Training, training, training! The opportunities God has given Last Frontiers here in the States have been amazing!

Fusion Program: I had a great time training the Fusion program at Mid-Western Seminary on how to share their personal testimonies and the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how to start churches in homes via the 7 Commands of Christ. Essentially, this is a gap-year program for incoming freshmen who obey the Great Commission of Jesus Christ for a whole year (hopefully for a lifetime) in some of the most difficult places of the world, boldly proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. During the training, I sent the Fusion students out and challenged them to share Jesus’ story and try to get into a House of Peace in Kansas City, and we had a number of Fusion students get into homes the very first night. After seeing this program, I wish all Christian teenagers would go through the Fusion program. I was impressed with these Fusion students, but I have also worked in South Asia with Fusion students and have been amazed at what God does through them.

Charlotte T4T: David Garrison introduced me to some new friends with Greater Europe Mission and, after a short lunch meeting at Pennera Bread, they connected me with the Metrolina Baptist Association of Charlotte. A fellow discipler (Mark) and I met with the association and shared stories of how God was allowing us to get into Houses of Peace in Bugger Hollar and see lives changed. When we first started in our county, we plead with God to give us some Houses of Peace; now we are shocked that so many homes are open and interested to talk about Jesus. Our current problem is exactly what Jesus commanded us to pray to the Lord of the Harvest in Luke 10:1ff because the workers are few. We have 3 trainings a day every Tuesday in Charlotte, at 9am, 1pm and 5 pm. In the first 4 weeks, we have had 9 salvations, and the folks in Charlotte have gotten into 7 Houses of Peace! Praise the Lord, what a great start! The vision is to get into 90 homes in 2012 and 6,000 homes by 2017! That is a God-sized vision, and it is exciting to partner with an association that has a vision to invite people to Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior!

In the Houston Ethne meeting, I was amazed to hear that Houston, among a number of other cities in America, was now a majority-minority city. But, what an exciting thought for embracing the Great Commission, to know that we can be on mission among some of the most unreached people groups of the world, and they live in our Jerusalem! If we the church can change our thinking and begin to realize that God has granted us a Kiros moment with all the nations of the world at our door step and stop treating this as a political issue but start responding to God in obedience to the Great Commission right here and right now, we can have a great part in God’s glorious plan to reach the nations right here in America. I would challenge you to find a person of a different nationality, reach out to them, befriend them, and try to get into their home to talk to their oikos about Jesus.

At a training recently at Wheaton Bible Church, Steve and Ying asked me to come and share about T4T in the context of the West. It was a great privilege to share about what God has been doing in Buggar Hollar! A young man named Troy came up to me at a break and shared how the stories of Buggar Hollarites doing T4T had inspired him to try T4T in Indianapolis. He began to train his youth group, and one young man, armed with his personal testimony and the Gospel, began an evangelistic Bible study with members of his cross country team; after a period of weeks, a number of them had become followers of Jesus Christ. The moral of the story is: if God can do this in Buggar Hollar, He can make reproducing disciples anywhere!

CPM Training center 2011-2016: Our CPM training center in India has been up and running for 5 months now! The purpose is to bring church planters into a live church planting movement to live for a period of time so they can learn from Kumar, but also to visit 3rd -5th generation churches to learn how they tick and see how the T4T process works week to week. Raju recently went to spend some time with Kumar in the midst of this church planting movement. Raju realized that many of the believers he had lead to Christ were not actively sharing their testimonies and the Story of Jesus daily. So, he plans to retool his disciples and hold them accountable to share the Gospel but also to birth a vision in them that they would surround the Boudha Stupa with house churches. Raju learned how mature these 3rd -5th generation believers had grown by rapid obedience to the Commands of Jesus, such as loving God, loving your neighbor and the Great Commission. Raju found a new confidence in the T4T process, but especially in the work and power of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers.

Raju and the Sherpa team: Raju met a lady named Kumari from Bouddha . She had been sick for two years and had been to many hospitals, traditional healers, Buddhist lamas and Hindu priests, but was still sick. One of Kumari’s relatives requested that Raju come to pray for her, so Raju shared the Good News of Jesus Christ with her. Kumari listened intensely and gladly accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior; then Raju prayed in the Name of Jesus for her healing. Since that time, Kumari has been healthy, and Raju is discipling her and teaching her how to reach her whole family for Jesus Christ.

• Caleb’s birthday is 9/19, and he is a Junior at Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy. He loves playing football, lifting weights, track, and working with his grandfather and uncle at Sundell Auto Specialties. Caleb is looking at UNC, Baylor, and Rochester University, among others, to study physical therapy related to athletics and wants to coach. Caleb’s life verse is Philippians 4:13.
• Abigail’s birthday is 5/9. She is very athletic and loves to hang out with her friends. She will play soccer this spring for TJ. She is also a homebody– she loves to make Belgian waffles on Saturday mornings. She and Miriam like to sing accapelo on the karaoke player. She is constantly praying for her family and friends. Her favorite verses right now are Col. 1:9-14.
• Miriam’s birthday is 9/18. She is our “artsy” child who loves ballet and playing classical guitar and keyboard. She is on the golf team at TJ and plans to be on the swim team in the future. Miriam loves horses, so we are going to start building a fence in anticipation of fulfilling her dream of having a horse here in Buggar Hollar this spring. Her favorite verse at the moment is Is. 59:11a.

Corvette business: Please pray for our new business venture in parting out 68-82 Corvettes. We had a great opportunity recently to acquire a large collection of 68-94 Corvette parts at an auction, but I was already scheduled to be at the Houston Ethne meeting and couldn’t go to the auction. My brother, Eric, made a huge sacrifice and gave up several days of work to buy parts at the auction while I was helping the IMB with training and networking in Houston. So, a big thanks to Eric and my family for the sacrifices they have made to make this happen. Pray now that we sell some parts and can strike that balance between training via LFI and selling Corvette parts to pay bills. Out of the Ethne meeting and the Charlotte T4T meeting, God has birthed a new stream of the vision for me with T4T training among immigrant churches here in the States. Essentially, I am going to work to connect with immigrants here in the States via their churches or multicultural churches and cast vision and train folks in T4T (reproducing discipleship) so that we can take this back to the nations. God has already begun giving me this opportunity among the Nepalese, Russians, Hispanics, various African nations, and the list goes on…

Prayer Requests:
1. Our Charlotte T4T meeting every Tuesday- that God will give us opportunities to get into 90 homes to lead evangelistic Bible studies in the homes of people far from God and see 3rd -4th generation new believers next year.
2. God has given me a real desire to plant a church that is centered around small groups of reproducing disciples who are reaching and discipling lost people around the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
3. Upcoming T4T trainings in Mississippi, January 20-21st, and in Charlotte, NC, February 4-5th.
4. Kumar as he leads the Church Planting Movements training center; pray God gives us the right people who will go back to their people groups in South Asia and become reproducing disciples!
5. Raju and the Sherpa team to press to the edges of lostness in the Tibetan Buddhist world! Pray they can plant churches in every Sherpa village.
6. Pray for Caleb; he has several big decisions he is working through right now.