I’m Brendan Kirby and I 'm the pastor of Hope Adelaide church . I just want to encourage you that I’ve had the opportunity to visit some of the churches in Africa.
Africa Missions Trip Video Report
First mission trip to Liberia
We have a pastor in Africa who’s interested in Hope international movement, and so I went to Liberia in February 2007 and introduced the movement to Pastor Sonny and his leadership team in Liberia. And they have adopted the movement. They have really had the same vision to plant churches around Liberia, and a year or so later, we have 5 churches in Liberia.
Latest Updates from Liberia
"Ps Sonny has only last week (30th July) returned from a 4 week missions trip around Liberia and Guinea designed to strengthen and train his leaders. These are a few of the highlights from this trip:
- Hope Foya which was started in January, and where we held two crusade meetings, now has over 220 people attending.
- Hope Voinjama which we started after our crusade and has been averaging over 30 people - recently had over 50 people while Ps Sonny was preaching the vision to the church.
- Hope Kouantan has now been birthed! Ps Sonny has started another church within a refugee camp in Kouantan, in Guinea (adjacent country to Liberia). This church has over 100 people already (most of whom Ps Sonny knew from his previous ministry in this refugee camp prior to his return to Liberia) - 30+ of whom just got saved after powerful deliverance meetings with Ps Sonny.
Healing Crusades in Liberia
I was recently there in march 08 and we did some crusades quite a few people were there and quite a few got healed. God did some quite miraculous deliverances there as well.
It was really quite exciting to see the number of converts and church attendance increasing. We actually did crusade church planting where we started our church straight after we did one crusade, where we gathered the converts and did a call for those interested, in contributing to a church plant.
Imparting the vision of Hope to African pastors
One of our hallmarks is that we’re not just starting a local church but we’re planting an international church movement.
we’re planting a network of churches so that when we commit to a local church we’re committing at the same time a network, a movement of churches . We are one church that meets in many locations, and this is very important that we stress this to the African pastors over there who are joining the movement, that we are part of an apostolic church planting movement, we’re not a series of independent isolated local churches but we are a network, we’re one family, with one heart, with one vision, to do our best, to extend the kingdom of God, by planting churches.
Ministry with Pastor Prapop & Pastor Thanon
We were very excited after our trip to Liberia, I was with pastor Prapop and pastor Thanon (Goft), pastor Praphop is the regional pastor for Africa, and pastor Thanon is the regional pastor for west Africa, so it was my privilege to travel with those 2 Thai pastors for about the first 5 or 6 days of my 9 day trip there, and that went very well. We were encouraged by what the Lord is doing.
Exploration trip to Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
After Liberia I went on a scouting trip to the democratic republic of Congo (DRC) , where I met with a pastor who’s interested in joining the movement.
I was able to share the vision with him, and with his pastors, he has planted over 30 churches in DRC. I had a couple of strategic opportunities to preach the vision to over 30 pastors and their wife’s and their leaders and that was a real privilege for me to have that opportunity and to experience the African worship it was really touching .
The spirit of God really touched the pastors, and they are really inspired to plant churches all around DRC , which has got about 60 million to 80 million people. And God’s heart really reaches out to those people.
DRC Joining Hope Movement
"After my trip, Ps Mapya has since formally confirmed with his regional pastors that they are very blessed by our Hope Movement, and that as a local movement of churches they want to officially join us!
Ps Praphop and I will be making a followup visit to DRC in September to visit more of Ps Mapya's churches and to confirm the impartation of the Hope Vision and Philosophy to the 30+ churches there. We are most inspired by the work of the Holy Spirit through Ps Mapya and the churches that he has planted over the last 10 years. They too have a great vision to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to plant churches - often at great personal expense and self-sacrifice to the pastors. We love them greatly - they are our brothers and sisters in a common vision!"
Expanding Mission Fields in Africa
"I am also planning to visit a couple of other countries, where there have been expressions of interest to join our movement. Please pray for much wisdom, grace and protection (from sickness!) as I visit these places, thankyou! We love all our brothers and sisters in our Hope family and pray that we might excel in serving the Lord together."
I want to encourage you that it is a great opportunity, privilege and honour to be a part of the Great Commission, to be a part of the Hope International Movement, and to serve God together, Amen !
Pastor Brendan & Helen Kirby
Hope Adelaide, Australia
For more information about Western Africa church planting write to Pastor Brendan Kirby Email (helenk_hope@yahoo.com.au)
