As we stated in our last
letter, we want to share some more details about the teams we have been
training to lead church plant schools.
- Javier & Martha, who we mentioned last time, are working with us to start a school for church planters in Florida and then they want to do something in Ecuador, Columbia, and Honduras. Their goal is to have two schools per year (one in the US and one abroad).
- An international prison ministry who served nearly 350,000 prisoners in 2020 and is in prisons in 30 countries wants to plant churches inside the prisons all over the world. Our dean school is helping them launch into that work.
- Jean Pierre, a Haitian who lives in New Jersey, is planning on not only training church planters in NJ, but also going 4 or more times a year into his ravaged homeland to train church plant teams there. For years helping others plant churches has been on his heart and now the potential to see 10s, if not 100s of churches is real.
- Our team from Kenya had 8 church planters representing a diverse swath of their country all eager to learn how to help others plant more churches and reach more of their nation for Jesus.
- Sudipta's ministry in India is taking people "from hopeless end to endless hope" in what he says is "a nation where millions of people perish every day without knowing the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." He is thrilled to be able to equip more church planters to help move their vision forward in reaching India for Jesus.
- Our US partners are in major cities from coast to coast where they are working with their networks to see more churches planted. They share our burden to reach out to and equip and empower under-resourced urban leaders so that these communities will be transformed by the Gospel. We are believing with them that areas that have been plagued by racial division and economic disparities can emerge as places where God’s Kingdom is advancing, and the flavors of heaven come to earth.
We are humbled to be
able to train and equip so many wonderful leaders full of vision and heart
through our Dean School and we can’t wait to see how many churches are planted
in the coming years as a result.
Thank you for your
prayers and generous financial support that helps us get affordable resources
to these precious partners as well as be able to dedicate our time to put on
these intensive trainings. We know that the message of God’s love, hope and
restoration will continue to be multiplied throughout barrios, cities, prisons,
and slums – the darkest edges and neediest corners – due to our combined
efforts as we lean into and are led by the Holy Spirit. Thank you!
Lastly, would you lift up our community and housing situation. Throughout COVID the number of people without homes living behind our home has greatly increased. As a result, there have been 6 major fires (burning down trees, fences, trash, etc.). We are working with other city, and community leaders for solutions for people without homes looking for a place to stay warm and cook their meals and we appreciate your prayer covering for safety and guidance.
