Mukonchi Project

Establishing a church and medical clinic in Mukonchi village

There was no church in Mukonchi village, 1.5 hours off of the highway, so AFSIA has been working to establish a church in the village for many years. It has been a slow process to gain trust with the people, who are superstitious and still involved in witchcraft and ancestor worship. The church is now meeting through ministry to the children. Every Saturday they meet with Davies and Douglas for Bible lessons in the shelter we built in 2019. And at the end of each year we send about 20 of the youth to Bible Camp for a month. Their parents and guardians have been so impressed with the changes that they see happening in their children’s lives through the discipleship that is accomplished through the AFSIA ministry. The children are even bringing the Word of God to the illiterate adults through reciting the scripture verses that they learn by memory and the adults feel so blessed to hear the Word of God spoken to them. We are also sponsoring many of the children in the local primary school and in surrounding secondary schools.

There was no medical clinic for the people of the village unless they walked 4 hours away, so AFSIA established a small satellite clinic at our base for the people to have access to basic care. Even if they can walk to the clinic, the clinic might not have any medicine for them since rural government clinics are often out of supplies. So it was important to stock some emergency medicines at our base such as Band-Aids and antibiotic cream, malaria treatment, and pain killers. We have trained our staff to be certified to dispense common medicines for cuts, burns, headache, toothache, diarrhea, cough, worms, malaria, and other illnesses. Our first patient was a little boy who had been run over by a bicyclist on a trail and had a large bleeding gash on his forehead. They brought him to our clinic and our guys cleaned the wound, applied ointment, and bandages. A few days later they checked up on him and he had healed well. People also come in the night for malaria pills when they are feeling really sick. Malaria is deadly if not treated in time.

AFSIA has also found two people in the village who are lame and have been able to send them wheelchairs so that they do not need to live their lives on the ground in the dirt and mud, and can move more freely by themselves.