AIMS Associates Training Rekindles One Young Adult's Dream to Complete the Great Commission in 20 Years

AIMS News: Posted 10/1/2004

Editor's Note: The following article is a testimony written by one AIMS Associate who attended both the January and June trainings at Regent University in Virginia Beach this year.

As a teenager, I joked with my friends that I didn't want to grow old. What young person does? Forty was old enough for me. If Jesus could complete his ministry by 33 then finishing with all God had for me by forty was not too much to ask. The joke didnít mean anything to me, but God took that joke and my desire to do His will and began to re-shape them toward the nations. Eventually, I began to take it seriously. One day, around my eighteenth birthday, I announced to my friends, "We live in a time and place where the Great Commission is not nearly as challenging as it once was. I want to complete it within the next twenty-two years."

If my friends' reactions were any indication, I was the only person who felt that way. I believed that there was a disbelief in the Body at large that we could complete the Great Commission in the next hundred years, if ever. The "Army of the Lord" seemed to resemble a disinterested mob instead of an organized spiritual fighting force. Armies have strategy, vision, and objectives. The church had bingo, bazaars, and pot-luck luncheons. I became calloused, and over time, my goal to complete the Great Commission fell off my list of priorities.

But in the summer of 2003, things changed. An elder in my church attended the AIMS Associates in Virginia Beach. When I heard him speak about accelerating international strategies for missions, something in me stirred. When my pastor asked me to go in January 2004, I agreed.

I had never taken a course like this before. I was surrounded by people who talked about the "Great Completion." These people had spent time on the mission field and knew firsthand what worked and what didnít. They spoke with authority and experience about the joy of salvation, the pain and opposition of earthly and spiritual authorities, and the need for security in closed nations.

I enjoyed it so much that I returned in June to complete the advanced track. As a 21-year-old college student, I was literally the only non-pastor/non-missionary in my classroom. My faith grew as I listened to them discuss the material and how that material was impacting the world. The AIMS training is not limited to "missionaries and pastors," but then again, neither is the mission field. In all, 51 laypeople, college students, missionaries, and pastors came together to learn and to become mobilizers, to train fishers of men.

Since the initial January training, I had several opportunities to apply what I have learned. I helped present Harvest Connection to about 40 people at my church. The seminar helped the members of my church understand the worldís needs. Although the information focused on the international mission field, the principles applied to people in ministry in various situations to various people.

I've also applied the principles I learned from AIMS to evangelism on my college campus. We began to target our sizable international student population and disciple them with the tools they need to take a passion for Christ back home with them. We don't tell them how to reach their countries - they know how best to do that - we just tell them how to keep a zeal for God in their heart and impart a need to spread the Gospel to them, such as starting a church-planting movement. In fact, I just heard from one student who is now sharing the Gospel back home in Australia. Heís been reached; now, just a few billion more to go.

Do I still want to be "done" at forty? Yes I do, but I think when that time rolls around I'll volunteer for forty more. I've read the end of The Book. Turns out we win. AIMS has helped me be a part of that.

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For more information about AIMS Associates Training, call our home office at (757) 495-5850 or visit the AIMS Associates Training web page.

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