INTRODUCTION
Right from the earliest days of SIM missionary efforts in Nigeria, the pioneers had a firm belief in small beginnings so they started encouraging Nigerianls to form an indigenous mission agency as far back as 1947.
They were to raise, send and support their own missionaries. In 1949, the dream became a reality and African Missionary Society (AMS) was established. Today is known as the Evangelical Missionary Society of ECWA (EMS of ECWA).
EMS MISSION AND GOALS
An EMS missionary family on their station The main task of EMS is to recruit and send out missionaries to the unreached for the purpose of bringing them to the saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is with the aim of fulfilling the Great Commission as in Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 1:8.
At the moment, more than 1,200 missionaries are working in Nigeria, Benin Republic, Cameroun, Chad, Ghana, Niger Republic and Togo. Some of the main aims of EMS are:
cross-cultural evangelism
church planting among the unreached
discipling and training members to reproduce other disciples
EMS works in partnership and cooperation with other evangelical groups in receiving and sending out missionaries, as well as in research and training.
EMS OF ECWA MISSION FIELD SCHOOL
(RAISING A FUTURE GENERATION OF GODLY LEADERS TO BE AGENTS OF TRANSFORMATION)
According to official Nigerian statistics, children under 15 years of age account for about 45 per cent of the country’s population. Furthermore, about 40% ( forty per cent) of Nigerian children aged 6-11 do not attend any primary school with the Northern region recording the lowest school attendance rate, particularly for girls. It is estimated that about 4.7 million children of primary school age are still not in school.
EMS of ECWA does its ministry mostly amongst villages that hardly have schools within its reach, especially in the Northern part of Nigeria. Thousands of children and even the missionaries’ children have been victims of educational neglect. Most often, in addition to being church planters, our Missionaries inevitably serve in the communities that they are reaching with the gospel as teachers and medical personnel.