Troy and Jennifer, who left this year to work with Chinese Tibetans, are part of a church planting team that we are supporting with coaching and training.
Although they are still in the process of learning language and culture, they have already stepped into a God-opportunity to teach Tibetans English. Here is Jennifer's report:
Since our conference in September, 22 new church planters have started simple churches. Even more exciting is the leaders who are being drawn to go to new areas as missionaries.
Stephen (our Congolese team leader) tells the story of one leader who has stepped out in faith to go to another city as a missionary:
Willy Wilonja is one of the leaders that has been working with me. Last week we were in prayer as a leadership team, and Willy told us that God is sending him to Kigali to start house churches! We kept quiet as we did not have financial support to cover his expenses for this.
In the evening I called on him at his home, and we prayed over this again. I asked him: Do you still feel the same way? He answered that God definitely wants him to go there. I told him that I did not have support to give him for this, but that I could contribute $35 toward his transportation. He thanked me very much and then said, "Thank God! I already had $100 so this will provide me with everything I need to get there!"
So yesterday he phoned to tell me that He arrived well!
For me, this is the accomplishment of the prophecy that you [Roger] said over us while you were here: "From this team we shall see missionaries arising, and going to neigboring cities, countries..."
People often ask about our training so, without going into great detail, I will outline the three levels of training that we present on the field.
Level 1: Basic Church Planting. This training is designed to provide the participant with an entirely new view of "church" and what it means to reproduce fruitful disciples, churches, and leaders. Most participants are already leaders or missionaries who have experienced the limitation of the church structures they are using in their situation.
Unfortunately, throughout the world, the western model of church life is dominant. This often means that a very effective leader reaches and disciples several families and then becomes involved with the very things that hinder his/her ongoing effectiveness: buildings, musical equipment, knowledge-based education, etc.
Level one training devotes a lot of time to breaking down religious belief systems (rules) that hinder the freedom of the leader's relational/spiritual life.
I want to mention an excellent primer in empowering people in need: “When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself” by Fikkert and Corbett.
The authors share many of their own experiences and those of others that helped them realize that “when North American Christians do attempt to alleviate poverty, the methods used often do considerable harm to both the materially poor and the materially non-poor. Our concern is not just that these methods are wasting human, spiritual, financial, and organizational resources but that these methods are actually exacerbating the very problems they are trying to solve.”
