The Rewards of Training the Indigenous.

Yesterday I was on my way to Gbarnga, Liberia when our car, filled with Liberian pastors stopped at a church for morning worship.  It just happened to be one of the church plants started one year ago through our GBTF/Advance Ministries partnership.  Our agreement is simply that GBTF trains the pastors and Advance helps fund these trained men to go out and start new churches all over Liberia.  In the past year thirty-four new church plants have sprung up around the country. 

This church was started by one of the younger pastors, and on this particular Sunday, there were about seventy-five people present.  I had the privilege of bringing the message to this new group of young believers.  Among them were a number of visitors. At the close of the service, six people trusted Christ and were added to their number. It was a great beginning to a new week of training pastors here in Liberia! 

When we got back on the road I turned to our host James and said, "How many years would it have taken a western missionary family to accomplish what we witnessed this morning having taken place in just one year?"  He said, "Probably five or ten years, at best".  Then we began to think about all of the things a western church-planting pastor would have to master before they could actually begin a ministry like this.  Just learning the language would take at least three to five years.  Then they would have to move to their location, get housing, and begin making contacts among the people.  All this time they would be learning about a new culture and struggling to communicate in the native dialect they have learned.  Add to this the demands upon their family, the schooling of their own children and you can only imagine the difficulties involved in the lives of missionaries who settle in among the natives with whom they conduct their ministries!

We haven't even begun to talk about the expenses of maintaining a non-native family like this for just one month.  This can run anywhere from five to ten thousand dollars every thirty days.  Compare that to the fifty dollars a month we provided him to supplement his meager salary of three to five hundred dollars a month.  What a bargain by comparison!  

May God raise up more churches who recognize the tremendous advantages of supporting nationals where possible and helping us train them to reach their potential!