I received an update from friends at the Church of Christ (Ghanaian Congregation) that meets in the building of the University Park Church of Christ in Hyattsville, Md. I visited the church earlier this year — during a reporting trip to the Washington area with Bobby Ross — and reported on Ghanaian congregation as part of our ongoing Global South series. Recently, the church celebrated its fifth anniversary.

“So what’s it like over there?” That’s a question Alan and Rachel Howell hear every so often from their friends in America. So, in a recent blog post, the missionaries in Montepuez, Mozambique, detail a week in their lives.

I spent nearly five hours with the Allisons between African Christian College in Swaziland and the home of Chris Burke in Benoni, South Africa (mentioned in a previous blog post). Their marriage ministry is unlike anything you’ll find among Churches of Christ in Africa, I’m guessing. The feature made a nice addition to our ongoing Global South series.

The Tubungu Church of Christ meets on the campus of African Christian College. During a Sunday night worship service, I shot video of one of the students preaching. His style was anything but “softy-soft” (as you hear him explain in the video above) and he made some good points about the need for Christians to live lives of prayer. He also tells a story about his grandfather, who at one time was ill and went to traditional healers. When that didn’t work, a group of Christians prayed for him and his health improved.

An estimated 3 million people died — from bullets, disease and malnutrition — during the Democratic Republic of Congo’s five-year civil war. The conflict ended in 2003, but the unrest continues. Roving militias continue to kill and commit sexual violence against women. But the church in the Congo endures. I recently got a report on a Bible seminar attended by a dozen church leaders from the southern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, or DRC. The Road 68 Church of Christ in northwestern Zambia used some of its own funds to host the event.

Just after finishing our Global South feature on Cambodia, “Life, death and rebirth in The Killing Fields,” I left on an Africa reporting trip. So I didn’t get the chance to share some insights from my visit to Cambodia earlier this year. I flew to Phnom Penh, the capital, from Singapore and stayed for a few days before traveling northwest to Siem Reap, where I made a brief visit to the Angkor of Faith 4 youth camp. While in Phnom Penh, I stayed at the home of Rich and Ronda Dolan. They moved to Cambodia a few years ago to work with the Cambodia Bible Institute, a satellite campus of Lubbock, Texas-based Sunset International Bible Institute. Rich is the former youth and family minister for the Broken Arrow, Okla., Church of Christ, so we spent some time talking about mutual friends in the Sooner state.

The tiny kingdom of Swaziland, nestled between South Africa and Mozambique, seems an unlikely place to hear a debate on whether or not Jesus violated the Sabbath when he healed a man. But that was the topic in Friday morning’s class on hermeneutics (the study of interpreting Scripture) at African Christian College. I’m here on a reporting trip, gathering more stories for The Christian Chronicle’s ongoing “Global South” series. Some students argued that, yes, Jesus was breaking the Sabbath law by “working,” but it didn’t matter because God made the law. Others said that Jesus only violated the Pharisees’ interpretation of the law.

Isaac Sanyu, a longtime Church of Christ minister in Kampala, Uganda, sends the following report in the wake of the bomb attacks during the World Cup final: Mzee Mbazira, one of our committed church members, has a daughter who is hospitalized in Mulago hospital. … Her head was injured by the blasts during the World Cup final at the Rugby Club in Kampala. She had two friends with her. One of her friends died on spot and the other survived.

I got a message from Leonardo Kinson Bueto a few days ago. He’s looking for Spanish-language Gospel materials and Spanish-speaking Christians to volunteer their services in Africa. “We have the desire to interact with other Spanish congregations, within or outside of the U.S., to enable us advance in the ministry,” Bueto said. “We want Gospel bearers within the brotherhood to come and strengthen us.”

By now you’ve probably heard about the bomb attacks in Kampala at a rugby club and a restaurant on Sunday. At least 74 people died, the BBC reports, some as they watched the Netherlands play Spain on a live broadcast from Johannesburg. At least one American died in the attacks. Nate Henn, 25, was in Uganda visiting friends he had worked to support through the nonprofit Invisible Children. The group makes documentaries about war-affected children in east Africa and tours them around the world. Churches of Christ have close ties to Invisible Children.