Brothers and Sisters<

As most of you are aware, I am in Kigali, Rwanda helping train, assist and raise up godly church planters this week with 12 others. I am so excited about how the gospel is growing by leaps and bounds in Rwanda. Also, how they are really starting to develop great theology.

One quick story, my first day out in the village, I was hanging out along the road with my national CHristian and my translator. We were enjoying sharing the good news of Jesus to about 10 people. As we continued to share many people left, but there was 1 boy who really was hungry to receive Jesus Christ as King. His name was Alexander.

I am writing a 3 part blog on the foundational pillars for Student Ministry at Sojourn Church. I see as the cultural mandate slides to postmodernism, relativism, and lack of any clear direction, it is imperative that we know the truth. Here are some random beliefs that young people have today:

“73% chose ‘what is right and wrong depends on differences in individual values and cultural diversity.’”
“25% chose ‘there are clear and uniform standards of right and wrong by which everyone should be judged.’”

Quotes from Josh.org- a research study on belief systems at John Hopkins University.

This is just one little slice of our current landscape. In these times, we must train and equip our young people.

Know the Gospel- The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 laid it out for us. He wanted the church at Corinth to understand the truth, to not be swayed or deceived. In the same way, that is my prayer for these students that the Lord has entrusted to us.

First, I want to thank everyone at Sojourn for praying on my behalf and looking out for my beautiful wife and kids at the gathering yesterday. Here is content from an email I sent to loved ones…

I am sitting in the Kigali Airport processing and thanking God for all the greatness of His Name! As I mentioned in previous prayer requests I purposed to train Church Planters and leaders in Kigali, Rwanda over the last two days. I was overjoyed and excited when we saw a total of 85 people coming, that represented 18 churches and 3 Universities. This training was made up of mostly young people who are hungry for God to move in Rwanda.

I am in the middle of the land of a Thousand Hills. Hearing stories and seeing crazy poverty. But, in the middle of all this I see the gospel of Jesus Christ advancing in unprecedented ways. I am seeing churches started in the middle of banana fields, people traveling 5 hours by walking to our training sessions.

Yesterday, I was able to help teach and equip over 162 people on how to plant churches. We had over 20 churches say YES, I want to start a new church. This was a great encouragement to all of us, but crazy enough, very normal in Rwanda. We also taught them how to share the gospel and sent them out for a 1 hour “training” on how they could share with their neighbors and friends. They came back full of joy and excitement that over 110 people had repented of their sins and trusted in Jesus!!!!!

I am in the Amsterdam airport heading to Rwanda to train new Pastors and Church Planters. I am totally stoked. I have this long layover in Amsterdam and while I am here, there is a snowstorm. It is March 25th and snowing… so much for global warming. Anyway, I wanted to thank David and the crew for praying for me on Sunday. I will update with thoughts as Internet permits.

Grace, Peace, and Fire;

David