Training Grassroots People
16/12/2011 9:00 am <>
Whenever people met RL, a drug addict, they ran away from him. From the ages of 15 to 35, he was addicted, bringing much sorrow to his parents and family. The many tears, and even death, of his father did not change him. In 2007, RL was released from prison, but continued to take drugs. His wife and family members left him. Frustrated, he decided to commit suicide but was saved by his sister who persuaded him to go to Operation Dawn to kick his habit. At the Operation Dawn center where he came to know the Lord Jesus. His life was changed; he kicked his drug habit and was reconciled with his family members. Out of gratitude to God, he now wants to share the gospel to others, especially grassroots people. To equip himself, he enrolled as a fulltime student in our Alliance for Grassroots Training Ministry (AGTM) institute.
Out of the 23 million people in Taiwan, about 16 million of them are grassroots people. RL is one of them. Only about 0.5% are Christians. They are the biggest unreached people group on the island. Who are they? They are people characterized with 3 ‘lows’ – low in education, low in economic power and low in social status.
Seeing the grassroots’ need for Christ, a few para-church organizations (like Operation Dawn, Taiwan Grassroots Mission, Hakka Evangelism, Village Gospel Mission and Taiwan Industrial Evangelical Fellowship got together in 2002 and discussed the situation. The result was the birth of the Alliance for Grassroots Training Ministry. In September 2010 I was seconded by OMF to teach fulltime at AGTM.
The goals of AGTM are 3 fold:
1. To equip believers, through a 4 year evening class program, to reach out to grassroot people. There are 12 courses in the program held in churches around Taiwan. Each course is run one night per week for 12 weeks. The 12 churches partnering in this program are mostly in the north, Taipei and Keelung. There are also two classes in central Taiwan and one in the south.
2. To encourage theological seminaries to have courses on reaching grassroots people. So far two seminaries have conducted such courses.
3. To set up a training center to train people full time to reach out to grassroots. The Training Institute was started in 2008 using the premises of the Christ’s Disciples Training Institute in Keelung. In 2009 AGTM moved to Taoyuan and in 2010 moved to the present address in Chungli.
Please pray with us :
1. That churches will catch this vision of reaching and training grassroots people for Christ. Pray for the three staff who visit and preach in various churches on Sundays to spread this vision. Our itinerary includes the whole of Taiwan, north, south, east and west!
2. That the seven staff members will be faithful in the ministry which God entrusts us. We are training about 170 students in our evening classes and 11 fulltime students in our Training Institute. May our students be fishers of men!
3. That God will guide us in the purchase of a permanent place for our Training Institute, office and dormitory.
Chi Pin Hoon
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