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Our History
AfricaHope is a ministry of New Mission Systems International (NMSI). NMSI was founded in 1989 for the purpose of facilitating the planting and maturing of churches. The steady growth of the HIV/AIDS epidemic since that time lead the leadership of the mission to explore what NMSI’s response should be.
The immediate conclusion was that as a Christian organization we must do something. Our challenge was to develop a program that maintained NMSI’s purpose of planting and maturing churches which also responded to the effects of HIV/AIDS in communities.
The issue of HIV/AIDS forced NMSI to look at the many other developmental issues that are intertwined and affected by HIV/AIDS such as poverty, food and water security, education, and health. What began as an effort to respond to HIV/AIDS became something much larger, it became AfricaHope.
Our newfound ideal was this:
- To do our church work in a way that positively impacts the development of a community and it’s ability to cope with crisis.
- To do our development work in a way that positively impacts the church and the community’s ability to cope with crisis.
- To do our relief work in a way that positively impacts the church and the development of the community.
In February of 2003, our first project began in Kenya with 2 national missionaries and 3 U.S. missionaries. In February of 2004, our second project began in Malawi. Many more have joined the program since then and many are in the process of joining. The dream of AfricaHope is becoming a reality.
Since the beginning, AfricaHope missionaries have been amazed to see the response of Africans to the great needs in their own communities and to the Good News of Jesus Christ. Our staff has found many willing and gifted national counterparts in the ministry of spreading hope and truth. AfricaHope is about coming alongside our brothers and sisters on the far side of the world, walking with them through hard times, bringing them the hope that someone cares, that they are not alone.
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