Can you help our partners in Nigeria?

Posted by Bill on December 31, 2011

Our partners in Ibadan, Nigeria – Dominion Impact Church – have courageously stepped out in faith with an ambitious project to construct a building for their church family.

Our dear friend, Reverend Kola Emiola, says,

“The purpose of this project is to enable us have our own permanent place of worship in Ibadan. Present lease cost of our worship facility is exorbitant. And, our facilities are not adequate to enable the smooth running of our ministry activities. Our facility, for example, does not allow enough space for us to provide quality ministry support for the children in each of our services. Our regular leadership and cells training are most of the times disrupted by rain and excessive heat from the sun. At times, we are forced to rent space from nearby hotels for special leadership conferences/trainings. Using these facilities are very costly. We had to find a solution.

Hence, our faith step in trusting the Lord to buy land, and begin constructing facilities that would support our growth. This building will house our worship centre, children department, cells centre for leadership trainings, library and office for our church staff and pastors.

Please, we invite you to join us in this great building project. Please help us in any way you can (prayer, encouragement, and financial gifts).

We’ve partnered with Kola and his team at Dominion Impact Church since 2004 and have visited them several times. We are delighted to be able to share with you that they are godly people, with a sound leader in Pastor Kola, who are extremely passionate in their faith for the Lord.

Are you in a position to help?

No matter how small, your financial gift will make a difference. Just click on the PayPal button below to make a specific donation to Dominion Impact Church‘s building project.

“Net-working” power!

Posted by Bill on December 3, 2011

“Now go out where it is deeper and let down your nets, and you will catch many fish” (Luke 5:4).

small-groups-training-leadership-frederick-egypt

It thrills my heart each time I recall an incident that involved Fredrick Omoh-John, who was a zone director of small groups during my time at Maadi Community Church in Cairo. When it comes to fishing for lost souls, Fredrick and his leadership team were specialists. Through their sensitivity to the Spirit’s leading, they knew precisely where and when to let down their net. Following the Lord’s example they had discovered that net-working is the best strategy for hauling-in the catch. Many times at MCC, the net-work approach to fishing for lost souls proved to be the most effective and efficient way to reach out with the Good News of Jesus Christ.

One Friday night, in May, 2006, Fredrick, together with his coaches and cell pastors, put down their net at Arba-Wa-Nous (a very poor suburb of Cairo), within a community of needy Sudanese refugees. What happened? Fredrick reported:

“All thanks goes to God for all He is doing in the lives of His children in the cell groups of Zones 7 and 8. May His name be praised forever and ever. I want to testify of the goodness of the Lord in the outreach program that took place in Arba-Wa Nous last Friday. By His grace, at 7pm we started the program that involved 450 Sudanese men, women and children.

After welcoming those present we opened our time with prayer. After that we had a time of worship, followed by the preaching of a message from God’s Word. After the message when we had extended an invitation to those who did not know the Lord to surrender their lives to Him sixty one people came forward and committed their lives to Him as their Lord and Saviour!

I want to say a very big “thank you” to MCC for providing money that was used to pay for food, transportation and rent for the facility. With the money that was made available to us we were able to distribute 500 bags of food, containing sugar, macaroni and tea. May our God, the Creator of heaven and earth, bless our church for their kind support.

I have since forwarded the names of the sixty one new believers to the director of our church’s cells ministry. We want to do a good job in following up each person, nurturing them and helping them to grow in their new lives in Christ. Please pray that we will succeed in this.”

What an amazing outcome! After this wonder-filled event, Fredrick and his leadership team laboured together to help in the care, nurture and development of their new Sudanese brothers and sisters. Their net-working strategy changed their lives, and saved the lives of sixty one people who were desperately in need of a saviour-provider.

Net-working is a powerful strategy. It harnesses and releases the collective experience, giftedness, and passion of every member of the net-fishing team. At MCC we saw our cell groups as the church’s “spiritual nets”. Together, with the Holy Spirit, they experienced “net-working” power!

Fredrick is presently based in Cairo, with his wife, Sarah. He is the founding director of Destiny Kids International… a discipleship ministry to African kids in Cairo. He is also a field director with CCI. Financial and prayer support would be appreciated – you can make your donation right now by clicking on the PayPal button below.

Vision of Vision – a preview of 2012

Posted by Nick on

Dear partners and friends,

Our wonder-filled “vision of visions” blossomed beautifully in 2011, and revealed new and exciting opportunities for us in Poland, Lithuania, and other places. I can understand the thrill the apostle Paul must have experienced as he returned to familiar places in Asia Minor to strengthen the work the Lord accomplished through him and Barnabus, and Titus, and other faithful servants (Acts, Chapters 13 -20).

With the encouraging outcomes of 2011 behind us, we eagerly look ahead to the opportunities that abound for CCI in 2012. Here’s a taste of the things we are believing the Lord wants to do through us next year:

Continue to coach and mentor small groups champions (Iza, Andrew, Maciej, and Vaclovas) in Warsaw, Gdynia, and Lithuania
Translate our new “Relational Evangelism” book into the Polish and Lithuanian languages (to be free downloads on the website)
Translate our “Growing Up Into His Likeness” book (foundation-level discipleship for new and old believers) in Polish and Lithuanian languages (to be free downloads on the website)
Translate our “Small Groups Development” manual into Greek, German, Sweedish, and Spanish languages (pushing steadily towards our goal of 40 translations)
Continuing to support Dave and Jess Quak in their “Living Temple” small groups church plant on the Gold Coast in Australia
Continuing to support Gary and Aline Douglas in their small groups consultancy work at Llanelli, Wales
Continuing to support Elijah Samuel in his small groups training and development work in Nigeria, and the rest of Africa
Support Wale and Emma Oladipo in their exciting vision to plant a small groups based church in England (look out for more news soon)
A return visit to Poland and Lithuania next April-May with a focus on developing small group skills in “evangelism” and “discipleship”
Ministry with an “interested to know more about small groups” church in Germany! – initial discussions are just starting!
Possible visit to Wale and Emma in England, Gary and Aline in Wales and Monica in Finland as part of our visit to Poland, Lithuania and perhaps Germany.

Nick Truscott, our Senior Associate Director, continues to do a cracker job from Abu Dhabi in the UAE in providing CCI with the finest communications support – without Nick, his technical expertise and firm friendship, CCI would only be a figment of my imagination.

Beryl and I continue to commit all that we are and have to building a universally accessible small groups, evangelism, and discipleship resource facility – that offers its resources in many languages to God’s global harvest workers at no charge.

Lastly, Beryl and I say to you … we could not have travelled this far without your love, encouragement, and kind support – “Thank You”. Do you have it in you to stay with us for one more year? I believe I have enough energy in me to reach out and seize the opportunities the Lord will grant us in 2012.

Wishing you and your family a blessing-filled Christmas and New Year.

Bill & Beryl

“Reaching Out” … Our usual practice!

Posted by Bill on November 26, 2011

Reaching “in” and “out” with the love of Christ is the heart-beat of healthy small groups. Loving one another in the church, and loving those with whom we associate outside the church is concrete proof that we are disciples of Jesus Christ (John 13:34, 35). In many churches, there’s too much talk of love, and not enough action. This is not the case, however, regarding a small church in Lagos, Nigeria – Dominion Impact Church. Here in the “City of Excellence” this church is making a difference by ministering in a most excellent way … the way of practical love. Pastor Elijah Samuel, CCI’s associate director for Africa, says …

A social gathering was organised by our small group to celebrate a few family members in our church, those who are less privileged than most. We aimed at making these people see what our church family is like and to help them experience a sense of “belonging” to the rest of the church family.

We did things that families would normally do in common, such as sharing food, having fun, and fellowship. We also gave out gifts to these people. This time was so impacting we have planned to do this again during the Christmas season for our neighbouring community. “Reaching out” with the love of Christ has become our usual practice.

South Sudan – The harvest is underway!

Posted by Bill on

“And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it, and then, finally, the end will come” (Matthew 24:14)

Friends, I am always encouraged by the nice words of the apostle Paul, who says we don’t have to be sophisticated and highly educated to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. Although, I was feeling alone in my great challenge in South Sudan, I was encouraged by the Spirit of God who reminded me that I was not alone, and that He was near to help me. The Spirit of God kept reminding me that He was with me.

Tom Ali, Fredrick Omoh-John, and I planned to team-up for South Sudan for the purpose taking the youth of the Africa Inland Church (AIC) through CCI’s Small Group Development training in Juba and Torit, and to baptise new believers in Torit Central Prison. Unfortunately, due to several challenges (financial and travel documents) Tom and Fredrick were not able to travel with me. I modified our original plan to what I could handle. I decided to focus my time on Small Groups Development training with the youth of AIC. Twenty seven were trained in Torit State. For one week I also taught new believers about salvation and baptism, and nineteen of them were baptised on the 1st of October! We had a great celebration that day that lasted 7 hours. Many prisoners gave their lives to Christ and then fellowshipped from ward to ward. We managed to provide them with 40 English and Arabic Bibles which we had brought with us from Egypt.

The Bible reminds us in Matthew 28:19-20, that “evangelism” is a worldwide responsibility for all Christians. And, in other places in Scripture, concerning this task, that there’s no time to be wasted! Wonders and miracles happened in both Juba Prison and Torit Prison – hundreds of prisoners were released immediately after their baptism in July 2011!

In Torit Central Prison, almost three quarters of the inmates were released, including eighteen who had been sentenced to death! All of them were baptized on July 13.

In Juba Central Prison, nine out of fifty seven new believers (who were baptised on the July 6) were left in prison. Three of them, who had committed murder, were invited to pay 23 thousand Sudanese Pounds in order to be released. By the grace of God they too will be released, in the name of Jesus Christ.

Friends and partners, we value your prayers and financial support. In partnership with Cells-church Consultants International, Africa Inland Church in Egypt is committed to continuing in the work of sewing, nurturing and harvesting in the “ripe” fields of South Sudan. We have only scratched the surface there. The harvest is ready, and the workers are few.

I invite you to partner with us through making a small financial investment of any size … even one dollar! This can be channelled to us through CCI. Your investment will help us to go further in this great opportunity to harvest many more souls in South Sudan. Will you please consider this invitation? Truly, the harvest is great.

Saturnino