering with pastors’ wives to promote women’s ministries through special camps and seminars. These camps and seminars are designed to convey a greater understanding of the woman’s importance in the body of Christ and her mission in life, and to equip her to grow in leadership capabilities within the local church.
- Organizational Consulting. Linda will consult with the leadership of the West African church on both local and national levels to assist in structuring and administering the various programs of women’s ministries such as evangelism, empowering Christian women in business, outreach to children, fund-raising for national church projects, and meeting equipment needs of national missionaries.
Islamic Outreach
The Muslim world is the last great frontier in Christian missions. There are currently over a billion Muslims worldwide with a strong concentration on the African continent.
David and Linda have been involved with The Center for Ministry to Muslims (CMM) from its inception over 20 years ago. David has helped write ICI evangelism literature specifically designed to reach Muslims. David and Linda were involved for two years in an evangelism pilot project, a contextualized presentation of the gospel through a “Christian Mosque” in Daloa, Ivory Coast. The CMM’s Institute for Islamic Studies is held annually to train Christian leaders from Africa, Asia and other parts of the world in the principles of outreach to Muslims. David is heavily involved in teaching at the Institute.
It is our objective to awaken the consciousness of African churches to the need of reaching Muslims for Christ. We will offer training to national believers in the principles of Muslim evangelism through seminars and Bible school courses specifically designed to that end.
Compassion Ministries
This is a growing concern in the light of continuing drought and the near-pandemic outbreak of AIDS on the African continent. Two areas of great concern to us are the plight of greatly disadvantaged and exploited children (about half the population of the African continent is under the age of fifteen) and the churches’ struggle to address the problems of AIDS-afflicted families, many of whom have been left fatherless and/or motherless.
We want to create awareness of the need and, whenever possible, serve as facilitators to channel resources to the national churches in West Africa who will then be able to meet needs at the local level. We want to act as facilitators for Western institutions and individuals who are interested in humanitarian projects but may not be aware of the most efficient and cost-effective approaches to sending relief.
The Assemblies of God relief program is a world leader in providing relief with only seven percent of all donations being used for administrative purposes. A full 93% of all relief donations actually reaches the needy. No other relief organization has matched this level of cost-effectiveness.
African Missions Empowerment
Missionary work was never intended to be a monopoly of Christianized western nations. Probably one of the most exciting developments in missionary work today is to see the emerging missions programs of national churches. Doing missions is really the birthright of every national church. In the Ivory Coast, for example, it was our privilege to be part of the training of the first missionaries who were sent from that country to other African nations and to France.
We will continue to encourage local churches to acquire a vision for missions, hold missions conventions, raise missions funds, etc. We will explore avenues through which we can empower third world African nations to do their part in bringing in the harvest before the coming of Christ.
