A squeaky-voiced, mighty oak falls
Phnom Penh, Cambodia — When I first met Chamnan Rorn on…
Around the World: Ministry training for orphans, community transformation and more quick takes
Around the World is our monthly rundown of news briefs, links and quotes from Churches of Christ all over the globe. Got an idea for this column? Email Erik Tryggestad at [email protected].
Featured image (above): Members of a young Church of Christ that meets in a home in the village of Namagoma, Uganda, listen as visiting minister Michael Simbwa teaches from Acts 2:42-47 (“They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts”). Simbwa ministers for the Mityana Church of Christ, which meets about three hours northeast of the house church.
CAMBODIA
Students in the E412 program serve at Hannah’s Hope.
SIEM REAP — Ministry students got some practical experience as they served at Hannah’s Hope, a home for orphans and abandoned children in this Southeast Asian city.
The students, from the Battambang Church of Christ, are part of E412, a ministry training program that takes its name from Ephesians 4:12 (“to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up”). They filled in while staffers at the children’s home took a two-day vacation. After orientation and training, the students started working at 5 a.m. to feed the children and to get them ready for school. E412 coordinator Phanat Ouch took on driving duties.
“We don’t want to just study the Bible,” Ouch said, “but we want to live it out as well.”
Related: A squeaky-voiced, mighty oak falls
NIGERIA
Comfort Egure next to her husband, Peter, is honored as the Distinguished Christian Servant.
ABEOKUTA — Comfort Egure, a longtime leader of women’s ministry in Africa’s most populous nation, was honored with the Distinguished Christian Servant at the recent 22nd Bible lectureship of West Nigeria Christian College and School of Biblical Studies. Egure and her husband, Peter, worship with the Kado Church of Christ in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, where Peter Egure has served as an elder.
Hundreds of Christians attended the lectureship, themed “Who is Jesus? Portraits from the Gospels.” The lectureship included classes on coping with widowhood and a program for children.
ZIMBABWE
MASVIGO — Some call it Village 25 — a small, often-overlooked community in Ward 26 of Zimbabwe’s Masvingo province. Workers with Healing Hands International call it “a perfect example” of a community transformation model “working well to serve people.”
John Dube is the Zimbabwe director for Healing Hands International.
John Dube, Zimbabwe director for Healing Hands, a nonprofit associated with Churches of Christ, has overseen survival garden workshops, a bread-making co-op and water projects in Ward 26. Recently, workers installed a water well in Village 25.
Community member Winnie Chingema compared it to “crossing over the Red Sea to the land of Canaan. Our garden will start to perform well and be evergreen.”
In the three years since Dube began working in the area, two churches have been planted.
