We have been working with the Lord in reaching prisoners in Senegal: providing for them clothes, soap, sanitary supply, women’s needs, and food. We are also allowed to show the Jesus Film, not as an evangelistic outreach but as an entertainment movie according to prison officials. We also distribute Bibles to ladies who can read French. The other women said, “We want Bibles too. We will send the Bibles to our children who go to school. We want them to read the Bible.”

One day, after showing the Jesus Film and preaching, we prayed for them as usual before leaving. A lady exclaimed: “Jesus can do miracles for sure! Can we ask him to make a miracle for us? Let’s ask Jesus to let us out of this prison.” Our planting church team said, “Yes we can ask Jesus.” We prayed with the prisoners that the Lord would release them from the prison. On the very next day, the President of Senegal announced the release all the women of this prison! These women continue to meet regularly to worship the Lord and receive teaching.

While these power encounters seem strange to many in the west, in Africa, the worldview is a power-fear relationship with the spiritual world. People live in fear and do things to appease their dead ancestors and dark spirits who they feel have great power. So when the love of Jesus is expressed in power and might, it shakes their world and opens the door to worshipping this powerful God who loves them individually.

A couple of years ago, the growth led to the relocation of 400 families (about 1,000 people) to a new community on the edge of town. As far as anyone knew, no believers dwelt among the 400 families in this village, known as Noc Site.

About that same time, the Kelhiout Church in Arba Minch sent a farmer named Gideon to the Global Church Movements church-planting training.

When Gideon was about 35 years old, he had come to faith in Christ through the witness of a 10-year-old boy. Gideon had been raising cattle but had sunk into a life of drinking and stealing. After turning to Christ, he fully surrendered everything in order to serve the Lord, and was actively sharing his faith.

During the training, he learned about a witnessing method known as “Prayer, Care, Share.” This approach encourages believers to find a “Person of Peace,” that is, somebody who is open enough to meet the believer and can open doors to a community. One prays for the Person of Peace, then finds ways to care for that person and meet their needs, and finally shares the gospel with him or her.

Gideon and his local church agreed that he would reach out to Noc Site, this fledgling village of 1,000 people with no Christian witness. He asked God to lead him to a Person of Peace, then began caring for people and witnessing. One day in town he met Yashir, who lived in Noc Site. As he began to pray for, care for and share with Yashir and his wife, they gave their hearts to the Lord. Yashir quickly shared the gospel with his relatives, and two of them accepted Christ as well.

This small group began regularly meeting to study the Bible. As the new believers learned how to follow Jesus and share their faith with others, the group grew. With the help of Gideon, what started at Yashir’s house two years ago has grown to a church of more than 50 people today. And several of the new believers are learning how to lead their own Bible studies, so the church in Noc Site will soon begin to multiply — fulfilling the dream of a church reaching this 1,000-person community!

Aurea, a 47-year-old woman and mother of 5, learned to plant a church. Kay and I taught Aurea and others in September 2018 in Bata, Equatorial Guinea. Aurea says,

“The training has given me power to start church planting. I started with three persons in my house, but it has rapidly grown to 25 members. There have been difficulties and challenges but God has raised three leaders who will soon start second generation churches. My vision is to see churches planted everywhere in my area.”

Anita, a mother of eight, travelled 80 miles to attend the training. She returned to her home in Cogo and planted a growing church in this former center of the slave trade. Cogo is at the confluence of 3 major rivers that ships could easily reach from the Atlantic ocean.

After returning home, Anita began to share her faith using the Four Spiritual Laws and organized a showing of the Jesus Film with 45 watching and 13 making decisions to follow Christ.

Anita says,

“Cogo is a difficult area. Many people feel civilized because of the colonial influence, but their lives are empty. The people are into drunkenness and loose living. I came back from the training a changed person and was excited about teaching the word of God. One man who received Christ was 75 years old and controlled by smoking and drinking alcohol. He is growing in his faith and has stopped smoking and drinking. This transformed man gave us the land where we have started constructing a church structure.”

Anita continues,

“Cogo is surrounded by rivers. A woman of 65 years received Christ with me but doesn’t live in Cogo. This woman paddles her canoe 10 miles to come to Cogo for fellowship with believers. She stays three days for church service and discipling then returns to her area to minister.”

This is why Kay and I train church planters to connect with the lost and to plant churches that multiply. This is why we develop training curriculum. This is why we develop digital technology tools to expand the scope and engage more people in the Great Commission.

Thank you for our partnership reaching an increasingly desperate world like the people of Equatorial Guinea with the life-saving message of Jesus.

Kay and I look forward to 2020. We will be training and coaching. We will be following Jesus into new adventures. We praise God for the privilege we had in 2019 to minister in 12 countries flying about 195,000 miles and sleeping in 29 different beds. The adventure continues…

Most of this well-intentional criticism is primarily from those in post-Christian cultures. I appreciate their engagement and do not fear this pushback because I know that, while life is not linear, that education and training and transferable discipleship requires approaching it as if it is linear.

I’m reading Steve Smith’s Spirit Walk book and found this excellent understanding of this complexity:

The Spirit Walk is unpredictable. But the process of learning the steps of walking in the Spirit of God is predictable. The Bible and its application throughout history point to common patterns that we must follow. They are the spiritual disciplines of learning to let the Spirit guide us every day. [Spirit Walk, Steve Smith, page 40.]

The word “process” is defined as “a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end.” Steve is saying that, while truly walking in the Spirit day by day is an unpredictable experience because of who the Spirit is, we can LEARN to be obedient through a series of actions or steps taken in order. Ministry to others, whether evangelistic or spiritual formation, is rarely a linear, predictable process, but we can teach others to be effective by teaching the steps in a process of engaging others.

I appreciate Steve Smith’s 3 Ps of movement-building: a common pathway for discipleship, a common process that is teachable, repeatable and transferable and a common power available to all that comes through walking with the Spirit of God.

This fits well with my engineering education. Most of the physical laws in our universe are complex and not linear. But in order to train engineers, we make some assumptions that simplify the basic physical laws of the universe. My first courses were spent solving engineering problems in this simple, linear space. Then we admit later on that it is more complex and instead of linear equations that predict behavior, we actually have to learn what is called partial differential equations. These are equations that are too complex to actually solve except by making assumptions which simplify them and give acceptable accuracy (99.9%). Maybe they train engineers differently in this era of very powerful computers than can model and offer solutions very quickly. But the guys who put a man on the moon with less computing power than my cellphone did it by solving very complex problems by simplifying them into a step-by-step process.

We do the same with teaching a process of evangelism, spiritual formation and discipleship, and local church formation with a DNA of multiplication.

As I review my notes on the Bold Moves Summit, things have become clearer to me. I am increasingly excited to be used by the Lord for His Kingdom come. Thanks to you, Keith and Kay, to Bekele and to your team for a conference that will produce eternal rewards. [from a participant]

Some came from far. Others were nearby. As the Bold Moves conference began in late February in Manila, 229 people from 89 countries gathered to explore Bold Moves: Boldly Multiplying, Boldly Expanding, Boldly Partnering and Boldly Leading. Directing a global conference with visas, around-the-clock arrivals and departures, establishing a meaningful agenda and executing it in atimely manner is in itself a bold move!

My prayer for weeks before the conference was from Luke 19 as Jesus expresses his love for Jerusalem. He laments that “you did not recognize the time when God visited you.” I felt God wanted to visit Bold Moves participants with a fresh breath  of the Holy Spirit, a renewed vision and tools to overcome barriers. He wanted to invite us to closely follow our God who is boldly moving towards “this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14)

My prayer  was that we each would recognize the time when God visited us in Manila.

My prayer was overwhelmingly answered. There is a renewed dependence, vision and commitment. We have identified the big challenges. We have discussed the barriers. We have developed pathways to success. Participants departed saying, “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.” (Acts 4:29)

Resource

• Reflections on the Bold Moves Conference