Evangelical Church of West Africa
The Evangelical Church of West Africa ( ECWA ) is a Christian church in Nigeria. It is 1954 in the international mission organization Serving in Mission ( SIM) emerged after several churches that were close to the SIM, the need arose to establish their own regional church.
The ECWA is represented in the predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria as most numerous church. Overall, they gathered about three million members in more than 5,000 communities, where it is growing the fastest in Central Nigeria. The church maintains missions, Bible schools, academies and private hospital. The ECWA Medical Department coordinates a network of over 110 clinics, a pharmacy school and a school for nurses.
Around 1600 missionaries serving throughout Nigeria Evangelical Missionary Service, the mission organization of the ECWA. Because of his missionary activity in northern Nigeria institutions of ECWA were repeatedly exposed to in the past, attacks and looting by militant Muslims.
The term Evangelical corresponds in Africa another language than in the U.S. and Europe, where it denotes a biblizistisch -conservative to fundamentalist position within Protestantism. Here it means simply " evangelizing ", ie missionary preaching the gospel.