Central African Republic

Our Partners in Hope!

It is our hope that every congregation will find some way of supporting the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Central African Republic (ELC-CAR). Please accompany our sister church in the Central African Republic (CAR) as they ask us to do:

1. Pray for them and accept their prayers for us
2. Hear their stories and tell others about them
3. Raise funds to support their vital ministries described below

Our partner synod relationships are founded on the Accompaniment Model of mission partnership. Accompanying each other means that we walk together, we support each other, we pray for each other and love each other, and we provide training and preparation for each other when and where we have valuable strengths to share.

The Lutheran Church is growing faster in Africa than anywhere else in the world, yet its resources are limited. Each year, our synod provides vital financial support for essential ministries of the church in CAR.

Please send your contributions to the synod and designate them for the Central African Republic Companion Synod. If you wish to designate your giving for a specific ministry program, please share that designation with the synod office. Undesignated contributions are distributed by our synod’s CAR committee in coordination with the bishop’s office of the church in CAR such that the monies are aligned with their current ministry needs.

Below are some of the current ministry programs that receive our financial support.

• Education – The church operates 31 schools in remote communities, providing education to over 5,000 children in areas where opportunities for schooling are rare.
• Health Care – As a vital health provider in underserved regions, ELC-CAR’s two health centers provide clinic and hospital care as well as sending mobile teams to remote villages. These teams conduct mother-and-child wellness sessions, offer hygiene education, and provide preventive care and medical evaluations.
• Restoring Dignity – The church holds obstetric fistula surgery camps at Emmanuel Health Center in Gallo, with support from ELCA Lutheran Disaster Response International. Since its inception in 2024, at least 61 women have received surgeries that restore their dignity, their health, and their ability to live a normal life.
• Clean Water – Over the past three decades, ELC-CAR has brought clean water to more than 27,000 families by building spring boxes and is now expanding urban access to affordable clean water solutions for underserved populations.
• Sustainability – Two new self-sustaining initiatives were launched in 2025:
  • The church acquired and put into service a peanut oil extraction unit with a capacity of two tons per day. The peanut oil is sold primarily to restaurants and other commercial kitchens. This initiative strengthens local farming, supports nutrition, and creates sustainable income for communities.
  • A small church-owned water filtration plant is now producing clean, filtered drinking water packaged in individual serving pouches for sale, providing safe drinking water that is affordable for families while also generating income to help sustain the church – a public health success and an economic milestone.
• Visits – Though current US policy makes it very hard for visitors from CAR to travel here, we continue to hold some funds in reserve for travel in the hope that our ongoing efforts to get approval for church representatives to come here will find success soon. And, of course, we defray travel costs for our representatives who travel to the CAR.

During the civil war of 2012 and the continuing unrest ever since in the Central African Republic, the Lutheran church there has been a strong leader and promoter of dialogue and reconciliation to change hearts and lives, to rebuild, and to bring hope to people and communities. We admire them and are grateful that they have persevered and have grown in their ability to live in and through the Holy Spirit in such challenging times. What a blessing of hope, love, and support our companion synod provides for us whenever we face challenges here that might diminish our hope or strain our ability to trust in the Holy Spirit.

During the civil war in the Central African Republic, the Lutheran church there has been a strong leader and promoter of dialogue and reconciliation to change hearts and lives, to rebuild, and to bring hope to local people. The ministries of the EEL-RCA have been ongoing, in spite of many challenges.