Experience Sharing from Go-Beyond Next Step Mission Discipleship Training

After over 3 months of "Go Beyond" and AFC "Next-Step" sponsored online discipleship training, I was able to attend an online cross-cultural mission retreat in person from August 5th to 9th, 2022. Six brothers and sisters from Canada and 12 members from 9 different US churches participated in the retreat alongside local Indian pastors. Through coordinated efforts, we had the opportunity to give testimonies and share the Gospel online with multiple Hindu and Muslim villages from three countries: India, the Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates. Our mission overcame temporal, geographical, cultural, and religious obstacles and yielded results beyond our team's imagination. "Go Beyond" reported that 547 people (40 of them Muslims) heart the Gospel, and 477 people (38 of them Muslims) decided to follow Jesus. Of those who accepted Christ, 384 people (35 were Muslims) were baptized, and 138 family churches were established (124 were multi-family churches with 13 Muslim family churches. We even saw 125 people volunteering to be the Person-of-Peace to open their families as meeting places for village believers. This was entirely due to the power of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit. There is nothing that He cannot accomplish. God is already at work among the unreached people in India and His kingdom is expanding at an unthinkable rate. God has prepared ripened crops, and the enormous Indian harvest field is waiting.

I benefited greatly from the all-around physical, mental, and spiritual training of "Go Beyond". The training helped me establish a lifestyle that is in step with God's will. In addition to a healthy diet and daily routines, the practice of devotional journaling and the application of Sunday sermons helped me grow an interactive relationship with God. Peer supervision provided accountability in spiritual disciplines. I was also inspired to bring prayer into different aspects of my life. The practice of God's presence drew me closer to the gospel-centered life. "...my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope" (Psalm 16:9). The physical, mental, and spiritual preparation helped our training cohort make the transition from knowledge to action – turning gospel mission into a way of life.

Prayer was a key part of the whole training. It helped us keep close to God and feel God's presence and power. We also had strong prayer support from our home churches. Despite the travel many students had to go through, there were no COVID-19 infections. Before our online mission session, we prayed that God would lift the burdens and worries in our hearts and give us strength. During the mission, we prayed for every villager who joined us online, for everyone who would claim Jesus as Savior, and for the villagers' needs. We prayed together with Indian coworkers in Chinese, English, or in the local Indian language over zoom. This is the most earnest prayer I have ever experienced. And our prayer was like a song that brought out the unity of our hearts.

God also changed my view on evangelism. I used to find evangelism difficult and work meant for full-time ministry workers. Now I feel that our way of living should be a mission expression of our faith. As we make gradual changes and live our lives according to God's will, we can see His transformation. Influencing others for Christ through our personal life is the most effective way to spread the Gospel. In a way, every Christian is a missionary and has a part in God's Great Commission.