Arizona pastors see mission opportunities in Africa firsthand

Six Arizona Southern Baptist pastors and Monty Patton, associate executive director of the Arizona Mission Network of Southern Baptists, traveled to five African countries to strategize the AZMN’s new partnership with the International Mission Board’s Sub-Saharan Africa Affinity.

The group spent their first night in Johannesburg, South Africa, then split up and regrouped in Nairobi, Kenya, to strategize.

The Mozambique team consisted of pastors Ashley Evans of 22nd Street Baptist Church in Tucson, David Taylor of Common Ground Church in Sahuarita, and Whitney Clayton of Living Stone Community Church in Mesa. The pastors who went to Zambia were Brett Carlson of Mountain Ridge Church in Glendale, Mark Mucklow of First Southern Baptist Church of Glendale, Roland Pierce of Broadway Missionary Baptist Church in Phoenix, and Patton. Pastor Bruce Ford of First Phoenix Church went to Niger.

“Christianity is alive and well in many parts of the continent,” Carlson said. “At the same time, the need for the gospel to penetrate an animistic culture with the transforming reality of Christ is still high.”

“I was struck by the work that needs to be done to reach people groups with a significant gospel influence,” Taylor said. During one part of the trip, a missionary showed the team an island where more than 400,000 Muslims live. He said he knew of about 12 engaged Christians there.

“The missionaries we have working [in Sub-Saharan Africa] are high quality,” Taylor said. “It’s great to partner and cooperate with them through giving. They aren’t just doing mission trips to do them — there’s a clear gospel strategy behind them.”

Carlson agreed.

“Getting to see the efforts of years of missionary work and sacrifice in Africa is inspiring and rewarding,” he said.

Mucklow told about meeting an IMB missionary who runs an orphanage. Sadly, many African orphanages intentionally keep children in order to receive donations, the missionary said. But this orphanage typically reunites children with their families in six months if it is safe.

The pastors saw a need for volunteers with vocational skills — entrepreneurship, plumbing, mechanics, etc. Volunteers can teach pastors these skills, and pastors can then use them to sustain a living and, in turn, teach others in order to build evangelistic relationships. There is also a great need for college students to serve or study at African universities, discipling students at the same time, the pastors were told.

“This vision trip opened my eyes to how there are ways for nearly everybody to partner with and go on mission in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Evans said. “From high schoolers to retirees, college students to CEOs, men and women, white-collar professionals and blue-collar tradesmen, even entire families, there are ways for just about everybody to get plugged in.”

Learn more about the Arizona Mission Network’s partnership with IMB’s Sub-Saharan Africa Affinity at azmn.org/africa/. More mission projects will be posted soon.

Claudia Macdonald, a freelance writer living in Phoenix, is a member of First Southern Baptist Church at Sahuaro Ranch, Glendale.

Story modified after initial publication.