Passion for Prayer Kicks Off Denominational Training in Thailand

AIMS News: Posted 8/1/2005

"We don't have enough prayer." The seventy denominational leaders from across Asia who had gathered in Bangkok, Thailand for a Harvest Connection training in May paused to consider the statement.

As pastors and missionaries of the Church of God (Cleveland, TN), they came to learn how to use AIMS materials in their regional churches. The section on mobilizing a Great Commission Church to pray intrigued them: How do we mobilize our churches to pray for people groups around the world who have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ? The training stopped as participants from India, Australia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and other Asian countries discussed how to answer the question. They began to seek God through worship and prayer. For more than an hour, they personally interceded for the unreached, for the leaders working among them, and for inner healing and renewal.

"They had a sense that they were right on target - doing what God wanted them to do," said "Gideon," AIMS Director of Asia, who led the training in Bangkok. "These missions leaders were experiencing a paradigm shift from traditional missions to strategic missions focused on reaching unreached people groups."

Before the May training, leaders of the Church of God had decided to focus on ten unreached people groups throughout Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. They hope to expand their focus to include more unreached groups in the future.

"This training was just what we needed to gear them towards reaching the unreached," said the Director of Church of God World Missions' home office in Cleveland, TN.

In December 2003, Dr. Howard Foltz, president and founder of AIMS, met with the top leaders of the Church of God denomination to introduce AIMS training materials. The leaders wanted to make the training available to other top leaders and missionaries within the denomination. Throughout 2004, AIMS held three training events and a missions conference for the denominationís top missions executives and regional missions directors.

"The AIMS materials are invaluable to what Church of God World Missions is doing and emphasizing today. Our entire World Missions Department has been energized and is more passionate about the unreached harvest."

The training in Thailand was the first of several conferences to train Church of God leaders in specific regions around the world to use AIMS materials to train their churches in missions. Later in 2005, AIMS will hold a training conference in Latin America and another in Asia.

"Much of what was accomplished will not be fully realized for years to come," said Gideon, "but we are confident that there will be lasting fruit in all that we were able to do for the Lord in these regions."

For more information about the Church of God World Missions Department, visit their website at www.cogwm.org.

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