God is at work in the world of Every Community for Christ (ECC)! I have the great privilege of training church planters in many regions around the world where the Spirit of God is calling men and women, boys and girls to salvations in Jesus Christ. In Burundi and Rwanda, Africa, ECC, in partnership with local denominations, has planted 179 churches since 2002. Right next door in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), 767 churches have been planted in the same time period. The strategy that God has used to produce this fruit is called Village Church Planting (VCP). One day a week, over a 3½- year period, ECC workers train bivocational pastors to start churches in churchless villages. They mentor these young pastors and equip the newly established churches to plant daughter churches. Here’s what the ECC workers are saying:

Before VCP, I had few people who could preach the Word of God, but now, with VCP, I have many members who can preach the Word of God. —Zacharie, Burundi

The problem we have: We thought the building was big, but now, with more members, the building is small. —Daniel, Burundi

I wanted my students to start a second-generation church. They found a man who hadn’t been able to stand for six months. They prayed for him. Three days later, he stood. He accepted Christ. He led six people to Christ. These seven formed the nucleus of a second-generation church. We always do everything together. —Zam, Rwanda

We started only by visiting the children of the genocide. Then, OMS started a VCP training center. I said we would start a church where we had visited the children. (Now, more than 100 gather to worship under a tree.) —Evanist, Rwanda

Two weeks ago, I was in the training center. I spoke with a witch doctor with 5 wives and 20 children. We used to drink together. He asked, “How did you get this wisdom?” I said, “In South Africa, our missionaries trained us.” He said, “Why did you come back?” When I said, “We wanted to obey God, not like Jonah,” he said, “Bring wisdom to my village.” I preached and prayed. Next time (we come), he will give fetishes to be burned.”
—ECC trainer, DRC

This OMS evangelistic church-planting ministry called Every Community for Christ is a huge partnership. The fruit of the partnership is salvation and healing, sanctification and joy. The prayers for the ministry and the gifts we receive enable us to help facilitate this kind of church planting. If you’d like to be involved in a greater way through prayer, giving or serving as a church-planting missionary, contact me at ddavis@omsinternational.org. We need your help!

You can also read more about the ministry of ECC on this website. Go to ministries and click ECC.