Maybe its because I’m an extrovert, maybe its because I am loud, maybe its just God’s way of showing me HIS favor, but it seems that every time I travel I stumble across people who come up to me or who I am drawn to, and the majority of the time, they are African. Just a few days ago I was sitting in the Delta lounge waiting on my flight to Paris and on then on to Yaounde’, Cameroon. A friend called me and I explained that I would be out of town for the next two weeks working in Cameroon. Two gentlemen were sitting just opposite me carrying on their own conversation. I finished my call and was working on my computer when they both approached me with their business cards. “We are from Cameroon and we heard you are coming to our country. Please contact us when you arrive.” Both of them had on their card, Directeur General, which translates, CEO. One was for a pharmaceutical company, the other, an international business.
Why? Why would they approach me? I believe God is raising up a group of people in Africa and in other countries in the world that believe in what we are doing at Catalyst for Africa and want to be a part of our support base. We are not a ministry that is looking only to the West to support what God has called us to do. Already we are being supported by leaders in 8 French speaking countries and in Ghana. This is just the beginning. We want to change the mentality of the West coming to rescue the “poor, benighted Africans.” Africa is stupendously wealthy with natural resources and with people who have succeeded in the business world. I long for the day when I can say to U.S. business people that more than half of our budget is supported by Africans. We are not there yet and we still need support from Western individuals and organizations.
We need to change old norms, colonial models, and patriarchal models that have robbed us of the potential to see what Africa can do in supporting a ministry based in the West yet is focused on the continent of Africa. Pray with us that God would begin to release resources from Africa for Africa.