Who will Go?

Church Planting Movements

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 10:57:24 +0000

This past July I, along with my teammates David Reeves, Murphy Crowson, and Marty Koonce, had the pleasure of attending a conference in Livingstone, Zambia (home of Victoria Falls) that provided training in facilitating the development of Church Planting Movements. The training was conducted by a man named David Watson who has, over the years, served as a missionary in India and is now training people around the world to help church planters become more effective in their work. Over the past 12 years, more than 40,000 churches have been planted as a result of David’s ministry and training.

This training has come to us in God’s perfect timing during a period of transition for our team that has included a process of evaluating our strategy and work among the Kabiye. Many of the principles we learned are ones that we have tried to implement over the past 8 years, but there are many new ideas that are like a breath of fresh wind from the Spirit of God. We have begun a process of implementing CPM principles in our work, and I have recently felt a prompting to document this process through this blog. My hope is to begin a conversation with those who have a connection to our work, those who are working in other contexts, and especially those who are also trying to implement CPM principles. I will share our ideas, our dreams, our successes, and our failures with the hope that our experience could be a blessing to others. The first few postings will be mostly catch-up, because we began implementing these principles about two months ago. Already we are seeing the fruit of obedience-based discipleship that allows the word of God to speak directly to people. I am excited to share the ways that God is moving around us, and hope these thoughts will be a blessing to you.

Flood Relief Food Distribution

Sat, 2 Feb 2008 22:18:44 +0000

There is great satisfaction in seeing an idea go from a prompting of the Holy Spirit to its fulfillment. Thanks to the generosity and soft hearts of many Christians in the US and Togo, 50,000 pounds of rice and corn (worth $7,000) was distributed to over 300 families in the Mandouri region of northern Togo this past Monday, Jan. 28th! This aid given in the name of Jesus was in response to the heavy flooding that devastated northern Togo during the month of August, 2007. In the Mandouri region, over 80% of all crops were destroyed. Mandouri is in the heart of the homeland of the Togolese Gourmantche people, on of the least-reached people groups in Togo. This act of mercy in the name of Jesus and of churches of Christ has helped to pave the way for missionaries who will target the Gourmantche in the near future.

We began our journey to Mandouri on Sunday when 12 Kabiye Christians, serving as representatives of the Kabiye Churches of Christ, loaded up into two trucks with Matt, Aidan, and Brett Emerson to make the 5-hour drive to Mandouri. The Kabiye Christians brought with them about 500 pounds of corn and yams that had been given by the churches. Matt had already made several trips to Dapaong and Mandouri to facilitate the purchase and transport of the rice and corn, so all was ready for us when we arrived.

The distribution began on Monday morning in the yard of a primary school with an official welcome and blessing from the governor of Kpendjal state, of which Mandouri is the principal town. A representative from the Kabiye Christians was then given an opportunity to address the crowd, sharing with them that the food was being given because of Jesus and to express his love. Working together with local community leaders before the distribution, 50 widows, the poorest of the poor in Mandouri, were put on a list to be given a sack of rice and corn. None of these widows are Christians (yet!). The gratitude in their faces was very precious. The corn and rice they received should feed them for at least two months, long enough to help them through the most difficult part of the dry season. After these widows, about 150 families from the churches in and around Mandouri were given rice. We then opened several remaining sacks of rice and distributed them to another 100 families who had come to watch, so that no one was turned away empty-handed.

The distribution went forward in a peaceful and orderly manner (an amazing thing in itself--food distributions have been sometimes know to degrade into chaos). The community was very appreciative of the help, and were especially moved by the sacrifice of the Kabiye Christians who gave even out of their own poverty. The journey was a time of encouragement and bonding for the Kabiye Christians who went, and they returned to their churches with a deeper understanding of the Kingdom of God and what it means to support those in need.

Thank you to all who gave to make this intervention possible, especially to Healing Hands International, whose $5,000 donation made this blessing something truly significant.

Gourmantche Flood Relief

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 21:42:37 +0000

Last month the Northern half of Africa was hit with the heaviest levels of rainfall in decades. This over-abundance of rain led to some of the worst flooding ever seen on the continent. One of the worst-affected areas was northern Togo and the prefecture (like a state in the US) of Kpendjal. The area affected by the flooding is in the heart of the Gourmantche people of Northern Togo, a highly-animistic group that we have targeted for a new church-planting team. For the past two summers, we have taken our interns to this part of Togo for a survey trip. God is moving among some of our former interns, and they are in the process of forming a team to target the Gourmantche.

It is with mixed emotions that I now return from a short trip (Oct. 25-26) to northern Togo to research the impact of recent floods on the town of Mandouri. I feel humbled and loved because of the hospitality of my African brothers and sisters in Christ who, in the face of a severe famine, provided our group of seven with some of the best food I have tasted in Africa. Their desire to honor God through showing hospitality in the midst of difficulty touched us (and especially my Kabiye brothers) very deeply. The strongest feeling I have is of urgency, because the needs are so great and people's reserves of food from the last harvest are quickly running out. Our trip brought clarity to the situation and the factors that brought it on. Here are the essential facts:

-Northern Togo has one rainy season, usually lasting from late May to late October. This year, the rains did not begin in earnest until August. When the rains did begin, they came at a level not seen in over 40 years, causing massive flooding, crop destruction, and weakening the walls of the mud dwellings that most people live in.

-Many people in Northern Togo plant in fields situated near rivers because their relative fertility allows them to have a good harvest without using fertilizers that they cannot afford. Because so many plant near rivers, around 80% of the crops planted by people living in the Mandouri area were destroyed during the flooding resulting from two months of heavy rains. Most of the corn, yams, and soybeans that make up the staple diet of the Gourma people were lost.

-The rains stopped suddenly at the end of September, so later yielding crops such as okra, millet, and sorghum have also failed.

-20 people were killed in the floods, thousands of acres of crops were destroyed, and over 20,000 people had parts of their houses collapse.

-Unless there is intervention from those who have been blessed by God with an abundance of resources, famine and disease will overcome thousands of people in Northern Togo.

Now that we have this information, I feel somewhat overwhelmed because the needs are so great. The international community is providing some help, though it is coming slowly, and the government officials we spoke to on our trip have said that it will not be enough. At the very least, we want to help the 200 or so Christians in Mandouri in the Pentecostal and Assembly of God churches. We would like to do more, but must put that into God's hands. Anyone interested in helping can contact us by leaving a comment here or through e-mail at kabiyemission@yahoo.com.