Thursday, November 10, 2016

October 2016 mission report


  

Praise God for answered prayer!  We have received a donation from a church in Michigan for $10,000 for the purchase of 10 much needed motorbikes.  Also, a ministry in California donated $2,000 for a plate making machine needed for our Printing press shop.

My return flight is November 15th.  I expect to be in Liberia for another 2 years.

In October went on 16 mission trips to 25 villages in 4 counties.  We conducted 6 three day workshops in 3 counties. Four persons completed the Bible making lessons and two persons were baptized.

Expenditures:

$895 was spent on missions

$390 on motorbike repairs

$253 on humanitarian assistance such as rent, medicine, school fees and food

$625 on staff support (7 adults)

$379 operation of the base – includes feeding, gas, printing expenses and general supplies

Please continue to lift us up in prayer.  We see that the harvest is truly plentiful but that the workers are few.  Pray that our Lord will raise up and send an army of workers into this harvest field.  Pray that our Lord would send us a multitude of His chosen to be trained and sent out.

The mission of WSL is to see a healthy church in every village in this generation so that every Liberian would be able to walk and find a healthy church.

Below are some of the weapons we use to accomplish our mission

“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Cor 10:4-5). 

The Written Word:  We have distributed maybe 25,000 to 50,000 Gideon Bibles.  Also, we have purchased and resold (We buy them in Monrovia and resale at our cost) several hundred NIV and Good News Bibles. We also acquire and distribute Bibles in the languages of the people. It is very difficult for people to get Bibles in most of Liberia. This has been a great service to the Liberian’s. 

The Print Shop: We have printed and distributed, I am sure, over one million pages of teaching material.  We have over 60 lessons written specifically for the Liberian.  Simple English and concepts usually on no more than one piece of paper per subject.  We have 3 main manuals and now an evangelistic booklet.  The manuals cover basic doctrines, discipleship and the church.  The Liberians have overwhelmingly received with great joy and appreciation the Bibles and teaching material. When I arrived in 2008 the only spiritual material I saw was JW Watchtower booklets and they were everywhere even in the deepest most remote villages.  Now things have changed the Bibles and teaching material we distribute has reached into over 800 towns/villages.        

Missions into the Villages:  We send out trained teams into the communities to evangelize, disciple, raise up leaders, train existing leaders and start churches.  Our teams bring to the people His written word.  They also preach and teach.  It has been tremendously effective, fruitful and appreciated.  Likewise, we do 2-3 day regional trainings.  Spiritual leaders from a region meet in a central location for training.  This has been one of our great weapons for accomplishing the mission of WSL.  It is an essential ingredient. Many, many communities call us regular inviting us to return to them for workshops and training.  

The Bible Institute:  Throughout Liberia spiritual leaders have not been trained!  Their options for training are limited.  The most common method of training in Liberia is the American educational system which is found mostly in Monrovia, the capital.  This system has the spiritual leader relocate and attend fulltime a 2-4 year Bible college or seminary.  This method is expensive, produces unnecessary hardship, and requires students to have completed high school, thus making it inaccessible to about 95% or more of the Liberians.  Our Bible Institute has been specifically developed to meet the needs of the Liberian.  We have four levels that meet throughout the year.  They meet and live on our base the last 2 weeks of each month.  The demand for the school is huge. We have had classes from 25-70 students.  We have housing for 30 on our base.  In the future, we hope to enlarge our school to accommodate 100 students.  We own 1 ¼ lots we have room to build additional housing and classrooms.

Jesus Film: The Jesus Film is another powerful weapon used for accomplishing our mission.  When our teams go into a village they teach and preach sections of the scripture.  The Jesus film presents the life of Christ, His crucifixion, burial, resurrection and accession. It is essential that those we minister too have the complete picture.

Form and Send Missionary Teams: The Joshua Project states that 60% of Liberia is unreached and that 5 of the 16 tribes of Liberia are still unreached.  Students attend 4 levels of our Bible institute.  After completion of the Bible Institute if some feel called and it is confirmed with our board then they will live on our base 3-6 months for one on one daily deeper training and discipleship.  While on our base and in training they will start 3-5 successful churches.  Next, as our Lord leads, they would be sent into the unreached tribes of Liberia and then on to North Africa. North Africa is in the “10/40 Window” and is about 98% Islamic.

Ministering to the Illiterate: Much of the population of Liberia lives in remote villages.  In these villages the literacy rate may be 10%-20%.  We reach the illiterate through preaching and teaching.  They need to also be raised up as leaders and disciplers.  Tools that we now have in place are:

·         Teaching spiritual leaders how to teach literacy to those in their villages

·         Conducting literacy classes on our base and other locations

·         Teaching and distributing “The Gospel Picture” bracelets

·         Teaching Romans chapters 1-8 using pictures

·         We have distributed micro-chips that fit in their phones and music boxes.  We give them, audibly, the Bible in their language, Christian music (Don’s CD), and preaching in English, and teaching in their dialect.

Distribution of Water Filters:  Dirty water is the second largest killer of Liberians, Malaria comes first.  We use the filters to show the love of Christ to those who are suffering and dying because of dirty water.  United with another ministry called The Last Well we have been given water filters for every home in our county.  These water filters last a lifetime and never need chemicals or replacement parts. 

Our mission is to see a healthy church in every village of Liberia in this generation so that every Liberian would be able to walk and find a healthy church.  Each of these weapons is essential components to assist us to accomplish our mission.  I sense our Lord is giving vision for the enlarging of our territory.  We now have several trained active teams in Ivory Coast and a team in Nigeria and others who feel called to other countries of Africa.