Joseph Mbange, left, and Jerry Berheim, right, are shown among copies of AWANA literature. Mbange is Global Vice President for Africa for AWANA, and Berheim is AWANA’s Nampa-based Idaho/Oregon Regional AWANA missionary and member of the U.S. Field Leadership Team. (Photo courtesy of Colin Robinson/AWANA)
By Steve Bertel
When people hear about Africa, it usually brings to mind images of leopards chasing their dinner – an antelope, an impala, or some such – across a veldt. Or dense jungles. Or the busy streets of Johannesburg. Or the legacy of Nelson Mandela.
Rarely does it bring to mind children sitting in an AWANA Club classroom learning about the Lord. But Christianity has long been the dominant religion in the southern half of the continent. In fact, recent studies show more than 85 percent of Southern Africa’s population professes to be Christian. And, of course, with that prevalence of faith comes the prevalence of AWANA, a global Bible-based children and youth ministry targeting 2- to 18-year-olds through discipleship and evangelism. Founded in Chicago in 1950, AWANA is an acronym for Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed, taken from 2 Timothy 2:15 which states, in part, “ … Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.”
Today, according to the latest AWANA figures, the organization operates 101,184 clubs in some 140 countries worldwide, engaging some 10.6 million children every week.
AWANA’s ten-member Global Leadership team will sometimes individually visit various regional chapters and their directors around the world to exchange ideas, to help better mobilize missional resources, and to assist the chapters in effectively reaching out to their communities.
Such was the case last February when Global Leadership team member and Global Vice President for Africa Joseph Mbange (pronounced “bang-ey”; the “M” is silent) visited Idaho – for the first time – from his home base in Zambia, Southern Africa. Joseph, his wife Alice, and Colorado-based Colin Robinson, Vice President of Global Advancement for AWANA, visited southwest and southcentral Idaho clubs that are under the guidance of Nampa-based Jerry Berheim, the Idaho/Oregon Regional AWANA Missionary and member of the U.S. Field Leadership Team. “My friendship with Jerry goes back to 2015 when he first visited our team in Zambia,” Joseph said.
“Joseph’s visit here has really assisted our local AWANA efforts by helping us to listen to the journey that he has had in Africa that started nearly two decades ago. The ministry in Africa made a pivotal shift in their traditional thinking on how they had always done the AWANA ministry,” explained Jerry. “They trusted the Lord to lean into a new idea that would grow the ministry in Africa, not as they had been, by addition – but by multiplication! We here in our ministry, both local and across the U.S., need to look at an addition-versus-multiplication-minded ministry view.”
Growing up in the Southern African country as the oldest of six siblings, Joseph’s parents were both Christians who saw to it their children began attending Sunday School and AWANA at very early ages. And it paid off. As Joseph recalled: “I accepted the Lord as my savior at the age of sixteen and, a few years later, decided I wanted to devote my life to serving others.”
In 1998, he was invited to serve with AWANA in Zambia – “I was the youngest among all the people they were considering,” he pointed out – and became a missionary with the organization in 2002. Last year, he became one of AWANA’s Global Leaders.
Today, his territory includes 48 countries. “I cover Southern Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, and East Africa,” he said.
And, although the cultures and economies of the United States and African countries may differ in many respects, pre-teens and teenagers in Africa face pretty much the same challenges as their American counterparts. “[Harmful] influences from their peers, drug addiction, teen pregnancy, domestic abuse, sexual purity, the difficulties of being raised in a single-parent home … these are all things children in Africa struggle with every day,” said Joseph.
Although Joseph and his team have received many invitations to establish AWANA programs and bring the gospel into churches and public schools in his 48-country territory, “Some government and education leaders – perhaps influenced by most of North and West Africa that are heavily Islamic – will ask us, ‘What are you bringing into our schools?’ or ‘What are you going to do to supplement our government efforts?’ to even ‘Are you trying to indoctrinate our kids?’” he pointed out. Fortunately, in some regions, AWANA missionaries have been allowed to work alongside various humanitarian agencies, such as Feed the Children or World Vision, to help get its Bible-based message to young people. “They bring the food. We bring the spirituality – the gospel,” he smiled.
Joseph said Paul’s writing in Colossians best epitomizes the work he and countless others are doing in AWANA. Specifically, he referenced “Colossians 1:27-29 which reads, ‘… this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory. So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ. That’s why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.’”
“Those of us in AWANA are going into the churches, the schools, and the countries because we want to be agents of change,” Joseph stated. “It is a privilege to serve in AWANA. And it is a privilege to serve God.”
If you’d like to learn more about AWANAs in Zambia, listen to Steve Bertel’s episode of Christian Living Spotlight’s podcast, “Jerry Berheim and Joseph Mbange talk AWANA” from Feb. 14, 2026 on your favorite podcast platform.
