Every year we say “this was the best trip so far” and it was the same for our 2024 trip. This year the UK team was Andy and Stephen, joined by a Liberian team of eight. Our aim was to establish ongoing Discovery groups in a number of different communities. We started with a two day conference with about 50 Kingdom Apprentices. Everyone said it was a life changing two days. It was like scales falling from people’s eyes as we looked at what Jesus told us about how to make disciples on day 1, then on day 2 we looked at what Jesus said about many of our church practices, including preaching, worship and prayer.
From there we visited five Christian communities and establish about a dozen Discovery groups. Then we moved to a Muslim area. We spent two days in one Muslim village and every home we visited welcomed us and eagerly discussed the Jesus stories we shared. The commonest prayer request we heard there was “I want to be a faithful disciple of Jesus”. We have four Discovery groups established there.
Then we moved again to another Muslim village that we had started in last year. We immediately renewed our friendship with the Imam who invited me to teach Jesus stories in the Mosque. On my second evening teaching in the Mosque we had a most extraordinary time. The presence of Jesus was so strong; there was so much joy in Jesus. Two people were healed in the mosque and all were hungry for Jesus. The next evening the Imam took me round house to house to heal the sick and share other Jesus stories. After that he started reading the stories for himself, memorising them and sharing them. I think that Imam is a Muslim disciple-maker in the making.
Meanwhile other team members were finding “People of Peace” in neighbouring communities, healing the sick and teaching Jesus stories. During our final 4 days in the Muslim communities we found so many Muslims, both young and old, who were so eager to hear about Jesus. The elders sent spies to find out what we were doing. When they asked our Muslim hosts if we were trying to convert them, they said “No. Not at all. They are just telling us stories about Isa and encouraging us to be good Muslims.”
We taught them what the Quran says about Isa, and they asked us how they could walk with Jesus and learn from him. So we promised we would teach them more Jesus stories that they could learn from and obey.
The chairman of the mosque said that when he heard the story, he knew it was true. After we left they continued to discuss it. Then he went to the mosque and taught the story.
The town chief told us that before we arrived the community was fighting with each other and the youth were shouting and being disrespectful and disruptive. But since our arrival and going house to house all has been at peace. In that area we trained up people for 9 Discovery Groups.
The Liberian team and their apprentices were so excited at what Jesus was doing and are determined to continue to water the seed that had been planted and see disciple-makers trained up to keep the mission going forward.
