Introduction
From the 23th February to the 5th of March 2017, the Director of the Evangelism, Discipleship and Church growth department in Burundi Free Methodist church participated in a disciple making training of the 5th continental cohort of the African Strategic Discipleship Movement in Durban, South Africa. The cohort was hosted by Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) Church of South Africa, though it was held in Umthunzi Hotel.
Training
We spent 9 days having time for training, mentoring and community. The 12 lessons we had were:
- The Gospel of the Kingdom(Lesson 9 and 10)
- Spiritual Transformation(Lesson 9 and 10)
- Disciple-making(Lesson 9 and 10)
- Relationship, marriage and Family(Lesson 9 and 10)
- Evangelism and Mission(Lesson 9 and 10)
- Leading a Discipleship Movement(Lesson 9 and 10)
This was a special cohort as all the DMLs (Disciple Making Leaders) were to be with their wives. The objective of wives invitation was to bring the DMLs families altogether as husbands and wives to celebrate their relationship with God, their marriages, and the ministry of discipleship that God has given to them. It was also to hear together the messages on marriage, family, and discipleship.
As we spent this special week together, God encouraged all of us through His Word, and time spent together learning, laughing, and loving one another. It was so encouraging to feel the closeness, unity, and love of the ASDM cohort. It was also so encouraging to hear about what everyone is doing in their country and in their context to promote and apply discipleship.In the afternoons,all the wives were together being toughs on the topics such as:
During the 9 days, we had times of strategic opportunities to unite and focus our attention on the great task of disciple-making. We experienced unity to share in our families, denominations, churches and countries. We also got times of trainings, fellowship, mentoring and community.
Conclusion
The session was concluded by a conference to mobilise church leaders in Kenya for discipleship. Participants in that conference were not only AGC leaders but also some from Nairobi chapel and some other denominations. Friday afternoon we came back to Nairobi spent there the night before departing on Saturday 19th.