At ELG, God wired us to have a deep care for our brothers and sisters in Africa. It is a unique joy to to share their richness of spirit, their generosity, and their genuine desire to spread the Good News of the Gospel.

When poverty and the associated powerlessness are so close at hand in the daily life of an African man, woman, and child, the Gospel is a message of freedom and love must be accompanied by the hands and feet of Jesus serving people in their greatest need.

Our God-given Church mission includes being merciful to unbelievers as well as ministering to the spiritual total wellbeing of our fellow believers. They will know we are Christians by our love – how we take care of our brethren not just spiritually.

Past centuries have seen Western churches attempting to transplant Western church models and a strong focus on donor-recipient pairing between Western and African mercy-focused organizations. Secular NGOs have poured trillions of dollars into African aid. Unfortunately, the anecdotal successes found in both these efforts are overshadowed by the lack of long-term widespread change.

If we don’t focus on building local leadership and stewardship supported by strong discipleship, we repeat the mistakes of the past – merely handing out fish and not raising generations of fishermen. 

We earnestly desire to see God work in the local church in Africa to create locally-driven growth in His kingdom, and to change the relationship between African and Western churches. We believe that the Western church can partner with the African church in new and different ways to support and foster local solutions that change the trajectory for people and nations through the growth of the Church and the spread of the Good News of Jesus Christ.