Making Disciples

"Hey Big guy! How are you doing Sir? Im doing just fine.Thank you again for teaching me how to work with wood,drive a car,play x box and how to be strong, especialy when it comes to earthly fathers. You know my story,and by God bringing you into my life,having the same testimony, I was able to forgive my dad for all he did to me and my sibblings.It wasn't easy,but with such a great figure such as Jesus and then you,I was able to let go of that pain,anger,hatred and revenge! Please pray for me to be strong in the Lord, and help those who went through what I went through!"

The above is a note I received from Simon,one of the young men we were discipling in Namibia, Africa. We have shared often with you about Simon and he is in our latest video we posted. God brought him across our path and he has been a part of our lives ever since. Even though we are not able to live there we are still working with him and many others.

As we said in our last blog we want to share with you how easy it is to make disciples. There is nothing hard or complicated about it. You do not need a PhD or a certificate saying you are now qualified to make disciples. I smile as I write this because those are some of the excuses I used to give for not making disciples.

When you read what Simon wrote you see that what impacted his life is how we lived our lives before him. We worked, studied and played together. Each day was a day Simon saw Jesus in us. It is what he saw lived out in our lives, that has drawn him into a personal relationship with Jesus. Simon now knows that he has to be reaching those around him and is actively seeking how God will use him to reach his community.

Discipleship is not hard BUT it does require our time. For many of us we can come up with a whole list of excuses about how we do not have enough time to do the things we are doing now. My own list was quite long and that helped pacify me. The truth, though, is that Jesus gave you and I a command to make disciples, ("Therefore go and make disciples... Matthew 20:19,20".

We are to live our lives for Jesus, ("I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20"), and when we do live our lives for Him we cannot help but make disciples because it is our desire to make Him known.

Catherine and I are even more determined to make disciples. We had a rough 2014 but not even cancer can keep us from doing the work of the Father. Our plans for the year 2015 finds us very busy and we look forward to getting back to Africa to continue the discipleship. Being on staff with Keystone Project is opening the doors for us to work with disciples around the world. It seems like an impossible task and for us it would be but for God it is never impossible.

In Namibia we will continue to work with those we have discipled. We will provide support, additional training and encourage them in their making of disciples. We will be setting up training sessions for Richard Greene, President of Keystone Project, with pastors, missionaries, Christian leaders and whoever else has a heart for discipleship. Our network of friends and co-workers in Namibia will be useful as we set up trainings, and do follow up.  Already we are receiving email requests to visit Bible studies that our disciples have been conducting.  There is no greater joy then to hear one of your disciples ask for MORE...more teaching....more challenge...more training!  Simon and many others remain in our prayers and we are committed to helping them as they fulfill the GREAT COMMISSION!  Thank you for your prayers!

Getting Serious

In our last blog we talked about the importance of discipleship. In this blogs and many to follow we want to show and share how to disciple someone. We believe that anyone who calls themselves a Christ follower must be making disciples. If we are not making disciples we are not fulfilling the command that Christ gave to His disciples and to us.

As we said discipleship is lived out in our lives daily. If you are a follower of Christ answer this question. Do those around me see Christ in me? If you and I are honest we have to admit that the image that others see in us is not very Christ like.

We have fallen into the trap of the world and the image that people see the most in us is the image of the world. We want to have people like us, accept us and respect us. We value and cherish their opinion and will do almost anything to make sure we are liked, accepted and respected in their eyes.

Christ did not care about people liking, accepting or respecting Him. He cared only about what His Father thought of Him and everything Jesus did was for His Father. We have the Bible as our example of how He was treated. He was crucified because He would not conform to the world.

We heard a story today about a man who would tightrope across the Niagara Falls. People cheered him on and loved watching him. One time he asked the crowds if they believed he could push a wheel barrel across the Falls. They shouted out that they believed he could. He then asked for someone to volunteer to ride in the wheel barrel but no one would volunteer. No one truly believed because no one got into the wheel barrel.

We who call ourselves followers of Christ say with our mouths that we believe in Jesus Christ and that we would die for Him but when He asks us to get into the wheel barrel we do not because we do not fully believe.

What Catherine and I are doing is getting in the wheel barrel and we are trusting in Him. We are going to challenge others to not only say they believe but show that they believe. It is not hard and we are honored that He is using us to help make disciples.

The first thing we need to do is make sure we are in a position where God can use us. Start with praying Psalm 139:23,24 "23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

Second stop and listen to what the Holy Spirit says to you. If there is anything at all, big or small, He points out to you, that must be dealt with first. None of us are perfect and never will be but we must be continually working on drawing closer to Him and living for Him. We can only begin making disciples of Christ once we are living a life that makes our Father proud.

Third pray that God will show you who He wants you to disciple. Once He shows you who that person is do not wait, go to that person

What is Discipleship?

How important is discipleship to you? Do you know what discipleship is? Have you wanted to be discipled?

For me I never knew what it meant to be discipled. It was not something I remember ever being talked about with any importance or significance at home, at school, with family and friends or in any of the churches I have attended. I thought it had something to do with helping me be a better Christian and I remember praying to God for Him to bring someone into my life who would disciple me. I prayed that prayer for years without knowing what discipleship really was. 

I started getting connected in the churches I attended hoping to meet someone who could disciple me. I met many Godly men and asked a couple of them if they would disciple me. None of them knew how to disciple someone and they commented that they too had never been discipled. To this day no one has ever discipled me. 

When we went to Africa we found some good material to use to teach about God and thought that in using it we were discipling youth. We know now that material was okay but it was not discipleship. We did what we thought was right and we saw incredible results. The results were from the true discipleship that was taking place.

In Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus taught what true discipleship is. 18) Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19) Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20) and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Jesus said to go and teach the nations. What were the disciples to teach? They were to teach what Jesus taught them. Jesus was modeling discipleship to them everyday through the daily teachings and fellowship. Jesus spent quality time with them and modeled everything to His disciples. The disciples then did what they were taught.

The amazing thing is that Jesus did not use seminars, training programs or curriculum. There were no large church buildings or fancy sound systems. There was nothing flashy about what or how Jesus taught. Jesus lived a life of discipleship.

So when we were in Namibia, living and working with the youth, everyday was the discipleship. It was taking time to walk with them, teach them, talk to them, listen to them and model for them how to live as a Christian. The successes we saw were because we were doing what Jesus did.

Even in what we did we were still not doing exactly what Jesus says we are supposed to do. We are to teach our disciples how to make disciples and help them in making disciples. When we have disciples who are making disciples then we are fulfilling the Great Commission.

We are learning at Keystone Project how to disciple others through life on life and then teaching them how to disciple someone else. The training is not spectacular but it is eye opening. Christian leaders, pastors and teachers have come from all over the world to attend this training on discipleship and are leaving with renewed vision and hearts on fire for carrying out and fulfilling the Great Commission.

With an even great passion we are focusing on working with those we have already discipled in Namibia. We will continue to mentor and teach them and help them make disciples. We will also work with those who have gone through the Keystone Project training all around the world. We will not stop until every person on earth has had the opportunity to hear the gospel and accept Christ.

We invite you and challenge you to begin to make disciples who will go make disciples. If you do not know how to make a disciple we would love to share with you and show you how.

Always on mission,

Anthony and Catherine Duran

One Day at A Time

I am sitting here in the predawn hours on Saturday the 8th after arriving from Namibia, Africa on the 6th. My internal body clock had me up at 3am and I am wide awake so I am writing this update for all our friends and family.

This year has been anything but slow or boring. We began the year getting ready to go back to Namibia to continue the discipleship training and to see about handing over the Garden Café to someone who could continue what was started three years ago.

The day we were leaving for Africa Catherine was diagnosed with breast cancer. To be honest, that rocked our world and we are still adjusting to that reality with the help of our Savior, family and friends. The support and encouragement has been so incredible and we are so blessed to be surrounded by so many who love and care for us.

We are consulting with a team of doctors as to how to proceed and should have a plan by the end of this month. It is painfully slow in setting a plan as to how to treat the cancer but we trust that God is directing us to all the right doctors and that in the end the correct plan and treatment will be decided. We will continue to share information as we get it.

With regards to the ministry work God has called us to, let us give you an update. With the news of the cancer we have had to adjust our plans. We had thought we would have five years to get everything ready to hand over to Namibians to continue the work that God called us to establish. God had other plans though and His plans are always better than ours.

God has raised up a group of four young Namibians who are amazing. They have a heart for the youth also and all through our talks with them they asked how they could help keep the ministry part going. We are looking forward to working with them in the future to continue the discipleship training. It is with joy we report that the youth of Namibia will continue to have the opportunity and resources to make a difference in their lives and in the lives of those around them. We have signed a sales agreement with them and are moving forward with transferring the ownership of the Garden Café to them. They will continue to employ the current staff,  take what we started, add their own ideas and take it to a whole new level. We are so excited at what God is doing in and through this group of young people. In future blogs we will share more about this team and their desires.

We are also blessed to have two local Namibians who will take over the YDM program and continue the discipleship and skills development training. Dieter is a man who had had a heart for the people for many years and he approached us to see what he could do to help keep the program going. We have also found a young woman who is a qualified teacher, Ndemufayo, and she too has a heart for the youth. Together they will run the program and we will work with them to train and coach them so that they can continue to offer the successful YDM program.

We have been working around the clock these past two months and we are overwhelmed at the people God is bringing across our path to help. We were not even aware of the impact we had made in the community until it was rumored that the ministry may have to close. Professionals and former students from all around the community shared with us how the Garden Café has made a difference in their lives and in the community. Their stories moved us to tears on more than one occasion and we thanked God for letting us see how the seeds we planted have grown and multiplied.

On a side note, we are seeing God moving in the churches of Okahandja and seeing pastors taking up the call to discipleship more seriously. We thank God for allowing us to be a small part of this movement toward Biblical discipleship and trust that we can continue to encourage and support our ministry partners on the ground.

Keystone Project continues to be our ministry covering and their prayers and support have been overwhelming to us. God has confirmed that we are to remain on staff and take each day as it comes right now. Their spiritual covering is an answer to prayer for us. We are so blessed to be a part of such an incredible team and ask that you pray that God will continue to guide, protect and strengthen those who are a part of the Keystone team. We are looking at this new path ahead and asking God to reveal our next assignment. We will boldly share His life changing message with everyone He brings across our path. We look forward to seeing lives radically changed by the power of His name. Here in Utah, and also wherever the Lord sends us next.

Catherine with 2 former students

Dieter & Tony discussing discipleship training

We know this is a long update and that there are a lot of questions. Please feel free to contact me and I will answer questions as best as I can. Catherine has a long road ahead and I will do my best to ensure she has everything she needs to travel this road. This may mean shielding her from having to answer all the questions but know that this is to give her the space and time to focus on healing. We love and cherish each and everyone of you. Words cannot say it adequately but we thank you so very much for standing with us.