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And the things you have heard me say in the
presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2:2) 
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Our Vision, Model, and Strategy for training remote village pastors and leaders in Central Congo. |
Our VISION for this school is to equip pastors and church leaders, to build their lives on Biblical principles and not the traditions of men, training them to lead by example, so that their lives as believers, and thus the church, will reflect the nature and culture of the Kingdom of God in their families, in their church life, and in their communities.
The initial target area for our pastor training centers is the Sankuru region, about the size of Kentucky, in the very center of the Congo. This is a large country, with its own unique combination of obstacles that has forced us to create a very different model for pastoral training that will allow us to reach the most remote areas with an effective and productive approach to Biblical training. We trust that in time, this model will allow us to go well beyond the Sankuru region.
The initial target area for our pastor training centers is the Sankuru region, about the size of Kentucky, in the very center of the Congo. This is a large country, with its own unique combination of obstacles that has forced us to create a very different model for pastoral training that will allow us to reach the most remote areas with an effective and productive approach to Biblical training. We trust that in time, this model will allow us to go well beyond the Sankuru region.
Strategy ... Duplication
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The target area for our pastoral training is the Sankuru region of Congo. Our long-term strategy is not based on a central campus or training center in Lodja, but rather an increasingly expanding network of satellite training centers throughout the Sankuru that will be able to reach the pastors in the most remote villages of Congo.
Stage 1: Teachers will be trained in Lodja
Stage 2: First group of student families selected from targeted villages move to the jungle site to begin training.
Stage 3: The student families trained at our center return to their villages and duplicate the process.
Stage 4: The process is duplicated as pastors, leaders, and families trained at these satelite locations begin to establish new traning centers in neighboring villages, pressing deeper into the remote areas of the Sankuru region of Central Congo.
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Although Lodja serves as the administrative center, our focus is on establishing and supporting a network of satellite schools capable of training and sending out qualified pastors who can duplicate what they have learned. After the second class graduated from our jungle site, we moved our focus to the new satellite training centers. Due to the effectiveness of their efforts we have began to receive many more requests from village chiefs and church leaders throughout the area than we could handle. We realized that we needed much more in the way of seed for crops and animals that would provide us with the "seed" to sow in these new areas, as well as trained workers to labor in these harvest fields.
To meet this need we built a more permanent "Seed Center" in Lodja which is being used to produce crop seed and animals. In 2018, we graduated the first class of students from this new center. These graduates are taking the crop seed and starter animal stock into an ever expanding area of central Congo, teaching and modeling the principles of a productive and responsible life as citizens of the Kingdom of God.
These dedicated and trained believers are taking the light of the Gospel into remote villages throughout central Congo. The impact of observing someone work with his own hands in the fields and with animals to support his family - being productive and meeting his own needs - is bearing much fruit. To those held captive in darkness and poverty, this is a bright light that is bringing hope. Many in these villages are asking for help in being productive themselves. As they are being met at their point of need, they are opening up to the Gospel. The Kingdom of God is coming to these remote jungle villages, one-on-one. A culture is being changed one life at a time.
To meet this need we built a more permanent "Seed Center" in Lodja which is being used to produce crop seed and animals. In 2018, we graduated the first class of students from this new center. These graduates are taking the crop seed and starter animal stock into an ever expanding area of central Congo, teaching and modeling the principles of a productive and responsible life as citizens of the Kingdom of God.
These dedicated and trained believers are taking the light of the Gospel into remote villages throughout central Congo. The impact of observing someone work with his own hands in the fields and with animals to support his family - being productive and meeting his own needs - is bearing much fruit. To those held captive in darkness and poverty, this is a bright light that is bringing hope. Many in these villages are asking for help in being productive themselves. As they are being met at their point of need, they are opening up to the Gospel. The Kingdom of God is coming to these remote jungle villages, one-on-one. A culture is being changed one life at a time.