The Community Explorer: August/September 2004 edition

Local Ministry Challenges Churches to Reach the Unreached
with the Gospel of Jesus Christ

"Maki" was only a young man, but he faced death every day. In the remote desert region of Northern Ethiopia where he lived, drought and famine claimed thousands of lives each year. Water was scarce. War with neighboring tribes was frequent and deadly. Since he was a young child, "Maki" had been taught to revere Islam, but he had no eternal hope. He had never heard the name of Jesus Christ.

Every day, thousands of people like "Maki" face death without hope. they have not accepted Jesus Christ simply because they have had no opportunity to hear the good news of the Gospel. Today, more than 2.7 billion people - almost half of the world's population - live in cultures with little or no church presence. Unless someone intentionally crosses these cultural boundaries, these people will die without ever once hearing that they could have hope in Jesus Christ.

One local missions organization is doing more than just staring at the hopeless statistics. Founded by Dr. Howard Foltz in 1986, Accelerating International Mission Strategies (AIMS) in Virginia Beach has trained and networked churches nationally and internationally to take the Gospel to people like "Maki" who live in areas almost untouched by the Gospel.

"We've all heard the proverb, give a man a fish and he will each for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime," explains Dr. Howard Foltz. "We at AIMS like to take it one step further. Our goal is to train trainers of fishermen."

Since 1986, AIMS has trained more than 60,000 church leaders who have planted over 12,300 churches in unreached areas of the world. An estimated 28.6 million people have heard the Gospel, most for the very first time.

Training Local Churches to have a Global Impact

Using seminars, events, and various resources, AIMS has trained churches across the United States to reach these least reached people groups. Their premiere seminar, Harvest Connection, which has been taught in more than 200 churches nationwide, explores topics such as the Biblical basis for missions, the state of the world, and how individual churches can help accomplish the Great Commission.

After an AIMS seminar in 1999, Living Stones Fellowship in Crown Point, Indiana, adopted a group of 6,000 Somali refugees in Tanzania. During the next four years, they sent short-term teams to help local Tanzanian churches and missionaries dig wells, install a water filtration system, and build homes for the refugees. In 2003, they experienced a breakthrough. Twenty-two Muslim leaders and more than one hundred Somali refugees decided to follow Christ and began the first Christian church among the Somali people.

"Our church has believed and participated in missions before, but now we have become more focused," said the director of Fuel International, Living Stones Fellowship's mission organization. "The fad of short-term missions won't have a lasting impact, but short-term missions done strategically will have a great impact."

Revival Spreads throughout Ethiopia

Internationally, AIMS' Equipping for the Harvest conferences, a series of seminars including Harvest Connection, have trained pastors, church leaders, and missionaries in other countries to send out their own missionaries and plant churches. Each seminar is adapted to fit each individual culture and translated into the common language of the people.

Equipping for the Harvest conferences have impacted countries across the world. One of the most profound transformations occurred in Ethiopia. In 1996, AIMS partnered with the Evangelical Church Fellowship of Ethiopia (ECFE), representing 97% of the churches in that country, to train Ethiopian pastors and missionaries.

"AIMS training has changed our nation," said the ECFE Missions and Evangelism Senior Coordinator in Ethiopa. Ethiopian churches have experiences an incredible revival. They began sending their own missionaries to Muslim regions within their country with little or no Gospel presence. Fully supported by Ethiopian churches, these missionaries have shared the Gospel with more than 1.5 million people, baptized over 85,000 new believers, and planted 1,038 churches.

One missionary decided to minister among the Afar tribe in Northern Ethiopia where he met a young man named "Maki." Excited, "Maki" accepted Jesus Christ and wanted to tell everyone he knew about the hope he had found. In 2001, "Maki" attended an AIMS conference in Ethiopia so that he too could be trained to be a missionary. Today, "Maki" continues to share the Gospel with neighboring tribes in Northern Ethiopia who otherwise would have never heard of Jesus Christ.

Note: Some names have been omitted or changed to protect the identities of persons working in areas that are hostile to the Gospel.

For reprint information, please call the AIMS publication office at (757) 495-5850 or email the editor at aims@aims.org.

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