In addition, I believe that Nations Church will be the “hub of the wheel,” so to speak, for the historic movement of evangelism and missions that we are living in right now. In fact, I must confess, providing a home base for the army of evangelists God is sending for the Decade of Double Harvest is one of the most exciting things about Nations Church. Here’s just a little bit of what’s going on right now:
We have now graduated over 143 CfaN Bootcamp evangelists. Bootcamp classes are small, highly vetted groups of men and women that have demonstrated a true, five-fold evangelistic calling. They are the “Reinhard Bonnkes” and “Billy Grahams” of the next generation. We are training them in all dimensions of evangelistic ministry. But here’s what makes the CfaN Evangelism Bootcamp unique in the world. We also train students in Mass Crusade Evangelism.
We equip them with all the tools CfaN has acquired over the past 40 years for reaping super massive harvests. Then we offer the opportunity for ongoing strategic collaboration beyond graduation. The goal is to see 150-million souls saved this decade and to build an army of two thousand evangelists for the next decade that will work together, in a co-ordinated way, for a billion-soul harvest! For more information visit 150million.org.
Many of the students already have years of experience in mass evangelistic ministry when they come to us; others have none. But by the time they graduate, all of them have been equipped with the tools to get the job done. In fact, by the time they graduate, every student has led thousands of people to Christ. Just as an example, 96 students from the last Bootcamp went to Tanzania for their “initiation” in April. During a three-week period, they conducted more than 1,204 campaigns (Gospel Truck Crusades, Kids Crusades, and Market Outreaches) and saw 316,458 decisions for Christ!
After their initiation, most of the students came back to Orlando for graduation, AND 27 of them stayed in Tanzania to help organise Operation Decapolis in June (working under 16 CfaN crusade directors). We conducted 5 crusades in 5 cities simultaneously (each crusade lasting 5 days).
Despite the increase in the number of crusades conducted, the costs and time expended were almost the same as conducting one of our “Flagship Crusades.” This is only possible because of multiplication! Two evangelists were stationed in each city. Most of these were Bootcamp graduates. Each of the five nights, I travelled to a new city where I preached, encouraged the local team, and then moved on. So, the organisers were Bootcamp graduates, and the evangelists were Bootcamp graduates as well!
But this isn’t all. These Bootcamp graduates are all over the world as I write this, conducting literally hundreds of campaigns on their own, with other graduates or with CfaN. There’s no way I can mention all of these, but here are some other highlights, just from the last few days:
- We just conducted a week-long “FireCamp” in Austria, led by CfaN Europe Outreach Director, Matthew McCluskey and a team of Bootcamp Graduates. They trained a group of young European evangelists and then led outreaches on the streets. They are now holding a Fire Conference in Frankfurt, Germany. To see a video recap, visit: CfaN Fire Camp recap video.
- A team of 9 evangelists (Bootcamp Graduates) are in Tanzania right now conducting Kids Crusades every day.
- A team of 4 evangelists (Bootcamp Graduates) are conducting a Gospel crusade in Gairo, Tanzania.
- CfaN Evangelist Gary Smith is holding crusades in Fostoria, and Findley, Ohio.
- CfaN Evangelist (and Bootcamp Graduate) Roselyn Ayeola is conducting Kids Crusades in Abuja, Nigeria, and has seen over 1,600 children make decisions for Christ in the past week.
- A team of Bootcamp Graduates are working with Nations Church members, preaching the Gospel on the streets in Boston, Massachusetts.
- A team of Bootcamp Graduates are preparing a Gospel crusade in Bukoba, Tanzania that will take place in July.
- A team of Bootcamp Graduates are preparing a Gospel crusade in Burundi that will take place in August.
- CfaN Bootcamp Instructors Jako and Karin Hugo are in Botswana, conducting Kids Crusades and preparing for future campaigns there. They’ve seen 812 souls saved in kids crusades this past week!
- CfaN Evangelist (and Bootcamp Graduate) Evelina Smane has permanently moved to Tanzania, where she is establishing a CfaN base and actively leading teams every week that travel into unreached areas showing the Jesus film, preaching the Gospel, and praying for the sick.
- Hundreds have now joined the CfaN Evangelism Alliance, and hundreds have received ministerial ordination through CfaN. To find out more about these exciting opportunities visit our websites CfaN Evangelism Alliance: cfan.org/ea, Ministerial Ordination: cfan.org/credentials.
This is just a small sampling of what’s happening even now as I write. We are also getting ready to welcome the next class of Bootcamp students that arrive at the beginning of August for their four months of intensive training. We also have a large team of staff members in Tanzania preparing the next Operation Decapolis Campaign in Dar es Salaam. This campaign will be special because it represents a new strategy and a new way of utilising our simultaneous multi-crusade approach.
Dar es Salaam is a large city, but it is very difficult to travel from one part of the city to another. So rather than conducting one crusade there (as we have done in the past), we will conduct 5 crusades in 5 different high population density locations throughout the city simultaneously. In this way, we hope that everyone in the greater area will be able to attend one of these crusades, allowing us to have a much wider reach!
Finally – and this is super exciting – our West African team is hard at work preparing two crusades in Nigeria that will take place in November and December. Our CfaN African Director, John Darku believes that these could be the largest events we’ve ever conducted as a ministry!
In fact, the crusade happening in November already has the support of nearly a thousand denominational leaders and over 5,000 individual churches (with hundreds more signing up every day). We have divided that city into 55 zones, each with a full organising team (the equivalent of 55 normal sized crusades in one city)!
All this exciting activity, as wide-spread and diverse as it may be, is part of one united vision of a Decade of Double Harvest! Years ago, the Lord showed me that this mandate could only be accomplished through “Multiplication and Collaboration.”
That means it requires people – lots of people laying down their lives to see the harvest reaped. But it’s not just the evangelists themselves that are paying a price – spouses and children – entire families are a part of this calling. And they need more than just inspiring speeches and marching orders. They need community. They need a support system. They need . . a church. And this brings us full circle. This is one of the core reasons for Nations Church. It is a place where those families will find community and support.
