Ian Gennari 3/22/24 Ian Gennari 3/22/24

Teach Me How To Read & Study The Bible Effectively

Are you wanting to learn how to read the Bible better? Do the words Bible Study bring with them a feeling of stress more than joy? I believe if we are all honest many of us have felt that way in our journey growing with God.

Let's get right into it!

Reading The Bible

The Bible is the most sought after and purchased book on the planet! Yet, it remains one of the least read books by believers across the globe! Why is that? Some of the top reasons Bible believing Jesus followers give for lack of time in His word are:

Lack of understanding

It can be intimidating if you are focused on understanding everything you are trying to read in the Bible. There are four different books on the life of Jesus alone-Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We might find ourselves discouraged if we can't interpret things right away, especially if we are new in our faith.

Distractions

Living in a digital age has allowed so many options throughout the day constantly competing with just sitting down to read the word of God quietly for thirty minutes. It can be difficult to prioritize this into our day.

Dependence on other sources

Again being in a technology era of options we may find ourselves getting lost in the endless sea of podcasts, online sermons, biblical commentaries, or any various number of things that detour us from reading the Bible directly. Sometimes good things can get int the way of God things.

Lack of time and or discipline

I'm bunching these two together because my take on these is for most people they are deceptions someone believes more then they are truth. Our experience over the last two decades walking with the Lord is that these reasons are more culture driven.

The basic culture around many in the first world is telling the bible believer that there is just not enough time in the day, or they just aren't disciplined enough to read their bible daily.

Now, I'm not saying it's not difficult! What I am saying is it's not impossible, and most of us if we are honest just have our priorities out of alignment with Gods. This heading could be a blog all in itself, and many wonderful Christian blogger moms have tackled it, so I won't lol!

The truth is that much of what I wrote in this post, and the tips I gave were started and continued when we had three littles, and were more busy then we have ever been in our lives.

Everyone has to wrestle down these two back breaking first world cultural beliefs for themselves. And the irony is we need God's grace to accomplish that! I will leave this section at that. In the end it comes down to how desperate are you to hear and spend time with this incredible God of everything.

This is a recent podcast I was on where we dialogue a bit more about my story on hearing God more. Go HERE to listen

Do You Feel Guilty When You Don't Read Every Day?

This one is a commonly listed reason like the others above. It also can create a barrier to not reading the Bible at all. I remember when I used to attend weekly men's bible studies in my early twenties.

Every week we had a focus or book we were reading in the bible. Men would share what they read for the week etc... or talk about what they had been studying.

The time would come for me to share and I would have to admit one of the reasons listed above, as to why I hadn't done it. Week after week I would hear someone say, 'Please pray for me, because I have been out of the Word again.' There would be this cloud of guilt hanging over the room.

For many years something in me would feel like, is there more to this relationship with God, or I don't think I'm supposed to feel this way!

Maybe, you can relate?

Is Being Disciplined In My Bible Study Really The Problem?

There are a lot of programs out there, and bible study curriculum that anyone could follow if they felt motivated. You would not be hard pressed to find some video or book on a 10 step guide to studying your scriptures. What really set me free in this area was a revelation I had from God through an evangelist one day.

I'll share that in a moment.

When I made the choice to change my life and follow Jesus in my late teens and early twenties I applied the same grit, determination and self-discipline I had during my baseball and sport years.

I bought the right bible, made sure I was in church for Wednesday bible study, and Sunday service. Every night my focus was reading at least a chapter of anything in the Word of God. That was usually accompanied by an autobiography of a person in the bible that some author wrote as well.

The things I was doing were all good. A quality focus, and even learning some great theology. Memorizing scripture, and taking notes on every sermon I heard. Being teachable was not my issue. Growing in God was my utmost desire. Trying to figure out His plan for me was on the front of my mind!

Maybe you can relate to this as well?

This went on for years and even into the early years of my marriage. I was in the word, worship, and church. My marriage was healthy. However, the guilt still remained if I fell off the regimen. And I seemed to know there must be more in this thing called the Kingdom of God!

That's when I heard this guy telling his testimony about how he struggled with reading etc...

His life had been crazy, and his testimony miraculous. The challenge with him was the inability to read well and understand the scriptures.

Then he said one day he realized it was the presence of God he was after more than anything. God revealed to him that when we feel guilty about not doing something like reading our bible consistently it was because we felt the task of reading the word could help or sustain our life more than God himself, who is the Word! Bam!

The lights turned on. I began to realize like this speaker that God had something to say to me every day and if I didn't show up to hear it I felt guilty! It wasn't the chapter I was in or how well I retained the reading. My heart was longing for the presence of God to speak. To speak to me!

I wanted to walk in the garden with God in the cool of the day. That's what my heart was missing.

When this chain breaking revelation came I remember running after this new freedom head on. My dear friend called me one day and said, 'pray for me man, I really need to get back into the Word of God.'

I shouted at him on the phone, 'Man, quit saying stuff like that!' He replied in shock, 'What has gotten in to you.'

I felt like yelling, 'Freedom!'

Instead I passionately shared the revelation I found. Jesus was not up in heaven saying, 'Man I wish Ian would just read My word more. What a failure! I died for him and all he can do is get distracted!'

No, he was up there like a good Father just waiting to share with me the secrets of His heart for me and the world all that time!

That phone call ended with me encouraging my friend that his true feelings should not be guilt for lack of reading. His true feelings were grief, because He missed time with the King of the universe! God Almighty scheduled time to see his beloved child and they didn't show up.

My friend's eyes were opened as well. He thanked me for the new revelation. We are best friends still and he has never called me with a prayer request like that again.

If you have made it through this much of the post you really need to understand what a game changer this was for me! I have not felt guilty one day of my life since then about missing a day of reading. On the contrary I began devouring His word, spending more time with him, and my ability to hear his voice grew rapidly.

Now if two or three days go by without being in the Bible I feel heavy, without energy, easily agitated, and longing to pray throughout the day. When I don't live on every word from Him it's like my life is being sucked out of me.

Knowing He has been waiting for me to come to Him like Matthew 11:28-30 says brings me renewed strength, hope, and joy even if I feel like a failure on a certain day.

This understanding brought me into a long season of getting up early to meet with Him, wait on Him to speak or not speak, and read with great anticipation. It taught me to come as a child with questions not just statements. One in particular most mornings for the last decade has been, "Abba Father, what would you like to talk with me about today or have me write down?'

Page after page of astounding wisdom have been penned in many journals over the years. Most of those times it lines up perfectly with what I would also be reading from scripture that day. The mystery of this amazing God keeps drawing me back day after day. Twenty years later I still rise to be with Him.

I stopped attending bible studies after that encounter and began starting bible studies and discipling others. Imagine that! I'm now typing this post from a small village in the northern province of a country in Africa.

Where we have taught these things to hundreds of illiterate people who hear God for themselves, plant groups, and make disciples that make disciples all with just audio bibles and prayer!

Maybe I'll write about How I learned to hear the voice of God in those early years after this discovery of what true Bible reading really is. We must remember that Jesus is the word of God! There was no full bible in the time of Jesus.

Back then only the old testament was available to the scribes and temple students. The Holy Spirit had not yet been given out! And yet Peter says in the gospels, 'Where else would we go? For you have the words of life!'

When Jesus died and did not return for a few days the disciples were not mourning because they didn't have a bible to read. They mourned because the Word of God was gone! So how can we truly read the Word of God effectively?

What Is Effective Bible Reading?

If you are like I was or can relate to the things mentioned earlier, it may be important to change our perspective with a few questions. Really take the time to consider these questions.

I have yet to find someone who considers these questions from a pure heart not find better results in their personal growth time spiritually.

-When you sit down to read your bible what is your goal?

-Why is it important to read the Bible often?

-What is truly stopping me from reading the Bible or praying more?

-If you accomplish a specific reading goal what do you think the results in your life will be?

Why these questions?

Hopefully our answers to these will reveal that they are the wrong questions for those living in the freedom of Jesus Christ.

What I learned that day from God through that evangelist's words was; if my time reading the Bible doesn't begin and end with the foundational desire of spending time in His presence to Know Him and discover how He knows me I'm missing the point.

Not only missing the point, but also pursuing works without faith. Now, we know faith without works is dead. What about works without faith?

That process Jesus addressed with the Pharisees when he said, '...and you do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom He sent. You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me; yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.'

Again let me say, time in His presence & hearing Him are the foundations to your reading time and to Life.

When we feel sad or guilty when we fail to read the Word of God daily it's because we have been searching the scriptures improperly. We come to the scriptures, as Jesus said, because they speak of Him; the way the truth and the life.

We come to the Bible because it allows us to abide in Him. The way, the truth, and the life wants to reveal who we are in Him as we search out Him. Father God wants us to hear the secrets of His heart. He desires to unlock mysteries for you to discover.

I am going to give you a few practical ideas to encourage you to read your bible, pray, and wait on the voice of God daily. My main desire in this post though, was to point you to the right focus when reading the Bible. If our identity in Christ is not clear and allowing you to walk in freedom, before you go to His word, the results will be the same.

Either guilt will win over and distance you from the Bible, or you will read the Bible as a religious act and there will be intellectualism with no life.

So, now that our focus is right, where can we start reading?

5 of my best ideas for where to start reading

I want to begin by saying all five of these ideas I have done. Multiple times! This is not a boast. What we have learned in our process as disciples of Jesus is you can't take someone where you haven't been. In our current culture of western living many are breaking that principle, so they can be heard as a celebrity. But eventually they are found out! That being said, enjoy the ideas.

Wondering where to start reading is a common thing. You may have heard the idea just open up the bible and wherever it lands start reading. Though I believe God can use that and amaze you in the process, I wouldn't recommend this method. Have I ever used it? Yes, but let's talk some other ideas.

1) Read all of New or Old Testament in a certain amount of time-

This one may seem obvious, but we will start with a few obvious ones. I suggested to do this in a certain amount of time because when you come at this from the right perspective you will feel accomplished and hungry to do it again in the future. You could just as easily have no time frame and just allow the Holy Spirit to lead you through it as long as it takes.

2) Read the whole bible in a certain time-

I have read through the whole bible multiple times, and try to do it once a year. It has changed my entire perspective on Christianity. It can seem like an impossible task, but again if you know God is waiting to share His heart with you daily it becomes a desire to complete reading it. The first time it took me about 6 months. Recently, I set a goal to read it in 60 days and did it.

3) The 6-5 / 45 day plan-

This is my go to plan when I feel like God is being quiet with me. Someone showed me a pattern when I was younger that allowed them to read through the entire new testament in 45 days. Entire minus the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John).

You begin by reading 5 chapters one day, and then 6 chapters the next day starting in the book of Acts. When you follow this pattern you will complete the new testament in 45 days. You can also read a few verses of a gospel each day over that time frame. If you followed that pattern all year, you could read all the gospels once and the new testament four times!

4) Read only the words of Jesus in all the gospels-

This one may sound a little weird. I spent a year one time just in John chapter 1 because the Holy Spirit directed me to. It was amazing. Many of us have had so many voices directing us. Even in the church we find ourselves being directed on how to study.

Jesus said His words are life and Spirit. So why not just spend time in His words for a season. I've done this and loved it!

5) Ask God where to go next-

This one I still use frequently. If God is wanting to share who He is with us, and wants us to hear His voice, why would we not ask Him where and what He wants us to read? This one trains our ear as well.

God has a plan for you. That means you can not fail in asking Him this question.

Tips & Wisdom

There are probably some frequently asked questions I could answer here. Rather I am going to try and cut them off at the pass and writer down some tips and wisdom I've learned from our Good Father over the years. I'm doing it this way because you are on a journey to hear how He is speaking and teaching you daily.

He may have a bit different direction for you to understand the answer to the most common questions.

Tip 1- Try and read more than just one chapter. Or let me say it this way; don't let the chapter be the deciding factor on how little or much you read. There were no chapters when the Bible was originally penned.

Tip 2- Wait quietly for a bit before you start reading. Let God know you are there and waiting for whatever He wants to say or not say. Be content in His presence. He is content in yours :-)

Tip 3-Pray and give thanks to God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit. Ask them to guard your heart and mind. Ask them to reveal and open the word to you. Confess your shortcomings before hand and ask Holy Spirit to remove vain imaginations or distractions.

Tip 4-Ask yourself or write down what you hear Holy Spirit saying to you about these questions after you read a passage:

-What does this scripture or chapter say about God's character?

-What do I hear God saying about himself in relationship with humanity in these verses?

-Is there an example to follow or a comandment to obey in them?

-Holy Spirit who can I share this with this week?

This is another great post from a great Christian blogger on Bible Study and good foundational questions to dialogue with God as you come to Him and read. Seperate Post

Summary

Remember that effective Bible reading isn't about whether you checked it off of your list for the day or not. It's not about whether you did it. The way to make Bible reading effective in your life is to know and believe why you are reading it.

Now go spend some time with God! He is waiting for you. Grab your Bible and take it with you as well! He probably has something to reveal to you.

Ian Gennari 3/22/24 Ian Gennari 3/22/24

Teaching Kids How To Hear God's Voice Is Crucial!

Can you teach your kids to hear God's voice daily?

One morning when we still lived in Arizona, our son Gideon, at just four years old approached us and said, "Mom, I had a dream about Grandma and Grandpa last night. And Jesus was in the dream." At this point, we knew that our last born was also hearing God's voice in his life.

(If you would like to explore how dreams and visions function in the Kingdom of God we have an 11 part video series on it. Watch Here)

Gideon's Grandma and Grandpa (Carla's Parents) had passed away a few years earlier. My wife and I knew in that moment that God was reaching out to let Gideon know he was beginning to communicate with him uniquely. In this case through a dream.

I believe if we were all honest everyone desires to hear God speak. It is a top rated search every week! An on-going mystery is why so many of us don't. Especially, when God has shown us over and over through history that He desires to speak to us.

The very first recorded action of God in the bible is of Him speaking. He began by saying, "Let there be light!" God is a God that speaks. And His desire is that we would walk in conversation with Him daily. When He walked in the cool of the day with Adam and Eve they must have had conversations. Wouldn't you agree?

We have been asked what our main goals are in the mission field. For those just joining the blog, our family has been serving as full time missionaries with YWAM in Mozambique since February of 2015. Over and over we respond to this question by saying, "If we could leave the locals with one thing it would be; that they can hear from God for themselves."

This post is a quick chat about some of the things we have done to cultivate that hearing of God's voice with our kids.

How We Can Hear God's Voice:

I want to keep this post light as it is about helping our kids walk with our creator God. However, there are quite a few places in scripture that you can go to learn more about all the ways God speaks. One bible verse that has encouraged our family is;

"Why do you contend against Him, saying, 'He will answer none of man's words"? For God speaks in one way and in two, though man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, while they slumber in their beds, then he opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings, that He may turn man aside from his deed and conceal pride from a man; He keeps back his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword....Behold, God does all these things twice, three times with a man to bring back his soul from the pit that he may be lighted with the light of life."

Job 33:13-30

God speaks in so many ways that He even reaches us when our soul is at rest in the night!

When we consider the whole of the bible and all it's books we can see God's desire to commune with us in the book titles alone. Most of the book titles are a person's name. Why? Because it is a story of how they heard God's voice and followed it in their life.

Share that with your kids! Ask them something like, 'Have you wondered why so many books in the Bible are named after a person?' Then have a dialogue with them about it.

The majority of the first two books of the Bible, Genesis and Exodus are about God choosing to speak to His people through ordinary men and women in remarkable and creative ways.

My wife and I believe one of the greatest deceptions and disservices we can do to our family is to avoid training them to hear the God that is so obviously desiring for us to listen, hear, and respond.

How do we do that?

How can you do this with your kids?

As a family we spend time in training our senses

The first thing I would say is don't wait until you think they are old enough! Find ways to include your children in hearing God's voice in everyday things they are doing.

Don't wait, start listening with your kids today.

Like we shared earlier God speaks in many ways and we need to perceive it.

The first example of how we listen for God speaking as a family

Reading the bible together. Keep this very simple, and stick with the bible! Don't look for a lot of other books about Jesus or the bible. God's word is alive and active. It is all you need!

f you search the scripture together trusting God will speak to all of you it won't need a lot of commentary from other things. Remember the end goal is to hear our Creator speak, not other people. We begin this by praying and asking the Holy Spirit to help us understand the word in the way the Father desires us to individually and as a family.

There is an important detail I want to introduce here that most families don't use unfortunately. The patterns we have picked up in the western church sometimes hinder families from maturing in the ways God desires. One of those ways is using teaching instead of discovery when discipling others. Including our kids.

I have shared a lot of other posts on this, and written a book, so no need to go into a lot of detail. Related Post HERE

For this post we will summarize the process we use as a family. We use questions not statements with our kids. What do you mean Ian? At least once a week we sit down as a family and read the bible together. We used to do this multiple times a week at dinner time or before bed etc...

Everyone in the family that can read will read a few verses until the passage we are studying is finished. At first it may only be a couple verses. Then we read it again two or three times. When we are done with that we ask the family if someone can remember and repeat what was read.

After someone repeats the story aloud we ask the family if that member left anything out. Someone else may help add something that was left out until we are satisfied with the summary.

After that we ask five basic questions to everyone;

What do you hear God telling you about himself in these verses?

What do you hear God telling/showing you about himself in relationship with humanity in these verses?
Do we find a commandment to obey in these verses?
Do we find an example we should follow in these verses?
Ask God to show you how you can obey these verses this coming week?

All of these questions may take a bit of time for each person to wait on the Lord as He whispers to them. One of the parents can pay attention to where God is working the most or which person He is prompting to share. This can lead to more discussion or other questions for the family to explore.

What not to do! Don't lead anyone to the answers you believe about the passage. Don't teach! Just learn from God through how He is speaking to your family members. Keep asking questions and discovering together. If you have really little ones give them some paper and crayons to be creative in that time. Sometimes, the little ones can draw what they heard in the story better than trying to explain it. The family can still hear God speak through that!

The second example of how we listen for God speaking as a family

is in prayer together. It is our experience that many christian families participate in prayer together before meals or with their kids before bed. The bed time ritual is usually a list of things we desire God to bless and asking Him to protect our sleep.

All of these are good things! What tends to be missing is the time waiting for Him to answer. Or even to ask Him questions about what we should know about our prayers. Prayer is a most incredible God given gift to have conversation with Him. Conversation is two sided! It takes two to converse.

Here are some ways we do this. Ever since our kids were young we shared with them that a conversation with God was no different than talking with us. There is asking questions and waiting for answers. There is making statements and listening to statements.

Get together as a family and have something to write on or in. Each of you take fiver to ten minutes and ask God, 'What do you want us to know as a family right now?' After the time is up come back together and each member share what they heard or saw or sensed from the Lord. It may be a word, a picture, a sentence, a thought, a bible verse etc... See if all the answers connect in some way.

As each member waits for an answer from the Lord encourage them to ask a second and third question about what God tells them. Don't just see or hear one thing and leave unless you have peace to do that. Father God wants to have a conversation.

You can use these prayer times to ask God about each individual for encouragement. The beginning of each year the family can ask God what He wants them to let go of and what He wants them to look for in the coming year.

This prayer time can be used for the family to listen for direction in life decisions. Our family was blessed with incredible revelation from our then nine year old in 2017. That revelation kept us in the mission field to this day! Sometimes a child shall lead them. If we trust them to hear from God.

I actually go into that story a bit deeper in our book, 'Making Disciples and Leading Others to Make Them'.

Why am I so certain of this? Let me ask you a question. When kids receive the Holy Spirit into their life do they get a different Holy Spirit from adults? Like a younger one? No! That sounds so silly doesn't it? Sometimes that is how we treat the little ones though. Jesus didn't. He had a lot of strong things to say about children.

The third example of how we listen for God speaking as a family

In worship together. This may look different for every family depending on your music ability or theology, however it is so important! When the boys were younger we would often put paper and color pencils out on the ground.

I would pull out my guitar. Whoever else was with us would have their bible available. Then we would sing worship songs, pray what we felt prompted, or read the scripture out loud. The time would be fluid and respectful. We would honor the Holy Spirit by listening and letting him direct us to proclaim the word, or pray with compassion, or even just sit silent.

When someone felt peace to speak, or draw, or write, or sing, the group would follow along. This helped build a sense of corporate listening and unity in the Lord. We still do this weekly in the mission field as there are no churches near us. As the boys have grown older the time has become a bit different. Be flexible and enjoy the journey of listening together.

This is not an exclusive list, but some examples to get you started.

The last example I want to share of how we listen for God speaking as a family

Is in confession and forgiveness with each other. Over the years as our boys have grown and matured in their faith this has actually become easier.

Starting with the fathers I can't stress enough how important this area of listening is.

Paul says that when we live in a prideful way with our wives even our prayers can be hindered. The listening here often begins with the Lord convicting our hearts that something in us needs correction or His grace.

In that moment it is crucial that we respond to Him and confess our wrong belief system with Him. Then we ask Him what we need to know about it. Finally we ask Him how He sees us and what He wants us to believe instead of what we have been believing.

This is followed up with a honest and humble conversation with our wife or child. We share with them what we believed that was false. Ask for forgiveness where needed, and assure them that we are walking into a new belief that God has revealed. That's repentance. A mind change. Unless we confess our false belief with God and others we will never know we need a mind change. That deception leads to more pride and eventually a hard heart in an area.

Many times these confession and forgiveness sessions with ourselves, or our family members are triggered due to fear in some area. It may masquerade as something else but it's almost always fear driven.

f we can gently lead each other to confess that fear then we can go to God and listen for what needs to change. Whether our child is 2-3 years old or 23 years old it is possible to listen for God's voice together so he can set us free of fear!

A Sad example of this in my own life was a few months ago. In Africa the power goes out, a lot! For months I found myself complaining about their incompetence and how it was unacceptable in the year 2023. When I asked the Lord why I felt angry in other areas of my life he revealed to me my lack of gratitude for electricity. Most of our village neighbors never have power! My empathy returned.

I began to realize the complaining had slowly become a strong hold. I immediately brought the family to the living room and confessed my situation. I asked them to forgive my bad example and correct me in the future if they heard negativity or a non-grateful heart rear it's head. We prayed together and thanked God for the revelation.

Do you desire to mature in your walk with God? This article might help! Go HERE

How do we know it's God's voice?

This is a frequent question asked by believers. The bible is clear about the ways you can confirm the voice of God in your life. Following His peace being one of the surest.

I'm going to take a bit different lane here that often gets missed or ignored.

I was a coach for years and so I can't help but point this foundation out.

We must practice! To hear God's voice takes practice and intention.

Practice makes permanent-not perfect

My baseball coach used to drill this phrase into us as players and man it stuck. The point being if I want to hear God's voice I must practice intentionally listening for it daily.

Changing the pattern from stating my needs to asking Him questions is the ticket. And then waiting for an answer. What if I find myself waiting a long time with no answer? Consider changing the question or rephrasing it as you pray.

Finally, I must respond to what I hear by testing it. I remember years ago pressing into the desire to draw close to God. Every morning at 5:30am I walked to our living room and put my face on a chair-knees on the floor.

My intent was to not move until I heard from Him. A few days of repeating this ensued, and whether it was twenty minutes or an hour I eventually got up when I felt His peace all over me. His presence became tangible and life giving. But Still no voice.

Then one morning I heard him speak softly like a thought in my mind, 'Get up and let's take a walk.'

'Is that you Father?' 'Yes Ian, let's walk.'

I grabbed my keys and walked out the front door. 'Where we going Father?' 'Just walk Ian.'

'Left or right Father?' 'You pick Ian.'

Just like that it went on for days. Not every day, but many days. Then one morning He said, 'see that bottle in the street? Pick it up and throw it away.'

'Um, ok Father, is that really you?'

I remember walking by it and not picking it up, and then feeling no peace. An uncomfortable feeling remained so, I went back and picked it up. I walked with it all the way back to my house, and threw it away. God didn't say anything else the rest of the walk. When I finally asked Him about it He shared something so convicting that it hasn't left me. It has guided me over the years with my own kids, and our decisions as a family.

He reminded me that often in our life we want to hear God so much more. We desire to go so much deeper! We may even contend and plead for it with Him! Then when He directs us to do the little things that will train us in the very thing we desire to accomplish we dismiss them, as to small or petty.

Our pride deceives us to believe that we can start out completely leveled up once we begin hearing God, like an Olympian or something, without ever having to put in the reps. We have found that coming like a child is truly a key to the Kingdom when it comes to hearing God's voice. Just like Jesus said.

It seemed so obvious, but so true. I mean even Jesus had to grow in obedience with the Father over 30 years. Jesus trained himself to hear God as a human. He emptied himself and walked through what we would need to walk through. We have to do the same! That is what we have taught our kids since they were young.

If they want to hear Him in the large things then they must practice hearing him in the daily mundane things. Like picking up a piece of trash when no one is watching.

Finally, here are some questions you can use to practice

We created a Jesus wall when we got to the mission field. The purpose was to practice hearing God, and to remember with gratitude when He speaks. Practice does make permanent, so here are a few questions to get you and the little ones started on hearing God daily:

Ask the Father to give you a picture to draw, then ask Him what it is about.

What do you want us to know about how you see us?
What do you want a family member to know about how you see them?
What is something in my life hindering me from hearing you more?
Is there something hindering you from using me more?
What beliefs do I have about myself that are hurting me?
What would you like us to know about our neighbors?

Let us hear the voice and words of Jesus to conclude

Maybe we can be encouraged by these words from the book of Matthew. Jesus makes it so clear how to enter the Kingdom of God. Not just in salvation, but in our lives daily. It is crucial to help our kids hear the voice of God. I challenge us to read this scripture and then ask God, 'What do you want me to know about this?'

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea."

-Matthew 18:1-6

Our Jesus wall. Where we remember the things he shared with us each year.

Ian Gennari 3/21/24 Ian Gennari 3/21/24

What Disciple Training Works Best?

5 Essentials Of Disciple Making & Training Others

With all the different opinions throughout the global church on the question above, maybe you have also wondered the same thing? Which discipleship method is best? My family and I don't claim to have it all figured out, but we know this one thing; the bible has all the answers. The life of Jesus is the best model of all. That is where we have looked, followed, and found results.

The month of January was a fantastic beginning of sharing some of our stories and teachings from the mission field the last decade. We are excited to continue writing and encouraging you in the call of God on your life! What discipleship is in the bible and loving our neighbors are the main focus of our calling here in Africa, but we desire to hear from you on topics that might be useful for us to write on as well. Please comment or reach out to us if God prompts you with ideas of what we could serve you or your communities with.

Many of the posts we released in January were on the topic of discipleship definition. All of those posts were intentional. Inside a few of the articles were five key essentials pertaining to what does discipleship mean and scripture verses about discipleship. In this post I want to highlight those essentials quickly and then direct you to a place you can find a few more.

What we have found in the disciple making process is there are some essentials to be ready for and apply. Below they are listed along with a link to a related post we wrote about it.

Some Essentials in disciple making

Essential 1: Discipleship begins with an invitation.

This one is a three part blog post! We journey together through bible verses from John chapter 3 along with true stories about a young man named Vida and how he became a disciples maker.

When Does The Discipleship Process Truly READ 👉 HERE

When Does The Discipleship Process Truly Begin? (part 2) READ 👉 HERE

When Does The Discipleship Process Truly Begin? (part 3) READ 👉 HERE

Essential 2: Discipleship Requires obedience.

Looking at the real-life story of a disciple here in Mozambique helps us explore what growing in obedience to God may look like.

Did you know Discipleship Grows Obedience? 👉 READ HERE

Essential 3: A disciple is taught and trusted to hear and obey God on their own daily.

One of the most googled topics in the world is hearing God's voice. For believers of Jesus this should be a foundational part of our faith! For many in the church it continues to be an area of needed growth. Jesus continually pointed his disciples to this very thing. This post explores my own personal journey of hearing God's voice and how we applied it here.

How To Lead True Disciples Of Jesus-They Must Hear God: READ 👉 HERE

Essential 4: Jesus told us to baptize them.

This essential has been so powerful in our context we had to write about it and share the stories. How does God want you to apply this incredibly important part of the Great Commission?

What Does It Mean To Be Baptized? READ 👉 HERE

Essential 5: There is a cost to following Jesus and discipling others.

Counting the cost in following Jesus has been the content of many books through centuries. What it can look like in a disciple making context was the focus of this post. It looks different for everyone but make no mistake every believer is faced with it! This is a bit of our story and some practical questions to help you with yours.

What Is The Cost For You-Following Jesus? READ 👉 HERE

Now What-How Can You Continue To Grow In Disciple Making?

If you have enjoyed these posts I encourage you to dive a bit deeper. There are three more essentials we find through out the gospels and the ministry of Paul. We may write a bit on each one in the future. For now I am going to list them here and point you to a resource where we cover all 8 essentials.

The eight essentials are uniquely explained through our life experiences in our book 'Making Disciples and Leading Others to Make Them'. We have written a practical guide on applying the essentials based on our own current and real-life experiences in the mission field.

The Final Three Essentials

Essential 6: Challenge and release disciples quickly.

Essential 7: Pay attention to and be willing to obey the new thing God may be doing.

Essential 8: A disciple-maker is a true disciple of Jesus, not just a student of Scripture.

We would love to hear from you on what essentials you have been using, and what you have learned in the process. Please reach out or start a dialogue below that we all can grow from.

To finish hearing more of our current story and continue learning these discipleship essentials check out our book 👉 HERE

Ian Gennari 3/18/24 Ian Gennari 3/18/24

What Is The Cost For You-Following Jesus?

What Does The Bible Say About Suffering?

These questions don't seem to be as regular in church goers conversations as they used to be even ten years ago. At least this seems to be our experience. And I have been attending some form of church service since I was five or six years old. The West seems to be dominated by a culture of comfort. Not that comfort is wrong. I could tell you hundreds of people that I would love to see experience more comfort in life; mainly my entire village!

The point of this post being to share our own family challenges with comfort while following Jesus and hopefully encourage you to ask God about yours. And I do believe that comfort I mentioned at the start of the post has hindered or diluted at best the desire for believers, especially Western ones, to courageously, and obediently follow Christ anywhere! Even if that is just to the random stranger at the local grocery store.

When our family and team decided that it was God’s plan for us to expand from the Central part of Mozambique to the North, it was not an easy transition at all. This is important for me to emphasize here. Our lives had become settled for nearly two years, and we were beginning to see fruit and growing ministry where we were.

Our boys had entered into the community, culture, and Portuguese language. They had made friends even living as aliens from a foreign land. Over 80% of the kids around us had never seen anyone with our color skin and yet they accepted our sons.

To move from the comforts of America to Africa was difficult enough for us all. However, moving within our African countries can be just as difficult sometimes because of the great variety of languages and cultures that exist within different communities. Now we were aware of what the cost would be in taking the Gospel to a different part of the country. We would need to learn a new language, find other network supports, and a whole different pattern for practical things would have to be established, such as sourcing food and drinking water.

Just exploring the new land and moving our things across the country would include two trips with my oldest son through hours of military convoys.

There had been a lot of continued political unrest between both parties from war torn years before our arrival. He was twelve years old at the time. During the first two years, we were surrounded by a team helping us every step of the way from learning a new language and the culture to being guided where we would find our provisions. We had a team that taught us every detail we needed to know.

We even had help completing and handing in the foreign immigration documents. When we went North, we only had one family that would help us with the basics, the rest of the details we had to figure out on our own.

The road to the immigration office was a five-hour one-way nightmare, full of potholes the size of cars. The month-by-month needed food and resources were in our neighboring country over three hours away.

We would make that trip over the border every four to six weeks for a little over two years until the road to the Northern city was rebuilt. That meant vehicle fees, stamping the passport in and out for a fee, and hours of waiting for it to be done. Our first two years in the new land were extremely difficult and challenging.

It was literally as if we were starting over in the starting over! I don’t know how we survived it in those two years.

In the first 60 days in the North, there was a shift in our mission organization at that time. This forced us to make a decision that would possibly affect whether we would stay in the country or not.

It caused immense grief and feelings of being abandoned.

I was reminded that one of the key things Jesus said to His disciples at the end of the book of Matthew when he commissions them is,

“...And behold I am with you always, to the end of the age.”-MATTHEW 28:20

This was crucial for our family to remember because God was discipling us through our own call to make disciples. We held on to this promise that He would never leave us or forsake us, especially because He was the one who sent us. At one point, we realized that we might only have 30 days left before we had to leave. In this decision-making process, we continued to disciple our own children first.

We sat them down in our house that had no furniture in a strange village that felt like it was in the middle of nowhere and explained that we needed to look to the Father for direction and clarity about our call in the country.

Our family was suffering and it was time to enter into the suffering of Jesus together. They knew they had permission to listen for the Father’s will with us. We had taught them and depended on them getting to know His voice throughout their young lives already. With tears in their eyes, they listened with us.

We presented what we felt the opportunities were in front of us and confessed our grief and confusion to a caring Father. After a few moments of silence our second son, Jaidan, stopped us and said, “Dad, I heard the word YWAM loud and clear from God!” Carla and I paused and asked the other two brothers if they had peace with the word Jaidan received? They confirmed that they agreed. We gave thanks in prayer and waited.

Just twelve hours later, the leadership team from the YWAM base over 100 miles North of us called and said they really believe they are to adopt our family and make sure we stay in the country to keep up the Lord’s work that He has called us to do. They believed in what we were doing! Our son was nine-years-old when he heard that word in his spirit! We are still with YWAM today, and so grateful for the body of Christ and their ability to hear the Father’s will.

I wasn’t surprised that God’s greater plan was to connect us with YWAM because their mission across the world is about ‘Knowing God and Making Him Known.' They are very focused on making disciples that make disciples. Another point I want to highlight here is that when I was only a little older than Jaidan, living in Alaska, I began to hear God’s voice more and more as I sought after Him.

During that time, I was drawn to a YWAM missionary couple who explained their vision, and although I always felt a deep pull toward that organization, I never really pursued or prayed through it. I believe God was preparing my heart way back then for this transition.

However, to reach that point I needed to learn to say yes to His voice and courageously obey Him along the way. As we learned in an earlier post, one of the essentials to disciple-making is trusting others to hear and obey God daily.

There were multiple times our family wanted to give up. The resistance felt too great to overcome. Father God reminded us of the promise Jesus made to His disciples. This brings us to a possible discussion question.

Could it be that comfort is often what keeps the body of Christ from fulfilling the discipleship process that Jesus commanded? In the book of Acts, shortly after Jesus’ commission, the disciples were making other disciples and sharing the gospel.

However, they were not going out very far right away. It took some time before they expanded and most of that was due to persecution! Persecution and discomfort are the main reasons the disciples continued the discipleship process.

An important key that is often not talked about across the greater church, and one I discovered in years of seeking the Lord, is understanding discomfort and suffering. I believe it is necessary and biblical to explain discomfort, persecution, and suffering to new believers desiring to truly follow Christ.

When a new disciple in our community is ready to be baptized, we take them into the water and share a few things. We ask them if they know how Jesus learned obedience? The Bible says it was through the things He suffered. "In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to Him who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence.

Although He was a son, he learned obedience through what He suffered. And being made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him." Hebrews 5:7-9

We explain to the disciple that when they come out of the water all things are new. They will be given a new heart and will receive the Holy Spirit as we pray for them. It is made clear to them there will not be a change in their bank accounts.

The clouds are not going to open and rain down money and jewels on them. The hard things in the world around them will continue, and persecution from family and suffering might surely come for a season.

But they will not be alone! They will now be the light in those dark places. They will carry the One who brings redemption to those things. All of these things are explained and understood during their process of following Jesus.

He was the light of the world, so we could now be the lights of the world. It is important that they understand there is a cost! However, that cost comes with a promise: behold, the I Am will be with you!

I want to stop the post here and give you a chance to listen to Father God for yourself. Maybe, while reading this, you might have had a deep stirring in your spirit, like my wife and I did years ago.

(We actually listened to this song over and over at night in tears longing to go where God wanted us to go; Listen HERE)

You know in your heart that multiplication in the Kingdom of God is possible. There is a desire in you to see the discipleship process come to fruition in your communities. You have a fire in you burning and you want to shout, “I’ll go Father, but where do I go? Where do I start?”

Those are good questions! The right questions! This will take courage! Why? There might be a cost to consider. He might ask you to leave a comfort behind. The Holy Spirit is your comforter. Ask the Holy Spirit for courage now.

Let’s start here:

Pause for a few moments, find a quiet place, and with a grateful heart ask the Father these questions:

1. What areas of my life are causing fear or too much comfort to really hear You, Father?

2. Is there a cost You are asking me to pay that I have not heard or been unwilling to trust You with?

3. What do You want me to know about my comfort and the cost?

As always, if we can help encourage you in anyway please reach out or comment below.

Ian Gennari 3/17/24 Ian Gennari 3/17/24

What Does It Mean To Be Baptized?

Baptism is crucial to movement!

'BAPTIZE THEM IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, THE SON, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT.'

Baptism is the topic of many questions throughout the history of the church! Questions like;

When should I be baptized?
Who can baptize?
Where should they be baptized?

These examples are all important and can be found very easily simply in your bible! I will not be focused on answering baptism questions in this post. Rather I will be giving true story examples of what we chose to do to live out obedience to the gospel in our lives as missionaries. Hopefully it will inspire you to do the same, or at least ask God for yourself what He wants you to do.

DMM Frontiers did write an article as well I'd like to share here https://www.dmmsfrontiermissions.com/baptism-questions-who-can-baptize/

For those following along in the 'Where & When Does Discipleship Begin?' series, this post explains the progression of disciple Vida and our first facilitator Antonio.

If you are just jumping in to our blog you can enjoy this article as a single informative and encouraging testimony on the importance of baptism among disciple makers; or you are welcome to catch up by beginning with this post 👉 HERE

When Vida Learned To Baptize Others

Very early on in the discipleship process with Vida-after about two to three discovery bible lessons, we walked through the passages on baptism together. He already read Matthew 3 and the baptism of Jesus Himself. So, he knew the narrative. However, Vida was a first-generation disciple outside the ministries we had already begun, so I took the time to explore more on this foundational topic with him.

We went over Matthew 28:18-20, and multiple passages in the book of Acts. Many of these passages are very familiar in Christian circles. However, I just want to focus on one simple passage and let you discover what you think God is telling you on this incredibly important topic. Before we go on, I would like to highlight the important role baptism plays in a new believer’s life and the discipleship community as a whole.

I believe that the fruit my family has seen is linked to the clear vision and application of the power of baptism. That is why we actually have a baptismal hole right in our front yard now! More on that in future articles or if you ask in the comments.

Discussions on baptism in the church have led to division in the global church community in the past. My intent is not to start a debate but rather to point out the importance of you discovering what God is saying to you about baptism in the discipleship process as you point others to follow Him. In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus identifies a couple of simple things we should be obedient to, baptism is one of them. Of all the things He could have told us to do in those final words, baptism is one of them! Then he follows it up with “teach them to obey all I have commanded them.” That’s enough for me!

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Within the first two weeks after discovering his Savior and studying the scriptures, Vida was challenged to be baptized. Antonio and I took him down to the river and encouraged him to bring along any friends and family he wanted to witness this life-changing event. To our surprise, he only brought his brother and a friend.

Some youngsters followed along out of pure curiosity. Antonio stood with me and I asked Vida why he desired to be baptized. He already understood the process as he had discovered it in God’s Word for himself. It came down to the fact that Jesus Himself was baptized, therefore we should follow His example and should also be baptized. To this, I would shout Amen! This is not a scripture we hear often, so let’s read it together:

After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing. (John 3:22)

It goes on:

John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized (John 3:23).

It continues:

And they (John’s disciples) came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him. (John 3:26)

Read that last part again: “and all are going to him.” It might seem obvious why I chose this passage considering what I want you to chew on. However, there is more!

If I would stop a Christian on the street and ask them what the most well-known scripture in the Christian faith would be, they would likely reply John 3:16–“For God so loved the world that he gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Have you noticed that this particular scripture is also from the same passage quoted above? Did you know that this well-known scripture is actually part of a story about Jesus meeting with a high-up religious leader of his time named Nicodemus? He was a leader, like many leaders today, who questioned Jesus’ methods or would make it more comfortable for the general public to follow rather than simply obey them.

In this very chapter, right before we read about Jesus and the other guys baptizing people, we read about Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus:

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

After confusing this religious leader a bit, Jesus continues:

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5).

We read this about twenty verses before we see Jesus and the other guys modeling the example we should follow. Most of those verses are basically a dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus. You might wonder; what’s the takeaway here? I want to challenge you to discover it with me. Stop reading for a few minutes or go ahead and read the passages we highlighted in John chapter 3.

Now pause. Take a minute or two and listen in prayer.

For more on hearing from God as a disciple go here 👉 https://whenlovecompels.com/how-to-lead-true-disciples-of-jesus-they-must-hear-god/

Close your eyes and ask the Father, “what do you want me to know about baptism? What do you want me to see in these words? What do you want me to enter into with you?”

Did you do it?

Awesome, now, let’s keep going!

After Vida’s baptism, I was surprised to hear that he had begun sharing passages of scripture with others after our study sessions together. I challenged him every week to share the scripture with someone else each week. He under‐ stood the model in the book of Matthew and started applying it. A few weeks later he baptized the first young man, who was a friend of his. His friend, who we will call John, started showing up to our discovery lessons on a regular basis.

When John decided to take the next step–to be baptized, we all walked down to the river together. Only this time, I stood back and allowed Antonio and Vida to stand beside John. Antonio led the service and Vida stood with him observing and assisting him. When Vida was baptized, we told him that he too was going to baptize others in Jesus’ name! It was not necessary for Vida to reach a certain spiritual level or jump through hoops to be able to baptize others. He already did what was necessary–he came and he followed.

My family has continued to use this method Jesus and the disciples modeled to us in the book of Acts with great success in our remote villages of Mozambique. I recently met with a discipleship group consisting of four Mozambican guys from the Yawo tribe. One of these guys, named Basilio, told me that he was returning to his field 30 miles away to pick up his wife and kids who have been planting and walk them back. Hopefully, he could catch a ride on a motorbike.

He shared with us that the five discipleship discovery groups he started were growing immensely. One of these groups just called him to announce that there were 20 new disciples ready to be baptized. They asked him to stop by, share the Gospel and help them baptize. Basilio faithfully discipled these communities during planting season by using only two resources— an audio Bible in their dialect and wisdom from our all- knowing God. He not only imparted knowledge of the Gospel to them but also allowed them to stand beside, assist and learn from him as he baptized new disciples.

He also gave them the opportunity to baptize others by themselves. This caused God’s Kingdom to grow so quickly that he could not keep up. He even asked us to send him two more disciples from one of the groups here to help him train newcomers.

These type of disciple making movements are happening all over the world! This is an article sharing a few good books you can learn more about it 👉 https://whenlovecompels.com/the-5-best-books-to-go-make-disciples-start-you-multiplying/

You see, baptism naturally becomes part of the discipleship process. Jesus, Paul, and most of the stories in the book of Acts point towards baptism. I believe it’s why Jesus commanded us in Matthew 28:18-20 to do it. Interestingly, in the eighth chapter of the book of Acts, we read about an Ethiopian who had an encounter with a second-generation disciple to Jesus named Philip.

After a short meeting, learning about who Jesus was, the Ethiopian, without having knowledge of the discipleship process, exclaims, “Look there is water, is there anything preventing me from being baptized?” (Acts 8:36-37). I guess he knew that from the Gaza strip in Israel back to Ethiopia he had time to dry off! That is the Kingdom of Heaven at work. It happens right now! It’s at hand! It’s near you! Baptizing others and encouraging others to do the same is another essential in disciple making and following Jesus.

We will dive deeper so to speak into this topic in future posts, but for now please let us know what you hear God saying to you about baptism.

Or if you have questions about implementing this area of obedience into your disciple making strategy please reach out and ask!

Here are some friends of the family and our mission that have their own unique stories to share in America. https://www.purveyorsofhope.org/

Ian Gennari 3/17/24 Ian Gennari 3/17/24

How To Lead True Disciples Of Jesus-They Must Hear God

DISCIPLES SHOULD BE TAUGHT AND TRUSTED TO HEAR GOD

AND OBEY HIM ON THEIR OWN DAILY

This article's topic can stand alone, however it is a continuing thought following the Where Does Discipleship Process Begin series.

To catch up on the stories in those few articles START HERE

Learning to hear the voice of God

For about a two year time period I focused on hearing God’s voice daily. This prepared me for the opportunity to help Vida follow Jesus. In scripture, we see that Jesus would consistently go off and spend time with His Father in prayer. So much so, that the only thing we ever read of the disciples requesting directly from Jesus was for him to teach them to pray. There is a Kingdom key here for sure. My wife and I say to each other often that if we could leave the people here with just one thing it would be the ability to hear God for themselves!

I would like to share a specific place in the gospels that led me for an extended period of time. I believe that I was sent back to this place so that I would have a model in place of what to do next with the young man Vida.

First, let me share a small side story. Jesus led me to take over a prison ministry a colleague of mine started but was no longer involved in. Along with that, God showed me a blue‐print for a simple Bible school, of sorts, I was to begin with a pastor out in a remote village roughly, 15 miles from our base. When we first moved to Mozambique, we built a relationship with Antonio who would become our language teacher for roughly a year.

Antonio grew up knowing Jesus and displayed a hunger to go deeper. He already attended some Bible schools and moved in a unique anointing to preach the Gospel. God spoke to him often in dreams and visions. He had a deep desire to go out and evangelize. We quickly became friends and partners in ministry. Without even knowing it, God was already having me walk through the “come follow me process.”

Antonio would eventually take over the prison ministry. It was simple–go and visit them and share the Love of Jesus with them through music and scripture teaching. The Bible school, on the other hand, took months of prayer and a much different strategy than they originally intended. The Lord showed me that I needed to create a three-year program with the intended purpose of teaching the local people of that church along with its leaders to hear the God's voice for themselves. This Bible school literally taught students how to hear from God and obey Him daily.

Most of the curriculum during the first year is all about practicing listening to God and responding to His voice. The second and third year is more practical as we would go out together, apply what we have practiced during the first year, and would also train others to do the same. The class was mixed with men and women of all ages, newly saved or church elders, married or single. All in the same boat! It was very much outside the cultural box but bore a lot of fruit!

Want to know if it's God speaking to you? Here is a video that might encourage you!

The Bible school also gave me some context for what I saw God was doing with my family when the event with Vida happened at our house. The Lord had me reading some passages of scripture over and over again, specifically from the books of Matthew and Luke. Let’s have a look at a few of them here:

And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. And he said to them,

“Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics. And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.”-LUKE 9:1-6)

And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.

By the time Vida returned, filled with the Holy Spirit and hungry to learn more, I had already been processing these scriptures:

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’

And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick in it and say to them,

‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.”— LUKE 10:1-11

Vida was a man of peace. His mom’s house was a house of peace. His part of the village was yet to be determined. I knew what I needed to do. A few days later I asked Vida if he was ready to follow Jesus. I want to emphasize something specific here; I did not just ask him to follow Jesus and leave him alone.

I immediately set up a time that week to meet at his house to read the Word together. Antonio came to observe the process. The goal was to stay with Vida as he grew, help him practice hearing God's voice, and then send him out to find another person, house, or town of peace.

The book of Matthew chapter 10:5-26 has another perspective on these same passages with some added details. Now, pause for a moment, take ten minutes and go to your Bible. Read this passage twice and wait for God.

Ask Him:

1- “Father God, what do You want me to hear and know about this passage?”

Now, wait a few minutes for an answer from Him. A great second question is;

2- "Father God, what do you want me to know about You in relationship with humanity in these scriptures?"

Did you do it?

If you did and want to share what you heard regarding those scriptures please comment below!

Are you feeling ready to go make disciples? This book will encourage and practically guide you on where to begin 👉 https://amzn.to/3HlvKe8

Ian Gennari 3/17/24 Ian Gennari 3/17/24

Do You Know What You Are Saying?

A Challenging Question For Believers In Jesus.

Where You Go, I'll Go, And What You Say, I'll Say God.

This is not a review of the well known Jesus Culture song, but rather a conviction after enjoying listening to it again.

Now, I want to start by saying I love this song! My intent in writing this is to engage my Christian community in how I personally responded to listening to it recently. I thought it might aid you all in processing similar thoughts as believers in this turbulent time of history.

The other morning I was up praying as I often do during the week. Early in the morning just asking God what I should know about. In that moment a song came on. It was a song I have heard many times in my life. Though, it was a different version and singer than the original. Listening to it over and over this particular morning I couldn't help but remember something my wife told me one day after a worship service we had attended.

She said, 'Do we really know what we are saying? Do we realize the words we are singing sometimes?' As a worship leader for many years this questioning and urgency from her intrigued me and we began a discussion. We dove deep that day about what it would really look like if God's glory came into the room! Remembering how so many times in the bible when God's glory entered an environment people fell as dead men, trembled, and quaked unable to even look up. It was a giant reality check on how small we really are.

Most of the time it was followed with the words, 'Fear not', however it was usually a humbling situation. The reason I'm writing this post on it is when I was reminded of that discussion my thoughts went in a little different direction. I was focused more on the topic of true discipleship and following Jesus!

My intent today is to share my feelings as a current missionary and follower of Jesus on what I felt the morning I listened to this song again. Maybe you will relate. Let's take a look at the lyrics for a moment. The chorus and bridge sections are what you might expect and relatable to avid church goers all over. I want to hone in on the verse and the chorus after that.

The Chorus goes;

'Where you go, I'll go, and what you say, I'll say, and what you pray, I'll pray'

The Bridge;

'The world sees and soon forgets, but we will not forget who you are and what you've done for us'

When we are in a group of believers worshiping at the top of our lungs in the safety of a beautiful church it can be easy to say the words from the bridge. The family of God in unity thinking upon our history with God in gratitude. There is almost an us and them feeling maybe while participating. A relating to John chapter 1 that the world did not recognize and know the Word of God when He presented himself. I have attended hundreds of those services and still love and miss them today.

The chorus can almost sound reasonable as well, when in a group of like minded individuals. Even sitting in a remote village in Africa trying to live out these very lyrics I was convicted that I still desire it all the more! When we look individually at these particular lyrics it can become quite challenging and sobering.

Check out the verse;

'Jesus only did what he saw you do. He would only say what he heard you speak.
He would only move when he felt you lead. Following your heart, following your spirit
How could I expect to walk without you. When every move that Jesus made was in surrender. I will not begin to live without you. For you only are worthy, you are always good, You are always good'

As a believer, declaring I follow Jesus, I have to encounter these words daily! Wherever I find myself! When singing, 'I will not begin to live without you' do I stop, and take inventory of the last words I said to the clerk at QT? For me in Africa maybe the child who asked me for money for the hundredth time. Can I really sing this verse? Can you? Can we as a church, really?

This post is not to condemn anyone or any group! It's to hopefully start a dialogue and then encourage each other in the comments as we debrief about it. Let's as disciple makers chew on Jesus' question, 'Who do you say that I am?' together this week and the weeks ahead. And then ask each other, 'Now, what will we do about it?'

Then it would make more sense for us to process the chorus. Don't you think?

Will we actually go where He goes? Will we actually say what He says? And will we pray His heart? Even pray it over the car that just cut us off, or the boss that persecuted us at work? Will we go? Maybe, over to our neighbors and invite them over for a meal and chat about the love of Jesus?

After considering those things it could become easier to ponder how many times Jesus might have desired to go somewhere else, say something different, or pray a different prayer.

Why bring these things up Ian? Are you trying to present one more challenge in the Christian walk? No, not really. I am a believer in the truth that confession leads to repentance and repentance leads to transformation. When we confess-truth tell about how maybe we aren't living out the lyrics we have been singing, then and only then can we ask God what He wants us to know about that. He will reveal what we have been believing or what fear is controlling us from living them out.

Then we can ask Him what he says about it. God will give us new perspective about how we see ourselves and the world, and then repentance-mind change can take place. And what will follow? Transformation!

Like the song says, 'I can not begin to live without you.' Agreed! We can not begin to live without Him, so when we confess what we have been living for instead, He is quick to tell us why. Then He is so good to reveal how He sees us, so we can believe and be transformed into His image. What follows?

We will go, say, and pray the things He desires. I don't know about you, but that's what my family wants. When I processed this song the other day and thought, 'Do we know what we are saying?', my deepest desire was that there would be testimony in my life to go with the words I was singing.

For you reading this you may be thinking, 'But Ian you went to Africa! You are doing the first part of that chorus.' It's true we went where He told us, all the way to Mozambique. But I long to say and pray daily what He wants me to. I long to say, 'Eyes be opened, arise and walk, life return to him/her, and forgive them Father.'

I confess to you all I am working on it, and living for that!

And when I sing words like these I am convicted! How about you?

Ian Gennari 3/16/24 Ian Gennari 3/16/24

I am ascending to my Father...

Helena's story

Helena…she was a precious, selfless, 10-year-old girl that we cared for on our palliative care program. Horrifically, a rare metastatic bladder cancer ravaged her little body and took her life this past week. Last month my colleague, Cachucha purchased a variety of food for her as she had asked to have a “piknik” with her family and friends, such a generous last request.

She could have asked us for anything…to ride to town, to have some money for herself, to be healed. But her biggest desire was to share a meal with her family and friends. She could no longer walk on her own but she could sit out on the mat in the warmth of the sun and enjoy a few bites of savory pasta and rice. For most of her life she grew up separated from her parents and was raised by her grandmother.

It is common here in Mozambique for a granddaughter to help her aging grandmother, but during the last few months of her life, she moved into her parent’s small home. She was attended to by her father and grandmother while her mother cared for her occasionally, remaining emotionally distant as she remained present for her 1-year-old daughter. Helena always had a peace about her, around her, and in her when we visited.

Her pain was managed, and she did not seem bothered by the colostomy site her parents helped to clean several times a day. She was frail, weak, and wasting away, but she always exuded joy and assurance during our visits. She shared about her dream of her little sister visiting as she had been gone to town for a few days to visit her aunt. Always dreaming and thinking of others, she would call Cachucha during the week to check on him and ask when he was visiting again. She was a good friend.

I went to visit her family this past week to give my condolences and simply be present with them in their grief. Her father shared Helena’s last moments with me. He said she was without pain and peaceful as she reached out and asked him to pick her up in his arms. He gently picked up what was left of her failing body, and she took her last breaths. She knew…she knew all along even as we prayed for her healing and shared the protection and love of Jesus with her.

She knew and carried peace, a tangible peace that we fail most days to recognize for ourselves, a peace that would make most jealous. During the last days of her journey, she was generous with others, serving the ones she loved in her last requests, and I saw Jesus. Jesus in Helena. A little girl who gave with purpose, who broke bread with her community although she knew her life would end. Helena’s earthly father took her into his arms upon her request, and she then ascended into heaven with the Father.

“I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”

-John 20:17

To hear more about Carla's work in Africa go HERE

If you enjoyed this you may also want to read THIS ONE from Carla

Ian Gennari 3/13/24 Ian Gennari 3/13/24

3 Keys To A More Mature Christian Life

A Good Life, Great Life, Or a God Given Life?

When we receive Christ into our life it is our full intent to follow His lead and obey God's plan for us. Most of us even dream of seeing fruit multiply like Jesus talks about in the parable of the sower. In that story Jesus describes four different scenarios or soils. Here in Mozambique, where we have been living and serving for the last nine years, we come back to this parable a lot! This concept has been crucial for maturity of the locals faith here! If you have done any type of discipleship making or even mentoring you can probably relate to the third soil Jesus talks about. He describes it as a field that has seed grow but along with the plant are thorns and weeds. The thorns and weeds choke out the plant so that it doesn't result in a lot of fruit. Jesus explains it as the things of this world, like money, power, greed, distractions etc... choke out the word, or the seed. The key we can miss here is that the seed still bears fruit. It's just not a lot of fruit! The fruit is weak. There is fruit though. What is truly missing? Why is the seed not yielding? Maturity! For one thing the field has weeds and thorns in it. The second thing is the wisdom and maturity needed to remove the weeds and thorns is missing or over looked at best. Here in Mozambique every morning for the better part of seven months, at the rooster's crow the people go marching out to their fields barefoot. They have water, maybe a few mangoes, and one tool with them. A hoe. That tool is to remove weeds! They can not sustain life here without that tool! They can't control the rain and weather, but they can control whether their fields have weeds, and whether they choose to remove them.

So much of our Christian life can be focused on the fruit and how much we can produce. We can overlook the most important, uncomfortable, and not so fun steps that lead to the fruit. For my family it's been three keys that God revealed to us that helps us assess how we are maturing with Him. I will get to those shortly. If you long to mature in your Christian walk then their needs to be a greater focus on what produces the Godly fruit, not as much on the fruit itself, which is the result of maturity. Wouldn't you agree? We will know believers and followers of Jesus by their fruit, but what did they do to mature and bear fruit in the first place? That's what I want to highlight and give as practical application for you in this post.Over the years, especially the last ten in the mission field, as I have sought after the wisdom of God and maturity in Christ I realized that their are four soils in the parable of the sower. Three of the soils come before we even get to the fruitful soil! Let that sink in a minute. There is a process involved to get to the final soil. In fact three of the soils actually cause the seed to grow! The only soil that does not produce from the seed is the first soil, and that is because the seed is actually stolen before it can die in the soil. It is intruded upon. The other soils bring forth life. Jesus is drawing out a picture of progressing in our walk with Him. Maturity! Sometimes the things we chase after in life can look good. They can even look great, but are they God putting them there for us? Do you want the good life? The great life? Or the God-given life? I think everyone reading this desires the latter, but their are a couple soils we must work through. We might have to work those soils for a couple seasons, just so we can check the quality of our harvest.

So what are the 3 Keys you ask?

Don't worry we are getting there. Are you ready for them? They are not all easy, but they are essential to a life of Godliness and fruit that remains. Here they are for you to look at before we touch on each one;

Key #1-Listening for and obeying God's voice daily

Key #2-The ability and obedience to say no

Key #3-Knowing when it's time to let something die

Key #1 Are You Listening for and obeying God's voice daily?

Probably not the three you thought I would write down eh? Let's get into it! The first one may seem obvious for maturing in Christ, but you would be surprised how many people would tell you they don't regularly communicate with the Savior they chose to receive. It's not just in the West either. This is a challenge that goes back to the Garden of Eden! If Eve, AND Adam had been more focused on what God had said there would have been no confusion on what Satan was trying to accomplish. In just a moment of doubt on what God said they both started the dominoes falling over. We have been doubting His voice ever since, and He has continued to speak to us. What a good and loving Father. What if Adam had just stopped the serpant and said something like, 'Hey hold on a second let me confirm what you are saying with my friend, God!' It might have turned out a bit different. Anyways, the point is our life in Christ begins with speaking to the Father through Him daily! The same way it was modeled for a short time in the life of Adam and Eve. God desires the same thing with you that He had with them. He sent His son to open that channel and make it forever possible to communicate with the Living God! So why aren't most of us talking with Him daily? Well, that is for another future post. For now I must simply share this is a key to maturity. Intentionally wake up with His voice and direction on your heart and mind. Take time everyday to ask Him what He wants you to know about? What He says about you for today! Is He telling you to start a world wide ministry or just pick up the piece of trash in the corner that no one even sees? Our ears must be trained to listen before we can respond with maturity. A child must learn their parents voice before it learns words. It must learn words before it comprehends sentences. You get the point I'm sure. Let's go to the next one.

Key #2 Do you have the ability and obedience to say no?

Some of you read this headline and shouted, 'Can I get an amen!' Unfortunately if you are anything like me this one can take years to mature in. It can even be down right scary sometimes. Why? Well to say no to something good seems like you are missing out on something! I have never enjoyed saying no to people or good opportunities. I''ll be real after having three boys I have grown good at, as Tim Hawkins would suggest, being the King of 'No'. This gets really interesting, so to speak, after you have encountered Jesus and received a love beyond measure. That alone can prompt us to want to say yes to everyone. However just like chocolate every day is not always the best for you. Or is it? Isn't there a study on that? What I'm trying to get to is that things that are good or great are not always God. And we need to learn to hear God's voice well enough that saying yes and no to things depends on Him. Why? Because, once we are saved we are to walk by His Spirit and no longer by our feelings, emotions, or will alone. I have shared with the local disciples here in Africa almost daily that one of the most powerful things they can achieve in their walk with God is to say no. No to what? Now there is the rub. No to the world, no to sin, no to murder of course. How about no to our-self! John in his book, 1 john 🤪 says it like this, "For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world."

The top three things he lists off are battles within our own soul! Why? Because we need to grow our Spirit by living in Christ daily, so that our soul and flesh submit to the Spirit of the Living God inside us daily. And Jesus knew how to say no! We often don't thing about it that way, but it's true! The book of Hebrews says Christ learned obedience through the things that he suffered. The only times Jesus did not say no were to the things tied to God's plan for the world. Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed."-John 5:19-20 He, as our Lord had to say no to a lot of things! In Luke chapter 2 we see Jesus at the age of 12 just about ready to start a global ministry, but instead he returns with his parents to his hometown where he submits to them for 18 more years! Again, Adam and Eve had it all, so we need to look to their life often. When they missed the opportunity to say no to the one thing on the no eat list it ended in a giant failure, for us too! You see our no is not just tied to us! It affects others. Why is it so important to achieve these keys in our lives and mature? For the sake of the world. Jesus makes some incredible statements in John chapter 17. I could write an entire book on it. If you long for the presence of God in your life I would challenge you to spend an extended time in that chapter alone!

The thing I want to highlight from it that he says is,

"...so that the world may believe that you have sent me."

AND, yes that's not all,

"so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

He says almost the same thing twice! It is differentiated by 'to know' and 'to believe'. Why is that important? In John Chapter 1 Jesus says that His own people did not 'receive' Him. Or believe in Him. About the world He says that they did not 'Know him'. He continues, "But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." We have been given the right to become children of God when we say yes to Jesus and no to everything else. Why? So that the whole world will know and believe. That is how important our no is! Let's summarize, and conclude this point by simply saying let us train our spirit to the point of hearing God so well - Key # 1, that we only desire to say yes to what He wants for us. You never know the world could thank you for it! 😇

Key #3 Are you aware when it's time to let something die?

I could go straight in to the scriptures about carrying our cross and following Jesus here, however we are going to take more of a group approach here. In Jonathan Cahn's book 'The Mystery of the Schmeta' he talks about some of the agricultural principles the people of Israel were to live by according to their law. One of those was to let the land die, and not be cultivated on the 7th year. It was essential to the multiplication and fruit bearing in future years. Many of my neighbors here in the village live off their land and have not learned this principle. It has cost them dearly, because they burn their fields at the end of harvest every year to make it easier the next season and to drive out snakes. That constant burning along with never allowing the land to sit quiet for a season has driven their yields way down over decades. I don't know all the science behind it, but I can connect the dots that their is a time to let things die. Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."That wasn't even in the parable of the sower. This was something altogether separate he said. Jesus was trying to get this point across to us like a hot topic today! As an individual it can be easier to receive that message. In a world that is telling us every day we need to build a legacy it can be a bit more daunting to let things die. You might be thinking, 'why is this such an important key?' I may have already lost you even. It's so important to our maturity because there is only resurrection when there is death. My wife and I have been involved in multiple corporations, church plants, prayer groups, ministries, and even owned our own semi-large business. In multiple cases when leadership, especially Christian leadership did not yield to the changes God was prompting them to make by His Spirit things fell apart. Did you hear that? When the group did not yield to changing and letting die what needed to, it caused the whole thing to crumble. God is in the business of resurrection. He sees the things connected to us that can cause premature death and puts a plan in place to have them die before they take us out of his will permanently. The mystery is we have to die to ourselves to fulfill and complete the process. Then he grows something beautiful and fruitful in it's place. The thing that belonged all the time. Are we able to let go of our ministry if He asks us to let go? Can we walk away from what we believe we built and what we think we achieved? Can we walk away for the sake of His name and so that the world might know Him? Jesus very early into his ministry was said to not have entrusted himself to them (the world), because he knew all people. He did not receive their praise and chase after a legacy! I know this can seem easy to ask on my part, but if my family had not learned to let a few things die we never would have made it to the mission field. The history for us and these three keys is on going for sure. We have not achieved glory status yet and we keep getting challenged with all three each year.

That being shared my question still remains can you immediately say, 'Yes Ian I could let it go, walk away, and let things die if God asked me to.'?

It's a hard one isn't it? I truly believe that is why we are seeing so many giants of the faith falling in flames right now. If you are slow to answer this last key question take heart! Death was never supposed to make sense. We were never intended to experience it! Jesus has defeated it, redeemed us, and made a way for resurrection in the face of it. That is the big play! Our faith lies in knowing that if we allow the things to die that He asks of us - that He also has a plan of resurrection. If you are reading this thinking, 'That's great Ian, now what?' 'Where do I start?' We want to serve you with some simple ways our family has grown in these keys. You can start by taking time with God and asking him these three questions:

1- Father God what do you want me to know about hearing your voice daily?

2-Father God what do you want me to know about saying no to things?

3-What do you want me to know about being aware of things I need to allow to die?

Finally, you can always start a conversation with the community here. We are always here to answer your questions where we are able to through God's grace.

Blessings and courage to you all!

For more information our families mission or to reach out www.compelledones.org

Ian Gennari 3/11/24 Ian Gennari 3/11/24

What Inspired The Writing Journey?

The reason and vision for the writing journey includes you!

The writing journey for us began when we said yes to the call of God on our life to go into the un-reached places and share His love and plan of salvation for them! He wrote His word and plans on our heart as a family, numbered our steps, and so we obeyed and went. Now it's time for us to share the journey of what He has written and is continually writing over the people's hearts in front of us every day! Father God inspired us by sending His son. You said we inspired you in our going.

Now we are inspired with vision to share all we have learned so that you will have courage and faith to go everywhere He leads.

Let's Start At The Beginning

Carla and I met in 1997 at Grand Canyon University over a game of pool. The details of that pool match are for another post🤪. The bottom line is I was behind the eight ball in life so to speak and God in his incredible love said look up and see your future! With in months Carla and I had began a courtship that led to marriage and next year we will celebrate 25 years of life in Christ together!

Maybe Carla will write on her side of that story sometime. I'm just touching on all this part of our lives because it includes the vision for us going on this writing journey. During our two year courtship half of that time was engagement as well. I knew she would be my wife before I knew her last name! I mean God revealed it to me, as I really don't know much. One of the things we loved to do most was walk around the campus and ask each other questions that needed a true, honest, and vulnerable answer.

One thing we were sure of was that we would be a couple on mission, and probably in the mission field. I don't want to steal her story, but Carla has known she would be serving others in the health field since she was four or five years old. I had been called to missions with two heavenly, earth shattering, God encounters in my late teens.

Fast forward 15 years, two miscarriages, multiple businesses, a church plant, and a lot of future blog posts and we were still living in Phoenix, Arizona with our three little boys, and still not in the mission field! Have you ever begun to feel like God has forgotten you? That's where we were at. Our heart's were restless for the deeper things of God and what we saw in the bible, especially in the book of Acts. We had begun the process of discipling our boys on hearing the voice of God for themselves.

Tobiah and Jaidan were already experiencing and remembering God given dreams. The music missionary ministry was taking off, and I had released my second album 'When Love Compels'.

Carla had been working as a director at two large non-profit palliative care organizations. Due to the engagement with people at the concerts and music ministry coupled with Carla serving the sick and dying weekly our hearts began burning for the missions call to come to fruition. Carla's parents passed away close together of similar things and she was bedside in both instances. This prompted her more to want to head back to the nursing side of her calling and a longing to help those who couldn't find help while dying.

This all came to a head around 2014 when we discovered a missionary named Tracy Evans. She was serving the people of Central Mozambique and her vision was the same as Carla had pictures all those years before walking around Grand Canyon University together. We felt peace together that it was time to reach out to I Reach Africa Ministry.

Around this time, we began challenging our boys with questions like, "What would you feel if God asked you to move to another country?" The boys began to pray about that and discuss with us over dinner on certain nights. Tracy responded to our email and invited Carla out for a visit to explore what God might be saying to them and us. A year later on February 28, 2015 we landed as a family in Mozambique!

In the current typing of this post my wife, I, and the three boys are still serving in a small remote village somewhere in the North of Moz. Well, at least for a few more months. Our oldest son Tobiah will be moving back to the states in the middle of the year😭!

Going on ten years here in this incredibly beautiful and challenging land has been the inspiration for us to write and share about what we have learned from God in the journey.

Thank you for following along, sharing your questions and thoughts, and encouraging us to continue on!

Want to learn more about Compelled Ones Mission? Check it out here

Ian Gennari 3/11/24 Ian Gennari 3/11/24

Did you know Discipleship Grows Obedience?

Hello friends and disciple makers we are praying and hoping you are excited about 2024. It's still rainy and hot here in Mozambique and our family is ready for harvest to come as many are suffering terribly due to last years rains! Sometimes I can't imagine what it would be like living and dying on whether my field produces corn for the year.

Sleeping in a mud hut and hoping it will stay up during the rainy season and knowing you don't have the money to produce bricks this year if it falls. Going three to five days at a time with no food until God provides. It's hard to imagine even though we live among them, and tomorrow when the rooster crows, I will step outside and see the faceless children that will hopefully survive the year.

Even as I share this next post on discipleship compassion wells up in me. I'm thinking about the multiple men and women we have discipled like the one in this story that walk in faith not only to live, but to keep sharing the gospel with neighbors in the midst of their own suffering. Well if you have been walking along the journey of my last three posts you know when the true process of discipleship begins. Did you take the time to sit with Father God and ask Him what He wanted you to know about that process?

We left off on the story of Vida and him in a moment of having to step into his newly founded faith by praying for his sick little infant brother. Let's continue there!

Now, the next part of the discipleship process is an essential key and can be done in many different ways. After this lovely meal and Vida’s amazing revelation, it was time to leave. As they left, Vida asked me if I had a written Bible. Culturally, Muslims reject and are even afraid of the Bible. When he asked me this question, I knew immediately that his heart was changed in such a way that he was willing to be persecuted among his religious peers for searching the Scriptures.

Here is what I believe is often missed in discipleship—are you really listening? First, I invited him to a challenge. Next, I checked to see if he would be obedient, or at the least be teachable and willing to follow my lead. I said that I “normally” suggest reading the book of John first, but I sensed that God was telling me that he should rather start reading from the book of Matthew. I asked him if he was willing to read the Gospel of Matthew and return in a week’s time and share with me what he had read. It was important that he had the chance to read and hear for the first time the whole story of Jesus’s life.

Not just bits and pieces of what a few people shared. We needed to give the Holy Spirit room to show him the whole context of the story just as He had revealed to him who the Savior is! This would answer his questions. It was important that he would return with his own answers regarding who the Holy Spirit said Jesus was. And would you believe it? He returned! Not only with a glowing face but with a testimony. His baby brother was healed the next day!

To my astonishment, Vida did not wait a week before his next visit. He showed up less than 48 hours later. After greeting him, I asked if he read the book of Matthew yet. Eagerly he replied, “yes!” He asked, “what must I do to be saved?” Once again, I answered with a question: “after reading the book of Matthew, what do you think you need to do to be saved?” He simply answered, “I need to believe and follow.” “Exactly!” I replied.

Later he revealed to me a dream God had given him the night he came over and the interpretation was that he already had been saved.I realized that he actually wondered how to receive the Holy Spirit. He was probably curious about baptism as well as Jesus himself modeled baptism in the book of Matthew. I told him that I believe he is already saved, however, it is important that he should go home, confess and repent to God about his old life. After all, Jesus’ first words as He began His ministry were, “repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!”

I told him to ask Jesus to give him the Holy Spirit, just as He had promised the disciples. I said, “don’t leave your house until you know you have received it!” He understood and with joy went home to pray. You might be wondering why I didn’t lay hands on him and prayed a sinner’s prayer with him.

The main reason is that he was already encountering God on his own and beginning to hear God’s voice in his life! He didn’t need my extra voice! You see, many people are longing to hear God’s voice for themselves. And they can, if we teach them and allow them to try!

God spoke from the beginning. His first recorded words were, “let there be light!” He desires to illuminate the darkness. The number one thing the enemy of our souls has been trying to stop is our ability to hear God’s voice. Our top priority as a family, here in this foreign country, is to teach people to hear God’s voice for themselves.Religion often has so many voices distracting us and mediating what we hear and believe.

As followers of Jesus Christ, it is important to know that there is only one mediator between God’s voice and our hearts. He provided us with a way for our ears to be opened. If Vida was truly going to follow Jesus, he needed to experience God’s voice first-hand. He needed to experience Jesus for himself with no distractions. I was there to point him to the One who would save him, and then say, “come follow Him with me.”

Blessings and courage until next week! Friend, if you have been enjoying the stories and journey so far there is a great resource available to you.

You can hear more about our life here in the mission field and be equipped to follow God's call on your own life by checking it out.

Check out our audio book here!

Also if you would like to experience what we do here in the mission field check out our YouTube channel. This is a video from our first couple months in Mozambique; Watch Now

Ian Gennari 3/6/24 Ian Gennari 3/6/24

I am a sinful woman...

My faith journey involves a lot of patience, mercy, grace and love…not just for others but for myself. I continue to ponder on the idea that faith and the manifestations of it can be offensive especially when living cross culturally but as I reflect and walk through my days, I am finding that this may be a fear man has spoken over humanity, over me.

Why? Because when I remember the times I encountered Jesus, the time growing up when His truth and love manifested, I realize that offense was not included in those moments. I have read the story in Luke 7 of the “sinful woman” many times, but as I read it this week I see something very familiar in it. Not the sin…but the risk, the love and the culturally “unacceptable”. I see Jesus, I see myself, I see Jesus serving through the outpouring of a “sinful woman”. And you know what? It can appear offensive.

“As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.”Then Jesus is basically scolded by his host, a Pharisee…Jesus responds.“Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet.

Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” - Luke 7:44-50

Wow! This was not her home. This was not her guest. She was not invited. She was not the host.

I want to be more like her…

-Carla Ann

To learn more about Carla's work in Africa go HERE

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When Does The Discipleship Process Truly Begin? (Part 3)

My Invitation & A Woman Named Maria

I received my invitation-the call of God on my life in eighth grade and again in my junior year of high school. Both times were at a youth conference, but at two different locations in Alaska. Those moments were so life-changing that I still remember them vividly to this day! I even remember the song the worship team was singing during the invitation.

One of the main lyrics was, “let Your glory fall in this room, let it go forth here to the nations.” During this song, the speaker felt the Holy Spirit lead him to shout out an invitation from the Lord. He said: “I believe there are some in the room that have a call of missions on their life!” and God is asking, “who will go for Me? Who will go to the nations? Whom shall I send?” I clearly remember a strong conviction washing over me and found myself shouting:

“Send me!”Jesus moved me in such a profound and deep way. From then until this very day this feeling continued to burn like a fire in me. It took 20 years before God opened the door for me to move fully into that call over my life. With every passing year, my heart burned for more of God; all because of that invitation. I was only eight years old, sitting at my dinner table listening to my Dad read through the book of Revelation when I first felt the Spirit of God beckoning me to salvation through His Son.

It was as clear as day that I was His alone and that I needed to commit my whole heart to knowing Him. Shortly after I wholeheartedly committed to Him, I was baptized in Lake Perris near Temecula, California. It wasn’t until my first encounter at the age of 14, in Alaska, that I realized He was saying: “come, follow Me. Follow Me as far as your faith will allow! ”Some of the church's discipleship programs and many believers miss this principle; that discipleship begins with an invitation.

The invitation begins with responsibility towards the disciple-maker. Jesus assumes the responsibility of not only picking who He will invest in but also extending them the opportunity to come and participate in His life. It isn’t simply inviting someone to a church service, a Christian concert, or even a community group. It is so much more. Jesus didn’t say: “hey, come on out to the sermon on the mount.” No, He did so much more than that. The disciples already accepted His invitation and followed Him there. Jesus invited them to sit next to Him as He ministered. We must be willing to ask others to come and follow Him. We have to see the end in mind. Will it take personal time and sacrifice? Oh, yes!

The invitations proposed in the Gospel are not convenient at all. On the contrary, we see Jesus lead the fishermen out of the comfort of their fishing boats into a sea of people. Later, we see Jesus getting into their fishing boat, but not for the purpose of catching fish. He uses their boat as a stage to reach people. Matthew has to get up from the comfort of his business and head into certain obscurity. Simon the Zealot would have been looking for a war and instead had to follow peace!

Here, in Africa, where I live, the culture is mainly lived outdoors, probably very similar to the time of Jesus in Israel. I often meet people in the village who really want to visit my house out of pure curiosity. However, they actually want me to visit their house! Now, it would be more comfortable and even convenient for me just to do all my discipleship things at my house. My house is my safe place where I can retreat if something goes wrong. But, I rarely do this. Instead, I tell a new disciple to come and follow us to a new location or someone’s house. The houses rotate from week to week.

Many times, especially if it is still early in the process, we invite ourselves into their house! Let me share a real story with you of a time when I actually did invite someone into our home and why it worked.This is a story about a young man named Vida. For the first two years we lived in Mozambique, his mom, Maria, worked alongside my family at our base. Unfortunately, she had recently lost her husband. My boys were very fond of her! Vida was a Muslim and his mom was raised Catholic.

During the first year, my wife attended to her healthcare and this sweet woman came to trust us. After many days of discussion about her past beliefs, we gave her an audio Bible.After a year and a half, Maria was already growing in her faith and showed evidence of following Jesus. One day she came to us, very concerned, with a question. She said her oldest son had been listening to the Bible weekly with her and asked her a difficult question, comparing his Islamic faith and hers in Jesus. Because Vida’s father had passed away, Maria wanted a man to answer this question for her son.

I realized that this was an opportunity not to be missed. I asked her what they were planning for Saturday. She didn’t work during weekends, so she was free. I invited her and all her kids to our house to share a meal. Let me pause here and answer why I chose my house in this case.Firstly, Maria had been working with us for over a year and had re-founded her faith with our family. She followed the disciples of Jesus, Andrew and Nathaniel’s example by extending an invitation to someone else—her own son. In essence, she was saying to her son, “come and hear about the answer to your questions in the place where I found them.” Vida needed to leave his comfort zone and search for the answers he desired.

Secondly, I wanted him to come where others were already walking in faith by the power of the Holy Spirit. By seeing how other believers live and have their being, he might just have a “taste and see that the Lord is good!” ((English Standard Version Bible, 2001, Psalm 34:8). Finally, it takes a lot of commitment from a Muslin to accept an invitation to eat in a Christian home. By inviting him to share a meal with us, we were honoring this man whom we have never met. The first two reasons were inspired by the Holy Spirit, but the third reason had to do with cultural awareness.That Saturday Vida showed up with his mom and little brothers. His baby brother was sick at the time.

He was coughing and had a fever. We could clearly see that his little lungs were fatigued as he had a croupy cough. While we ate the meal, Vida sat quietly. We could feel the tension of the question he wanted to ask us filling the room as we ate together.I just want to pause for a minute to explain what happened in the year leading up to this moment. I am sharing this because this specific moment with Vida was the catalyst for me pressing into discipleship in such a different and simplified way than I have been doing for the past two decades. This also opened the door for the Lord to challenge us to go even further away from our comfort zone as well as move more than 500 miles North to a new group of people. At this point, we had barely been in Mozambique for a year and a half.

One year leading up to this moment with Vida, I had grown disheartened with all the different resources and people talking with authority in Christian circles. It felt like the voice of man had become loud, noisy, and unloving in my life. Maybe you can relate. I decided to put away all the books on leadership and ministry and close my ears to the voice of man. Instead, I accepted the Bible as the only reliable resource and focused all my attention on the words of Jesus. Most of the year I studied the first chapter of the gospel of John alone! It was like fresh bread every day. During that time, I found joy, peace, and life-changing keys to the simplicity of what many of us would call ministry.

I believe those months of spending time praying, focusing on the words of Jesus alone in the Gospels, and being quiet before Father God prepared me for this moment with Vida. Sometimes when we are feeling discontent, God is actually leading us where we have been asking Him to take us.After the meal, Maria stood up and announced that her son had a question. Being very confident, this 18-year-old asked, “who is the final great prophet? Jesus or Mohamed?” I chuckled a bit and mentioned to the others in the room that this young man was throwing us into the deep end. In that moment, I heard the Lord whisper that I should ask him a question back. Naturally, I wanted to be obedient and waited for Jesus to tell me what I should reply.

I remembered a certain passage in the Bible and asked, “Vida, who do you say Jesus is?” He answered, “sitting in your house with my mom, I want to say that Jesus is above Mohamed.” Again I heard that familiar, soft voice of the Lord telling me to share the Gospel story but in the form of questions. I asked, “Vida, do you know who Peter, John, and James were in the Bible?” He said that he knew they were some of Jesus’ disciples. I replied, “Did you know that they asked a similar question to what you are asking now?” I could tell that he was listening intently. Next, I explained that Jesus asked the disciples one day, “who do the people say I am?” The disciples repeated the people’s many different answers.

Then, Jesus asked them who they, the disciples, thought He was. I asked Vida if he knew what Peter’s answer was. Vida answered that Peter believed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. I continued by asking Vida if he knew what Jesus’ response to Peter’s question was. He didn’t know, so I replied with Jesus’ own words: “flesh and blood did not reveal that to you, but rather my father in heaven” (English Standard Version Bible, 2001, Matt. 16:17). I encouraged Vida by telling him that even the disciples who were part of Jesus’ inner circle needed the Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus’ true identity, so his question was completely normal and valid.After this statement, I felt that he should stand outside and I asked him who he thought was greater. With a look of confusion on his face, he paused and replied:

“I want to say, Mohamed.” I took him back into the house and asked him the same question again. He stood there for what seemed like ages—shocked then replied, “standing here I am sure Jesus is the Savior!” I knew this would work because I was obedient to God’s voice. I knew with everything in me that Father God would reveal the truth to him. The joy of the Lord came over him and we all started laughing with him. Someone mentioned we should pray for his sick baby brother. I suggested that Vida would pray for his baby brother and we would agree with him. After all, he believed in Jesus now! Just then and there, without having any knowledge or experience of how to pray, Vida started praying for his baby brother. In the name of Jesus!

**Next week we will explore the topic a bit further and see what happened when Vida prayed. Until then go in courage.

For more miraculous stories like this one-check out Ian's new book - 'Making Disciples and Leading Others to Make Them'

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When Does The Discipleship Process Truly Begin? (PART 2)

Jesus Was Invited Too

Jesus showed me another incredible revelation one day—that He also received an invitation. God the Father invited Jesus, the word of God, to come in flesh and blood to make a way for all of humanity to be reconciled back to God:And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ (English Standard Version Bible, 2001, Jn 1:14,15)

Jesus walked the entire journey of discipleship from birth to death to resurrection! One foundational piece of the discipleship process in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ that is often overlooked is submission. Jesus submitted to His earthly parents until He was 30 years old. This was a normal part of their culture back then. I believe we can learn from His example.

Allow me to share the story from the Gospel of Luke:Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group they went a day's journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him.

After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me?

Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?”And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in statureand in favor with God and man (English Standard Version Bible, 2001, Luke 2:41-52)

Every time I read this I laugh! There are so many clues and treasures about our life in Christ in this passage. This passage clearly demonstrated that Jesus understood the Father’s invitation to the discipleship process. He demonstrates this by responding: “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” From this response, we can conclude that Jesus heard the invitation and responded to it by the age of twelve.

This passage teaches us about another important principle; the importance of obedience to the one discipling us, in this case, Father God. God did not yet instruct Him to leave His house and begin any type of ministry even though the elders were clearly impressed by Him. Instead, we see Him returning to His earthly parents and submitting to their authority.

The Son of God, the Word of God made Flesh, submitted to his parents for 18 more years! His obedience and submission to His parents evidently led him to grow in wisdom, and favor, not only with man, but with His heavenly Father. What an incredible key to unlocking the road map in advancing the kingdom we have found tucked away in this early Scripture in the life of our Messiah.

I would love to write a whole book on this chapter in Luke, but for now, I want you to realize the importance of the invitation and the response to the invitation from a disciple in the overall process. Let’s dig a little deeper by moving a bit further into the first chapter of John:The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit! (New King James Version, 1983, John 1:43-47) Here, we see that Jesus extended the invitation to Philip. Short and sweet he says, “Follow me.” The next thing we read is that now Philip is following Jesus’ lead. He goes and finds Nathaniel, and says something similar, simply, “come and see.”Just before this Jesus models a similar process:

Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, “What do you seek?” (New King James Version, 1983, John 1:35-37) This passage reveals an interesting point to think about; are we pointing disciples to Jesus, the ultimate disciple-maker?

Or are we pointing them to teachings, programs, processes, or books? Or are we pointing them to spiritual leaders who may talk and teach about how to live a life in Christ but may actually distract us from God’s chosen process and calling on our lives?

Let’s continue reading:

Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which is to say, when translated, Teacher), “where are You staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where He was staying, and remained with Him that day (now it was about the tenth hour). One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah.” (New King James Version, 1983, John 1:38-41)

Here we see John the Baptist, humbly allowing his disciples to go where he could no longer take them. This is true humility! Andrew follows Philip’s example by inviting someone into the process almost instantly. This is another key for us to learn from. Both of them tell their future disciples that they have discovered the Messiah. Our Kingdom response as believers in Jesus the Messiah is to invite others to “come and see” or “come and follow.” Our natural response after receiving Jesus, should not only be just belief; there is an action tied to it.

In the cases mentioned above, we see how they stop whatever they are doing and “come” quickly followed by an invitation to someone else to also follow. A true invitation into the process of discipleship is a “now” word. It requires immediate or quick action, without any delay. It even required Jesus to leave all His glory behind and come to earth when the Father extended the invitation. Every believer’s journey is unique; how far each of us is to follow, depends solely on Jesus. For my family it was farther than we imagined to the continent of Africa! (You can learn more about what we do as a family in Africa HERE )

However, one thing remains the same for every disciple; the initial invitation requires an immediate response. Urgency and courage is involved. Let’s consider why. Jesus only had three years to finish His Father’s work. He waited thirty years to finish three years’ work! In those short three years, He changes the world. Although He moved with compassion, patience, and love, He also moved with urgency. So, why aren’t we? Why isn’t the church? Maybe we have missed something crucial in the model Jesus gave for creating movements. Don’t get me wrong, building relationships takes time.

However, we shouldn’t get stuck there, as inviting and initiating the discipleship process and movement should be quick. We can conclude that if Jesus answered the invitation, and then extended the invitation to twelve more, that we too have a call to extend the invitation to others. Discipleship begins with an invitation. Who is God revealing to you that your invitation can go out to?

To read the final part of this article go here 👉 https://whenlovecompels.com/where-does-discipleship-begin-3/

If you enjoyed this post and feel led to begin the discipleship process or help others with it this book could be a great resource and place to start! Get the book 👉 📕 HERE

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When Does The Discipleship Process Truly Begin?

Make it stand out

Our Son Tobiah Taking Part in Some of Our First Baptisms in Malawi & Mozambique. We Explained That He Had Already Been Baptized Also.

The First Invitation (Part 1)

When my wife, myself, and our three boys m oved to Africa in 2015 to answer the call of God on our lives individually and as a family we were not sure we would be establishing a non-profit mission called Compelled Ones. One thing we were focused on for sure was we wanted to help others become true disciples of Christ.

Recently, on a run I was praying and reflecting on all we have learned and seen come to fruition in the last 9 years. These thoughts and dialogue with God turned into writings. Writings that led to a book. This is one of those writings.

Right after Jesus was baptized, He went through His wilderness experience for 40 days. Shortly after His wilderness test, He settled in Capernaum by the sea. He started to preach, saying two interesting things for the culture of that time: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” - Matt 4:17.

First, He called the people to repent. We often have the idea that repentance means simply asking for forgiveness for our sins. However, it is so much more than that! Repentance means changing your mind and submitting to a new way of thinking in order to have a more fulfilled life.

So, basically, the people of that time heard Jesus saying they should change their thinking! Did you know to change your thinking you must come to the realization that you have been thinking wrong? There must be a spoken confession like, 'Wow! I have been going about this all wrong' for there to be true repentance.

In other words there would need to be a system of confession or telling the truth of where one was really at in their beliefs for the mind change to take place. Well, that's for another post, another time.

Secondly, He told the people that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. If I heard a neighbor walking around the neighborhood proclaiming that our thinking is not aligning with God’s Kingdom, I would hopefully stop and listen.

The religious leaders' and God-fearing believers’ thoughts were formed according to their century-old traditions. They followed the laws Moses handed down to them as the only path to Salvation until the day their true Messiah would come to save them.

When Jesus—preceded just months before by John the Baptist—started declaring these things, the people would have stopped suddenly and been startled by such a statement. This was Jesus’ first invitation! He invited the people to stop and listen.

One day, shortly after giving this first invitation, Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee. He did something interesting that really begins our thought process on discipleship. Allow me to continue the story straight from the book of Matthew:

And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him. Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him. -Matt 4:18-22

Now, I want you to pause for only two minutes. Read those few verses two more times. Then, close your eyes and picture the scene in your mind. Ask God what He wants to tell you from this passage. Be silent and wait patiently for a minute or two for Him to answer. Finally, I want you to answer the following question for yourself: when does the discipleship process truly begin? Did you do it? If so, then keep on reading.

Discipleship is often portrayed as mystical or used as a general term within the church community. We know once we believe in Jesus and are saved that we become His disciples. We may even come to the realization that we have a responsibility as disciples to invest in the lives of other new believers.

This all seems easy but we often wonder how to begin, where to start, and who we should disciple. Some of us even wonder if we are qualified enough. Shouldn’t one first attend Bible school before jumping into the discipleship business? What if you don’t have a gift for teaching?

How will discipleship work then? When we get to a place where we actually start discipling others, we often wonder how long we should disciple them. What I have found in walking in a relationship with God the Father and searching the Scriptures is that it is actually much simpler than we often perceive.

In those days, a potential student of a formal Jewish Rabbi would have sought out his teacher and followed him until accepted or rejected. The Rabbi would have known the student’s school history, family, and maybe even their character. After being baptized by the last great prophet, overcoming Satan in the wilderness, and walking out in power, Jesus took a walk by the ocean and decided to call four young fishermen to follow Him.

He didn’t look for scholars or even Rabbis to follow Him but called simple young men from the community to become His disciples. These young men were the sons of fishermen, and their fathers before them were probably also fishermen. Most of the Jews in Galilee at the time were illiterate and Jesus chose them to become disciples who would disciple others.

Only the elite received an education and were able to read and write. Why didn’t Jesus choose more educated individuals to become His disciples? Would it have been wrong to choose the highly educated? He reverses the process by choosing four uneducated men—who probably haven’t even attended Torah school—to change their thinking and to follow Him.

He invited these ordinary men into a relationship that would transform them into something new! This leads me to share the first practical essential I have found about the discipleship process.

Discipleship truly begins with an invitation; an invitation to follow someone's life!

To read Part 2 of this article Go Here

If you enjoyed this post be sure to check out Ian's first book 'Making Disciples and Leading Others to Make Them' - available ➡️ HERE

More on the Compelled Ones Mission HERE

Reading The Bible

Lack of understanding

Distractions

Dependence on other sources

Lack of time and or discipline

Do You Feel Guilty When You Don't Read Every Day?

Is Being Disciplined In My Bible Study Really The Problem?

What Is Effective Bible Reading?

5 of my best ideas for where to start reading

Tips & Wisdom

Summary

Can you teach your kids to hear God's voice daily?

How We Can Hear God's Voice:

As a family we spend time in training our senses

The first example of how we listen for God speaking as a family

The second example of how we listen for God speaking as a family

The third example of how we listen for God speaking as a family

How do we know it's God's voice?

Practice makes permanent-not perfect

Finally, here are some questions you can use to practice

Let us hear the voice and words of Jesus to conclude

5 Essentials Of Disciple Making & Training Others

Some Essentials in disciple making

Essential 1: Discipleship begins with an invitation.

Essential 2: Discipleship Requires obedience.

Essential 3: A disciple is taught and trusted to hear and obey God on their own daily.

Essential 4: Jesus told us to baptize them.

Essential 5: There is a cost to following Jesus and discipling others.

Now What-How Can You Continue To Grow In Disciple Making?

The Final Three Essentials

What Does The Bible Say About Suffering?

Let’s start here:

Baptism is crucial to movement!

'BAPTIZE THEM IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, THE SON, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT.'

When Vida Learned To Baptize Others

Learning to hear the voice of God

A Challenging Question For Believers In Jesus.

Where You Go, I'll Go, And What You Say, I'll Say God.

Helena's story

A Good Life, Great Life, Or a God Given Life?

So what are the 3 Keys you ask?

Key #1 Are You Listening for and obeying God's voice daily?

Key #2 Do you have the ability and obedience to say no?

Key #3 Are you aware when it's time to let something die?

The reason and vision for the writing journey includes you!

Let's Start At The Beginning

To learn more about Carla's work in Africa go HERE

My Invitation & A Woman Named Maria

Jesus Was Invited Too

Make it stand out

Our Son Tobiah Taking Part in Some of Our First Baptisms in Malawi & Mozambique. We Explained That He Had Already Been Baptized Also.

The First Invitation (Part 1)