Fab Seven posted by jwatson on Oct 30, 2011

Implementation field workers—the heart and soul of EE

Who are EE implementation field workers and what do they do? They are ordinary men and women who love the Lord and want to train people full-time in evangelism and reach others for Jesus.

EE implementation field workers undertake a six-week residential training program. They then work alongside enlisting pastors partnering with them to help them with the difficult task of starting EE in their churches and equipping their congregations to share their faith in Christ. This includes administration and teaching duties. It’s an arduous task for pastors who are already overworked with shepherding the people of their churches. Our field workers remove this task from their shoulders and pastors are overjoyed for the assistance.

With help from our field workers, the implementation rate of the EE ministry has skyrocketed from 20 percent to 80 percent and above!

The Fab Seven

Last May, Rod Story, our Senior Vice President for Global Innovation, trained seven Vietnamese as EE implementation field workers. To follow-up on their progress, he visited the seven in north Vietnam. To his surprise, he discovered the EE ministry multiplying in magnificent strides. “Truly amazing,” he exclaimed.

Rod described the seven as coming from “isolated tribal areas where no formal education is available.” It was encouraging to see what they accomplished.

Following their training, these seven returned to remote tribal areas of Vietnam where the EE ministry was virtually non-existent. In less than four months, they have trained pastors and leaders from 80 different churches and 72 of them have begun EE. The north Vietnamese churches hunger and thirst for EE training, yet have many challenges ahead:

• Nineteen of the churches have no funding and await materials for their trainees
• These churches need funding as the work continues and grows
• Three churches await translation of the materials in their tribal language

During on-the-job training in the 72 implementing churches, 484 Vietnamese made professions of faith in Christ and eight new churches were planted to disciple the new believers.

Rod was dumbfounded by their determination. “Some teams walked 40 kilometers (22.5 miles) for on-the-job training, stayed for the evening, and walked back the next day,” Rod recalled. Rod remembered a clinic that was shut down by police, yet it did not deter them. “They simply moved their location,” Rod said.

One of the more remarkable testimonies involved a village chief who was also a sorcerer. After hearing the Gospel he made a profession of faith in Christ and then invited the field worker and EE team to his home to burn his fetishes and share with his family. He then asked the team to share the Good News with his villagers and 133 people professed Christ as Savior. Rod was stunned to see firsthand what Peter experienced in the New Testament. “It’s just like in the Book of Acts,” Rod declared.

And that’s not the full extent of EE’s reach into north Vietnam. A north Vietnamese seminary has asked all of its 55 graduating students to be trained in EE. After graduation, their plan is to implement EE in 32 churches with assistance from who else . . . our seven EE implementation field workers.

They are indeed God’s Fab Seven and make fabulous progress for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.