Evangelical Covenant International Partners
The Covenant's presence in Cameroon came about through a need to school the children of Covenant and Free Church missionaries serving in the Central African Republic. After their departure from Congo/Zaire the Covenant and Free Church missions no longer operated their own school for missionary children. Rain Forest International School (RFIS) in Yaounde, Cameroon (website: www.rfis.org) was the closest and most logical place for these children to go to school. Thus, in the summer of 1998 when more Free Church and Covenant missionaries were returning to Central Africa we decided to open our own hostel in Yaounde so the children could attend RFIS. At the same time we also had a need to educate several middle school children, RFIS was only grades 9-12, so the Jeff & Carolyn Stoker family came out to school those children. Following that in 1999, Peter & Cindy Ekstrand decided that Yaounde would offer the best logistics across Africa for their work as Regional Coordinators for Africa and they arrived in August of 1999.
In November 2000 we were received legal status to be in Cameroon when our association, Evangelical Covenant International Partners (ECIP), was granted. We will be pursuing the following objectives through ECIP:
- research and study of new opportunities for the furtherance of missionary work in Africa, particularly within Cameroon and the surrounding countries
- work to encourage the spread of the Word of God and the development of churches in Cameroon and neighboring countries
- explore and develop avenues for the development of missionary initiatives particularly in the areas of education, health, agriculture, community development, women's ministries, medical services, printing, appropriate technology development, animal husbandry, energy relief operations, forestation, vocational training and trades, Biblical and theological education; etc.
The activities of ECIP shall be as follows:
- coordination of missionary activities in various countries across Africa
- bookkeeping for the missionaries
- operating schools and hostels for missionary children who have to reside in Yaounde for school while their parents are in another country
- travel to the countries where ECIP is engaged to interact with national church leaders, missionaries and other local leaders
- contacts with other mission organizations about their work and needs
If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed, a brochure on the UBAC Hostel in Yaounde is available by clicking here (size: approx 800Kb). Or click here to view the text and some pictures from the brochure as a web page; .