Church Planting Summit
God gave for D.O.N.E. to bring both Bishop Abdoulaye Ba and Rev. Thomas Browne, our African leaders, to Ames, Iowa to attend and be trained at the 2008 BILD (Biblical International Leadership Development) INTERNATIONAL SUMMIT.
There were over 350 people in attendance from 40 nations around the world. Our US Board of Directors, Dr. Rev. Patrick Novak, has been involved and trained as a trainer over several years. This training and program has had exceptional results in the Church Planting Movement in India and is reaching into Africa and well as these other 38 countries. The method they use in their training is the Antioch School of Church Planting and Leadership Development. It is based completely on Jesus approach of sending out his disciples and the method of church planting in Acts.
One of our major objectives is to introduce the training into each country individually. Bishop Ba as a Senegalese is fluent in French so he will be doing the training in our French speaking countries. Rev. Browne is Liberian and he will do the training in our English speaking countries. Since Dr. Novak is a trainer of trainee in the Antioch training methods and has introduced the training in his church in Santa Clara, California, he will be taking a team from his church to West Africa in January and will meet with Rev. Browne. They will introduce training in selected countries until the end of Spring.
Bishop Ba will be traveling all Spring to most of our French speaking countries, meeting with our pastors and workers, doing training and developing enhanced communication with them. Our great concern is that we have enough funds to pay for this travel and reproduce needed materials. If this is an opportunity for you or your church to participate, we would certainly praise God as the need is so great and the field is ready unto harvest.
Learn more about Discipling Our Nations Effectively at doneinc.org
Heavy rainfall has been a hindrance for progress to outreached villages and towns of our target groups. Homes and agricultural activities were affected in G and S towns. But God is still doing new and great things. G Town cell group has 2 new converts and 13 people were baptized. B Town cell group has 20 new converts and 23 persons baptized. Our newest cell group in K Village has 38 persons. This village is surrounded by number of villages and is one of our fastest growing cell groups. Although there are more than x thousand children between 11 and 16 years, there are no schools or clinics and they also lack hand pump and toilet facilities. Be in prayer as we minister and teach in these villages.
On June 21, 2008 the Senegal Theological Bible College and Seminary (STBCS) held its 5th Commencement Program at the Evangelical Church of Parcelles Assainies in Dakar Senegal. The program brought together Christians and non-Christian from a cross section of Senegal and the United States.
The Youth department has been very active over the pass month, holding revivals, series of youth meetings and engaged in physical work in and around the church. Therefore they decided not to just impart the church but to strategically reach out to evangelize the community.
They spend 6 hours removing garbage, dirt and sand that had oven taken the street as a result of heavy rains. It was wonderful and exciting. This was the first time the community had ever experienced young people coming on the streets to work without asking or begging for funds from the residence, by passer, motorist or commuters. It was exciting and wonder. While the youth were concentrating on traffic control and getting the streets clean, the children were sharing tracks and witnessing to who ever came their way for the Lord.
It was amazing to see the young as well as the old Muslim receiving tracks from the children in public, something which would have been difficult or impossible for an average person to do in the public. The children distributed over 450 tracks and as a matter of fact they ran out of tracks. The move by the youth has been welcome and highly appreciated by the community.
Repair work on the DONE Building in Dakar has come to a stand still after payment for the work done in phases one and two was made. The Ministry and the contractors took the decision to suspend the work until a fix date can be agreed upon for final payment when work is completed. Meanwhile work on the second and third floors is completed and both the Ba’s and the Browne’s have been relocated back into the building.
Joel has vowed to remain a Christian and to tell relatives, friends and everyone she meets about the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, despite family rejection and declaring her an infidel, a frustrated lady and one who does not have hope.
Joelle was baptized on Saturday June 30, 2007, by Rev. Thomas Browne after she accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. She is the only member of her family who is a Christian. Contrary to the family pronouncement that she is frustrated, Joelle is normal, well and very intelligent.
Pastor Peter Paye writes to all of you who have supported our college:
Speaking at the occasion, the guest speaker, Pastor Souleyman Bakaoyo of the Assembly of God Church located in Thies, Senegal called on the graduates to know the God who has called them because there were many gods, but only one true God through our Lord and Savior Jesus. He said, if the graduates knew the God through Jesus Christ it is only than that they will discover the will and purpose of their life and what God has called them to do. He told the graduates that the best revelation of God is found in the Bible.
Rev. Thomas Browne. Students of the second year class was awarded Associate of Arts in Theology, by Pastor Efolie Rogathien, a professor of the college, while the successful students of the third year class were awarded attestation by Bishop Abdoulaye Ba; 5 student graduated and were awarded a Bachelor of Arts in Theology by the Rev. N’Djungu Nkemba, General Superintendent of the United Methodist Church in Senegal.
Senegal Theological Bible College and Seminary will be offering Master in Theology to students during the 2007 – 2008 academic school year. He said that the ministry did not have the funds available neither did it know where the funds will come from, but he said that he believes with out a single doubt that God will provide all that will be needed to operate the college. He called on the Christian community, charitable organizations and individuals to support this worthy cost. This information has been highly received by 90% of pastor living and working in Dakar. Since the pronouncement most of them have called to thank the bishop and to register their moral, spiritual support and their interest to enroll as its first students. The Senegal Theological Bible College and Seminary will be the first of its kind in the Republic of Senegal to offer a Master Program in Theology.
leadership of the stadium for making their facilities available to the Ministry. At the end of the program, light refreshment was held in honor of the graduates.
Dakar, Senegal: Retrofitting the DONE Building in Dakar is still in process. Renovation work on the second floor is completed and already Bishop Ba and has family have moved. Renovation work on the third floor will be completed over the week end and Rev. Browne and family is expected to move in early next week.
not necessary to continue with previous plans of removing the third floor. According to the engineer this puts the building in a better position to retrofit as compare to the previous plan of knocking down the third floor which could have effected and cause harm to the building because of the impact of knocking. They indicated that when retrofitted, the building could go for another 7 to 10 years.
Conakry, Guinea Pastor Jean Mara reports that one of his men of peace we visited while in route from Liberia, a Muslim is cooperating and doing everything to implement the new CPM. This man is an owner of a transport bus that takes local business people to the market every Friday. Transportation in the area is a high demand so most people business people and marketers befriend this man and make pre-transportation arrangements prior to the market day. So every market day he would take Jean Mara with him. Jean Mara serves as the bus conductor who makes appointments and collects fares. Many people have be-friend Jean and are inviting him to their homes. Jean is now a bus conductor, but remains vision minded as he searches for his man of Peace.