Association of Evangelicals in Africa (AEA)

The Hopeless Continent" screamed the cover story of The Economist on a news rack in London airport. An armed guerilla leered menacingly from an outline of Africa. I bought a copy-and so did the General Secretary of the Association of Evangelicals in Africa (AEA), Dr. Tokunboh Adeyemo.

We were on our way to an AEA- sponsored conference, Mission Africa, held in Grand Bassam, near Abidjan, the capital of Cote d'Ivoire, West Africa. Delegates from churches and missions across the continent met to review what has been done and consider what remains to be done to complete the task of evangelizing and discipling Africa. The previous week, over 100 delegates from French-speaking African countries had met to plan a specifically Francophone strategy for their area.....

In his opening address, Tokunboh Adeyemol held aloft The Economist with its disturbing cover story. Opening his Bible, he drew our attention to the story of the paralytic healed by Jesus (Mark 2:4). The man's condition was serious, and his helpers had to overcome "roadblocks" to bring him to Jesus-his only hope.

Adeyemo listed several obstacles facing the churches today: carnality, jealousy, rivalry , strife, pride, conflicting viewpoints on basics, and discrimination between tribes, social strata, and gender. "Roadblocks should be changed into potholes and filled in," he said. "The crowd itself stood in the paralytic's way. Crowds of nominal Christians and cults are barriers to people finding Jesus."

................Mission field becomes mission force. At the first session, I noticed the man sitting beside me was from Swaziland. "Did you know Aaron Gamede?" I asked. "Yes," he replied. "He was my uncle."

Aaron Gamede, who became swaziland's minister of education, was the man who initiated the formation of AEA, (Association of Evangelicals in Africa)at a consultation of evangelicals held in Kenya in 1966. Sixty or so of us from across Africa had discussed the progress of the Gospel in Africa. But Aaron had a vision. "We've enjoyed this fellowship," he said, standing to make a motion. "But before we leave, we need to form an association of evangelicals, to benefit from working together and reaching the continent for Christ." AEA was born.

Now , 34 years later, nearly all of Africa's 50-plus nations have an evangelical fellowship affiliated with AEA, which has a central office in Nairobi, Kenya. In the 60s, expatriates did most of the planning for conferences. In May 2000, Mission Africa (MA2000) was very much an African event.

"Rene Daidanso ma Djongwe, Associate General Secretary of AEA, reminded us of this in the first devotional session. " Africa has many problems, but God is working," he declared. "Due to the faithfulness of a missionary who came to Chad in 1920, the gospel has spread throughout our nation. There are many believers today." Daidanso had seen his world crumble in the 1970s, as the church passed through a time of great persecution. Many pastors and church members paid for their faithfulness with their lives; others succumbed to the tribulation and obeyed Chad's presidential decree to sacrifice to idols.

"One of our problems in Africa is that many church leaders are really pagans at heart," Daidanso warned, citing the problem of nominalism. "You can work for the church yet be rejected by the Lord at the judgment unless you've been born again. I'm not afraid to preach this to members, pastors, or bishops."

Harold Fuller "Africa The Hopeless Continent, EMQ April 2001 "