Cameroon

The history of the Grace Church in Cameroon is steeped in partnerships. Partnerships between native Grace Believers and various Grace organizations in the United States. In the late 1960s, God called the late Revd. Dr. Lawrence N. Asong to the Southwest region of Cameroon. The LORD used a gospel tract to connect Dr. Lawrence to the Gospel of Grace. In the late 1960s, Dr. Asong came across a tract entitled “If your hand leads you to sin, cut it off”. He was so fascinated by the content of the tract that he wrote to the publishers. The publishers then shared with him the address of Prison Mission Association (PMA), a grace organization in the USA that focuses on sharing Christ in prisons through Bible Correspondence courses. Joe B. Mason was President and Ken W. Parker was Associate President.

Dr. Asong wrote to PMA and soon after took PMA’s courses. Struck by its content and power, Dr. Asong began to distribute the courses with others. When PMA saw how diligent he was in reaching out to many through their courses, Ken Parker visited Cameroon in 1972 and established a PMA office in Kumba, with Dr. Asong as African Director of PMA. For 30 years, until he died in 2002, Dr. Asong ministered to countless prisoners and anyone who desired to take the PMA lessons all over English-speaking African countries. One of his students in Kenya would later start the Grace Church in Kenya. Late Revd. Kennedy Simtowe, a Grace Ministries International (GMI) team member from Tanzania, learned a lot about the Gospel of God’s Grace through the ministry of Dr. Asong.

As many people in Cameroon took the PMA courses and came to love the Gospel of God’s Grace, they requested for more opportunities to grow in their knowledge of God’s grace. Dr. Asong then began to hold regular Bible Studies and Seminars in Kumba. The interest was overwhelming. In 1994, he gathered a core group of people and began Grace Mission Cameroon, which later became the Grace Church in Cameroon in 2003. Dr. Asong’s son Joseph Asong (currently a GMI team member) helped to establish a new partnership between Grace Mission Cameroon and Grace Ministries International in 2003. GMI then advised Grace Mission Cameroon to change its name to Grace Church in Cameroon to align with other Grace Churches on the continent of Africa.

GMI has never been able to send a team member to Cameroon but continues to maintain the Grace Church in Cameroon as an affiliated field.