Mercy Partners South Sudan – March 1 2017 – Why Netherlands?
WHY NETHERLANDS?
Last week we met with two missionaries and two native Dutch ministers in Eindhoven, Netherlands near the border of Belgium to discuss training what will be the first Dutch native to be trained within the Netherlands. Empowering native evangelists duplicate our evangelistic efforts and will provide a template for other disciples in the European Union to be trained in vocational ministry.
WHY NETHERLANDS? – two words… Divine appointment. (which requires a long story) – the short of it is that around 25 per cent of the population are atheists while only 17 per cent still believe in the existence of God. However, the majority of the people – a substantial 60 per cent – are on the fence with it comes to faith. They are torn between believing and not believing in God, and they consider themselves as either agnostics or “something-ists.”
We are coming alongside of our native brother Paul who has the ambition to be the first Dutch trained minister of the Church of Christ within the Netherlands. – This is big… and as you would guess, is under big attack from the evil one. So we are asking for prayer for Paul and his family in the following areas:
1) Pray that special spiritual protection will be provided over Paul and his family as he seeks to advance in Christian ministry over the next 12 months.
2) Pray for Paul’s ambition to replicate MERCY PARTNERS as a foundation in the Netherlands whose purpose would be to train evangelists in the European block and empower missionaries to work with us in remote corners. To strengthen the mutual bond of the Churches of Christ and to be an open door for true Christians of all denominations.
3) Pray for the ministers and missionaries that have been moved to train Paul, pray for their continued bond and commitment to Paul and to each other.
4) Pray for the financial, emotional, spiritual and living needs of Paul and his family of four. He and his wife are raising two young boys and need our encouragement during their faithful transition to minister to their own people. This decision requires that Paul reduce his hours of employment and depend on us, our brothers and sisters to stand in the gap to assist him.