The vision of African Pastors Fellowship (APF) is to enable effective ministry in Africa by providing training, help and equipment to pastors, churches and community leaders internationally and inter-denominationally. In 2015 more than 90% of pastors in Africa had never received even one full day of formal training. Yet at the present time APF is in touch with some 300 church leaders serving 30,000 churches and ministering to some 3 million believers. The organisation continues to operate a number of projects with which Maghull Anglicans may now be reasonably familiar. In particular the task of translating the Scriptures and scriptural commentaries into Swahili and making them available to worshipping communities; the “Daily Bread” project in Uganda, based on a solar bakery; the “Let there be Light” scheme, that is the provision of portable solar lamps to pastors in N.E. Uganda to make ministry more effective by replacing the more dangerous kerosene lamps of the past; and the “Growing Greener” project in Malawi, a scheme to improve agricultural fertility so as to tackle poverty and food insecurity. This last-named project has propelled APF into the politics of climate change, which is undoubtedly a major issue now for Malawi agriculture. Every 3 months APF produces a helpful prayer bulletin with news of what progress is being recorded in each of these projects with special daily prayers that recipients are invited to share on behalf of staff involved in their implementation. This year in order to keep up with the facilities offered by modern technology, APF is launching the “eVitabu” project, the provision of a solar-powered tablet full of training material prepared by respected African leaders. “Vitabu” means “books” in Swahili. The plan to reprint the scriptures in Swahili will require a lot more funds than are at present available and so great efforts are being deployed now to generate them. The APF Management team would like to see the implantation of “APF regional champions” in different parts of Great Britain in order to organise special days to share news and increase the flow of funds. At the moment we have some spare copies of the latest prayer bulletin if anyone would like a copy.
In the course of the last 12 months St. Andrews refreshment fund has been able to send a total of 275 pounds each to Open Doors and APF in support of their work.
St Andrew's Maghull 