Posts by Renita

This is not an opening line that you often hear in a story.  Archbishop Ayoub Mwakang’ata of the Full Victory Gospel Ministries dropped this line on us while giving us his testimony in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.  I thought to myself that since Swahili is the first language for many in Tanzania, that maybe he misspoke. But then he told his story: Bishop (center) with Pastor Anthony (right) and wife (left) He had been serving in the...

We had a very successful and exciting workshop in Uganda with the Council of Bishops of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God.  This growing denomination of 6000 churches has already been doing some significant work on economic development through a unique development arm of their church called “Church and Community Methodology Process,” which seeks to have every local church completely engaged with the community that it is in...

Yoseph is a 38-year-old Ethiopian man, who is married with three beautiful daughters.  Yoseph owns his own home, has a number of rental units, and owns his own car (which is a big deal in Ethiopia as the government adds a 260% tax on any car brought into the country in order to discourage people from owning cars and keep the roads less congested). Yoseph has created two positions for himself in the Kale Heywet Church, a denomination...

Addis Ababa is a beautiful city of close to four million people, sitting at about 8000 feet above sea level. It is a city of beautiful people, lovely views, great food, and cultural richness. Ethiopian people seem to love Ethiopia (maybe that sounds obvious but there are many people who don’t like their own country). We have heard a number of Ethiopians tell us that if they were given a chance to live anywhere in the world, they...

On Saturday morning, I worked with my students on their income and expenditure analysis and the budget that they formed for their family (we work on both personal as well as organizational/church budgeting). One pastor showed me his budget, which wasn’t balancing, and we looked for options of where he could reduce expenses to help his budget balance.  I noticed he had about $33 in his food budget for the month and asked him how...