(AFRICA) Be Strong and Courageous: Africa New Year Leaders Conference

  • by ubfhq
  • Dec 26, 2025
  • 560 reads
 
By Oyor Moses
 
"Be Strong and Courageous, and Love One Another" (Joshua 1: 7)
 
We thank God for richly blessing the Africa New Year Leaders Conference with His grace and truth through the living Word of God. The conference was held in Nairobi, Kenya, under the theme “Be Strong and Courageous.” A total of 83 people attended from various nations, including the USA, South Korea, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Lesotho, and Kenya.
 
On the first day, Africa Coordinator Missionary Livingstone Kang delivered the opening message based on Psalm 1:2, titled “Meditate in the Word.” This message prepared our hearts to meditate on and obey the Word of God, encouraging us to make it a habit and way of life for success and fruitfulness in mission work.
 
On the second day, Kevin Namudeche from Kenya delivered a powerful main message, “Be Strong and Courageous,” based on Joshua 1:1–18. Africa UBF chapters are currently in a transitional period of mission succession from missionaries to native African leaders. Just as Joshua faced fear at the time of Moses’ death, African native leaders are facing many challenges in their respective mission fields. Through this message, we were challenged to be strong and courageous in the Lord while facing our difficulties, problems, and responsibilities. As God was with the missionaries through hardship and granted them success in their mission fields, He will also be with native leaders and give them success and prosperity in mission work until Africa becomes a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
 
Africa UBF is focusing on the principles of self-propagating, self-supporting, and self-governing ministry. In line with this focus, Pastor Abraham Omutunde from Nigeria gave a special lecture on the second day titled “Self-Propagation and Disciple-Making,” based on John 20:21, Acts 1:8, and Matthew 28:19. His lecture explored practical opportunities for strengthening self-propagation through the active involvement of UBF shepherds in inviting campus students, leading them to Christ, and helping them grow as disciples of Jesus. The lecture also addressed common challenges and ways to overcome them in order to have fruitful self-propagation and disciple-making ministries.
 

 
We also thank God for the abundant grace and encouragement we received through the New Year key verse message delivered by General Director Pastor Ron Ward on the final day of the conference, titled “Love One Another.” The UBF community is the family of God, built upon His love. Jesus commands us to love one another; therefore, UBF must be a community of love. By doing so, we can reveal the love of Jesus to the world and give glory to God.
 
By the grace of God, we held an inauguration ceremony for several leaders: fellowship leaders for the Kenya UBF chapter, Blessed Fungurai as the new chapter director for Zimbabwe, Steven Sabbale as the new chapter director for Makerere Uganda, and Tsibela Selemela as a missionary from WITS South Africa to the Kingdom of Lesotho. Dr. Oyor Moses from South Sudan was ordained as a UBF pastor. In addition, we held a baptism ceremony for 13 people, mostly second-generation members from the Kenya UBF chapter. They publicly declared their faith in our Lord Jesus Christ before all of us as witnesses. We pray that each of them may be strengthened in faith and grow as disciples of Jesus who love and serve God faithfully. Tsibela Selemela from Lesotho and Gerald Katugume from Uganda also shared grace-filled life testimonies during the conference.
 
Immediately following the conference, Pan-Africa Cohort members were blessed with two additional days of theological lectures. They received the life-giving Word of God with great joy. By the grace of God, the next Africa New Year Leaders Conference will be held in Nigeria from December 11–13, 2026.
 
Prayer Topics:
  1. That we may be strong and courageous in doing God’s work.
  2. That the three principles of self-propagating, self-supporting, and self-governing may be foundationally applied in the Africa UBF ministry.
  3. That we may love one another so that UBF may truly be a community of love.
 

 

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