14 men were at our first meeting, most of whom we know from the last year of training. My team member has been doing training all over our state to fish for obedient men and/or women to take on the task of reaching the lost peoples of the state and ultimately this country. As Jesus began His ministry, basically, His first year he spent speaking to the multitudes. In His second year, Jesus chose 12 to come and be with Him, where He also sent them out for training. The final year of Jesus' ministry was devoted completely to the 12 he chose. He poured Himself into these 12, knowing that He was leaving them soon, and that they needed to be ready to take over for Jesus after His death, resurrection and ascention.
In the same way, our strategy here has been very similar. For the first year and a half, we have held meetings with many believers to come and see. We then held training sessions in different districts of our state. This was not only to help people understand better the path they chose to follow, but also to fish for obedient men and women who would ultimately become a small group that we could train in our final year on this field. This would then free us up for God to use us elsewhere, and give final responsibility to the national believers to reach their brothers, sisters, parents, friends and everyone in their state.
The 14 assembled this weekend, where we basically told them who we are, what company we work for and how we can help them. We will be going to where they are, once a month, one at a time. We committed to having integrity in all things, providing them the best training in CPM from our company, equip them for the task ahead and ultimately leave them next summer, like Jesus left the 12. They committed to using the best practices of CPM, to being accountable to each other, to working with thier own hands to be self supportive and not coveting anyone else's money, and many other things. We had a covenant drawn up where both my team member and I signed as well as each of the men. 13 of the 14 have signed. The last needed time to think to commit to what we have proposed.
This is a great start. We know that God has chosen this place at this time to begin to reach people and turn them to follow Him. We have the vision that this place, which is the lowest of the low in our region, is going to be used by God in a mighty way. If this place begins to change for the better, many people will begin to wonder what is going on, and slowly they will begin to realize that God is working here and will want what this place has. We are witness to a beginning of a great change right here.
Pray for the14, that they will believe in the things we are doing and follow them. Pray for us, as we go to them that we go with wisdom given from God, and that we remain teachable by them as well. We know that tough times are coming for the entire group, including us. We have counted the cost together, and the eternal reward greatly outweighs the troubles we will all face in the coming year. But we have the promise from our Heavenly Father- "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." ~Matthew 28:20(b)
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