“Maturing the Vision”
Multiplying the Ministry’s Mission
At some point, you have probably attended a FaithSearch
event and heard our Gospel with evidence presentation, or you
read or viewed one of our ministry resources. We are pleased
to report that God is multiplying the impact of our ministry–just
as we have asked Him to do.
In 2008, which was the first (though partial) year of the
new FaithSearch multiplication initiative called
“Maturing the Vision” (MTV) it is actually amazing what God
has already done in all our mission fields to make this multiplication
strategy a reality in our proclamation of the Gospel with evidence.
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| Carlos met students in Mexico who
had begun using Sorprendido por la Fe in their ministry
on campus. |
In the Spanish-Speaking World
Carlos Fernández, our Spanish language evangelist,
has completed his Spanish translation of our FaithSearch
Discovery presentation. Nearly 400 Spanish-speaking Christian
leaders from several countries, already trained by Carlos, are
waiting for their CD copy of Discovery, so they can use it in
their own Gospel proclamation to thousands. Carlos is multiplying
messengers and the message of Jesus throughout México,
in several countries in Central America, Perú, and elsewhere.
That’s just the formal part of the strategy. On a recent return
trip to the Mexican state of Yucatán, Carlos serendipitously
discovered evidence of unanticipated multiplication.
After a church event, Carlos met students from the College of
Biological Sciences of Yucatán State University. They
told him they were leading a Bible study on campus, using Sorprendido
por la Fe (the Spanish translation of Dr. Bierle’s book
Surprised by Faith) to help them share the reasons for
their faith with their unbelieving science peers. Months earlier
these students had attended Carlos’ Discovery presentation,
received the book, and now as new messengers were proclaiming
the Gospel with evidence to their biology classmates.
In India
Because of financial constraints, we have been unable to travel
to India to continue training pastors, Bible college faculty
and India Campus Crusade staff to use FaithSearch Discovery.
They have graciously committed to pray for us and added these
words:
“We do not want to stop the FaithSearch ministry
in India. We are reorganizing the trainers and pastors who are
really interested about the training and the tools. Beginning
in April, 2009, for a period of two years, we are going to
train 100,000 pastors and lay leaders for church planting.
We are making plans to have FaithSearch Discovery
be one of the pastors’ ministry tools.” How wonderful that this
work can carry on without our physical presence.
In the Philippine Islands
In 2007, FaithSearch partnered with Sowers of
the Word, an indigenous Philippine ministry, to train about
100 Filipino Christian leaders in Manila to teach FaithSearch
Discovery. By April of the following year, 32 of them had conducted
local training and had equipped another 1,238 teachers. Sowers
of the Word then requested the following for ongoing multiplication:
“We seek your approval to video reproduce your November, 2007,
Discovery training for continued use; to translate Surprised
by Faith and the Discovery materials into the Tagalog language
(at our expense); and authorization to equip another 200 FaithSearch
Discovery trainers for the islands.”
It may come as no surprise to hear that we gladly agreed to
let them continue expanding this ministry in our absence–again,
bearing fruit from the MTV strategy, precisely as we had asked
of God.
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| These history teachers
from across Russia (literally from Siberia to the Baltics)
stayed after Oleg’s presentation of FaithSearch Discovery
in order to ask questions about faith... and to invite him
to teach the class in their respective regional centers. |
In the Russian-Speaking World
Oleg Voskresensky, our Russian evangelist, just returned from
Moscow and St. Petersburg, where he began training public school
teachers to offer FaithSearch Discovery as an
elective course on Christianity for Russian high school students.
You read that correctly: in the Russian public school system.
Praise God! In 2009 alone, Oleg anticipates training at least
1,500 humanities teachers who will teach about 150,000 Russian
high school students about the reality of an infinite and personal
God; the eyewitness and historical integrity of the New Testament
records; the truthfulness of the claims of Jesus to be God incarnate;
the certainty of Jesus’ resurrection and life after death; and
how one becomes a Christian. God is raising up an unusual
and unexpected army of messengers to multiply His message among
Russian-speaking people of the world.
[Web only: Read more: the full report from Oleg's Jan-Feb
2009 trip here;
read about Oleg's ministry here.]
In the USA
God has also placed a burden on our hearts for the future Christian
leaders in America–today’s graduating ministry students. Our
plan is to place the FaithSearch Discovery presentation
CD in each of their hands and prepare them to teach the Gospel
with evidence in their ministries (we call this strategy “Vision
for America”). Our first opportunity took place in February,
as Dr. Bierle trained a group of thirty-two students from
Crown College (near the Twin Cities). They were equipped
to be teachers of Discovery–just in time to use it during their
six-month internship at churches across the U.S. and on mission
fields around the world.
Keeping Multiplication Going
Praise God that He is multiplying the Gospel message through
a multiplication of the messengers! By God’s gracious provision,
our ministry is expanding even when we are not the ones expanding
it! The apostle Paul’s advice to Timothy (2 Timothy 2:2) is
the premier strategy for ministry in the Twenty-first Century.
By using that strategy of multiplication, FaithSearch
International is having more ministry impact even while experiencing
limited financial resources. May God continue to provide for
even more multiplication.
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