The Divito Family’s Future and APC

Hello Friend,

Last month, my prayer update included a report on my recent trip to South Africa to help manage and teach in five conferences throughout the KwaZulu-Natal province. In God’s providence, a lot has developed over the past month that I wanted to share with you. But let me begin with two things which became clear while I was in Africa.

First, I saw how absolutely vital African Pastors’ Conferences is in southern Africa. In the few weeks that I was there, I was able to bring the gospel of Christ and His Word to over 200 pastors and Bible teachers. With so much confusion and biblical ignorance, I rejoiced in seeing the truths of God’s Word  visibly discovered and embraced by so many church leaders. I am totally convinced that biblical leadership development is essential to the health of global churches and our missions work today. And APC is making a critical difference for Christ’s kingdom in Africa!

Second, I saw first-hand the increasing struggles that APC faces as the challenges have mounted. They have now been operating for several months without a conference manager, and I am still possibly a year or more away from the support level my family needs to move to South Africa. As much as I want to serve with them there, I wondered if it was wise for the ministry to continue waiting for me.

As a result, the South African Director and I began discussing if it was time to restructure APC to allow it to more effectively serve Christ and His kingdom. And after much prayer and counsel, the directors of APC have decided to change the leadership structure of the ministry. Instead of me serving as the conference manager, they will split the responsibilities so that an African conference manager can help organize and administrate the conferences while assistance in teaching and mentoring will be handled by experienced pastors committing to come on strategic short-term mission trips. So my family is no longer planning to serve as missionaries in South Africa.

While I have desired to help APC by serving the ministry full-time in South Africa, I am excited about the promise of this restructuring and the future it should bring with the blessing of our Lord. My goal has never simply been for our family to move to Africa; it has been to help equip African pastors to rightly handle the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15). And I believe that this restructured approach will help APC to accomplish this critical ministry. Not only am I supportive of this change—I am hoping to remain involved in APC by becoming their newest director (along with Irving Steggles, Erroll Hulse, Conrad Mbewe, and Thomas Winn) if the Lord wills!

As you can tell, during this transition we continue to need your prayers! Irving Steggles, our South African Director, is currently busy finding a man in Africa full of the Spirit and of wisdom to serve as manager. APC’s restructuring will only be successful if he can find the right man to manage these conferences along with having the support necessary to allow this manager to serve. So please pray for the Lord to bless Irving and the APC directors in this process.

Additionally, my family would appreciate your prayers. Pray that Christ will help us as we reassess our future. We are trusting in His wise providence and provision while we see what He has in store for us next.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss the future of my family and APC further, then please feel free to let me know. So many of you have been diligently praying for us, supporting us, and encouraging us through this past year. We are thankful for each of you! Please join with us as we look forward to seeing biblical reformation in Africa continue and pray that the Lord will allow us to continue serving Him there in some small way in the years ahead.

Because of His grace,
John Divito