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.

Just Imagine

Posted by Bill on December 17, 2011

IMAGINATION_by_archanN

I joined the ministry team at Maadi Community Church (MCC) in May, 2000, hoping the Lord might build His church through me and my wife, Beryl (Matthew 16:18a). Even though I knew I was a weak vessel, I willingly gave myself to the Lord, expecting Him to do great and mighty things. I expected the Lord to establish networks of small groups that would care for God’s people, grow many lay-leaders, and engage in bold Kingdom expansion activities. Throughout my time at MCC, I exercised an “extra mile” commitment in everything I did. I poured my mind, heart, body and soul into this work. Not only did the Lord fulfil my expectations, He went one amazing step further by birthing five churches from our expanding number of small groups. What a surprise!

Why didn’t I expect the Lord to birth churches from our efforts? In my case, there are two reasons: Firstly, birthing churches was outside of my ministry experience, and secondly, I never imagined this possibility. My Egypt experience took me from being willing to dream dreams that “I/we” can make happen to the spiritual realm of imagination … dreaming dreams that only the Lord can achieve. I now know that the ability to imagine such things is a gift, offered by God to His children to help them “see” in advance His grand purpose for their lives! Through the exercise of this amazing gift the Lord performs His plans … “plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11b).

In my small “Collins Gem” Australian English Dictionary, “imagination” is defined as, “faculty of making mental images of things not present”. I like this definition, but from a Christian perspective the following definition is better: “faculty of receiving from God mental images of things not present.”

In the Old Testament we learn of Joseph’s amazing gift of imagination. His brothers made fun of him and dismissed him as a “dreamer” (Genesis 37:5-11). The exercise of one’s imagination is something that is not usually encouraged in most families, work places, and churches. Living within the safe parameters of “do only that which is humanly possible” seems to be the norm for most people in the world. It’s the norm, alright, but it’s not all right with me! This near-sighted view robs us of the amazing hope that Scripture teaches we have in our relationship with the Lord – to open our spiritual eyes and see … and to reach out and take hold of everything the Lord has determined for us.

In July, 2006, I had the privilege of dedicating to the Lord the second of our five daughter churches at Ain Shams (an hour’s drive from Maadi) – the Interdenominational Revival Bible Church was born and dedicated to God’s great glory. I knew this young church had an exciting future ahead. Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I could see this church growing and maturing into a fine adult church, and then multiplying many daughter churches that would grow and multiply many daughter churches.

Friends, my imagination has been sparked by the Holy Spirit and has taken me to many exciting new places in life. I can now see further, and I can now see more! My imagination runs hot with amazing possibilities. Do you know what I’m talking about? Do you have the gift of imagination? Are you exercising that gift? Just imagine! There’s a whole new world out there waiting to be seen and seized.

Exercise this divine gift – see and experience the amazing things the Lord has in store for you.

“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).

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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 Visions – Debrief

Posted by Bill on November 16, 2011

Dear Friends,

It has taken seven days for Beryl and me to feel revived and refreshed from our wonder-filled assignments in Europe. Our seven-weeks stint in the harvest fields of Poland and Lithuania is by far the greatest investment we have made so far in empowering the Lord’s people in the work of expanding His Kingdom.

Although this 7-weeks assignment demanded more from us than any other previous assignment, it bore more fruit than we could imagine. In true fashion, the Lord lead us along new paths, transformed the darkness into light before us, and made the rough places smooth … He did not forsake us! (Isaiah 42:16.)

We returned to Australia “looking” the same, but we’ve been stretched a lot more! We are more excited, and more willing, than ever to say “yes” up-front to the Lord, long before He reveals to us the next assignment He has in store for us. Without hesitation, we are willing to sacrifice and invest everything within our control to go out further on the limb of faith with Him.

: Headed for Riga Airport, Latvia

: Foot crunching time at Changi Airport, Singapore

: Gout affected fossil, but not defeated!

Our Vision of Visions is expanding into new frontiers. The churches we visited in Gdynia in Poland, and Mazeikiai in Lithuania, have asked us/me to return in the Spring of 2012 to help in strengthening their efforts to establish networks of healthy small groups in their churches. Pastor Adam of the Gdynia church also informed me that the leadership of the local Catholic church has expressed interest to learn more of our small groups church plan. The Lord has also placed Helsinki (Finland) in my mind. Monica, a former teammate of our Cairo years has been promoting small groups there with encouraging results. I believe it would be a great opportunity to cross the Baltic Sea, from Lithuania, to connect the small groups work at Helsinki with the network in Poland and Lithuania.

One important matter that needs our attention at this time is to express our heartfelt “thanks” to the Lord, and to you. What took place in the past seven-weeks was made possible through our partnership with you and the Lord. With partners like you, our Vision of Visions can continue to expand throughout the many countries of Europe.

Bill and Beryl

“Journey’s End” at Warsaw

Posted by Nick on October 27, 2011

Two days ago (on Tuesday) we concluded the last session of small groups development training with Christian Fellowship South’s AM group. Soaking in a hot bath that evening was a great way to reflect on the many, many great things Beryl and I experienced in our 34 days at Warsaw. What made this fifth visit to Warsaw more worthwhile than the previous four? We took a lot of people on a “journey” that has changed their lives!

On our earlier visits, I facilitated seminars on small groups development with crowds of people in attendance. For hours I “tossed out” sound universal principles and told inspiring stories of how to go about establishing healthy communities of small groups in churches. Yes, seminars can send-out many people feeling excited by what they’ve heard, but, a seminar’s influence for lasting change is usually shallow and short lived. Jesus didn’t look for the quick “one-off” seminar event approach to growing His disciples – He took them on a life-transforming journey.

My earlier seminars in Warsaw were “events” that prepared God’s people for change, and this visit, which focused on training, provided the “journey” experience that has brought about lasting change. Training with each of the six groups (50+ people) was punctuated with many “ah-ha” discovery moments. Many “ordinary” Christian foot-soldiers have stepped forward, past their fears, to accept the challenge to become the leaders Christ desires to develop within them.

Although the end of our Warsaw journey has come; for those we left behind, their journey continues. We know that what the Lord has begun to do in us, He will continue His work until it is finally finished on that day when He returns (Philippians 1:6).

On Wednesday afternoon, Pastor Adam Sawicki (pictured with his wife and five children) arrived from Gdynia by car to drive us to his town, situated four hours North of Warsaw, on the South Western coastline of the Baltic Sea. How did we feel? Great! As new adventure with the Lord was just about to begin!

Thank you for your kind support during our Warsaw time – you’ll be hearing more from us soon, I’m sure.

Bill & Beryl