Macklann and Rose Basse serve as missionaries with Presbytery Mission International in Lomé, Togo, West Africa. They started Africa Missions with Nations (AMN), a mission organization that trains future missionaries to plant churches and disciple Africans to care for the least among them. AMN’s peculiar focus is to “encourage people to receive God's grace in Christ, share the Gospel in their particular context, and practice justice for those who are oppressed or lowly.” To that end, Macklann meets regularly with future missionaries and church planters, providing training over a two-year period. Rose is the principal of New Beginnings School, a Christian elementary school that also provides daycare for babies. I recently got to say hello to the 4th grade class through a Whatsapp video chat, a special experience indeed. 

In January 2018, Andrea, Linnea and I had the chance to meet Macklann at New City Fellowship’s Reconciliation and Justice Conference in St. Louis. He had challenged the group at the conference to seek mercy and justice outside their local communities - to think and act globally as well. He put out a request for help for their missionary work, and the Spirit moved us to respond! Since then, ACC has helped them financially and organized an Advent letter exchange between ACC congregants and the children at Amani Presbyterian Church, where the Basses worship regularly.

We are excited to host the Basses in February and look forward to hearing their story in person on Wednesday, February 13th starting at 6:30PM at the church office!  We will serve dinner. Please RSVP by February 6th at diaconate@astoriachurch.org. See here for more information on the event.

By Laura Kaufmann