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God did an amazing thing the first day of Course 5 in Limbé. It had poured rain all night, so much so that it woke us up. Our team drove to the host church in a drizzle. We all thought fewer pastors would come. We had seen it before. When it rains like this in Haiti, many homes get wet and roads can be treacherous. And most Haitians ride motorcycles.

We of little faith. Church leaders came early and kept on coming! They shed coats or garbage-bag ponchos and lined up at the registration table. Eight church leaders had traveled for two days to get to the training. A total of 115 men and women registered for Course 5, limited only by the number of course workbooks we brought. We were amazed – and humbled. CLICK HERE to help us train pastors

I thought of times Jesus commended great faith. The centurion who believed Christ could say the word and heal his servant (Matthew 8:5-13), the Gentile woman willing to eat crumbs from her Master’s table (Matthew 15:21-28), the suffering soul who pushed through the crowd until she could touch Jesus’ robe (Luke 8:43-48) – all these examples of faith have one thing in common. They persisted through difficulties to get to Jesus. They refused to give up when it got hard. They didn’t care what people thought or said. For them, encountering the most amazing Person on earth was worth it!

I began that morning with Hebrews 11:6: “Without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.” I thanked the pastors for pushing through the rain and roads, and prayed that God would reward them, their families and their churches for their diligence in seeking Him.

We enjoyed three exceptional days together. Course 5 is our second course on church leadership (Course 3 is the other) and focuses on what Scripture teaches about 1) leaders for the church and 2) effective organization of the church. The pastors worked hard on the assignments and had a lot of practical questions! On our last day, they asked Pastor Isaiah and me to answer their questions during lunch. They wanted all the course time they could get! So Isaiah and I sat on chairs in the front of the room, snatching bites of food while responding to their questions.

Pray for these leaders, their churches and communities. I have no doubt the Lord will fulfill His promise to reward their rainy day faith. INVEST HERE in church leaders training

(PICTURES. Top left – The group of 8 church leaders who traveled for two days from Belladere to Limbé for the training. Middle – Two more church leaders completed all six PPI courses and received their diplomas. Total to date – 49. Right – 115 church leaders celebrate successfully completing Course 5 and our team with them! Bottom – Our team celebrated Isaiah’s 46th birthday in Limbè. We sang “Happy Birthday” in Creole (“Bòn fèt), English and Spanish (“Cumpleaños feliz”) and gave him a card and gift. The cake tasted good, though the frosting was super sweet!

Thank you for reading this post to the end. CLICK HERE to enjoy Haitian believers singing!

Passionate, pointed, boisterous, sometimes loud – these words characterize our discussions in Course 3, our first of two courses on church leadership. We led this course in two cities in central Haiti earlier this month, and 186 church leaders diligently studied and passionately discussed!

In Course 3, titled Leading Jesus’ Church – Mission and Strategy, we focus on foundational biblical truths about the church. In our study of key Scriptures, we ask questions to stimulate thinking and discussion such as:

• The church belongs to Jesus Christ (Matthew 16:18), what did He intend His church to be and do?
• How would the 11 apostles have understood Jesus’ command to the church – “Make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19).”
• What is a “disciple” according to Scripture?
• How does the Lord tell us to “make” them? What would the apostles have understood?
• What is Jesus doing now? (Yes, interceding for us but also leading His church.)
• What are good “tests” or “measures” of how a local church is doing in making disciples – again according to Scripture?
• How is YOUR church doing in making disciples? In what ways could your church be more effective in fulfilling the Lord’s mission?

We conclude the course with Jesus’ two “all” statements in Matthew 28 (“all authority” in verse 18 and “with you always” in verse 20) and two assignments. Assignment 11 guides pastors to write a specific plan for effectively making disciples in their church.

Then we ask church leaders to share thoughts and concerns about their churches with their study group and pray for one another. And, man, they pray! This final assignment is a highlight of Course 3, a time of surrender to and trust in the Head of the church. Church leaders hold hands and lift their voices together to God. After their amens, groups often sing, and we typically conclude this special time by singing a song of the Faith all together.

Paul writes in Romans 10:11, “Those who trust in Him will never be put to shame.” The apostle draws this encouragement from a recurring theme found in Scriptures such as Isaiah 28:16; Psalm 22:5; and Isaiah 45:17. (By the way, “put to shame” is a good study in the Bible.) As we trust God and rely on His Word through problems, poverty and persecution (Haitian church leaders face all these things!), we won’t be disappointed. We will have no regrets. Our trust is not misplaced! Our hope is anchored in the right Person! That’s the encouragement and joy we see in church leaders as we conclude Course 3. That’s the encouragement and joy each of us can experience as we follow Christ and live for His mission.

We had just completed Course 3 in Pignon, Haiti, when two pastors (pictured with our team below) came to the door of our lodging. We welcomed them in, offered them a seat and began to talk. Both pastors had completed a PPI course in Hinche the previous week and were so excited about the training. (Hinche is the chief city of the Centre Department of Haiti, where we offered Courses 1 and 3.) They talked at length about the need for church leaders to be trained well and said that PPI courses are extraordinaire. They thanked us again and again. It was very humbling.

Why is PPI training resonating so well with church leaders? Why is God giving us such favor and fruit right now? I thought about these questions later. The larger answer, of course, is that our God delights to lavish His kindness on us to grow our love for and gratitude to Him. And it works, doesn’t it?? But I thought more about the specifics: How specifically is God using our training to demonstrate His kindness and bring such joy and growth to so many church leaders in Haiti? I jotted down key values and practices that pastors highlight when they talk about PPI courses:

• We encourage them, love them and value them as fellow church leaders
• We train them with excellence – Biblically and practically
• We speak to their hearts, not just their heads
• We require them to successfully complete the courses

This last point seems counter-intuitive in a setting like Haiti, one of the poorest nations in the world. Shouldn’t we just give Thompson Bibles to them? Can we expect them to attend each day and work hard on every assignment? No and yes.

We set and hold to high expectations for pastors who take our courses. In every PPI course, we encourage church leaders to “successfully complete” the course, and we describe what that means. “You must,” we tell them, “1) attend every day and every session of the course and 2) do your best on each assignment in the course.” Any student who fails to meet either of those requirements will not complete the course and so will not receive a certificate of completion or the ministry resources we provide. We’re strict about that though, of course, we respond with grace and understanding when church leaders have a true emergency.

Here’s what we understand from Scripture and experience:

IF we make people RECEIVERS, we take their DIGNITY and make them DEPENDENT.

IF we expect people to be PARTICIPANTS, we affirm their God-given DIGNITY and build their CONFIDENCE, COMPETENCE AND MOTIVATION.

So many people working well among the poor affirm this to be true – though it runs cross-grain to so much of our charitable and mission work. (Haven’t you wondered how the U.S. and UN could give so much money to poor countries, yet we see so little real change?!) We find again and again that church leaders in our courses are more joyful, more satisfied at the end of the course than at the beginning. “This is now my Bible,” they often say as they complete Course 1. It’s “the dignity of earned success,” as Wayne Grudem puts it in his book, The Poverty of Nations. It’s the image of God in His crowning creation – people.

As our conversation with the two pastors concluded, they pulled three bags of kasava from their backpacks. It was a thank-you gift – and very much enjoyed by our team! Kasava is a special bread made from the root of the kassava (yucca) plant. It is difficult and time-consuming to make (think sour dough bread), and is quite expensive to buy in Haiti. Our team thanked the Lord for encouraging and equipping these two church leaders in our courses – and enjoyed the kasava.