News Release

LDS Congregations to Discuss Africa Southeast Area Plan

A Plan to Establish The Mormon Church on A Sure Foundation to be launched on the last Sunday of January 2016 in Kenyan congregations.

On the last Sunday of January, congregations of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Kenya and many countries in Southern and Eastern Africa will gather together to discuss the Africa Southeast Area (ASEA) Plan. The plan, developed by the ASEA leaders led by Elder Carl B. Cook, outlines three areas the Church and its members will focus on in 2016 as they try to grow the Church and more meaningfully follow the Lord Jesus Christ.  These key areas are:

  1. Increasing faith in God and Jesus Christ
  2. Loving and serving one another 
  3. Building members’ ability to build self-reliance in both spiritual and temporal matters

In launching the plan recently, the Area Presidency stated, “The Area Plan helps to unite all members and leaders with the same vision and objectives. Through church and family councils, all members of the Church should be aware of the plan and should seek to accomplish the objectives.”

Each stake (diocese), ward or branch (congregation) and family is encouraged to develop their plans to align with this Area plan.  Adults in these congregations will receive instruction on 31st January as part of their normal Sunday worship. Led by their bishops and branch presidents, they will be able to set goals for each of the three areas outlined by the Area Presidency. Mountain View Ward, located in Nairobi, Kenya, is already setting in motion this remarkable experience by recently setting up a goal for its members to finish reading the Bible by the end of this year. Led by Bishop Darius Mobe, the members have come up with a daily schedule to read a few chapters from the Bible, starting with the Book of Genesis. This will indeed help the members realise the first objective of the Area Presidency of increasing faith in God and Jesus Christ. More and more leaders are expected to seek inspiration from the Lord as the day approaches.

A short introductory video by the Area Presidency, the Area Plan itself and other resources to help the members and congregations interpret and implement this plan are available at www.africase.lds.org  

The Church continues to grow in the Southern and Eastern parts of Africa, where it is organised in over 20 countries in the region. There are over 200,000 members and close to 2000 missionaries serve in these countries, with over 500 congregations. An example of this growth is the recent creation of a new LDS mission in Democratic Republic of Congo. The Democratic Republic of Congo Mbuji-Mayi Mission is to be created from a division of the DRC Kinshasa and DRC Lubumbashi missions.

2016 is destined to be a remarkable year for the Church in this region as membership continues to grow and families continue to commit themselves to follow the Lord Jesus Christ and becomes His disciples, both in word and in action.

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