Everyone, Everywhere, Everyday in Milenge
Steward is a passionate church leader who also heads up a few Life Groups around Mansa and Kalaba. He and I recently travelled to Milenge, a small town that sits on the banks of the Luapula river, close to the Democratic Republic of Congo. It’s quite off the beaten path: we drove 170 km on main roads to the far side of Mansa, and 75km on a dirt road, for which we had to hire a motor bike. We had been invited to run Everyone, Everywhere, Everyday to introduce the ideas behind Life Groups and invite for people to explore what God is asking them to do.
People realised that God could do big things in their communities if they come together and accept that they are on a mission for Him.
In all, 30 people, aging in range from 18 to 60, attended the two-day course, some of whom were church leaders. The participants travelled in from six different villages in the Millenge area, and were from a variety of denominations, including the Pentecostal Holiness Church, the Bread of Life Pentecostal Church, and the Open Christian Brethren Church, which hosted the training. It was encouraging for us to know that the message would spread beyond Milenge.
Due to differences between the denominations, the communities these people come from had found it difficult to work together. The course was designed to help people appreciate that each individual (the “everyone” the name of the course alludes to), has his or her own gifts; to understand that external support isn’t necessary; and to realise that combined efforts in their communities could achieve great things.
All participated enthusiastically in discussions and engaged fully in the relationship-building activities. Eating every meal together and engaging in focused prayer contributed to a strong sense of fellowship.
As we studied the stories that illustrated the teaching, the participants were clearly excited. A key outcome of the training was the understanding they reached that rather than looking to external support, they can trust God to enable them to be solutions to the problems in their communities. They came to see that everyone has a role to play, that we all serve one God. They realised that He can use anyone, regardless of whether they are ordained, and that He has placed them in their communities to bring about transformation.
“They will be called oaks of righteousness,” it says in Isaiah 61:3, “a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendour”.
I believe that the people who came on this course began to see how that could apply to them. From the excitement we saw in the room, it was clear that the Everyone Everywhere Everyday training had been a transformative experience.
- Royd, Zambia