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Cameroon is Africa’s most complex country with over 280 languages and potentially over 500 ethnic groups. It is located in the continental “hinge” between Central and West Africa, sharing a border with Nigeria on the west. Cameroon has experienced a rapid growth in Christianity in the 1990’s through church plants, national missionaries, and evangelistic efforts. In spite of this growth in Christianity, the country faces issues common in many parts of Africa; physical poverty and hardship are exacerbated by increasing media and materialism imported from the west and global inflation, alongside traditions of business which include payment of bribes in every level of society; there is deep spiritual poverty due to long-standing nominal Christianity. There is a burning need for godly, courageous leaders who are equipped to lead their churches, communities, and nation for Christ.
In March, EQUIP partnered with "4 the Nations", a United Kingdom based missions organization, who launched the Million Leaders Mandate training in Cameroon. Charlie Wilkie, founder of 4 the Nations, said, “MLM has taken off there. . . The ground was ready and it was time.” There was an outstanding group of about 60 leaders, from senior pastors to youth pastors, to cell group and ministry leaders, to missionaries, teachers, business women, senior school students, and more. Charlie commented, “The level of the Question and Answer times and interaction of the participants indicated their hunger and response.”
Here are just a few stories of the leaders who attended and committed to train others:
 -Jean Gapelbe, YWAM leader in the city of Bamenda, met with key evangelical leaders in Northern Cameroon, where Islam is strong. These leaders in the Christian community were very excited about being a part of MLM. Jean shared, “. . .Northern Cameroon is ripe for MLM and I am excited about taking it there.”
-YWAM’s national leadership team who also went through the material have decided to make it part of their regular meetings and are adopting it as the staff training program at their respective bases.
-A French-speaking missionary couple based in the capital, Yaounde, who lead a ministry focused in the 25 unreached Muslim people groups in Cameroon, committed to train others.
-The leaders of the network of prayer groups in business and industry plans to use MLM to train their leaders starting in July.
-One pastor, who brought his youth pastor and youth cell leaders, is planning to train the whole youth group using the MLM material.
-MLM continues to spread rapidly with pastors and leaders from one denominational background now regularly helping to teach in another denomination and they in turn are teaching others from a different background. Leadership is a great unifier!
Charlie summed up the response of the Cameroon leaders in stating, “ When we started, a number of the leaders were uncertain. By the end, there was common agreement, repeated to me many times over that while many people come and do seminars, no one has come with material to put in their hands, not only to freely use to train others in ways that are culturally appropriate to advance the Gospel of the Kingdom, but also with the expectation that that is what they will do.”
Charlie added that many leaders expressed much appreciation for those who had made the training possible. In turn Charlie acknowledges the incredible work done on the ground by Kaah Abel of Hope in God Ministry and his team. He has been the one who has traveled, talked to pastors and leaders and his team has produced the notebooks. We have partnered together with Abel and others involved over 22 years and through that partnership people in the UK have invested into different projects and areas of ministry. Those relationships have been a significant foundation on which to offer MLM. Abel commented recently “I t is like putting a hotcake in the hands of hungry people!”
Through your faithful support, EQUIP is able to partner with organizations like 4 the Nations to equip leaders who are difference makers in their worlds. This is just the beginning of the MLM leadership development process in Cameroon. Plans have already started for equipping leaders in Notebook 2 in October. It will be exciting to see in the coming years how the Lord uses this leadership training to impact Cameroon for His glory.
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