God has given a theme for OM mission ship Logos Hope’s current African voyage, OM South Africa coordinator Francois Pienaar told church and ministry leaders in Gqeberha today.
The theme is “Our Story, God’s Story”, he said, at a briefing on the ship’s South Africa visit early next year. Logos Hope has been sailing down the east coast of Africa over the past year and will next visit Maputo, Mozambique, before embarking on a five-port visit to SA.
Pienaar said that when the OM Africa leaders were considering a theme for the Africa mission they noted that we are quick to complain about negative things in our own country and Africa, and easily fail to highlight amazing things that God is doing in our continent.
He said Africa is vibrant country and Africans are warm, strong, determined people who thrive on community. In 1960 there were about 91 million believers in Africa. Today the number far exceeds 600 million.
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“It’s so exciting today to speak to people in Europe, that will tell you that most of the most-flourishing, biggest, churches in many European nations today are not run by Europeans but by Africans,” he said.
“So, God is busy working in our continent. And I think it’s time for us as a Church to start acknowledging what God is doing in our midst. God is busy writing His story on the hearts of Africans — on the African Church. And when I say this, it gives me goosebumps because God is busy doing something unique in our continent.
“And I think with the ship coming here, that’s one of the things that we want to capitalise on. God is busy writing His story in our hearts. How can we as Africans and as the Church in Africa, equip ourselves, gear ourselves, so that we can tell the story — God’s story, our story? How can we tell this to the rest of the world?”
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He said statistics reveal that less than 1% of the Church globally is involved in God’s mission. “And I think this is the mission from our side. Every person is called to be involved in a strategic place in God’s mission. You don’t have to be a missionary or a pastor. You can be an engineer, or a school teacher, or a mechanic, or whatever. God has called us to share His story, the story He’s writing on our hearts.”
Logos Hope will visit Richards Bay, Nelson Mandela Bay, East London, Durban and Cape Town in that order, before heading up the west coast of Africa, he said. He told leaders at yesterday’s briefing about some of the many opportunities that the ship will offer to churches and local believers to partner in mission
As usual the ship, known as the world’s largest floating book fair, will offer all members of the public an opportunity to purchase a wide variety of books on sale at a reasonable price. Its 5 000 book titles include Christian books and books on topics such as science, sports, cookery, arts, medicine and languages.
Tens of thousands of South African visited the ship when its was last in SA in 2016. Since 1970 OM Ships has hosted more than 70 million people in over 150 countries on its vessels.
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