DAWN Fridayfax 1996 #30

DAWN News from Malawi, Egypt, Kenya, Turkey

Malawi: Missions vision in Blantyre

We have received reports of continued amazing growth from the 'Living Waters Church' in Blantyre, Malawi. In only 8 years, the church grew from 80 members (1987) to 10,000 (1995). In the meantime, the church has become a denomination with 55,000 members. The head church alone has between 5,000 and 6,000 visitors each Sunday, but the main growth comes not from creating a mega-church but from the 175 churches planted in 24 of the country's districts by the head church. Jones Singini, one of the church's evangelists, told us that he alone has founded 14 churches. Founding pastor Stanley Ndovi's aim is "to reach all of Malawi with the gospel by systematically planting new churches in every village." But the mission vision doesn't stop there: there are already 10 'Living Waters' churches in Mozambique and 2 in Tanzania, with others being planted in Kenya, Uganda and two of the Baltic states.

Source: Johan Combrinck, AFNET, FAX (1)-408-249-7774

Egypt: church growth in Cairo

The Presbyterian Kasr El Dubara church in the centre of Cairo has, according to the leadership, grown 300 percent in the last few years. The services are attended by 6,000 people, of which 4,000 are members of the church. 70 percent of the congregation is young people. One of the pastors told us "God is doing something special amongst Egypt's young generation. It is as if a completely new and, in the best sense of the word, fiery generation is in the starting gate to become active for Christ."

Source: name and address withheld

Kenya: researcher calls for new churches in Nairobi

The 800 Christian churches currently in Nairobi must each plant two new churches by the year 2000 if the proportion of Christians in the capital's population is to remain at 12%, according to research presented by Daystar University's Dr. Emil Chandran at a Lausanne Movement research conference. Dr. Chandran referred to the results of a study performed by Daystar University which indicate that church attendance in Nairobi, one of the centres of the revival movement in eastern Africa in the 30's, increased from 30,000 in 1963 to 150,000 in 1986. In addition, he said that the present 800 churches are completely full, and that around 40 are planted each year. That, however, is not enough to keep pace with the city's rapid population growth: at the current rate of church planting, there will be around 1,400 churches in Nairobi in the year 2000, which would have space for only 7.5% of the population by that time.

Source: Dr. Emil Chandran, Research department, Daystar University, Nairobi

Turkey: independent, visible Christianity with first aims

"For the first time in recent church history, Turkey has an independent, visible and legal Protestant Church with its own visionary aims", a missionary living in Turkey reports. In the 60's, among the population of 45 million, there were only 3 Christians known to have converted from Islam.

The current population is around 66 million. Beside foreign missionaries, there are approximately 1,000 evangelical Protestant Christians and, according to local figures, 500-800 evangelical Orthodox Christians. Insiders report that a high-ranking leader in the Orthodox church has also recently become an evangelical. A vision has arisen among Turkey's national leaders in the last few years: to plant a church in each province and to take the gospel to every household by the year 2000. Turkey currently has 79 provinces, which will increase to 103 by the year 2000.

Although Turkey's constitution has been officially secular since 1923, Protestant churches have led a sort of 'guerrilla' existence in the past, according to one of the nation's Christian leaders. This changed in 1987 when missionary organisations persuaded the police to grant Christian churches a legal identity.

The mission leader told us that Turkey's churches need practical models for church planting. "We don't necessarily need young and inexperienced foreign Christians and short-term missionaries, rather experienced practitioners in the areas of church planting and evangelisation, particularly for Istanbul, which now has around 15 million inhabitants (official number: 6.7 million) and is growing by around 500,000 each year."

Source: name and address withheld.

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