ALARM's History

African

I am an African. I was born to a family who raised me to lead in the tribal ways of my culture. When I was a young man, a Christian missionary introduced me to the Word of God and to the risen Savior, Jesus Christ. My life changed dramatically, causing both great personal loss and great eternal gain. I trained to become like the man who led me to Christ, and I am committed to strengthening the Church in Africa through leaders who will continue that work. After surviving the devastation of genocide in the mid-nineties, I heard the cries of alarm that comprised a distinct calling from the Lord. As a result, an organization founded and headed by Africans was established, and it is called ALARM. The letters in the name ALARM stand for African Leadership And Reconciliation Ministries, and I would like to tell its story.

African Leadership

In 1994 Western missionaries were forced to flee from Africa (primarily Rwanda, Burundi, and Congo) due to civil and political unrest and tribal wars. This resulted in a vacuum of leadership in the growing congregations because nationals had not been trained to conduct church ministries. Missionaries had evangelized Africans without mentoring and maturing the new converts—an approach that resulted in superficial Christianity and immaturity, despite the growing numbers of believers. This crisis raised the initial call of alarm. The vast majority of African pastors and lay leaders had little education or training. When violence erupted and the missionaries departed (many against their wishes), the churches were left in a vulnerable condition.

African Leadership and Reconciliation

The crisis of leadership was heightened by the fact that more than 70% of Rwandan pastors were killed or forced into exile between April and July 1994. Burundi and Congo experienced similar decimation. The horrific bloodshed of genocide fostered widespread hatred and bitter retaliation. Other wars affected northern Uganda and southern Sudan. A second alarm, loud and clear, was sounded. Not only did the African church need leadership, it also needed to promote forgiveness and reconciliation.

Through these events and a growing sense of urgency, God put a heavy burden on our hearts to establish ALARM. Our dual mission in reclaiming the church’s powerful presence was clear. We needed to equip indigenous church leaders and promote reconciliation.

Genocide had killed our brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, neighbors and friends. Western missionaries had moved to safer territory. The African church felt alone and abandoned. We identified with the cry of the crucified Christ.

But we also shared in the hope of resurrection.

Clinging to the hope of life and transformation through the gospel, ALARM was founded by native Africans to equip native Africans to rebuild our continent.

African Leadership And Reconciliation Ministries

Since its founding in 1994, ALARM has expanded into eight countries. Our Nairobi headquarters is fully staffed by well-trained African men and women, as are our offices in Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. We have a support office in the United States and liaison offices in the United Kingdom, Canada, Belgium, and France.

Our passion is to help the African church serve as an agent of change, bringing transformation that goes deeper than superficial, nominal Christianity. Unless the pastoral and lay leadership of the church is equipped and strengthened, the African church will remain a malnourished infant in its faith and, therefore, unproductive in its social and economic responsibilities. In addition to regular conferences for pastors, ALARM trains men and women for church leadership in a variety of venues:

  • The Christian Leadership Institute of Sudan (Yei, Sudan)
  • Center for Leadership and Forgiveness (Kigali, Rwanda)
  • Center for Leadership and Church Development (Lietnhom, Sudan)
  • Evangelical Basic Evening School (Khartoum, Sudan)
  • Pastoral Leadership Training Institute (Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda)
  • Planned training centers in Burundi, Congo, Tanzania, Zambia,

We recognize that women, in particular, have suffered greatly because of the waves of violence that have ravaged so much of the African continent. Widowed, abandoned, or violated, they are often powerless and voiceless. ALARM’s African Women’s Initiatives relieve some of this burden while empowering women to negotiate for themselves and their children a brighter future. We conduct conferences for women in all the countries we serve, providing health education, Bible training, and human rights awareness. ALARM also offers the Women’s Leadership Training Institute (a three year program of instruction in biblical studies and theology), the Institute for Women’s Excellence (a school for neglected girls in Rwanda), adult literacy training, and wide-ranging micro-business projects.

Closely related to these projects is ALARM’s Youth Advocacy Program, which provides young people with vocational training, health education, and discipleship. A vocational training center is under construction in Rwanda, with similar facilities planned in Congo and Zambia.

Some of ALARM’s ministries engage people in places where the children have no schools. Since social transformation is impossible without education, ALARM has started schools in Zambia and Sudan. In Lietnhom, Sudan, where any classes had to be held under trees and the nearest secondary school was 50 miles away, ALARM is building Linda Primary School and Hope Secondary School, providing classrooms and training teachers in the name of Jesus.

ALARM routinely offers special conferences on forgiveness and reconciliation, conflict resolution, and human rights. These have proven especially helpful for government leaders, and we are grateful for the opportunity to train these influential men and women regarding such significant issues. However, ALARM does not accept any government funding for these events. Africa’s ethnic conflicts have been made more difficult by the church’s frequent entanglement with political power. ALARM avoids such entanglements.

ALARM could not have accomplished so much without the involvement of many Western churches and individual lay leaders who have given of their time and talents to help us build up African leadership and promote African reconciliation. These international trainers have more than doubled our ministry efforts. Their ministerial skills and experiences have broadened what our own African staff could have provided alone. We are a richer, deeper Body of Christ at work because of these partnerships, and everyone involved has grown spiritually through the resulting close relationships.

We have enjoyed mutual ministries – each to the other. We deliberately set aside the one-way giving model that emphasizes “from us to you.” Instead, the positive, life-changing effects on both the African participants in the conferences, and on the visiting trainers, have been well beyond the usual short-term missionary experience. The Western church pastors and group leaders who have come as educators, and the African church pastors and lay leaders who have eagerly learned new information and techniques have united to experience true bonds of brotherhood, sisterhood, fellowship, and partnership within the worldwide church of our Lord Christ. The amazing results demonstrate the reality of Ephesians 3:20—

Now to Him Who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Respectfully in the cause of Christ,
Rev. Celestin Musekura, Ph.D.
Founder and President
African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries, Inc.