With 4 countries represented, Catalyst is pushing back darkness by training hundreds of faithful leaders across West Africa.
West Africa Project has…
300+ students
10 training groups
5 Graduated Classes
4 Countries
Nigeria
The NIGERIA project site was established October 2016, and the first training took place June 2017. The first training in June saw over 200 participants during the week. While the strategy isn’t to see how many we can train, the size of this cohort shows the desire and need in this location. They understand the challenge to make disciples of their nation. As part of a church planting network, the leaders we are training present the vision of multi-generational discipleship and church planting. Catalyst is providing training to help move these leaders towards sound doctrine, godly practice, and healthy models of church planting.
The training in Nigeria has grown to include three sites. Catalyst training sites are Kaduna Central (Central Site), Kamazo (Kaduna South), and Nasawara (South of Abuja). By God’s grace, we were able to graduate two cohort groups of students in Kaduna Central and South and continue to work with our students in Nasawara. Additionally, we are praying and working towards the opening of sites in the area of Abuja with two new cohort groups. We are excited to see this multiplication of the training and the new opportunities for reaching multitudes through these disciples!
NIGERIA IMPACT STORY
Our main Regional Coordinator, Victor Suleman has been with Catalyst from the beginning of the West Africa project. When we were planning to engage in work in Kaduna, Victor was the Church Planting strategist for the District Church Council. Last year he transitioned to serving in a local body in Kaduna, but continued to serve as our Regional Coordinator. We began to consider how he might reproduce the training into a new location during 2019. He settled on a location 2 hours south of Abuja called Nasarawra. This has been an exciting new location for Catalyst consisting of 15-20 key ministry leaders in Nigeria.
Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast: In December 2016, we received a message from a young pastor in the Ivory Coast, James. He wrote the organization to express his need for training in order to complete the ministry the Lord had given him in the city of San Pedro. Because we were not in a position to adopt another new project in 2017, we told James that we could train him using Skype and reevaluate opportunities for residential training in 2018. Since this time, we conducted training on a weekly basis with James online, providing instruction on pastoral ministry and harvest church planting, and have named James national coordinator in the Ivory Coast..
The Ivory Coast training has grown rapidly over the past few years. Having graduated our first cohort group of students in Yamoussoukro in October 2020, we have transitioned to a new central site in Abidjan. As we have encountered areas of great need and deep hunger for the Word, the Lord has provided the groundwork for leaders in 4 different regions of Ivory Coast to be released into the harvest. In total, Catalyst has graduated 117 students
The plan for 2024 is to provide training in our central site of Abidjan and continue training our cohort groups in Bouafle, Zuenoula, San Pedro and Danane, multiplying the gospel through faithful pastors, leaders, and disciples. Additionally, we also are planning to continue work that has extended from the Ivory Coast to new countries, Mali and Senegal in order to work with new cohort groups.
IVORY COAST IMPACT STORY
We are grateful to see how the training is being multiplied through Catalyst students in order to reach the lost and plant new churches. We recently received this report about the work from James, our regional coordinator for pastor training: “Pastor M, a student of Catalyst Missions in Yamoussoukro can go all over the villages in the region to plant new churches, and also he trains these new souls to reproduce as well. May God continue to bless the vision of Catalyst Missions.”
Senegal
Catalyst was able to visit Dakar for the first time in 2019. This is our main and only training site in SENEGAL. This was started by our Regional Coordinator from the Ivory Coast. We have been working with James to select and place a Regional Coordinator in Dakar. Having completed 2 trainings in 2019, one faithful leader has shown the capacity to be a regional coordinator and begin to multiply the training in this city.
Having identified a regional coordinator in Senegal, the plan is to continue training in Dakar in 2024.
Senegal Impact Story
While delivering one of our training modules, we had a conversation about the potential of church planting in Dakar. They were concerned because the cost of land and the inability to build within the city limits. We opened a discussion to house churches, and the focus of the New Testament’s emphasis upon that model. The next night during training, the group shared whose home they had already decided to plant. We look forward to hearing more about the impact of this when we are back in country.
