Cry Africa continues to come of age in transition
By Mike McClaflin
Cry Africa, the Assemblies of God World Missions Africa response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, continues to grow in relevance with a commitment to partner with national churches in Africa in response to this terrible blight.
For six years, since the inception of Cry Africa in 2002, Brad Tucker led this initiative in developing a foundation and framework to bring both awareness and substance to a crisis need that has dozens of differing attitudes and loose ends. With his departure in 2008 to assume larger responsibilities with USAID Worldwide, we have been left with a solid infrastructure and network that allows us to move into our next strategic phase of endeavor.
As has been announced in 2008, we divided Cry Africa into two parallel working units as follows:
Cry Africa U.S.A. will continue to operate from a Springfield base with the responsibilities of raising awareness in our U.S. churches and maintaining our Cry Africa Web site and database. The director of our U.S. Cry Africa effort, Phil Malcolm, will also represent the Cry Africa office in various conferences and other HIV/AIDS partner groups as needed. He will also be a working member of our Africa-based team and have varying administrative responsibilities on selected projects on the continent.
The most significant change for Cry Africa is to move the epicenter of strategy and activity from a U.S. base to the continent. While Cry Africa has always been a marriage of practitioners, both missionary and national, the need for this initiative to now grow from Africa’s soil is timely.
Emily Johns has been commissioned to lead/coordinate this coalition of missionary and national partners in this new era of HIV/AIDS endeavor.
The primary responsibility of this task force is to assume the oversight of creating an arena for the development of a continental strategy to meet this crisis head on. They are also requested to establish an environment for creative thinking for all who feel the mandate of involvement in this terrible plague. They will carry fiduciary responsibility in the establishment of working programs and projected expenditures, particularly as it relates it to U.S. funding, in consultation with national leadership as part of their portfolio.
“It is our desire and hope that people would view this growing ministry as a professional resource,” states L. John Bueno, executive director of AG World Missions. “I encourage our national churches and their missionary partners to join with Cry Africa, utilizing its expertise and multiple resources, in our war against this insidious disease.”
Communication of purposes and programs will be released in the coming weeks so those interested may be made aware of this resource and relevant contacts.
Cry Africa requests prayer that this endeavor on both fronts (U.S. and Africa) will be the recipient of God’s divine favor.