Although 2019 has been a year of new initiatives for Jericho Road Ministries – reported in this newsletter – the mission and vision of JRM remain the same.
Our vision: “To see a day when every person in South Central Africa has the opportunity to become a Bible-trained disciple of Christ.“
Our mission: “To provide discipleship training for individuals through a network of churches, Christian ministries, and educational institutions to carry out the Great Commission in South Central Africa.”
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,… teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:19-20a NIV
NEW Offices and New Address
Thanks to Missionary Tech Team (MTT) of Longview, Texas, Jericho Road Ministries now has a new office and a new address. As evidence of their longtime commitment to serving and supporting mission efforts and organizations around the world, MTT has graciously provided, for very low cost, office space and services in their beautiful office building in the East Industrial Park in Longview.
Please make a note of the new JRM mailing address:
Alan Huesing was elected by the JRM Board to serve as Executive Director effective September 1, 2019. Alan comes to JRM with a lifetime of experience in international mission work and cross-cultural education. He and his wife, Sheryl, served for several years as mission workers in the Philippines, Taiwan, and Mainland China. They also served the public schools of Marshall, TX, as English Second Language teachers. Alan served seven years as a strategist for the North American Mission Board in Atlanta, GA, and for 18 years as International Director at East Texas Baptist University in Marshall, TX. Alan and Sheryl are members of Mobberly Church in Marshall where they direct the outreach and evangelism program called Engage. They have three grown children – all serving in ministry – and three young grandchildren.
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New Strategy in Malawi
New Strategy in Malawi
New Strategy in Malawi
In March JRM began a new partnership with YouTurn Ministries in Malawi. YouTurn has begun five new pastor training centers and has plans to begin three more in the near future. JRM has agreed to provide each center with Emmaus Bible studies for every new cohort of 20 pastors-in-training as the discipleship portion of their academic curriculum. Each month for two years the new pastors travel to a central location and spend five consecutive days to study the Bible studies and simplified seminary courses. Back in their home villages, they are planting and pastoring new churches where they begin their work as Emmaus mentor/trainers. We thank God for the opportunity to train, equip, and support hundreds of these new Bible teachers.
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New Strategy for Churches in America
New Strategy for Churches in America
New Strategy for Churches in America
Many evangelical churches in America would like to “go to all nations and make disciples,” but have no idea where or how to start. They assume they must organize a mission trip to a foreign country – preferably an English-speaking country; then raise a truck load of money for passports, visas, airline tickets, vaccinations, etc. After weeks or months of training and preparation, they will finally travel for a day or two in order to spend a week or so adjusting to jet lag, strange food, different beds, and unexpected culture shock while they learn on the job how to teach, share, build, play, worship, and make friends. After a long trip back home, they will only have pictures and memories to help them sort out what happened, what will become of their newfound far-away friends, and how to follow up on their experience. Or,… all churches know how to “go to the nations” by giving money and praying for missionaries who physically relocate to other countries and spend their lives learning to penetrate cultures to share the Gospel and make disciples. But, again, few churches can fully underwrite – call out, train, equip, send, and fully support – a missionary (and his family).
Now, JRM has a new strategy for churches to “go” to nations in South Central Africa and “make disciples.”
Unless you are new to JRM, you already know that, for 15 years, our overall plan has been to train, equip, support, encourage, and work with Africans who make disciples who are, themselves, disciple-makers who will continue the process throughout their countries.
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You probably also know that Bibles, teaching materials, and training are distributed through a huge network of Zone leaders and Area Coordinators (A/Cs) throughout Zambia and Malawi. Each A/C coordinates up to twelve trainers who each mentor as many as 20 students through the discipleship process each year. Beginning in 2020, JRM is inviting churches, small groups, even families to “sponsor” an A/C to make disciples in a specific area in Africa. Through a web-based system, sponsors can know and communicate with their A/C, the mentors they coordinate, and all of their students in the area. Sponsors can track, in real time, the progress of each student.
Sponsorship involves three commitments:
1. To pray for your A/C, mentors, and students;
2. To encourage them through email, WhatsApp, and other online media; and
3. To support them through JRM with a monthly financial gift to subsidize the cost of printing and distributing Bibles and study booklets and help the A/C participate in the annual zone training conference.
Imagine supporting an A/C – essentially your own missionary – in Africa. An A/C is a missionary who already understands the local language and culture, never feels homesick for his homeland, has a job to support himself and his family, never needs a visa, and is truly at home in his mission field. He is already trained and experienced in his work of making disciples. He just needs Bibles and other printed materials to do the work. And he needs your ongoing prayers and encouragement. He needs partners who care about him, his family, and the disciples he is mentoring.
Sponsors may also travel with JRM to Africa in the spring, summer, or fall. You can visit your students and teachers, participate in graduation ceremonies and baptismal services, work with your new African friends to share the Gospel in their villages, identify other projects in your “area” that your church can undertake, etc.
For a prospectus with full details (including application) for your church, small group, or family to become a sponsor, send an email request to: info@jerichoroad.org
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REPORT From South Central Africa
REPORT From South Central Africa
REPORT From South Central Africa
In September Rick Carr, Mike Burns, and Alan Huesing traveled with Zambia National Directors Pastor Dickson Kasongo and Mulengwani Mweyama across Zambia and Malawi on the T2 Highway to attend six graduations.
The first graduation was held at Sunnyside Baptist Church near Lusaka. The congregation sang, prayed, and students gave testimonies before Rick delivered the charge to the graduates explaining how the Bible was written, copied, preserved, translated, and passed down to us.
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The 19 students who had completed the 154 Bible studies and passed all tests required for Level I received their diplomas and a copy of the bilingual (English and Chichewa) New Testament. Unfortunately, some of the students scheduled to graduate that day never made it to the church. They were traveling as a group from a distant village in an old bus. Police stopped and detained them as they approached the city. Although the ceremony was delayed by almost two hours waiting for the students, it took the group so long to satisfy the police that they missed the entire ceremony. It happens.The next graduation was 400 kilometers down the road in Petauke. A group of 11 students – all men – were eager to receive their Level I diplomas after singing, sharing testimonies, and hearing a charge from Mike about living the Christian life.
Getting to the third graduation was an adventure. The “graduation committee” traveled all morning and into the afternoon on a dirt road that had been washed out by the previous rainy season. They joined the cars, motorcycles, bicycles, donkey carts, and countless pedestrians – all heavily laden with supplies from town or produce from the villages – patiently picking their routes around or through deep fissures, furrows, and crevices. The road was so rough that a wheel on the group’s borrowed minivan was bent beyond repair. Finally, the traveling committee arrived at a small church near a place called Jerusalem. An excited group of graduates with their families and friends – and many curious bystanders – were waiting outside the church. Inside the small mud-brick, dirt-floor building there were colorful handmade strands of paper and plastic decorations hung from the ceiling. The 14 graduates lined up in a double line outside and came singing and dancing into the church. Four of the students – the ones who had scored highest on their tests – were dressed in blue caps and gowns. It was the most joyous occasion imaginable! Alan gave the graduation address using Jesus’ parable of the Sower and the Seed (Matthew 13). He charged the students to be like the seeds that fell on good soil and produced a hundredfold, sixty, or thirty… by becoming trainers and teaching others what they had learned.
The next graduation was in a beautiful Anglican church in the city of Chipata. As it was getting dark, 33 graduates – many dressed in graduation caps and gowns – received their Level I diplomas from Pastor Kasongo and Brother Mweyama.
The following day the group crossed the border into Malawi – completing immigration formalities in only four hours. After a good meal and a good night’s sleep in familiar beds at the Baptist Guest House in Lilongwe, the traveling team spent a day at the Dzaleka Refugee Camp. Most of the 44,000 refugees living in the camp are from the Congo. They were driven from their homeland by civil war. (Imagine what conditions would drive people to find refuge in Malawi, the third poorest nation on Earth.) The group met Justin Mwenemalongo, a Christian refugee who has built and is pastoring the tiny Cornerstone Bible Church near the middle of the camp. Brother Justin is also one of our Bible trainers. He has a tremendous vision for discipling his exiled fellow countrymen as well as the people of his host country of Malawi. (Hear for yourself on the JRM website the interview Alan recorded with Justin.) Cornerstone graciously hosted the graduation ceremony where 12 of Pastor Justin’s students received their Level I diplomas. The graduates shared fantastic singing (and dancing) accompanied by tribal drums. After the ceremony, the church elders fed the visiting group a wonderful meal of goat meat, greens, and rice – from their monthly rations provided by UNICEF.
On Sunday the group visited Lingadzi Baptist Church on the outskirts of Lilongwe. The morning worship service included the graduation of 12 church members who had successfully completed Level I studies.
Before leaving to return home, the traveling group visited with 15 students – pastors in training – and leaders of the Mitundu Pastor Training Center. They shared an unforgettable and truly blessed time of singing, testimonies, fellowship, and prayer.
Twelve days of travel – including four days of international flights to get there and back, plus nonstop travel in a borrowed vehicle on rough roads, all on a tight schedule – is a grueling experience for anyone. But, for Rick, Mike, and Alan, the September trip across Africa with two brothers in Christ, co-workers in our mission, was priceless.
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NEW for 2020
NEW for 2020
NEW for 2020
DONOR APPRECIATION EVENT
– Spend an evening with the JRM family celebrating the kingdom work God is doing in Africa through Jericho Road Ministries.
ZONE TRAINING EVENTS
– Area Coordinators, Trainers, and Zone Leaders will come together for 24 hours of celebration, worship, fellowship, and training to be more inspired and better equipped to lead in the process of making disciples in their families and villages. You can be involved as well.
PASSPORT PARTY
– Every Great Commission Christian should have a valid passport. JRM will partner with the District Clerk office to offer an opportunity to save time and money applying for your passport.
NEW Prayer Concerns
• 21 more churches here in the U.S. to sponsor the work of 21 Area Coordinators in Zambia and Malawi.
• A National Director to lead the work in Malawi.
• Health and physical strength for our National Director in Zambia, Pastor Dickson Kasongo, who is 85 years old. Pastor Kasongo has been with JRM in Zambia since 2004. He was the first believer Eddie Napps, JRM founder, met in Africa.
• An additional printer/publisher in Malawi to help us stay ahead of the demand for more Bibles and Bible study booklets.
• African Bible trainers’ continued spiritual growth as they teach their students.
• We have applied for tax exempt status in Zambia and requested our international financial services provider to grant us pro bono or reduced cost services. Pray for favorable consideration.
• An African who can administer the social media outlet which will best communicate to our broadcast audiences in South Central Africa.
• New JRM Board members to serve three-year terms.
• JRM depends on the generosity of God’s people to fund the ministry of taking His Word to Africa. Pray that He will stir our hearts to give.
