CMF Intl – Mar 14 2016 – New churches, new Christians!

New churches, new Christians!

Tanzania church planters celebrate success, plan for unreached areas

National church planters in Tanzania are celebrating an incredibly successful year in 2015: they started 18 new churches and baptized 543 people, according to missionaries Gary and Judy Woods, members of the CMF team there. 

“The team’s ministry is to train and empower national Christians to plant churches,” said Gary Woods. “We do this with intensive 12-week church-planting sessions in Arusha that draw Christian families from all over the country.”

When they complete the training, the new church planter families spread out into unreached areas, preaching Christ and baptizing new believers.

Reaching the unreached

This year, the team is praying for an opening into the unreached Nyamwezi tribe, a group of 1.4 million people.

“There are areas where you can travel 100 miles and not see a church of any kind,” said Gary. “There are a few Christians in the towns, but they are year-round farmers and can’t attend our training courses.”

So the team is taking the course to them in March!

“We will meet for two weeks at a time, every other month, until they complete the course,” said Gary. 

Ministry continues in Burkina Faso
Ken and Anita Hoch and their three young children – Natalie, Lydia and Judah – returned to Burkina Faso last month. They were on medical leave for the birth of Judah, who was born December 10th. They rejoined teammates Brian and Tabitha Hauser and their children in a country plagued by terrorist activity.

“Our missionaries in Burkina have been standing firm while taking necessary safety precautions since the recent terrorist attacks and kidnappings in other areas of this country,” said David Giles, CMF’s Director of Church Catalyst Ministries. “Please pray that they will be able to continue their vital ministries.”

Bus stop café!

CMF missionary Tim Aho, center, poses with Companions for Hope teammates Sam Ewell, left, and Ash Barker, right, at their bus stop café near Newbigin House in Winson Green, England. Newbigin House is the Ahos’ home and the team’s center for urban mission and community transformation in their extremely diverse, desperately poor, multicultural neighborhood. The team decided to offer teas and coffees at the bus stop outside the house on Thursday mornings as a way to meet and get to know their neighbors. On a recent Thursday, Tim reports, “We talked to about 15 men and women who embraced their tea or coffee in the cold weather and whose ethnic origins were other than this country!”

Missionaries gather for “contagious discipleship” seminar

Thirty-six CMF missionaries, recruits, national partners and former missionaries were challenged to re-envision new ways to make disciples of all nations at a three-day “Contagious Discipleship” seminar sponsored by CMF in Indianapolis in January.

Lead speaker for the event was David Watson, co-author of the book Contagious Disciple-Making: Leading Others on a Journey of Discovery. David Giles, Director of Church Catalyst Ministries, was the primary organizer.

Disciples, then churches

“The overall concept taught by David Watson is that church-planting movements begin with making disciples, which results in churches,” said David Giles. “These disciples are focused outward to cause the transformation of individuals, families and communities. It’s all about a spontaneous life in Christ that draws others, and an intentional expression of life that mentors others to become disciples of Jesus, who are also then contagious.”

The CMF missionaries were invited to attend the seminar to challenge and equip them to be more effective in making disciples in ways that lead to greater fruitfulness in their ministries.

“The missionaries were challenged by the concepts that the speaker presented,” said David, “but very positive about the time with him and with one another. We pray that this event gave them tools that will help them move forward in ministry.”