Equip Disciples 

Follow-up:

*For Churches who are currently holding their own discipleship training seminars in Kenya, Rwanda, and DR Congo.

*For strengthening of the church, to the full maturity of Christ, for bringing down strongholds, for growing in the love and grace of our Lord.

*For the youth and church leaders who made decisions for Christ this summer.

*For churches to send out missionaries and to support missionaries and the work of Bible Translation.

*For those who are ministering in heavily populated Muslim areas, that they exercise wisdom, teach the Truth, educate their people, and impact the culture with the Gospel.

Visit our Website EquipDisciples.org

*New resources under Resources

*Spanish edition of the Quick Reference Worldview Discipleship Teaching Manual.

*New Theological Discipleship Training Materials in English

*Cabécar edition of  Worldview Discipleship Pictures book.

*New Kinyarwandan and Swahili Theological Discipleship materials to be added soon.

Celebration/Share Service
Reports from Kenya and Rwanda

This Coming Sunday, August 23 6:00-8:00 pm

Lockwood Community Center
1566 Cherry Dr, Arlington, TX
Southeast corner of 303 and Fielder Rd

click for map

(Across from Fielder Road Baptist Church)

Testimonies, movies, food, and fellowship!

Africa Highlights

We want to extend a very heart-felt thanks to all of you who were laboring in prayer for us on our recent missions in Africa. Below are some highlights of the trips, short testimonies from the conferences, and news of exciting things the Lord is continuing to do. Let us continue to pray for each other and for all Kingdom endeavors. We serve a mighty and faithful God. Our prayer warriors are very important to the work of building the Kingdom...may the blessings be yours as well!

Coast of Kenya

Participants:
215 pastors and church leaders from urban and rural areas of Kenya.

Resources distributed:
Bibles; African Bible Commentaries; HIV/AIDS Ministry handbooks; CDs with Bible study materials, e-Sword, OpenOffice, anti-virus software, etc; Theological Discipleship Materials.

Fruit: We thank the Lord for the great time of fellowship and encouragement with our brothers and sisters in Christ there in Kenya. It was a very refreshing time and the Lord moved among us so that we were mutually encouraged and challenged in Kingdom work. We had the privilege of working together again with the K. Fellowship of Pastors, Bishop Lewa, and Alfred Mtawali and members of his band. This year we also had the opportunity to join with BTL (Bible Translation and Literacy), the Kenyan version of Wycliffe Bible Translators, to lead some special topics in the conference. As a result, churches were challenged to support missionaries and the work of Bible translation in Kenya and beyond. It was exciting to see church leaders becoming more and more interested in missions, what God is doing all over the world, and wanting to also participate in Great Commission endeavors.

The city where we served is on the coast of Kenya. You could feel the wind of the sea in your hair, and see the strength of the waves crashing up against the cliffs...reminding us all that without a strong foundation of beliefs and without spiritual maturity, the people in our congregations will be blown about and tossed every direction by the waves of false teachings. So pastors took the challenge to strengthen their flocks in discipleship training. At the end of the week, we had an invitation service, and church leaders and pastors were praying together and renewing their call to ministry, confessing any sins, and some making professions of faith. It was a blessed time for all of us. Thanks to your donations, we were also able to deliver needed Christian resources to a University library in the area.

Western Rwanda

Participants:
100 rural pastors and church leaders; 64 youth (orphans, some from genocide, HIV, some child soldiers); and 110 kids!

Resources distributed:
150 Bibles; HIV/AIDS handbook; and Theological Discipleship Training Manuals.

Fruit: 43 youth accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. And 80% of the pastors also made decisions for Christ. Interestingly, these are pastors from rural areas who have been serving the Lord, but who have not ever turned their lives over to the Lordship and Saviorship of Jesus. If you could have heard the singing together after the prayer, you would truly have been blessed by the praise as we were.

The pastors here had less background than those in Kenya. There were clear Biblical teachings that were very difficult for them to accept, such as: the fact that both men and women are created in the Image of God--not just  men, and the fact that the Great Commission to go and make disciples of all the nations is given to the whole church in every country--not just in the US or Europe. Many of the pastors saw their country as a mission field, not as a potential mission sending base.

We also addressed the need to share our faith with our Muslim neighbors. They told us that the Muslims come in and build big mosques, give food and money to the poor, and draw many people to follow them. On the other hand, the church is poor. What could the church do? So we encouraged them with the story of Jesus and the wilderness temptation--how Satan took Jesus to a high point and showed him all the kingdoms of the world. He told Jesus, “You can have all of these kingdoms if you will bow down and worship me.” But Jesus did not bow down. His Kingdom entered the world, not through riches...but through humble teaching of the Truth and through His sacrifice. We encourage them to teach the Truth of the Gospel, to reach out to members of the community with whatever means God has provided, and especially to disciple the church so that it has a strong foundation. We also challenged them to make sure and train the women, as many widows are drawn to Islam.

We were also blessed to have both Americans and Kenyans serving with us in this ministry, as well as friends from DR Congo. One day we were able to meet with the former child soldiers who came to Christ last year in DR Congo. This was a special time for us to see them--right there at the border between DR Congo and Rwanda, and hear about what God is doing in their lives.

Testimonies

“Thank you for the open door to minister through your ministry. I must confess that the discipleship manual is a powerful tool for discipleship. I was particularly impressed by how faithful you are to the scripture particularly the view of the supernatural. There are very few Western/American Christians who believe in demons and the spiritual world. This is a subject that should never be ignored whenever one is doing discipleship in the African Church.”
  -- Jacob, Kenya

“From our heart we thank you for the Mission and the godly love you to my people. Only God can measure the length of what you have done in Gisenyi. Let say that we are ready to receive your wise advices as we are serving the Lord. God bless you and greet all brethren”
  -- Emmanuel, Rwanda

“Words in my mouth can not express our thanks for whatever God has done through You when You were in in Gisenyi. It was for myself like a new chapter written before me. You help me and all of us to know what to do for the work of the ministry and for the saints in the local churches. We had been equipped and the book You gave to us is so helpful and are ready to teach it to every members from the local churches here and ministers from different churches here in Rumangabo (45 miles from Goma, DR Congo). We assure You that You helped us to train other and You gave us a vision of the world. We learned more from You and Your humility touched us so much. We are ready for the field. Just on 30th August 2009 up to the 8th September 2009, I will lead a training on the book to 30 leaders with their wives and will send them in different churches. We will need Your prayers. We love You and ask You please to remember us before the Holy Throne of God.”
  -- Rev. John Paul, DR Congo

“A Baptist church has invited me to teach about 4 of the units from the manual. One of the pastor who was present at the Kilifi conference called together all the Baptist church leaders in his area and organised some training. So pray for me as I go to teach a few lessons there. The meeting will be from 26-28 August in Ukunda in Mombasa.”
  -- Alfred, Kenya

“Thank you for the gift of the Bridges DVD. I have done lots of studies on Islam. I personally own a sizable library on the subject but none of the material is comparable with the tool. The fact that the author was a Muslim himself gives him a very deep understanding on how to reach them than when scholars who have not been members of the religion try to craft an evangelistic tool. His style of communicating the message in a very simple language makes the tool even more valuable. I will be using it to train missionaries on Muslim evangelism in this part of the country.”
  -- Jacob, Kenya

"I am over grateful for the opportunity to sit under the training and I wish to appreciate for everything. Am glad for the investment you've done. May God bless you. I trust that as God allow us we will keep sharing. Am yet to travel back home and we will be praying for the work in Rwanda.... God willing am launching Bible discipleship program in Malindi next month on the second week which will be for three days. Planning on the process. I will update you."
  -- Steven, Kenya

"Praise God, I want to thank you for everything, the mission, parental care you gave me, assisting in my passport, and togetherness we shared. I WENT BACK HOME CHANGED AND AS A DIFFERENT PERSON. I am still looking forward working again in Christ and God willing."
  -- James, team member from Kenya

"Greetings in the wonderful Name of Jesus Christ. I cannot thank you enough for all you did for Rwanda Pastor's conference, Youth, and Children. We greatly appreciate the time and charge you took for us. I  have been asked by Rwandan Alliance Churches and some of government Leaders to thank you on behalf of the theological Equip Disciples' materials and HIV/AIDS program teaching. We would ask you to accept our most grateful thanks for  all that you have done. Would you please give our most sincere thanks to your colleagues from America and team from Kenya?"
  -- Rev. Dieudonné, Rwanda

Financial Update

We want to report that God provided remarkably for the conferences in Kenya and Rwanda. Basic needs were met for food and people opened up their homes to meet the housing needs. We had Bibles and commentaries to distribute to all the registered conference participants.

God's Provision

Our partners in Kenya worked diligently and were very successful in keeping the costs down for the conference. As a result, we were able to provide 100 African Bible Commentaries for the pastors who attended the conference, and Bibles for almost all other participants. Since there were a number of husbands and wives attending together, and few sons or daughters as well, a system of one commentary per household permitted the resources to go as far as they did.

It was very interesting to see how the Bibles were provided for in Rwanda. This is a country where Bibles are scarce--whether for reasons that are inexplicable or due to sinister causes (hostile people buying up supplies of Bibles to prevent access to the Bible). When Bibles are available, they are relatively expensive--about $16 each. A couple of weeks prior to the conference, we sent $1,316 to our partners in Rwanda for the purchase of Bibles. This was simply a proportionate share of the funds that had been designated for Bibles. Based on the most recent price of Bibles we had heard, we were sure the funds would fall far short of our goal of 150 Bibles, so we simply requested our partners to buy as many Bibles as possible with the funds provided.

When we arrived in Rwanda, we were surprised to find that 150 Bibles had been purchased. A supply had come in just the week before we sent the money. In addition, we were able to purchase the Bibles at an excellent price of 5,000 francs each (under $9), and were also given an excellent exchange rate. Now to compare the price of the Bibles and the money sent:

• 150 Bibles x 5,000 francs = 750,000 francs
• $1,316 x 570 francs/dollar = 750,120 francs

So, the amount sent just covered the cost of 150 Bibles with 120 francs to spare--that's within 21¢!

And another thing happened to cover some expenses in Rwanda. We thought we were running short on funds both for food and for printing of conference materials. The businessmen who were providing these services graciously extended us credit totaling $468 between the two expenses. When we returned home, we found three checks that had arrived in the mail and hadn't yet been deposited. These three checks totaled $475, essentially covering the outstanding obligations from Rwanda and the money-transfer costs! God is good!

Conference Costs

Finally, in order to provide a complete picture of the resources involved in leading these conferences, the following graphs show Equip Disciples' sources of income and expenses for the three conferences (Costa Rica, Kenya, and Rwanda) held thus far in 2009.

*Travel expenses for volunteers are covered either by the volunteer's own participant fees or by donations specified for that purpose.

Ongoing Needs

While our next conference is still a few months off, there are still a number of ongoing opportunities in need of funding:

• Expenses for future conferences
• Additional Bibles and Biblical helps
• Printing additional copies of the Theological Discipleship manuals for distribution
• Seed money for microfinancing loans to entrepreneurial Christians in developing economies
• Ongoing support of 13 ex-child soldiers in Congo

Consider giving monthly to Equip Disciples. Monthly gifts are greatly appreciated and help tremendously in making plans for future missions. Recurring donations (and one-time gifts) can be set up online at: EquipDisciples.org/donations.

A walk on the beach

Guest devotional by Stephen Payne

   I'd like to share with you three photos I took as I walked down Harris Beach in southern Oregon, and my reflections on each of them. The beach was lonely and deserted. I could imagine it on a sunny day filled with screaming kids and families and dogs, but today the fog had rolled in and the only other sign of life were a few seagulls. As I walked along, I saw a pattern in the scattered driftwood and rocks - structure and symmetry. This is what I saw:

   I asked myself, "Could that have happened as a result of the wind and waves?" And of course I knew it couldn't. I could spend 70 years walking the world's oceans, and perhaps just one time would I ever find that the waves had left one rock on top of another on top of a log. "Aha," says the theoretician, "but if it could happen once, then given eons and eons of time, oodles and caboodles of time, then the chance exists that the waves and wind could theoretically leave a string of stones on top of others (except the one in the middle), on top of a piece of driftwood. Putting aside the theoretician for the moment, if I asked 100 other people walking by if the scene above was made by a person or if it happened by chance, I'm confident that all 100 would confirm that, without a doubt, someone had been there.

   As I continued walking down the beach, my eye was once again captured by symmetry and structure, and once again I pulled out my camera. This is what I saw:

   Our trusty theoretician might argue that all the shapes in the castle can be found individually elsewhere in sand - not very often, in fact hardly ever, but it might just be possible that the wind could carve one of those shapes in the sand somewhere on earth. And if it can happen once, then given enough time, oodles and caboodles of time, then it just might be possible that the structure above came about by wind and chance. But once again, if I asked 100 people walking by what they thought, I'm convinced that all 100 would tell me that the sandcastle was designed by someone with intelligence - someone with a lot of patience and a real gift for making castles!

   As I continued walking down the beach, I wandered down by the tide pools and a splash of color caught my eye. Once again I saw form and symmetry, and out came my camera. This is what I saw:

   Upon first glance, the starfish appear fairly simple, but in contrast with the first two photos where the structure and patterns are only surface deep, I know that the symmetry in the starfish is much more complex - because they are alive! They move and breathe and eat and have complex systems of circulation and reproduction and digestion. In fact they are billions of times more complex in their structure than either of the first two items I came across. Ah, but now if I ask 100 people walking by how the starfish came to be here, a majority will confidently tell me, "Well, of course, they evolved." (And in their hearts they would be thinking, "Anyone who would think otherwise is a fool.")

   So there we have it. Go figure!

   I want to leave you with one final thought. Here's God's take on the whole thing. According to him, the fool is the one who says in their heart, "There is no God." (Psalm 14:1)

For more of Stephen Payne's writing and photography, see www.TheCreatorsCanvas.com