Developing Disciple Leaders

Post By

Jan Diaz

In January and February, the Bible Adventure and CIA teams met together in 7 different locations for our Volunteer Leader Trainings. Many of the 198 volunteers who attended shared their stories of how God is working, I was amazed again at the vital kingdom work that God is doing among our public-school students and their mentors!

Our Theme verses for this year have been Matt. 28:19-20, with a focus on “…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Many of the stories shared focused on students that came to Bible Adventure and Christians in Action with no background in church or knowledge of the Bible. Each volunteer listener has opportunities to teach their 3-4 students about prayer, Bible reading and understanding, and ways to believe in and follow Jesus.

One story stood out to me. A listener in a York program has 3 girls (2 who had never been to church before). Each week they had been using the Bible provided as they worked on looking up and explaining the verse for the day. On this particular day, the listener noticed one of the girls who was not churched seemed sad. When asked why, she said that she needed to give her Bible back to us because her mother had brought her a brand new one! Although not a believer or a church attender, her mother saw the impact God’s word had on her daughter and bought her a new Bible! The girl was sad for others that did not have a Bible of their own! In that same program, when they talked about inviting their friends who had not yet heard, a boy said, “Let’s fill the whole room! We can bust a wall out!” It reminded me of the 4 friends in the account in Luke 5:17-20 who didn’t let anything get in the way of their friend meeting Jesus!

As we discussed these stories at the trainings, many of the volunteer leaders said in their evaluations that they wanted to be more diligent in their own study of God’s word so that they could pour into these students! God is growing all of us into deeper relationships with Jesus as we (to date) minister to over 3,100 public school students each week! What a blessing! We continue to pray for more volunteers who can disciple our students and help them to grow in their faith! Perhaps God is calling you?