One of the questions I frequently get asked is how has WILD been able to reach in to many African countries and Nepal. All I can say is God has been opening the doors. WILD has only gone into countries where we have been personally invited. Doors continue to open and WILD walks through them. Here are a few stories.
In April, 2010, out of the blue, I received a phone call from a Liberian pastor named Peter. This pastor had received information from a ministry that had a booth at the March, 2010, WCN Expo. The director of the ministry walked over to the WILD booth and inquired about WILD. After receiving the info about WILD, she let Pastor Peter from Liberia know about the spiritual leadership being offered by WILD. Thus Peter called Mike, who after finding out that the call was not a scam, began the process to head to Liberia, and WILD now has a regional director there and we have traveled to Liberia three times. The Liberians were totally spiritually prepared to receive the training and material.
As Peter shared, “If someone should ask me what so special about WILD SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP TRAINING – this is how I would like to put it even though words are inadequate to express my thoughts: WILD Training materials are simple to the surface, but are CULTURALLY TRANSFROAMTIVE AND RELEVANTLY APPLICABLE TO FORMS OF LEADERSHIP. WILD addresses the heart problem of leadership that I had never encountered in my life of leadership. It is worth welcoming in any country like ours that struggles with a leadership crisis not only on the political scene but also in the churches that are at the edges of dying. This material is worth communicating to all people groups of all ages. We need in Liberia, for our nation’s need of transformation. Because the highest percentage of Liberia and that of West Africa is youth, we want to train up our youth in the way they should go and I believe when they grow older, Islam and other cults will have not hold of them. We will adopt this material to be taught throughout Liberia.”
One other story on how God opens doors as He works throughout the world originates from England. Ram Prasad Shrestha, WILD’s Regional Director from Nepal (I am heading to Nepal for the 4th time during November and is another God story of how WILD ended up in Nepal) who was studying in England, walked into the room of Arthur, a Liberian who had become friends with Ram. Arthur was working on ideas on spiritual leadership material as Ram walked in. Knowing that Arthur was heading back to Liberia in a few weeks, Ram saw what Arthur was doing and told him that a friend, Mike Prom, would be in Liberia soon and he should meet up with me. Fast forward a few weeks and Arthur contacted Mike because he “happened” to live where WILD was offering training. Arthur has since become extremely enthusiastic about WILD and also a teacher-trainer of the WILD material as a result of our meetings.
WILD African members walk through doors God opens. In Uganda, the established Ugandan WILD team shared several of the team traveled to western Uganda and taught WILD spiritual leadership to Christian leaders from Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Those from DRC enthusiastically shared that this was the first time they had ever received spiritual leadership training. The WILD team returned to the DRC the following Spring, offering more training plus had the WILD material translated into their dialect so that they had WILD resources placed in their hands as discipleship tools where they can teach many others DRC pastors and leaders. The week long training was excellent and enthusiasm is high for continued leadership discipleship.
Another WILD Ugandan member travelled to Tanzania, teaching the WILD spiritual leadership material to a church he had years ago pastored. The material was well received and the leaders in that area have requested WILD to come and provide even more training and resources. This same Ugandan pastor spoke to a Burundi pastor who has asked that WILD come and provide the training and resources.
Doors Open for Rhinelander's WILD
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