Dear Friends,
One of the most important things we are doing to ensure a successful Gospel Festival in Cambodia, in December 2024 is to upgrade the ministry capacity of local Cambodian pastors through training/education. This investment in education and training is vital because new converts will not keep coming to local churches unless they are spiritually nurtured and raised as disciples.
When we went to Cambodia in April, we visited pastoral leaders in all 9 districts of the province where we are working and created the structure in which all pastors (200 churches/pastors) will receive training. We have maintained close communication with the church leaders of this province to select and train leading pastors who will train the other pastors. After some strategic planning sessions, the leaders held the first pastor training classes in 2 different districts on July 8 (Last Saturday). We will evaluate these two pilot classes after one month. If all goes well, we will expand to offer these same classes in the other 7 districts of the province.
Pastors will meet with their classes for a 4-hour session each week. Participants will have homework and study assignments after each class which are due the following week. Each modular course will last for 3 months. Pastors who complete all ten modules will receive a certificate of graduation from the course.
My friend Larry Arnold worked hard to make this happen. Larry is one of the board members of DCMi and also runs a missionary organization called “Biblical IQ.” It is estimated that about 85% of the churches in the world are led by people who have no formal Biblical training, thus, the mission of Bible IQ is to provide these untrained pastors in the mission fields with biblical and theological training/education. http://biblicaliq.org
Training pastors in the mission field requires prayer, patience, strategy, and funds. Thank you for continuing to partner with us through your prayers and financial support.
Sincerely,
David Chung
