Sherbo (November 2012)
“I have planted new churches in various places before but only few of them still exist,” said Pastor Osma Sesay of the United Methodist Church. “I was not able to sustain them because I simply lacked the human resources or trained volunteers to enable those churches to succeed. I am very happy to hear that your church planting strategy includes the training of some of our members so that they can assist me in teaching the new converts and help me to establish a new church. This is a blessing from above,” he continued.
The JESUS Film Church Planting Strategy indeed addresses this problem of sustainability of church plants by training and equipping people to evangelize and follow up new believers that will form the core of a new church. New believers have a better chance of being established in their new faith and engaging in spiritual multiplication if a church is in the area.
Pastor Augustine Foday of Mano Dasse shared Pastor Osma’s comment. “We pastors have the zeal and courage to plant new churches in neighbouring villages. The problem we face is finding people to oversee these churches. Thank God that you have come to us with this strategy and the training of some of our church members so they can assist us in both spreading the gospel and teaching new believers,” said Pastor Foday.
“I’ve been hearing about this for a while,” said Rev. Joseph Vandy, another pastor in Mano Dasse. “If we only had this type of training before we could have accomplished more for God. With your help I want to saturate this entire district with churches because people here have been in darkness for a long time.”
Those who received training came away with spiritual truths, skills and tools for sharing their faith. It gave them a renewed desire for the things of God and reaching the lost.
“When I was chosen by my pastor to take part in this training, I was not happy about it because I am a very busy man,” said Junisa Bangalie. “But having gone through it, I have no regrets that I took the time to do this. Many of the things that I learned were unfamiliar to me. I am very happy that the training has given me a much greater zeal to live every day for Jesus.”
A grateful Agnes Bunduka told the JESUS Film Church Planting Strategy team: “This training has opened my eyes spiritually and pointed out some of my weaknesses as a Christian. Because of this I will seek the face of God so that He can teach me how I must live according to His will. I want to say that the entire training was full of practical Christian lessons that will help me in my quest to become an effective and fruitful servant of God. We never thought such a good thing would ever come our way. I want to thank you for coming here and for helping us as much as you have.”
From August to October 2012, eight new church plants (Vama, Bangoma, Moyomboma, Semabu Dasse, Sengbehun, Sambabu, Kpetema Fandy and Kpetema Junction) were established, resulting in a total of 167 people in follow-up (some of which are below).
