TOTAL COMMITMENT TO THE EVANGELIZATION OF RURAL AREAS AND SMALL TOWNS ALL OVER AFRICA
70% of our work is in the rural areas – places that are either totally unreached or under evangelized. In cities, we develop support Bases.
Because REO is an outreach ministry, we constantly organize outreaches and short term mission trips to various remote rural locations in Africa. Various outreaches include:
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This is a short term 3-4 week outreach to selected rural locations. It holds during the dry season months of December – February each year. Participants are usually drawn from different backgrounds, countries campuses and churches. They spend the time working with rural churches all over Africa, planting churches; organizing community deliverance campaigns etc.
These are massive camps where hundreds villagers gather for 4 days or 5days period for intensive indoor prayer rallies teaching sessions and bible studies. Thousands have been reached as a result.
Traditional rulers in Africa are usually the custodians of culture, idols and customs of their people. They hold great influence over the people. When they are won to Christ and Discipled that often marks the beginning of the end for so, many cultural practices in the rural areas.
Most missiologists agree that a major key to fulfilling the great commission is to plant a church amongst every people group in the world. We take this very seriously. We have planted hundreds of churches in different tribes of Nigeria. In our training conferences for rural ministers of different denominations, we train, equip and motivate them to step out in saturation church planting-so that our combined church planting efforts has resulted to several hundreds of churches planted.
It takes tens of churches to saturate any people group or significant population segment in such a way as to produce a significant number of Christ following disciples.
Our approach is to plant churches and also to train others to plant churches. This way our combined efforts will multiply the number of churches in rural areas and unreached people groups.
These churches are located in very remote rural areas; suburbs and small towns. Places of worship include : under trees; homes; community halls; shops; leased lands and our own constructed buildings in a few cases.
Rural Ministers in Africa suffer a great deal from the lack of adequate exposure to sound, ministerial training. It is estimated that over 80% of those who work as pastors in different rural areas are not only poorly trained but frequently are unable to access the powerful pastors conferences that hold in cities due to poverty and very rugged traveling terrains. Poor training plan lack of involvement in ministers’ conferences are therefore responsible for low-quality of ministry work found in rural areas.
To bridge this gap, we hold regular Rural Ministers’ Conferenceswhere a few hundreds (occasionally thousands) of rural ministers gather for training, proper equipping and motivation in rural work. Those conferences have helped many rural workers to remain focused and not get drown away to the cities.
Distributing free vernacular Bibles, study books, and teaching commentaries to rural pastors and converts who lack financial access to materials.
Idolatry is one of the most powerful demonic strongholds in Africa. It is not uncommon to find a community serving tens of gods. Each idols represents a demon with territorial control over the people. The sense of hopelessness, superstition, poverty, high mortality and even backwardness in rural areas of Africa and the third world nations are related to the presence of thousands or even millions of idols in such places. Right from our inception, we have battled these gods not only through intensive prayer warfare but through the strategy opening the minds their captives through systematic teaching of God’s Word on idolatry. One common strategy is community deliverance. If an individual can be possessed by a devil, so also can a community. The bible speaks of “Pergamos- a city in Asia Minor” where Satan dwelleth! 3That city was also called the seat of satan (Rev2:13). Spiritual mapping reveals the kinds of demons and idols that rule communities. The information obtained from spiritual mapping is used to mobilise the whole community to come together for a “solemn Assembly”- which involves strong teachings on idolatry; salvation and the need for community to embrace Jesus as Lord.
Usually whole communities turn away from their idols, burn them and embrace Jesus Christ as a result. In some instances, churches are planted to follow up the work.
The model ministerial training does not provide for ministry to illiterates. We suspect that the frustrations related to ministry to illiterates may be one reason a good number of ministers and organisations shy away from rural work. It has been estimated that over 3.5 billion people on earth are either illiterate or they prefer to receive information through stories. Africa ‘s rural areas are populated largely by illiterates or those who are function illiterate.
Because of the great difficulty involved in evangelizing discipling and training we have adopted the strategy of orality as a tool in making gospel communication more effective. We have had to revise the curriculum used in training our missionaries. We now train all our trainees to minister to minister to illiterates through stories and various orality strategies.
Apart from training ministers to minister effectively to illiterates, we are now also training illiterate believers to also minister to fellow illiterate believers even to the point of getting them to pastor or shepherd illiterate churches.
These social outcasts include prostitutes, drug addicts, the homeless, and the ‘urban poor’. Here and there, it has been our privilege to lead this people to Jesus and even pass them through same discipleship programs.
Our ultimate goal is to build rehabilitation homes where they can combine discipleship in the practical skill development programs.
We have different kinds of training schools
Foundation Bible Schools: This is a 16 week course that helps to establish our converts in the word of God. Everyone who graduates becomes an available worker for the Lord.
Village Bible Schools: This school is for villagers-Not pastors. The aim is to equip the believer with relevant revelation knowledge that will enable them lead victorious lives in the rural area.
Mission Bible Institutes: This is a 1-2 year residential training program for those who are called to work as Cross- cultural Missionaries in Rural Areas and foreign nations.
Rural areas are often so needy that even after a church has been planted, there are still many development issues to be tackled. For example, in one result, their agricultural products were sold extremely low or give away prices. This particular village had turned to Jesus due to our ministry but had remained poor and backward. We approached them with a suggestion. We discussed with the elders about the need for a market. They had no idea what to do but we helped them organise a market it is a very small market it is doing relatively well. The community has been thrilled as a result. We have also embraced the method of CHE(Community Health Evangelism) as another way of combining community development, Health promotion and church planting.
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In addition to working amongst orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) we priorities the provision of sound education for the children of Rural Missionaries. Educational standards in African cities are already known to be quite low but the situation is far worse in the rural areas. Most rural missionaries are unable to provide meaningful education for their children due to poverty. By helping them train their children in good schools, it assures that the kids will have a future. This enables their parents to have peace of mind and then focus on their work.
Our work in different villages, tribes and nations often bring us in contact with orphans, vulnerable teenagers and very poor converts. After leading them to Christ, we have to assume responsibility for their education and development. This has led to the ever increasing challenge of providing education, medical attention and general support for a growing number of kids in different tribes.
The provision of free medical treatments in very remote rural areas is not only life – saving but has helped to open the heart of many communities to Jesus
For those rural areas with no schools, our coming in with primary school or secondary school projects have been the key to turning them to the Lord.
Whether you are inquiring about missionary deployments, rural partnerships, upcoming field outreaches, or prayer needs, our apostolic leadership and administration are here to serve you.
Fill out the form below and our mission secretariat will respond promptly.
