TONY'S NEWSLETTER
MARCH 2009
Dear EAPE Partner,
Everywhere I go, I see the evidence of what God is doing through our young EAPE missionaries.
I just returned from an inspiring missionary conference in South Africa, where I met African Christians who were readying themselves to go to other countries—including the United States—to preach the Gospel and to do church planting. While there, I spent some quality time with Wendy Ryan, a onetime EAPE board member who now directs Evangeline Ministries, a ministry EAPE has supported from its inception five years ago.
Evangeline Ministries brings together needy African women, some of whom have been widowed because of the AIDS epidemic, all of whom are trying to raise children in desperate circumstances with scant financial resources. Wendy and her team teach these women how to use sewing machines to make an array of clothing and household items (especially pocket books) which are sold at various markets both in South Africa and here in North America. These women not only learn to earn a living for their families; they also gain the means to actually do so. Upon finishing Wendy’s course, each woman gets to keep the sewing machine she has used during her months of training.
They get more than that, off course. With evangelistic zeal, Wendy communicates God’s love and salvation in all that she does. Her ministry is connected to a local church so that the women are encouraged to not only make decisions for Christ, but also to join a nurturing congregation.
While at this same conference, I also connected with a young missionary who had been educated in the leadership training program EAPE helped establish in partnership with Eastern University. There he was, recruiting young men and women to study at a brand new seminary where he teaches what he has learned. Having gained his missionary vision from our ministry, he is now in Africa, training Africans to live out that same vision.
Finally, I spent several hours with Johan Horn, an outstanding African leader who Bart inspired and then helped to organize a program very similar to our own Mission Year. Over the past ten years, hundreds of young Africans have given years of their lives to serve the poorest of the poor in the needy townships of South Africa, meeting both physical and spiritual needs under Johan’s direction.
All the stories of what you have helped EAPE accomplish with your gifts and prayers will never be told this side of heaven. But you can be sure your support has done enormous good for God’s Kingdom. These three stories are just the tip of a happy iceberg of changed lives and communities.
Keep on giving—and we’ll keep working to make your gifts into great ministries of God’s love.
Sincerely,
Tony Campolo
PS. We have an e-mail version of our monthly newsletter, which we would be delighted to send to you if you provide us an e-mail address. The e-version includes links to featured ministries, my podcasts and itinerary and much, much more. To sign up, please e-mail your full name and e-mail address to my assistant, Robert Gauthier at .
ABOUT TONY + MARCH 2009