January 13, 2007 - Pig Castration and Missions.
Today we went on field trip with 13 of the church planters. All were going to a farm in Sisophon (the town of my head splitting incident in October 2005) to learn how to castrate pigs. So what does that have to do with missions. Well, this field trip was the culmination of a week of classes taught by World Vision teaching the church planters (which are also refer to as Foundation Layers) transferable lessons on how to raise pigs. It is part of a strategy in which the GBIM missionaries, especially Steve and Deborah Wise, are pouring themselves into teaching real life skills to the church planters. As part of a what they call Super Tuesdays the Church planters are taught the Bible, how to plant a reproducible church that is not dependant on money from the United States to reproduce and support itself, family skills, math, financial management for home and business, and vocational skills. The idea is to equip them to equip the people in the villages to not only learn about the Bible, but how to enhance their income so that, though still sacrificial, they are able to partially support their pastors and missionaries. The life skills can also be used by the pastors in the small house churches to partially support themselves.
As part of this strategy, the church planters we support are being transitioned to being partially self supporting just like the pastors in the villages will need to be. The idea is that they will be able to model the lifestyle that is needed for a reproducible church. The day may come when the people of some of the churches can fully support their pastors, but that is not the case now.
Dave and I, have been reviewing bunsiness plans subimtted by many of the church planters. We interviewed four of them on Friday, and will interview 4 more tomorrow and 3 on Tuesday. As you might expect, most are incomplete, so we look at these times as educational opportunities. Hopefully, some will be able to start up in the next few months.
By the way, I now know how to castrate a pig, so if anyone needs help, let me know.
Today we went on field trip with 13 of the church planters. All were going to a farm in Sisophon (the town of my head splitting incident in October 2005) to learn how to castrate pigs. So what does that have to do with missions. Well, this field trip was the culmination of a week of classes taught by World Vision teaching the church planters (which are also refer to as Foundation Layers) transferable lessons on how to raise pigs. It is part of a strategy in which the GBIM missionaries, especially Steve and Deborah Wise, are pouring themselves into teaching real life skills to the church planters. As part of a what they call Super Tuesdays the Church planters are taught the Bible, how to plant a reproducible church that is not dependant on money from the United States to reproduce and support itself, family skills, math, financial management for home and business, and vocational skills. The idea is to equip them to equip the people in the villages to not only learn about the Bible, but how to enhance their income so that, though still sacrificial, they are able to partially support their pastors and missionaries. The life skills can also be used by the pastors in the small house churches to partially support themselves.
As part of this strategy, the church planters we support are being transitioned to being partially self supporting just like the pastors in the villages will need to be. The idea is that they will be able to model the lifestyle that is needed for a reproducible church. The day may come when the people of some of the churches can fully support their pastors, but that is not the case now.
Dave and I, have been reviewing bunsiness plans subimtted by many of the church planters. We interviewed four of them on Friday, and will interview 4 more tomorrow and 3 on Tuesday. As you might expect, most are incomplete, so we look at these times as educational opportunities. Hopefully, some will be able to start up in the next few months.
By the way, I now know how to castrate a pig, so if anyone needs help, let me know.
posted by GraceCTM | 6:36 AM
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