A.L.A.R.M. African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries
see www.alarm-inc.org for more information.
Letter written by founder and president, Celestin Musekura:

I am an African. I was born to a family who raised me to lead in the tribal ways of my culture. As a young man, a Christian missionary introduced me to the Word of God and to the risen Savior, Jesus Christ. My life turned around 100%, causing both great personal loss and great eternal gain. I trained to become like the man who led me to Christ, and I am committed to the cause of strengthening the Church in Africa by creating strong leaders to continue that work. After surviving the devastation of genocide in the mid-nineties, I heard the cries of alarm that comprised a distinct calling from the Lord. As a result, an organization founded and headed by Africans was established, and it is called ALARM. The letters in the name ALARM stand for African Leadership And Reconciliation Ministries, and I would like to tell its story.

African LEADERSHIP

In 1994 Western missionaries were forced to flee from Africa (primarily Rwanda, Burundi, and Congo) due to civil and political unrest and tribal wars. This resulted in a vacuum of leadership in the growing congregations because nationals had not been trained to conduct church ministries. This crisis raised the initial call of alarm. The good missionaries had led these programs themselves, with only limited participation from a few local pastors and lay leaders, the vast majority of whom had little or no formal education or training. The exodus of these Western missionaries (some against their wishes) left the churches in a helpless condition. Most programs, including evangelism, church planting, discipleship, pastoral training, and Sunday school teaching, began to die a premature death due to the lack of trained leadership.

African Leadership AND RECONCILIATION
More than 70% of the Rwandan church leaders and pastors were killed or forced into exile between April and July 1994. Burundi and Congo leadership experienced similar decimation. This horrific bloodshed fostered widespread hatred and bitter retaliation. Then wars spread involving Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan. A second alarm, loud and clear, was sounded. Not only did the Church need leadership, she also needed to promote forgiveness and healing reconciliation among all peoples on the continent. God put a heavy burden on my heart and on the hearts of those who joined in this vision, a burden and a call to establish ALARM. Our dual mission in reclaiming the church’s powerful presence was clear. ALARM’s objectives are focused on the tandem tasks of training and equipping indigenous church leaders while modeling and teaching paths to inner healing and skills to promote reconciliation. For this crucial mission to succeed, we must help others to hear the alarm and to partner with us.

We survivors of the genocide that killed our brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, neighbors and friends realized that the time had come for Africans to be educated and equipped to lead Christian ministry, rather than wait for someone else to come and do it. We also realized that the previous ministry focus had been to evangelize Africans with little or no follow-up to disciple, mentor, and mature the new converts. This approach had been the primary reason for superficial Christianity and immaturity, despite the growing numbers of believers. Struggles and civil unrest, persecution, disease, and tribal warfare would continue to hinder these traditional missionary endeavors. We realized that most Western mission agencies were moving their personnel from these troubled areas to send them where it was safer for them to live and work. We were convinced that Africans themselves needed to take ownership of these problems, and then to find – or become – the solutions. We realized that while some international brethren would come to help us, their ministries would be to encourage us and support us in our struggles, but they would not be the long-term solution. Uniquely, ALARM was founded by native Africans to equip native Africans to rebuild our continent.

African Leadership And Reconciliation MINISTRIES
We could not have accomplished as much without the involvement of many Western churches and individual lay leaders who have given of their time and talents to help us build up African leadership and promote African reconciliation. These international trainers have more than doubled our ministry efforts. Their ministerial skills and experiences have broadened what our own African staff could have provided alone. We are a richer, deeper Body of Christ at work because of these partnerships, and everyone involved has grown spiritually through the resulting close relationships.

We have enjoyed mutual ministries – each to the other. We deliberately set aside the one-way giving model that emphasizes “from us to you.” Instead, the positive, life-changing effects on both the African participants in the conferences, and on the visiting trainers, have been well beyond the usual short-term missionary experience. The Western church pastors and group leaders who have come as educators, and the African church pastors and lay leaders who have eagerly learned new information and techniques have united to experience true bonds of brotherhood, sisterhood, fellowship, and partnership within the worldwide church of our Lord Christ. The amazing results demonstrate the reality of Ephesians 3:20—

"Now to Him Who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."

Since we began this ministry, many visiting pastors and church leaders have expressed how they were blessed to come and teach as our International Training Partners, learning to live their faith and love their brothers and sisters in a distant and different land. And they have blessed many church pastors and leaders in East and Central Africa with their teaching and encouragement, and with their hearts to serve and give.

Since 1994, the ALARM team has succeeded in building a network of national, credible, well-respected Christian leaders, theologians, and educators in eight countries in East and Central Africa. These African nationals lead ALARM activities in their respective countries. They are responsible for training, mentoring, and developing leaders for the fast growing evangelical churches in their own countries with assistance and encouragement from the main ALARM office in Nairobi, Kenya. Our national offices are in Kigali, Rwanda; Bujumbura, Burundi; Goma, Congo (DRC); Kampala, Uganda; Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania; Yei, Southern Sudan; and Ndola, Zambia.


ALARM has registered liaison offices in the United States of America, Canada, and the United Kingdom. These offices increase awareness of our need for strong national leaders and encourage our brothers and sisters in the West to invest their material resources in the African church during this window of opportunity. Aggressive foes include Islam, the scourge of HIV/AIDS, continuing “hot spots” of conflict, and the revival of African traditional pagan practices.


Our staff continues to pray for our partners wherever they are. We know how much effort goes into the preparation of short-term training teams for ministry in Africa. We trust the Lord to open the doors of more churches and congregations in the United States of America, Canada, and other parts of the world for the sake of the African church with its challenges in this 21st century. Together we will overcome. The strong unity and victorious love of the Christian church will be powerful weapons to drive away the forces of darkness and evil from the hearts of men and women in our communities.

Our passion is to enable the African church to be an agent of change and transformation that goes deeper than superficial, nominal Christianity. Unless the pastoral and lay leadership of the church is equipped and strengthened, the African church will remain a malnourished infant in its faith and, therefore, unproductive in its social and economic responsibilities. We labor to enable the African church to be a tool of healing and holistic transformation of African communities. Pastoral and lay leaders are the keys in this process of help African Christian think and act biblically and live responsibly.

Respectfully in the cause of Christ,

Rev. Celestin Musekura
Founder and President
ALARM, Inc