Lichinga, MozambiqueSaturday, June 12, 2010
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Five New Churches Planted
Over the past six weeks we, the staff and students of Great Harvest School of Ministry, have been praying for God to place on our hearts Yao villages that we have evangelized in and that have asked for a church. We have been asking the Lord how we can personally be involved in church planting teams sent out to these villages.
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Yesterday, at the graduation from the first semester of the Bible School, we commissioned three teams which will being going to five different villages every Sunday to plant churches. Many of these villages are quite a distance away, so some of the teams will be coming to the Bible School and Mission House every Sunday morning to get motorbikes and bicycles that we have purchased with our financial support to travel to these villages. I have also recently purchased backpacks for each motorbike and bicycle which each have in them all the tools necessary for any repairs needed, the proper documentation for each motorbike and bicycle, as well as tracts in the Yao and Portuguese languages and Bibles. We are currently working on a strategy to get our evangelism and church planting teams self-sufficient, where they will no longer need to rely on our outside financial support for providing gasoline and the occasional repairs and maintenance needed to make these journeys every week.
Putting together backpacks for evangelism and church planting teams
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Map of Yao villages numbered with which teams are planting churches
Map of Yao villages numbered with which teams are planting churches
The
three teams are: (1) Condeila, his wife Anita and Jaime will be
planting churches in the villages of Tchekelanje and Majiga. (2) Myself, Kaisi, his wife Teresa and Lino will be planting churches in
the villages Lussenhando and Matemangue. (3) Chanito, Luciano, his wife
Lucia, Joao and Pedro will be planting a church in the village of
Micoco.
TEAM (1) - Anita, Condela and Jaime planting churches in Tchekelanje and Majiga
TEAM (2) Christian, Teresa, Kaisi and Lino planting churches in Lussenhando and Matemangue
TEAM (3) - Chanito, Joao, Pedro, Luciano and Lucia planting a church in Micoco
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In planting these churches, our plan is to raise up other pastors and church leaders, probably from those very villages, who we will eventually hand the churches off to in order to be able to continue on to other works God has called us to. For example, I will be training and mentoring Kaisi every week who I believe not long from now will be able to continue pastoring the two churches we are planting.
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Sometimes I hate to even use the words “planting churches” when I talk about this. Basically, there are new converts in all of these villages who are hungry to know Jesus more. We want to see communities of faith established in all such villages, where God’s praises are being lifted up and the people are being taught in the ways of Christ. It’s not about church buildings. Although we have been given land in some of these villages to construct simple church buildings, all of our teams are starting the church plants in a courtyard of one of the new converts, or a “man of peace” as we have talked about before. Church planting is not complicated…it is simply “wherever two or three are gathered together” in Jesus’ name.
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Please pray for these new church plants and for each team. God is bringing such acceleration to the process of reaching the entire Northern Niassa province for Christ. It is so exciting to be in the front row watching all of this unfold. We want all of this bathed in prayer, as we have a real enemy who will try to stop these works at any cost. Thank you for standing with us.
.
In planting these churches, our plan is to raise up other pastors and church leaders, probably from those very villages, who we will eventually hand the churches off to in order to be able to continue on to other works God has called us to. For example, I will be training and mentoring Kaisi every week who I believe not long from now will be able to continue pastoring the two churches we are planting.
.
Sometimes I hate to even use the words “planting churches” when I talk about this. Basically, there are new converts in all of these villages who are hungry to know Jesus more. We want to see communities of faith established in all such villages, where God’s praises are being lifted up and the people are being taught in the ways of Christ. It’s not about church buildings. Although we have been given land in some of these villages to construct simple church buildings, all of our teams are starting the church plants in a courtyard of one of the new converts, or a “man of peace” as we have talked about before. Church planting is not complicated…it is simply “wherever two or three are gathered together” in Jesus’ name.
.
Please pray for these new church plants and for each team. God is bringing such acceleration to the process of reaching the entire Northern Niassa province for Christ. It is so exciting to be in the front row watching all of this unfold. We want all of this bathed in prayer, as we have a real enemy who will try to stop these works at any cost. Thank you for standing with us.
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Christian Young
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