MARCH 2024 NEWSLETTER

Partners / Friends,

Greetings!!!   I recently returned from our neighbors to the South.  It turned out to be a very productive trip. 

We decided to move our office and ministry out of the Eastern Region and launch it in three new districts where we had never worked, as well as continue to advance it in the Central region of that nation. 

Our leadership team there traveled with me and presented a model -that we have developed over the past many years- to the Superintendents in these new districts.  All three of them were on board to carry it out and invited us to help them install this model in their areas. 

Not long ago, individuals from a partner church in Texas gave enough funds which allowed us to purchase a ministry vehicle in that closed country, you will see pictures of our 1952 Mercury.  We are going to fix the vehicle with intentions of transporting our leadership team down there to these other districts once per month, to help the Assemblies of God leaders set up this model in their provinces.  The trip is more than 5 hours one way on rough roads.  Please pray we get it fixed and running well.  It has a strong diesel engine in it, but some other things need fixed.  One day, we would like to get the vehicle painted to better represent the ministry, either Maroon or dark Red to reflect the blood and sacrifice of Jesus.

The model that we are using involves training their hand chosen Church Planters or Evangelists regarding how to share their testimony, share the gospel in 5 minutes and endeavor to bring their subjects to a position to receive Christ AND be willing to choose to go through a discipleship training.  They are also trained to navigate special circumstances / people that they may run into on the street that are from singular situations, i.e.  religions that we would deem non-Christian, Atheists, Muslims, etc.

The other aspect of this model is that we ask all district leaders to require every church to choose at least one key member or more to be trained by us regarding how to teach discipleship courses and what our goals are. By the end of discipleship, to me, a number of things need to happen:  first of all, there should be a total life commitment.  Salvation is more than a prayer, it is a life commitment. Secondly, we are all servants.  They need to fully comprehend that in a true Christian life, we realize that we are all here to serve, not to be served.  Thirdly, they go through a process to identify their giftings/ talents from God and then, we provide them opportunities to serve in a local church nearby and in their communities. Part of serving is that they need to be under the full understanding of how to give their testimony and lead someone to the Lord by the end of discipleship.  We would like to achieve all those goals as well as teach doctrinal issues and themes along the way. We intend on working on our very first book, which will be entitled something to the effect of:  Evangelism and Discipleship, God’s way! I would like to have this model on paper so as to present it to other leaders and other districts throughout that country and others.

I leave at the end of February and will travel to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand to see if it is possible to set up a structure there, similar to what we are doing in the other communist country.

Please pray with us for great success that is filled with safety, health, and provision. 

Thank you again for being team leaders in helping us advance the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the nations!!!

Blessings,

Will/Cristen Bridges