Investing in Liberia 3

Posted by Bill on May 12, 2012

Pastor Elijah Samuel

This concluding part of Elijah’s report begs your patience – it’s lengthy. Your patience in reading this report, however, will be greatly rewarded. Elijah testifies of God’s generosity, grace, and power at work in the lives of His people at Christ Harvest Miracle Ministry church in Monrovia. He says …

Revival Power!

The evening revival meeting on the first day began with a low turnout. However, the second day saw an encouraging number of attendees. We recorded some healings in the house and nine people, mostly youths, gave their lives to Jesus. On the third night of the revival, the people gave their finance to the work of ministry. I asked the pastor to use this money to help fund the purchase of sound equipment for the church (they don’t have their own sound equipment).

Testimonies

The following is a selection of the large number of testimonies received on the fourth and fifth day of the small groups development conference. I hope you will find them inspiring:

Your teaching is very fantastic. I like nearly everything about your teaching, especially how participatory it was. I truly learnt a lot; real understanding about the Great Commandment and Great Commission, the ice breaker session was real and educative. You did with lots of illustrations, pictures, and diagrams. This helped me get the real concept of cell-based church.
Brother Roosevelt M. Washington (Christ Harvest Miracle Ministry).

Through the years in ministry, I have been trying the cells church principles on my own without detailed understanding of how properly these principles work. But this cell church conference has opened my eyes to see and understand these principles. Through your teachings, my understanding has been enlightened, I will surely implement these principles for church growth through multiplication.
Jayston Tonnelle (Senior Pastor, Christ Harvest Miracle Ministry).

I am now made to understand NOT to be afraid to invest in anyone in the church. If any member decides to go away, he/she is at liberty to do so. The people, the church, or the work itself is not ours BUT the Lord’s. And that we are only co-labourers. We are all fishing for the same Master; we should fish, though from the same river, but not from other people`s net/boat.
Mother Angeline Eyedo (Life Line Ministry).

Learning of cell method of growing the church will not only help in the numerical growth of the church but also in delegating responsibility to other members in the church. It also pointed out the weakness in our local church; as love is not seen and felt the way it should. So, I now have a better understanding; that growth is not only in number (quantity) but how well they are disciples in love (quality).
Pastor ED Eyedo (Senior Pastor, Life Line Ministry).

The strategies for soul winning are very unique and sensitive for multiplication of the church of Jesus. I like to recommend that Cells-Church Consultants should take this teaching to the whole world, to win the lost at all cost.
Pastor Jonathan Tukar (New Creation Int`l Church).

This training has stirred my spirit to do more for God and has given me a broader picture on the importance of evangelism. I did not know that evangelism goes beyond just telling people … “God loves you”. I thank God for Cells-church Consultants and Pastor Elijah who left his family in Nigeria to come to teach us in Liberia. May God also bless the vision bearer of Cells-church Consultants International.
William Kollie (Faith Empowerment Outreach Ministries).

This has given me such a great insight that I have longed for over the years. Indeed this is God`s answer to my prayers and His way of meeting the deepest need of my country, my church, and me. This was really an enrichment for me, especially the method (illustration) used for the presentation.
Pastor Barromi G Davis, Sr. (Christ Witness Mission).

I believe what you have taught will help us and when you return next time you would be proud of the fruit of your labour. This few days of learning is equalled to a year of education. I would not afford to miss this great teaching. It will be a true help to our churches here, thanks. I pray that you would not forget us. You should not stop at this point BUT come many times over.
Sister Jessica Robert.

I like to suggest that the training must not only be at one location. Let zones be set up in other parts of the city as well as outside the capital and counties/states. Lastly, establish a Liberia base of this vision by selecting a targeted number of willing pastors that you will give some intensive training in a given period of time here or aboard who will afterwards take the training to places in Liberia that you alone will not reach in the next 5 years.
Apostle Samuel Elijah Goodridge (General Overseer: Divine Love Resurrection Word Outreach Min International).

The lesson being taught these five days is a wakeup call to the Body of Christ to rise up to the task of soul winning. The teaching has been strategic to church growth. We dearly need this kind of approach every year; if not every month. I actually believe you came to change our worldview on house fellowship and crusade/evangelism. I understand that all these do not work outside of love. Love is the key to make it work. I humbly recommend that you will discuss your return with your office to continue being a blessing to the church on this side of the world. The church of Liberia needs your prayers in her post war land to open the minds of the members for sincere service to Christ. If you wouldn’t mind sir, we would like you to pray about how you could elect/appoint some regional heads who could plan meetings and invite you to facilitate. We believe this will help to speedily enhance your ministry; bring growth that would introduce your ministry to the nations. Finally I appreciate you and the ministry that sent you.
Rich Coopers (Associate Pastor: Christ Harvest Miracle Ministry).

Conclusion

I like to affirm that God was faithful in this trip. The conference was well attended and the good news and principles of small group was well embraced. I saw no deception in their attitudes; the testimonies shared were genuine from their hearts. The people did not show any signs of being hungry for ‘natural’ food – they were hungry on getting knowledge on how to move their work forward. Their hunger and excitement was visibly written on their faces. And exuded joy like a man who found a new treasure, and with hope now fanned into flame, ready to carry out what they have learned. I am convinced, there is going to be great harvest from this meeting. (Elijah.)

———————————————————–

Friends, it’s been a long time since I’ve sampled such inspiring testimonies. God’s servant, Elijah, is truly deserving of the divine commendation … “Well done, good and faithful servant!” Friends, CCIs investment in Liberia has only just begun. Lord willing, Elijah will return to continue CCIs investment in Liberia. May the Lord use Pastor Jayston’s church to ignite a spiritual blaze throughout all of Africa!

Bill

STOP PRESS! News just received from Liberia (received by Elijah on Wednesday, 2^nd May) … “Dear Pastor Sam, how you and the family are. Hope it is well. I write to inform you that my church have started with 3 cell groups and they are doing very well. Pastor, everybody here is doing great, even my daddy and the church. Thanks,” Teta Eyedo (Life Line Ministries).

News update from Gary in the UK

Posted by Bill on May 5, 2012

Gary and Aline Douglas have been faithfully serving the Lord at Elim Pentacostal Church, South Wales, UK, for the last two years. Gary is our UK Field Director. One and a half years ago, he was appointed small group director of the Elim Church. Gary and Aline are ‘top shelf’ servant-leaders – living ‘at the ready’ to go anywhere in the world … to serve the Lord in any worthwhile way. The following news update has recently come from Gary …

Small groups at Elim Church

In March, 2011, we started small groups development training – running two courses concurrently. In the second course I appointed Craig, a trainee from the first course, as the assistant trainer. The first two courses saw 22 people trained and 8 small groups form in April, 2011. Since then Craig and I have facilitated another training course, graduating another 8 people in November, 2011.

The enthusiasm for small groups and their potential for church growth, and reaching-out to the lost remains strong in the Elim church. We are also close to starting a small group for Polish speaking people (there is a large Polish community in our township). The two leaders who have been attending training don’t speak any English. This has presented us with many challenges.

In January, this year, I was able to pass on the role of small groups director (which has been my goal from the start) to Craig who is already doing a great job, with enthusiasm. It is in safe hands, and Craig and his wife, Nicole, (who have been leading a group together since last April) will start the fourth training course in April, targeting young people to be able to start older youth and 20’s groups to reach their peers. Praise the Lord for what He is doing here in Llanelli – training, equipping and releasing people.

The fruit of Bill’s visit, in May 2011

It was wonderful having Bill visit after his trip to Poland. Bill facilitated three meetings at Llanelli, two for the Elim Church and one for leaders of other local churches. As well as inspiring many within the church, the following two testimonies have come from those inspirational sessions:

Cynon Valley Lighthouse, Mountain Ash, South Wales: Pastor Anita and her nominated small groups champion met with me after Bill’s visit. After sharing the Small Groups Vision further as well as CCI’s other materials, Anita decided that she, and the small group director-to-be, would attend the third small groups development training in Llanelli each week. So from September, they travelled an hour each week to attend the training that was facilitated by Craig and me. As soon as training was finished, they started their own training course in Cynon Valley Lighthouse to skill their leaders for groups. They are excited and doing well.

Bethel Elim Pentecostal Church, Neath, South Wales: The Pastor of Bethel Elim, at Neath, was also at the seminar with Bill. I has since visited him for a chat about the small group vision and have also had the opportunity to present the small groups vision to some of the potential small group leaders in his church. Watch this space for further news.

Other Churches: There is one other church in Llanelli who are interested in meeting with me to discuss our small groups vision, as well as a church in London who I have met with a couple of times over the past two years to help them with their small group development.

Gary

Norma shows us how to do ‘outreach’ at Bundaberg West

Posted by Bill on April 28, 2012

Getting testimonies out of my ‘young’ pastor friend, Bob Brown, of Bundaberg West Baptist Church, is like ‘pulling teeth’. After serving him with a strong rebuke, he came to the party with a great testimony that was sitting right under his nose. Bobby replied with …

“Ok, ok – I am rebuked. Forgive me brother Bill, I have sinned! I know what you mean, mate, but the last thing we want to do is create the impression to the world that we have ‘got it all together’.

Our two small groups are growing slowly and I will be thrilled when we have the team really in place. We have gone through losses, gained new ones and we still see excellent possibilities to continue our reach-out into our community ministry. Good things are happening.

Norma Spoor (picture attached) and Noel are in their 70′s and have been real encouragers to Margaret and me. They love being part of Life-group

Noel & Norma Spoor

on Sunday evenings. Lately we have again been considering how to engage with people in our community and Norma felt if she could meet people in her street (they moved there 12 months ago) they may be interested in hearing the gospel from her.

Bill, I nearly had a fit! Norma is very much a ‘collectable dolls’ lady. So she dressed up in a bonnet (old fashioned Easter style) got an old pram and walked up and down the street pushing this pram. My eyeballs nearly fell out…. as did all in her street! She was an instant hit. The men thought it funny but their wives said, “I don’t go to church, but I would really like to get to know you.” After two months there are 12 in her group! What a woman!

Bill, I don’t know how to put it in words, but we now have a new group! Praise the Lord for courageous people like Norma.

Bobby.”

Friends, I’m going to be in Bob’s face more regularly to squeeze him for golden testimonies like this.

“Great truths” from Warsaw

Posted by Bill on

Small Groups at Christian Fellowship North in Warsaw Iza is the Small Groups Director of the Christian Fellowship North Church in Warsaw, Poland. I’ve had the privilege of visiting the church on five occasions, since 2004. My visits were to share with them CCI’s Church Plan, and Principles that undergird the formation and development of healthy small groups, and to identify a small groups champion among their membership. Iza is a humble, sincere, faithful, and teachable leader. The Lord is doing amazing things in her church through her sacrificial service to Him. Here is a recent testimony I received from her …

We had a meeting with our small group leaders on Saturday. It was a great time. First, we shared testimonies from our small groups: how they are growing, how people are becoming more spiritually mature, how your visit and your Small Groups Development material has helped our groups. People shared many wonderful thoughts and experiences. One leader encouraged other leaders to use the SGD material. I was very glad!

After some training with a few small groups, people started encouraging each others, not only me! That’s what I really wanted to see happen.
Later we had a prayer time, and coffee and cakes of course. Bill, we are building strong ties. Now we are planning a one day trip for our small group leaders. I was surprised to hear that most leaders want to go! We’ll go on the 20^th of April. We’ll have many activities, rest and just be together.

Here’s a few statistics:

We have ten small groups. It’s not a large number but I know that we have strong groups, and leaders who are sure that small groups work. .
After Easter we’ll start training three or four groups.
At the end July, we will contact all small groups by your support tools. Besides, now we have one group that is multiplying. A new leader – Ewa! We hope Ewa will start in May with her new group.
There are about two or three groups that have many members. They are planning to multiply in September.
We have three coaches. We have another coach but he needs time to give us an answer. We don’t push, just wait and pray. But we hope that he’ll be a coach before the end of this season. Every group leader has their own coach.

In summary: At the end of this season we hope that every small groups will undergo SGD. We will have four coaches. We will have one group multiplying, and maybe two groups will be ready to think about multiplying. Bill, I think these are a great statistics! Just a one year ago we didn’t know if our groups would stay alive. And now we think about multiplying more frequently.

Investing in Liberia 1

Posted by Bill on April 21, 2012

After months of discussions, prayer and planning, Pastor Elijah Samuel, set out from Lagos International Airport, Nigeria, on the 7^th of April for a special Small Groups Church Plan/Development assignment in Monrovia, Liberia. Responding to a plea for help from Jayston Tonelle, Pastor of the Christ Harvest Miracle Ministry Church, CCI was pleased to assign and sponsor Elijah for this exciting opportunity to invest our small groups experience and resources in new, fertile and receptive African soil.

Elijah carried with him 100 copies of CCI’s Small Groups Development training manuals, in readiness for his Liberian teaching/training assignment. The assignment was completed on the 14^th of April. Elijah compiled a detailed report that is cram-packed with exciting news. The “Investing in Liberia” report will be presented to you in three instalments. In this week’s Part 1, Elijah says …

Spiritual background

Liberia is perhaps one of the oldest nations in Africa. It became a nation in 1847. History records that Africans that were freed from slavery in America were re-settled in this part of Africa. With various other settlers from other African countries (Congo, Guinea, Cot de Voir, etc) make up the nation called Liberia. Besides the various native languages spoken by the natives; Liberians are unified through one common language – English with an American accent. Liberians experienced fourteen years of civil war (began early 1990) which brought major setback to the polity, education, economy and infrastructural development. Except for areas close to the State House where the government house is located in Monrovia, the capital city; electrical power supply is not available to all areas. There is no national electricity supply to Paynesville where I was lodged (No thanks to the fourteen years of civil war).

More than 70% of Liberians embrace Christianity as their religion, but a lesser number practice and accept Christianity as a way of life in the real sense. There is the common belief among the Christian worshippers that anyone coming with good news (missionaries) must do so and demonstrate it with physically gifts to help meet their needs. This is because; the early missionaries from western nations came with physical materials, such as clothes, food, and money. However, some of the committed Christian leaders are working at breaking this mind-set among the people. Nonetheless, the heart of the people we ministered to. This visit proved to me that they really loved God and are working at ministering to the Lord from their needy condition. (Pastor Elijah Samuel)

Investing in Liberia (Part 2), “The coming harvest!”, will come to you next week.