Kuranko (November 2012)
“I want to welcome you again,” Pastor Cecil Huggins told the JESUS Film Church Planting Strategy team. “We have planted a church before and it is doing very well. Thank you for your relentless endeavours to assist us in planting churches in the entire Koinadugu District. This has really motivated us to be more zealous in planting churches. I want to assure you that we are also determined to work with you and make sure that the entire Koinadugu District is taken for the Lord Jesus Christ,” he said emphatically. Pastor Huggins leads The Door Christian Fellowship in Kabala Town that first partnered with the JESUS Film Church Planting Strategy in April 2012.
Pastor Matthew Koroma of the Church of Pentecost had heard good testimonies about this strategy from other pastors and had also seen its fruit. “I can say that this is a blessing in this district,” he said. “Many churches have been born out of this strategy and they are doing pretty well compared to our own way of doing it. We will continue to embrace this church planting program. I have gone through the manual which is very wonderful. The lessons are very simple and easy to understand by even a layman. We will be using those lessons in our Bible studies. Our congregation also needs to know this vital information about the Christian faith. I promise to work with you at any time.”
Pastor Manso Mansaray, another pastor in Kabala Town, wished this kind of program had been available before. “This is what we want to see here, a strategy that will help pastors propagate the things of God,” he said. “I appreciate the action group training and the gift of your church planting manuals and other useful materials. The training will help us greatly as a church and ease my work load. Sometimes I found the work very difficult because there was no one to assist me. With this program, I believe we are going to plant as many churches as we can. We are going to make good use of this opportunity. Many thanks to you and to the people who are funding this strategy.”
Twenty-two people from the congregations of these three pastors received training and went out to show the JESUS film and evangelized in the villages of Fadugu, Kodala, and Yaraia. Today, there are church plants in these villages.
“I am very happy I went through this training,” said Yatu Kamara from Pastor Huggins’ church. “I used to be afraid of crowds, but now I can say this fear is gone. I can now stand before a group and teach what I have been taught in the training such as different methods of evangelism. I am blessed.”
For Emma Mansaray, the use of the Road to Life booklet, the pictorial illustrations and sharing one’s personal testimony, which she learned during the training, have formed the foundation of her evangelism. Her feedback is quite common among those who undergo this action group training.
