Missionary Work in Africa & Dangers Of Travel



Posted: Friday, October 02, 2009

by Edwin Muriithi
African Safaris & Adventures

Doing work for the Africa  Inland Mission  can be satisfying and risky at the same time. The possibility for danger did  not prevent Peter, a missionary who graduated from the Nyack Missionary Institute  from establishing an interdenominational Christian union in 1899 to minister to  the inner regions of Africa. Though Scott and  many other members of the initial mission died of diseases they contracted in Africa, The church flourished. But the difficulties it  now faces go beyond disease.
 
"There's increasing danger," said Ted of AIM's U.S. operation, which is run out of small  complex on Crooked Hill Road  in Pearl River. "Two of our missionaries  in Uganda  last year were suddenly murdered, so they paid the ultimate price."  Warren and Donna initially farmers from United Kingdom  had worked with AIM since 1996. The Petts and Isaac Jurugo, a Ugandan undergraduate,  were fatally shot in March 2004 by robbers who raided the Christian  agricultural training center where the Petts worked.  Others too have been injured over the years,  and several died in Congo  in 1964. The risk of harm particularly in countries with unstable political  regimes must be faced, Barnett said, and sensitizing missionaries to the danger  the key aspects of the training conducted by AIM's U.S. offices.

"We ask people, before they travel to Africa to consider the dangers, and  we go through a whole series of scenarios that do occur and have happened, that  involve dangers and ask them not to go until they are at peace with what the  ultimate cost might be," said Barnett, whose parents and grandparents were AIM missionaries in Kenya. Although  the institution does not carry out formal recruitment, outreach through  churches and speaking engagements provides exposure, and many potential  candidates become interested in AIM when they tour the group's Web site or  African Safaris and Adventures safari Website, Barnett said.

Not everyone is an ideal nominee. From early on in the screening process,  candidates are evaluated to learn their primary motivation for wanting to  become missionaries in Africa. If they want to travel to Africa for a Kenya  Tanzania Uganda safari holiday or a vacation, "Well, we support them to  take that, just not with AIM," Barnett said. Others who appear to have a  more serious devotion but are not sure that they want a long-term posting in Africa are advice them to travel for about eight weeks to  better assess their feelings, he said.

AIM's missionaries concern themselves  with health, education and development issues. The group's full-time permanent  missionaries, who number about 900, serve in a variety of roles: they  "plant" churches, work as doctors, teach theology and community  development skills, and perform AIDS outreach. They travel Canada, Europe, South America, Africa, Asia and Australia,  and work in 15 African nations. In spite of the variety of duties, they share  AIM's main Dream: to spread the word of God. The mandate is derived from the  Bible's Matthew 28: 19-20, which urges the teaching of the Gospel to all  nations.



Edwin is a specialist in African Safaris and a tour operator. His tour company, African Safaris & Adventures, has presence in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Egypt, Madascar, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Seychelles.
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