Moblization throughout North Africa and the Caribbean
So much has been going on and continues to do so! Please forgive us for being quiet for such a long time.
I believe that the Lord challenged me with this question, “Does and will what I do result in people getting saved and coming into relationship with Father?” Being in ministry, one can get caught up in the nuts and bolts of making things happen and lose focus on why we do what we do. I was blessed to test the work we’re doing in each country and see that it does or will lead to people getting saved and coming into relationship with the Father. Here are a few brief examples.
North Africa
I cannot give much detail here, but can say that I traveled to 2 countries in the region during February. God is at work in that region and I reconnected and found new opportunities. In one case, God confirmed a vision that was given to our International team in 2010. And yes, making use of these opportunities will help Muslims come to the Lord!
Guyana
Our man on the ground has researched 79 out of 820 villages to determine which have churches and which don’t. Out of the 79, 19 do not have churches. Once the research is completed, we plan to mobilize existing churches to plant churches in every village! Many people will be saved in the process! How awesome!
Cuba
There are now 72 churches that have been equipped to run Live School. We have already heard stories of people getting saved and churches being planted. Since Cuba is such a ripe harvest field, we believe that many more will be saved or are even in the process of hearing. God willing, I’ll travel to Cuba in May to introduce another province to Live School.
Please continue to pray that God will lead us in all this, that we will not get ahead of Him or fall behind Him. Also that we will be led by His Spirit every step of the way. That He will provide all we need to do what He has called us to do.
We thank you for your love, support, encouragement and friendship as we journey together.
Overcoming obstacles in San Salvador and Guatemala
San Salvador
Good news continues to come out of San Salvador and we are so proud of the first graduating class of Live School in Central America that came out of a church that sits at the intersection of three different gang territories one of which is the MS 13 gang. San Salvador is the murder capital of the world. The two Live Schools in the prison for boys age 14 to 17 that were previously members of the MS 13 gang continue to amaze us. In 2018 we were able to visit and witness seven of the boys in the Live School class get baptized in the prison and we continue to hear good things. About two weeks ago boys in the class led an inmate not going to Live School to accept the Lord. Live school is making a dent in a huge problem, but it has made great progress in a short period of time. Barbara Rowe and her assistant Veronica Guerrero are responsible for all of the good work going on in San Salvador. Barbara has been a missionary for about 12 years in San Salvador and is a true inspiration to us and everyone around her and she attended the initial introduction of the Spanish version of Live School in Guatemala City where we met her.
Guatemala
Guatemala has five Live Schools and we are fortunate that Bettie Colson, who has been a missionary in Guatemala for about 15 years and served on the team that translated Live School into Spanish, is the dedicated Live School representative there as well. She is the one we rely on to do most of our translating and she conducts the pastor orientations as well as facilitator training in each of the Central American countries we go into. The is a very small, poor school on the outskirts of Guatemala City that Bettie, Jim and Bucky visited during the Live School class and church service where the pastor would not let us leave without giving us $30 to pay for our lunch because they were unable to feed us at the church during our visit.
Entire WACA region using Live School to train indigenous missionaries
God is doing amazing things throughout West & Central Africa (WACA). The Lord continues to go before us as we work to open up the bottleneck of laborers to the mission field. He continues to add committed disciples to our team, as we help indigenous local churches equip and mobilize their people through Live School to make disciples among the least reached.
Since February, all 24 countries of the WACA region are using Live School to train indigenous missionaries. Praise God! Our goal is to see 1,000 Live Schools established in the WACA region, resulting in the planting of thousands of churches among the least reached.
Even now, we are pointing LS Host Churches to reach the Unengaged Unreached People Groups (UUPG’s) and Unreached People Groups (UPG’s) in WACA. Right now we are training some indigenous missionary families to be sent to specific UUPG’s in Chad who have been adopted by another ministry.
In addition, we are in the midst of translating Live School into Hausa. The Hausa people are the largest UPG in WACA and Hausa is a huge trade language. We also have some indigenous ministries who will use LS Hausa to train missionaries to reach other tribes that don’t even have the Bible in their language.
Finally, the addition of Farming God’s Way to Live School is proving to be a tremendous blessing to the Live School students, the host churches, and the people the students are seeking to reach. When a people’s practical needs are met, they open their hearts to hear the life-changing message of Jesus Christ.
Here are some pictures of our students and leaders all over the WACA region:
New Mission’s and Leaders Training Centre opens in Kenya
Get to know us
Hey hey, it is another month and that means another edition of our newsletter. We got some feedback/questions from some of you in relation to who we are and what exactly we do. We hope through this newsletter, we will be able to answer those questions and even those yet to be asked. So lets get right into it.
Who is FOSALEC?
FOSALEC is a mission’s and leaders training centre operating in Nairobi CBD facilitated by World Mission Centre regional office. It derives its name from the phrase, FOCUS (Facilitating Ongoing Churches in Unreached Stations) Sahara Leaders Centre. It seeks to raise and equip leaders in East Africa and the Horn for the purpose of reaching out to these areas as well as to communities that are yet to hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Burundi Graduation
Curriculum used?
We use the Live School Curriculum which was designed by International Coalition of Mission Trainers. It was taught for the first time in South Africa in the year 2000 by a group of international mission practitioners spanning from Brazil, South Africa, USA, Nigeria, Sweden, Canada, Singapore and UK.
What is covered in the curriculum?
The students go through a 10-month program covering character & spiritual development, basic missiology & theology, leadership, discipleship, cross-cultural ministry, business and much more. Afterwards, students are sent out for in-field training and outreach.
Who can join the school?
Anyone who would like to be equipped for effective ministry and is passionate about growing their relationship with God as well as understanding God’s purpose & mandate.
Is the curriculum international?
Yes, it is. Live School is being used in 95 countries across the world and has been translated into 11 world languages. These include Russian, Arabic, Swahili, Farsi, Turkish, Korean, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Hindi. English is the initial language of the curriculum.
Is World Mission Centre or FOSALEC affiliated to any denomination?
We are not affiliated to any denomination but our teachings and values are purely biblical. The calling of World Mission Centre is to provoke, enthuse and inspire the body of Christ so that it may be released to the task of world evangelization.
Desired outcome of this program?
Students who have gone through Live School will go on to transform communities, mobilize others for missions, plant sustainable churches and preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
That is basically us in a nutshell. You can read more about us/watch a video on our website, https://worldmissioncentre.com/liveschool/. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need clarification.
Live School process in Guatamala
Student at LogLogo mission field
In other news, we are excited about our international conference which is around the corner and encourage you to take advantage of the early bird discount rates (deadline 30th March 2019) and register for the ‘Running with the Horses Conference’ which will be happening in Pretoria, South Africa from July 23rd – July 25th 2019. This conference is about the coming harvest and how we prepare for it. Click on this link to find out more https://worldmissioncenter.com/runningwithhorsesint/. Alternatively contact us through paulo@wmcint.org/0706747410.
Our 2019 evening class kicked off on Feb 27,2019. If you are interested in joining us, kindly contact us ASAP so that we help you plug in and catch up with the rest of the students.
We will be starting our regional monthly prayers on the 23rd of March from 2:30 PM to 5:00 PM at Paris Hotel, on Mfangano Street. Kindly plan to join us to learn more about other regional activities as well as ask God for the nations. He says in His Word: Ask of Me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance Psalms 2:8.
Till next time, shalom.
Week of Bounty
Most strategies that have significant Kingdom impact are down-to-earth and very simple.
The Week of Bounty is just that—a dynamic yet simple strategy that is very easy to do in your local church.
The Week of Bounty is a unique way for the local church to be active in meeting the needs of the poor in their communities.
The Week of Bounty has only a minimum cost to run at your church and the value of what can be given to those in need can be thousands upon thousands of dollars.
Fires in Knysna | Image Credits:Twitter/ Snazo Gulwa
History of the Week of Bounty
Cyclone Devastates KwaZulu – Natal
In the 1980s, a cyclone devastated the KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa with dire consequences. Thousands were homeless. Many lost everything they had.
It was on a Saturday that the storm raged across one of the most beautiful parts of South Africa, home of the Zulu tribe. I received a call from Pastor Danie Vermeulen in Richards Bay, KwaZUlu-Natal. I could hear the anguish in his voice.
“The place is a mess,” he said. “We’re going to need major help.
Putting down the phone, I wondered what we could do. I could ask the churches that we relate to across the country to give finances, and they would. But it wouldn’t be enough to make an impact on a disaster of this magnitude.
I turned on the television a few hours later. The national television camera crews were able to get some early footage of the disaster. What I saw was much worse than I imagined. It really was a mess!
I called Pastor Ed Roebert, then the senior pastor of the Hatfield Christian Church, under whom I had served, and informed him of the great need in KwaZulu-Natal. I asked if he would consider challenging the church members at the Sunday morning service to go back home after the service and gather together everything that they were not using and bring it back to the church that same afternoon, or at the latest, the following day. He said he would do it!
After I called Pastor Ed, I phoned other pastors across South Africa until late into the night, asking them to ask their members to gather all they did not use at home and bring it to the church.
When they agreed, I asked them to call other pastors that they knew, to ask them to participate as well.
At midnight I went to bed wondering what would happen the next day. I was concerned about the plight of the thousands in need in KwaZulu-Natal.
The following morning I made a few more phone calls to the pastors I was unable to contact the previous evening.
Upon getting a final update from KwaZulu-Natal, Lydia and the children and I rushed to church.
At the service, Pastor Ed asked me to give the congregation of about 5,000 people an update on the situation in KwaZulu-Natal. He, in turn, encouraged the congregation to go home after church and gather the possessions they did not use and bring them to the church that same afternoon.
I have always believed, and still do, that there is a latent dynamic in the local church. If we can only mobilize this dynamic, more could be done in the broken world than anyone could imagine.
As I looked out over the congregation, the Holy Spirit impressed upon me the enormous potential wrapped up in this body of Christ. If only this potential was unleashed, KwaZulu-Natal’s needs would be significantly impacted. I wondered how many of them would respond.
After church our family went through our home and gathered things we were not using, taking them back to the church.
At the church, we could not believe what we saw. The line of cars coming to the church was long. Hundreds of people were bringing carloads of bags and boxes of goods to send to the cyclone-affected area.
So much was brought that we had to stack up the chairs in a large part of the church building to make room for all that was given. People kept coming all afternoon. Soon there was a mountain of goods.
I checked through much of what was brought. Surprisingly, very little was unusable. People had opened their hearts and brought way beyond what we could ever have imagined.
Later that afternoon, Pastor Ed came to see what was happening. I informed him that a much bigger challenge was developing. What the people had brought was not only a truckload, but many truck loads. How would we ever get all of these goods to the disaster area in KwaZulu-Natal, an eight-hour drive away?
To add to my concern, I received phone calls from churches all over South Africa telling me that their members had also brought significant amounts of goods.
The problem was that some of these churches were as far away as Cape Town. To drive from Cape Town to KwaZulu-Natal would take well over 20 hours.
The challenge shifted from needing to gather goods for disaster relief to how to get the goods to the devastated area. There were literally hundreds of tons of goods from almost every corner of South Africa that now had to be transported to the disaster area.
News of this outpouring started to get around the country, and even more churches decided to participate. How could we solve this enormous challenge? How would we transport it all?
To my amazement, we found the answer to this huge challenge in the Body of Christ, when members from various churches around the country, who held positions of authority in society, decided to participate in the project and to transport the goods!
Although it felt like days, within hours after we made the announcement, we had commitments from the South African Defense Force, South African Airways, and South African Railways, as well as privately owned transport companies, to transport all the goods to the disaster area.
Once the goods arrived in KwaZulu-Natal, the local churches and their members in Richards Bay and the surrounding areas took over.
Local church buildings became distribution centers – a hive of activity! Church members volunteered their time to sort through and pack the goods for immediate distribution. Others gave their cars and trucks to transport the goods to the places of need. Even the church members from the affected areas came to pack and carry the aid to those in desperate need.
Within one week of the announcement, hundreds of tons of goods were collected, delivered, and distributed in KwaZulu-Natal!
It was a Week of Bounty! A vision that started in my heart back then has lingered for years.
Seven Simple Steps for a Successful Week of Bounty
Step 1. The local church makes a decision to run a Week of Bounty.
Step 2. Determine a date when you will run the Week of Bounty.
- You can choose any week in the year. However, many run the Week of Bounty during the Week of Pentecost, which is from May 28 – June 4, 2017.
Step 3. Recruit a small volunteer team to help with the sorting and distribution of the goods collected.
Step 4. Have people with needs in the church fill out a needs list before the Week of Bounty. (Often single parents, widows, or the aged are in need of many items)
Step 5. Encourage the members of the local church to start looking in their homes and places of business to decide what they will bring to the Week of Bounty.
Step 6. The members bring the goods to the church during the Week of Bounty. From there, it is distributed with the help of the volunteers to:
- Meet the needs of those in your own, local church.
- Partner with churches in underprivileged areas around you and let them distribute the goods to the members of their church or community.
- Partner with nonprofits that work in underprivileged communities.
Step 7. Make sure that all the goods are distributed within about two weeks. Don’t let the project drag on for too long. You will have opportunity to do it again next year.
What is the Week of Bounty?
Most of the world lives in poverty and is in desperate need of help. The Bible teaches that we, as believers who have received much in the spiritual sense, are to be generous to the poor and care for them.
The Week of Bounty is a very simple way to show people who face difficulties in life that Christians genuinely care. And more than that, it is an amazing way for the poor and needy to experience the love and care of our Lord Jesus!
Who knows, they may open their hearts to accept Him as personal Lord and Savior because they see the generosity of His people.
During the Week of Bounty, we encourage the members of our church to look around them – in their garages, houses and places of work – and find anything of value that they do not use or that they can do without.
For instance, church members can donate building material, foodstuffs, an extra table or chair, clothing, bicycles, books, cars, bibles, and on and on.
The members of the church are then encouraged to bring all these goods to the church during the Week of Pentecost. All of the donations will then be checked, sorted and distributed to the poor and needy in the community.
To put it in a nutshell, the Week of Bounty is:
- Looking with purpose and intentionality around you.
- Finding all kinds of things that you don’t use or hardly ever use.
- Making a deliberate decision to give these to the poor and needy.
- Taking the goods to the church during the Week of Bounty.
- Using a team of volunteers to sort the goods and then distribute them to those in need.
If you are not a pastor, share this message with your pastor and encourage him/her to do the Week of Bounty with the congregation!
Please don’t miss this unique opportunity to impact the lives of the poor and needy.
Join hands together with your brothers and sisters in Christ, and show the world that the Church of our Lord Jesus is alive, and willing to make a difference in a hurting world!
Above, you will find simple steps for a successful Week of Bounty.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need any further advice (info@wmcint.org).
I will gladly send you, free of charge, the book that I wrote about how the Week of Bounty started. It shares some amazing testimonies of changed and challenged lives.
Blessings,
Willie Crew
International Director of World Mission Centre
Celebrating 30 Years (January 2019)
Celebrating 30 Years
(January ’19 News Bullet)
Dear William,
Greetings from a very hot South Africa!
Amazingly, 2019 marks the 30th Anniversary of the World Mission Centre! Lydia, myself, and our children could have never believed all has happened in the last 30 years.
I can well remember when we put a desk down in our lounge on Charles Street in Pretoria and said, “This is the World Mission Centre.” Most of our friends looked at us as if we had lost our minds.
But today, there is no doubt in our hearts and minds that it was and still is God. We dare not touch His Glory and we dare not take any credit. It ALL belongs to Him!
On July 23 – 25th we will host an international missions conference in Pretoria, South Africa to celebrate all that the Lord has done throughout the world!
The conference’s name is RUNNING WITH HORSES!
Let me assure you, this is not a normal conference. It is a time of listening to what the Spirit of the Lord is saying to His church concerning his Great Commission.
There is a new wind blowing across the earth, a sound from the Lord that is calling us, His church, to prepare for the greatest harvest ever recorded in history. And yes, by all indications, it will take place in the midst of chaos.
There is GREAT EXCITEMENT stirring from various places around the world about the RWH conference. Here are some stories:
- A brother wrote to me and said: “Just to encourage you, my lead intercessor told that when she saw your brochure of the horses, and she exclaimed, ‘I saw this picture in a vision two years ago!'”
- I spoke to one of our students who came from Eastern Europe to the first Live School in 2000. She told me this past week that she was so excited to hear the name of the conference as the Lord had given her the image of “Running Horses” while she attended the first ever Live School in Pretoria.
- A pastor of a large church in South Africa has the following to say about the Running with Horses. Quoting from Jeremiah 12:5 –
“God has so much faith in us that He says we will even outrun the horses (that speaks of supernatural power and strength to overcome that which is opposing us, like Elijah outran Ahab’s chariot!) The rain is coming, God is challenging us to prepare and to be ready for bigger challenges than foot soldiers. The sense to run with horses speaks of a divine acceleration that speaks of the supernatural ability of God working in your life, your ministry, your time and your circumstances, to bring His plans to pass at a much faster rate than is humanly possible. One moment of favor can do more than years of labor. It means we can accomplish things that may have taken years before in much less time. Let’s run with the Good News to the unreached! Let’s love our cities and communities! Let’s embrace the lostness, brokenness, and pain of our communities! Let’s run with the horses!
Let me encourage you to not miss this unique opportunity to hear first-hand from men and women who are leaders working to bring the gospel to the unreached all around the world. May their testimony, experience, and insight impact you to believe that the God that is doing it there, will also do it where you and I are living.
Attached is the registration form. Don’t delay!
If you live in South Africa – Click Here and register while the Early Bird price is still on.
If you live in another part of the world – Click Here and register while the Early Bird price is still on.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Blessings,
Willie
Extol the Lord (December 2018)
Extol the Lord
(December ’18 News Bullet)
Dear Friend,
“Praise the LORD, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever.” Psalm 117
I was reading this short psalm this morning and began to focus on the words extol Him. A search revealed that the phrase means “to praise enthusiastically, heap praise on, rave about, throw bouquets at, express delight, acclaim, etc.”
As we come to the end of an eventful year, we too can say “Extol the Lord!” for He has done so much. All the glory belongs to Him. He alone is worthy of our praise and worship.
Would you take a few minutes before reading the rest of this letter and enthusiastically heap praises on Him? Throw praise on Him as if it were bouquets of flowers, and express your delight in Him.
As we approach Christmas, we remember His faithfulness and love toward us. We celebrate that Christ came to earth to pay our debt and eternally reconcile us to the Father! This love and reconciliation is extending to the nations of the world where He is working powerfully to bring millions unto himself.
As we look toward 2019, we are keenly aware that the Lord can and will do more than we could ever dream. With great expectation, we look forward to see what He will do in your life and our lives, families, countries, and the world. Let’s commit to work with Him and make 2019 the greatest year ever in the Kingdom.
Allow me and Lydia to wish you and yours a wonderful Jesus-filled Christmas and a happy New Year!
With much love and gratitude,
Willie & Lydia
Running With Horses Conference
We will celebrate the 30th anniversary of World Mission Centre next year! The celebration will take the form of a three-day missions conference called Running With Horses and will be held in Pretoria, South Africa. The dates are 23 – 25 July 2019.
Please join us! Reply to this email or click the link below and we will gladly send you a registration form.
Find out more about the conference-like what’s in the name-by clicking the button below to view the website:
Update on Chip
Greetings from Sonrise International! Forgive us for being silent for the last three months or so. We plan to send another letter soon with testimonies about the ministry side of things. Things continue to grow across West & Central Africa (WACA), even though we are not there presently. For now, we will summarize by saying that the Lord has done a great thing! Chip’s life was almost snuffed out, BUT GOD is not through with him yet! Here is a summary of what took place told by Chip himself:
“As some of you know by now, I was in Dakar, Senegal on November 21, 2017, when I became very ill with a severe headache. The next 30 days are missing from my memory. I have been told that I had a Subarachnoid Hemorrhage (Mid-Brain Bleed), which means bleeding between the brain and a connective layer beneath the skull. Though I’ve been told it was not technically a stroke, they call it one…probably so that normal people, like me, can understand the severity of what happened. Our neurologist told me that one third of the people who’ve had a mid-brain bleed have died from it. I was evacuated from Dakar in a medical jet to Tulsa, arriving in Tulsa on November 26th. I spent 18 days in the Intensive Care Unit of a Tulsa hospital before being moved to the stroke ward for 4 days. After 5 more days in a rehabilitation center, I was released to go home on December 19th, before the Christmas holiday and was able to spend Christmas with my family at home. Praise God!
By all accounts, my recovery so far has been quite miraculous. I believe it is in answer to the prayers of the saints that have been answered on my behalf. Since returning home on December 19th, I’ve begun to realize that I have a couple of deficiencies. The vision in my right eye is slightly affected, and the coordination in my right hand is not working properly. (This has been very frustrating when I’vd tried to sign my signature and later type on my computer!) The right side of my back and my right leg also are still hurting, but thankfully continue to heal. Thank you for continued prayers in these areas. The last few months, we have spent about 3 days a week in various types of therapy sessions. I am trusting God to complete my healing 100%. Thank you all for so many prayers on my behalf. It’s been very humbling to realize how many have prayed for and love me.
Several of the people praying for Kathy and I have had a word of knowledge regarding witchcraft being used against me. The World Mission Center intercessors get together and pray for all of the regional leaders periodically. Before this last trip to WACA, I was emailed a picture of what the Lord said to them. One of the items they wrote said that the enemy’s plan in Senegal would not be victorious. At the time, things were going great in Senegal. I just “shelved it,” thinking of several countries we had been struggling in that I wished the word of the Lord applied. That was…before this incident, which happened to me! When Willie Crew came to visit me, he was sure I would fully recover, bringing this word received in prayer to my remembrance.
God is such an encourager and knows just what we need before we do (Jn 16:13)! He is so good…and all-powerful! The neurologist I saw last week admitted that they have not found the source of the bleed…and really don’t know why it occurred. Now that I understand what happened and can confidently say that I believe t this was a spiritual attack.
Then, after I had the mid-brain bleed, there was a group from our home church praying for me. The Lord spoke the word “bonishy” to one of them. They called Kathy to ask her if she knew what it meant. She found out that “bonishy” means “wife of fetish” in the dialect of the man I sent home to Benin from the Leadership Development Academy (LDA) that was being held in Senegal a month earlier.
Actually, coming at the end of the Senegal LDA to spend time with the students, I was listening to them tell me of their experience with this man when I had the severe headache, which was the start of the mid-brain bleed. As I listened to them, it was confirmed to me that this man should have never been in the LDA. In fact, he showed up after it had started, after Kathy and I had left at the beginning of the school. During the LDA, I had to make the call to send him home early due to his behavior, etc., based on our coordinator’s complaints of him. I don’t want to bring too much attention to the enemy, so I will stop short of telling you the reasons I had to send him home to Benin. But based on what he told the students and his roommates, it does not surprise me that his wife is into fetishes and voodoo, which started and is common in Benin. I truly believe that the sole purpose of this man’s intent was to sabotage the Lord’s work in WACA. However, our God is greater than any voodoo curse! Our experience thus far has been that our WACA Team has shown “far more courage to speak the Word of God without fear” (Phil 1:14) as a result of what has happened to me. God is in the middle of fulfilling Romans 8:28, “causing all things to work together for good” in our lives and in all of the WACA Team…and we pray in your lives too!
Sonrise International had such an outstanding year in 2017 in West Africa, we are not shocked that the enemy would try to stop the progress being made. But God’s work cannot be stopped! He has done great things in West Africa in 2017, and we are not about to back down when things are just now beginning to “churn” in the right direction! Christ has given us the victory!
No. I did not try out for Star Wars! This is the tool our eye doctor used to determine how much prism to put in the eyeglass lenses he made for me so I could see, until my eyes healed enough not to need them. I no longer need them. Yeah!”
While Chip rests and heals, the coordinators, pastors, facilitators, students and graduates in WACA have been inspired to run even harder and faster. What the devil meant for harm, the Lord is turning around for the advancement of the Gospel and our good (Rom 8:28). We are amazed by the zeal and energy of the men and women who work for the Lord in places of WACA that are both difficult and dangerous. We are so blessed to have such a great team, a great WACA family!
Last week the neurologist told us that he wants to scan Chip’s brain in May, and if all goes well, he will release Chip to return to West and Central Africa sometime in June. We are trusting God that the report of the scan will be better than expected. Thank you for standing in agreement with us for this.
We hope to bring our West African and some of our Central African leaders together in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire the last half of July. We would also like to bring a team from the U.S. If the Lord is speaking to your heart about coming with us, please contact us! Our plan is to spend about one week with the leaders in Abidjan, the commercial capital of Côte d’Ivoire. The second week we want to form smaller teams, connecting those who come with us from the US with our WACA leaders and send them out to “blitz” Côte d’Ivoire by empowering the church with Live School and ministering to the people.
Afterwards, Chip is planning to go to Nigeria to hold several Sonrise Summits and then to either Cameroon and/or Chad to begin a Central African Leadership Development Academy (LDA). We are recruiting some men to travel with him to those countries too. Please, let us know if you are interested!
We hope that you are encouraged by this letter. Thank you for all the ways you have blessed us over the past months. Many of you brought us meals, prayed, fasted, and gave to help us in sacrificial ways. THANK you again!
Walking on Water in India
The Spirit of the Lord is making Jesus known to more people than ever before.
I am overwhelmed by all that the Lord is doing and the resulting need for discipleship, leadership, and church planting training during my recent trip to India. The real possibility of starting 900 Live Schools in India in the next two years has my head spinning and my faith challenged.
During a time of prayer, Johan, a member of the team who accompanied me, played the song Oceans by Hillsong. The lyrics are such a reflection of all that is going through my mind and heart as we begin to plan our next steps in a country where the Lord is moving in a very special way. Some of the words in the song are:
“You call me out upon the waters;
The great unknown where feet may fail;
And there I find You in the mystery;
In oceans deep, my faith will stand;
And I will call upon Your name;
And keep my eyes above the waves.
You’ve never failed, and You won’t start now…
I am yours and you are mine.”
No doubt, the Lord is calling us to a higher level of commitment in our time and energy. He’s calling us to step out in bold faith and help local churches see the overwhelming harvest around the world and especially in India, which is part of the 10/40 Window.
During our visit, Ivor and I trained 109 pastors and facilitators in three different locations. We were joined by a volunteer team of three from South Africa: Alison from Cape Town, Lee-Anne from Johannesburg, and Johan from Pretoria.
We need 445 Live School units in India by the end of this year (2018). We are planning to start 28 Live Schools by April and another 450 schools in 2019.
When facing a huge financial challenge, someone once asked Corrie Ten Boom, “Where is the money was going to come from?”
She threw her hands into the air and declared, “Give us a few cows Lord!”
Corrie Ten Boom was referring to the fact that the cattle on a thousand hills belong to the Lord and He was well able to supply what they needed. Needless to say, their need was met.
So, we too ask the Lord to “give us a few cows” for the Live Schools in India.
We are going to need a huge amount of resources over the next two years to meet the need in North India. We look to the Lord for His provision and the release of all that is needed. We will soon launch a two-year campaign to raise the finances for 900 Live School units for this country.
In closing, please know that we love and appreciate you. We are so thankful for the time you spend in prayer for us and for your giving towards the work of World Mission Centre and Live School.
Live School in Angola
This week, our Southern Africa regional leader, Isaac, is in Angola where he is meeting several local pastors.
Isaac’s hope is to cast vision for missions to these local pastors — to remind them that Angola has an incredible place in fulfilling the Great Commission. He has already informed us that many of the pastors are excited about Live School.
There are currently no Live Schools in this country still recovering from war. Pray that many of these pastors would catch a vision for training their church members to be missionaries who change their country and the world with the Gospel.