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!
