Let's Keep Serving!
Today marks the beginning of a fresh outreach of training nationals in both Rwanda and Uganda. In Rwanda, this marks Global Baptist Training Foundation's eighth classroom. In Uganda it will be our second with a third planned for October. Only God knew when He laid this ministry on our hearts eight years ago that we would now be training indigenous men and woman on three continents in eight countries.
In Liberia alone in the past year and a half, in connection with Advance, we have seen one hundred new church plants started with trained pastors, and every one viable and growing! Only God can do such things. The God-sized goal we have set for this country is five-hundred new churches by the close of 2021.
In Rwanda this week I will have the privilege of mentoring our newest member of the GBTF team in East Africa, Shinga Fidele. Fidele will soon begin holding multiple classrooms a year in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Congo, and Burundi using GBTF training materials. He will accomplish more than ever far more effectively and efficiently than we can! Pray for him. If you feel so led, support him each month through GBTF.net on the pastor's page. He will need financial support so he can travel full-time training East Africans. I will be introducing other Rwandan heroes this week as Dr. Larry Bazer and I train these pastors to become trainers all over Rwanda.
Just this past week I had lunch with a pastor who supports GBTF, and I was greatly encouraged by our conversation. He sits on the board of a mission's organization, and he affirmed that training nationals is becoming the new life-blood of church missions and mission groups world-wide. The message of training nationals is catching on more and more, and why not? The nationals already know the language, understand the culture, and love the people. Why send western families around the world to do what nationals can do so much more effectively and inexpensively? All they need is the proper training and equipping!
Unless we are pioneering new church plants in larger un-reached areas, it does not make good sense to send a western family at great expense both to themselves and their churches. Why send those who must learn the language and culture before they even begin if there are believers already on the ground? We are able to equip and train them for pennies on the dollar!
I can personally tell our readers that when I look into the faces of indigenous men and woman all over the globe, I see the fire in their eyes to spread the gospel in their countries. I see the passion to learn and become equipped to reach their own nations for Christ. And they are doing the work. Our Liberian brethren have proven that when trained, equipped, and sent, they can accomplish far beyond our normal expectations.
So today, in just a few hours it will be my privilege to get on a plane and spend the next two weeks pouring out to these precious servants in Rwanda and Uganda so they can in turn pour themselves out in reaching their nations for Christ.... one soul at a time. I was once that one soul who needed to hear the gospel. Somewhere around 11:00 o'clock this morning, on July 5th, forty-four years ago in an apartment on 2nd street in Bowling Green, Ohio, the Lord of the universe, Jesus Christ, forgave my sin and saved me from an early death and hell. Little did I know then that He would give me the honor of serving Him and others! Let's keep serving.
Please share this blog today!
In Liberia alone in the past year and a half, in connection with Advance, we have seen one hundred new church plants started with trained pastors, and every one viable and growing! Only God can do such things. The God-sized goal we have set for this country is five-hundred new churches by the close of 2021.
In Rwanda this week I will have the privilege of mentoring our newest member of the GBTF team in East Africa, Shinga Fidele. Fidele will soon begin holding multiple classrooms a year in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Congo, and Burundi using GBTF training materials. He will accomplish more than ever far more effectively and efficiently than we can! Pray for him. If you feel so led, support him each month through GBTF.net on the pastor's page. He will need financial support so he can travel full-time training East Africans. I will be introducing other Rwandan heroes this week as Dr. Larry Bazer and I train these pastors to become trainers all over Rwanda.
Just this past week I had lunch with a pastor who supports GBTF, and I was greatly encouraged by our conversation. He sits on the board of a mission's organization, and he affirmed that training nationals is becoming the new life-blood of church missions and mission groups world-wide. The message of training nationals is catching on more and more, and why not? The nationals already know the language, understand the culture, and love the people. Why send western families around the world to do what nationals can do so much more effectively and inexpensively? All they need is the proper training and equipping!
Unless we are pioneering new church plants in larger un-reached areas, it does not make good sense to send a western family at great expense both to themselves and their churches. Why send those who must learn the language and culture before they even begin if there are believers already on the ground? We are able to equip and train them for pennies on the dollar!
I can personally tell our readers that when I look into the faces of indigenous men and woman all over the globe, I see the fire in their eyes to spread the gospel in their countries. I see the passion to learn and become equipped to reach their own nations for Christ. And they are doing the work. Our Liberian brethren have proven that when trained, equipped, and sent, they can accomplish far beyond our normal expectations.
So today, in just a few hours it will be my privilege to get on a plane and spend the next two weeks pouring out to these precious servants in Rwanda and Uganda so they can in turn pour themselves out in reaching their nations for Christ.... one soul at a time. I was once that one soul who needed to hear the gospel. Somewhere around 11:00 o'clock this morning, on July 5th, forty-four years ago in an apartment on 2nd street in Bowling Green, Ohio, the Lord of the universe, Jesus Christ, forgave my sin and saved me from an early death and hell. Little did I know then that He would give me the honor of serving Him and others! Let's keep serving.
Please share this blog today!
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