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FMWM West Africa Area Fellowship 2022

Pray for God’s Visitation

It was a true joy to me as we began receiving requests from pastoral leaders to read from Nigeria: “Pray for God’s visitation to all African leaders and their families.” What a wonderful request for prayer! And one to which I want to be added! As I pondered this request, I was sobered by remembering Jesus’ words about “visitation.” These words were spoken during His approach to Jerusalem in what we know as His Triumphal Entry. Everyone was celebrating Him, and yet He wept. I suppose people thought these were tears of joy. But His words lament that Jerusalem did not recognize the day God visited them. So, pray along with us. Pray for our African leaders and me that God will indeed visit all of us – the entirety of the Free Methodist Church (FMC) in Africa. Pray we will have eyes to see and hearts to recognize the day of His visitation.

The Africa FMC continues to expand across the continent. Please be encouraged by the new groups of disciples being made and formed into churches. Give thanks to the Lord for our Free Methodist bishops, superintendents and mission district leaders who are leading their people in deep piety. With this deep piety as a fountain in the church, they are crafting ministries to families, ministries to children (in the form of all kinds of schools), ministries to the sick, ministries to those in prison and ministries to the destitute. All these ministries spring from the love of Christ. Rejoice with us for new missionaries being called into service, both from North America and the African church. 

We have much for which to praise God! Thank you for your faithful prayer support. Thank you for joining us in bringing before our Father the Free Methodist missionaries and Free Methodist ministries across the continent of Africa.

 May the Lord be praised!

Mike Reynen, Africa Area Director

Togo 2

Africa Area Director

Mike Reynen

Mike Reynen

Area Director Newsletters

Missionaries

Scott & Natasha Edinger

Scott & Natasha Edinger

Scott and Natasha Edinger provide pastoral care for FM missionaries in Africa. This role includes encouragement and spiritual nurture via emails, phone calls and field visits; special care in emergencies or times of crisis; and organization of prayer support.

Jordan & Audrey Kaufmann

Jordan & Audrey Kaufmann

Jordan and Audrey are from McPherson, Kansas, and have been active members of the Free Methodist Church for five years. Audrey’s background as an administrative assistant for the Central Region Conference of the Free Methodist Church has prepared her for their current mission. Jordan graduated with his ministry degree from Central Christian College and has served in missions in several countries, including Mexico, Haiti and Mozambique. Jordan will facilitate partnerships between African leaders and U.S. churches, and Audrey will serve through administrative work supporting effective partnerships.

Glenn & Wendy Lorenz

Glenn & Wendy Lorenz

Glenn and Wendy Lorenz, both ordained elders in the Free Methodist Church, were appointed career missionaries in April 2015. In January 2017, the Lorenz family moved to Costa Rica to work with Free Methodist World Missions, where Glenn coordinated the development of healthy leaders for FMWM Latin America. In October 2022, Glenn began serving as the Africa Area Associate Director. His work focuses on recruiting, onboarding, training, and coaching missionary teams to live in West Africa. He also assists in supporting and developing Free Methodist leaders in West Africa.

Emmanuel & Rachel Nzungize

Emmanuel & Rachel Nzungize

Emmanuel and Rachel met in Kibogora, Rwanda, in 2015 while Rachel was volunteering as nurse at Kibogora Hospital. Emmanuel, a Rwandan, was her translator. Their friendship developed and they were married in 2018. After a few years in the United States, they feel God is calling them back to Kibogora. Both Emmanuel and Rachel are nurses and are excited to care for patients and provide education for other nurses and nursing students. Rachel recently completed her master’s degree in global health and hopes to assist hospital staff with quality improvements as needed. The Nzungizes also look forward to welcoming short-term volunteers and serving as a bridge within the community. They have two young children, Noella and Matayo.

Mike & Vickie Reynen

Mike & Vickie Reynen

Mike Reynen works on the formation of churches in Africa by collaborating with African leaders to develop the various aspects of well-rounded church life. Church planting and ministerial education are vital. Mike and Vickie both encourage the missionary team in empowering national leaders. Vickie puts much of her energy into Tumaini Women Kenya, a discipleship-oriented micro-savings and loan ministry, and Thrive (also Kenya), a young women’s ministry discipling and advocating against gender-based violence and sex trafficking.

Hendrik & Kaylene Smidderks

Hendrik & Kaylene Smidderks

As FMWM missionaries, Hendrik will lead a team supporting church leaders and mission districts in West Africa and assisting in pastoral training and formation. Kaylene will serve the work of the international missionary team to West Africa, focusing on financial administration and communication.

Moisés & Jacione Souza

Moisés & Jacione Souza

Sent by the Free Methodist Church in Portugal, Moisés and Jacione Souza serve as international missionaries to the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe off the west coast of Africa. They launched the first Free Methodist church in São Tomé in January 2019 and now work consistently through various discipleship ministries for children, youth and adults. Many believers are growing in their faith. The couple’s next goal is to identify and train leaders for pastoral ministry. Both Moisés and Jacione were ordained as elders at the 2020 annual meeting of the Free Methodist Church of Portugal. Because the church in Portugal is the sending church, this mission district is under the European area.

Children: Filipa, Giovanna

Dosseh Takpale

Dosseh Takpale

Dosseh Takpale is the superintendent of the Togo Provisional Annual Conference. As an international missionary, he now assists in supervising four other countries: Guinea, Ivory Coast, Guinea Bissau and Mali. In addition, Dosseh serves as the regional administrative assistant for the area director and the director of the Wesley Missionary Institute.

HEARTBEAT

Stephen’s Story

Stephen’s Story

Have you ever become good friends with a taxi driver? When Mike and I lived in Kenya, Stephen became “our” taxi driver — taking us to and from the...

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Africa VISA Voyagers: Resident Teachers for Ministerial Education

Africa VISA Voyagers: Resident Teachers for Ministerial Education

Potential locations for assignment include Great Commission Bible School, Malawi, Wesley Missionary Institute, Togo, or Liberia in its pastoral education program. Individuals would commit to a year or longer service. There are great opportunities to help individuals develop in ministry. Malawi and Liberia systems are modular, Togo is residential. Interested teachers will discuss with field leadership to discern a best place of service.

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Africa VISA Team: Church Construction/School Repairs

Africa VISA Team: Church Construction/School Repairs

This is for teams who wish to participate in the project of constructing a church or repairing school buildings. In most cases this would include working under the direction of local builders. It could include cement block laying, cement work, basic woodworking. Often the projects are in hot environments. Good health is a necessity. Team size could be between four and ten members.

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