I was supposed to be in Canada last week but the required COVID test to cross the border came back as positive therefore I was not able to enter Canada. I ended up with mild COVID symptoms and after five days of feeling lousy, I began to feel better. Very thankful that I did not spread this to my mom and others by visiting Canada!
I was still able to record my message for Immanuel CRC on the Church Scattered (if you would like to listen to it, you can find it here: Wilderness Wanderings (libsyn.com). To watch it (video and ppt slides), please go here: Sunday Worship - October 17, 2021 - YouTube). Lord willing, I will be back in person in mid-November to do the follow-up message on the Church Gathered: Incorporating Work into Worship.
In the meantime, God has been opening doors for Discipling Marketplace Leaders in a couple of different ways.
First, DML had its first foundational workshop in Chad! Chad is in North-Central Africa, with French as the official language. About 3/5ths of the population of Chad identifies as Sunni Muslim, about 1/5th are animist, and 1/5th are Christian (
Chad - Religion | Britannica).
Our own Pastor Theophile Pare from Burkina Faso went to N'Djamena last week to meet with pastors and church leaders. Below are some pictures from his time with them. We look forward to see how the work might grow through these 60+ pastors who met to hear and discuss this forgotten truth from Genesis 1 and 2.
Additionally, we have been partnering for close to two years now with an organization out of Texas called Global Advance, and over the past couple of weeks we have been conducting a training of trainers from their country leaders who are implementing the DML ministry. The leaders that we trained from Global Advance were from
India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brazil, Guatemala, Rwanda, and Uganda, and we had our own trainers as well from
Nigeria, Uganda, and Ghana. We thank God for the opportunities to spread the message of Work as Worship, and to see the Global Church be empowered to equip the saints for the work of ministry from Monday-Saturday.
Please pray for these seeds that have been planted, and for shalom (vigorous well-being and abundant flourishing) may happen in these nations and churches!
