2023 has been a year of transitions, open doors, and continuing challenges for Come & See Africa, International (CASA). Over the past decade, CASA has enabled our Rwandan partners Come and See Rwanda (CASR) to build an amazing facility, the Lighthouse Ministry Center. Within walking distance of the National University of Rwanda, our non-denominational partnership has served to unite the exploding Church of Rwanda. CASR’s focus is on university student ministries, pastor training, support of the poor, and uniting area churches for evangelism and discipleship efforts. When the ministry was founded 18 years ago, our primary mission was to recruit and sponsor short-term mission teams to “Come and See” the incredible opportunities for ministry in the rapidly growing church in Africa. But in 2021 we concluded that the season of American churches sending out short-term mission teams to unfamiliar mission venues is closing. Last year we asked you to pray for God to open new doors for us. HE HAS!
- Here’s what the Lord has been doing in this ministry.
- LIGHTHOUSE MINISTRY CENTER: 2023 was the year that CASA enabled CASR to pay off the loan for the building of the Lighthouse Ministry Center. The title to this valuable property is now fully owned by the Rwandan ministry.
- APOLOGETICS MISSION: For a decade CASA has been committed to grounding the rapidly growing Rwanda church in the Word of God through the defense of the gospel in its apologetics ministries. In 2023 we partnered with Apologetics on Mission. (https://www.apologeticsonmission.org/ ) to hold a two day Apologetics conference at the Lighthouse. Their mission is to reach the new growing churches overseas with “the why behind the what” of the gospel. CASA plans to partner with them for future apologetics conferences in the Lighthouse.
- FULLER SEMINARY: In 2022 the associate dean of Fuller Seminary (www.fuller.edu ), Dave Scott joined our mission to evaluate CASR as a potential ministry partner in the training of their future missionaries. He was greatly impressed by the Lighthouse facilities, its staff, and the network of local ministries that it supports. This most prestigious seminary is now working out the process to begin sending their interns in 2024 to spend a semester overseas and gain real-world experience as missionaries.
- PASTOR CERTIFICATION: In the past, it was not uncommon for men with very little Bible knowledge to feel called to become pastors and lead a church based on their calling and charisma. With little Bible training available and the powerful move of God’s Spirit in Rwanda, this was understandable. But it is far from ideal. In response, the Rwandan government has now mandated that all pastors be educated and certified. For many poorer pastors of small churches, these requirements are beyond the present training and their means to pay. To continue as pastors, they will need to meet the new requirements. For several years CASR worked at creating a program within their facility to meet these new standards. In 2022 CASR was approved by Global University and the Rwandan government to enroll 30 students to complete their three-year program and receive a degree in pastoral care. In 2023 these students continue to work towards their degrees. CASR estimates that monthly costs of this program for these 30 students to be about $1000/ month. Your donation of $30/ month can support a student or pastor through this program. Of greater importance, it will ground these pastors firmly in the Word of God and keep the African church firmly established in the Faith “once delivered”.
- LEAST OF THESE: As 2023 nears an end, the impact on the Western world of the worldwide pandemic, the war in the Ukraine, and global inflation echoes into the poorer countries around the world. For those who live on the margins, the impact of these new realities is even graver. Famines are no longer confined to populations caught between warring parties or targeted by oppressive governments. The worldwide food and energy shortages have pushed many African countries into several broad-based famines not seen for forty years.
- We at Come & See Africa, International are seeing how this inflation and food and energy shortages are impacting the poor in Rwanda. Through our partners in Come and See Rwanda (CASR) we have supported the widows and single mothers in a women’s cooperative for 18 years. In 2023 global inflation doubled the cost of basic food. Many of the poor could no longer pay the school fees for their children, their very basic, minimal health insurance, or repairs of falling-down mud homes. So, this year CASR continued to allocate more of its donations to the women and the poor pastors and many of the deserving poor that came to them.
With all these needs and ministries in mind going into 2023, we urge all the past supporters of CASA and those familiar with the ministries of Chris and Kim Foreman to consider an extra gift before the end of the year.For “in as much as you did it to the least of these, my brothers, you did it unto Me”. Jesus sees and knows.
In Christ, Dr. Frank Foreman,
President of Come & See Africa, International