In September 2025, followers of Jesus, development practitioners, and church leaders from across the world gathered in Cape Town for the 2025 Micah Global Consultation. As part of this global network, Life in Abundance International joined the conversation, reflecting, learning, and contributing alongside others committed to living out the Gospel in word and deed. Together we asked an ancient question that still echoes through our modern wilderness: Where are we?
After decades of development work, humanitarian response, and faith-based engagement, the question remains essential. Have our efforts brought us closer to God’s vision of restoration, or are we still wandering, seeking pathways where valleys remain low and mountains still high? The conversation in Cape Town reminded us that sustainable transformation cannot be achieved through projects or programs alone. True change is born when faith and development are not two separate callings but one shared mission, the restoration of all things under Christ.
At Life in Abundance, we call this integral mission, a wholistic expression of the Gospel that brings good news to the poor, freedom to the oppressed, healing to the broken, and dignity to every person created in God’s image. This mission compels us to see people not as beneficiaries but as agents of transformation, and communities not as problems to fix but as places where God already dwells and works.
Throughout the consultation, a profound truth emerged: our world does not need more development as we have often defined it. A climb upward marked by progress for a few, but rather what we might call levelment, a setting right of what has been made uneven. Levelment calls for humility instead of hierarchy, restoration instead of extraction, and shared flourishing instead of individual gain. It is the vision of valleys lifted and mountains made low, where all can walk the same road toward life in fullness.
Integral mission invites us into this leveling work, to walk alongside one another, not from positions of power, but from shared dependence on the One who became human and walked among us. Across Africa and beyond, we see this vision lived out through church-led transformation—addressing poverty, restoring health, empowering women, nurturing creation, and building systems that sustain life. Each act of compassion and each local partnership become part of a wider story of redemption, a story where faith and development no longer stand apart but walk hand in hand.
As we left Cape Town, we were reminded that the journey of an integral mission is not a climb toward status or success but a walk toward wholeness. It requires humility, courage, and the willingness to depend on God and one another. In a world marked by division, displacement, and depletion, we are called to become a new “we,” a community that serves, sacrifices, and celebrates together until every valley is lifted and every rough place made smooth.
Our prayer is that this commitment will continue to guide our work at Life in Abundance and across the global Church, that together, we may prepare the way for God’s Kingdom to be seen and experienced through restored lives and flourishing communities.
