90 Days of Prayer & Fasting & Church Planting

 

Hello everybody, my name is Dean Davis and this is “Multiply,” the podcast that

provides a word of encouragement for Village Church Planters.

Have you heard about the 90 Days of Prayer, Fasting, and Church Planting that

will be observed across 32 countries in Africa between August 1, 2024 and

October 29, 2024? I am so excited about this opportunity to humble myself and

call out to God for his grace, favor, and salvation to be poured out in villages

without churches all across Africa. I am so excited about 13,000 churches

planted by VCP church planters like yourself becoming maybe 26,000 churches

in the next few months.

When you heard about the 90-day period devoted to church planting, starting

August 1, what did you think? Were you hopeful? Were you fearful? Were you

confused? Maybe the announcement was a little bit confusing. Why are we

going to stop normal classes in VCP training centers to focus on prayer and

fasting? Why do we need to all do this at once? Why 90 days? That’s a long

time! Do they really expect me to fast for 90 days straight?

Let me answer some of these very important questions. VCP Director Claude

Douti has instructed us to suspend normal classes in VCP Training centers so

that all VCP church planters, trainers, coordinators, supervisors, and church

multiplication facilitators can humble ourselves and focus our hearts in prayer.

We will call out to God for each church to start a daughter church. We rejoice

in all the churches that have been planted since April of 2020 when New VCP

was first implemented. But we long for more people in more villages to know

the love of Jesus and experience a new birth into the family of God. We are

glad for what we have done to plant churches but we are burdened by what is

still undone. We need God’s power and strength. We need open doors and open

hearts. We need to find more persons of peace. We need to demonstrate

through fasting that it is not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the

Lord that the VCP vision will be fulfilled.

So we suspend normal classes, and focus training during the month of August on

reviewing the Field 1 and Field 2 ministries of prayer walking, finding persons

of peace and sharing the Good News. And we pray. Alone. In small groups and

in large groups. We organize prayer meetings in our own churches and in the

churches of our partner denominations. And, if we are in good health, we fast

as we pray by abstaining from food. Sometimes we fast with others, sometimes

alone. Sometimes for just a few meals, sometimes for several days. Sometimes

we take a break from fasting to begin a fast again the following week. We are

not under the law, but under grace. Fast as you feel led. Humble yourself

before the Lord. If you are not in good health, do not fast. Pray.

In August, work with your trainer to identify villages without churches where

you and your colleagues will go to look for persons of peace. Then, along with

your daughter church planters, spend as much time as you can in those villages

during September and October. Find persons of peace. Pray for the sick, share

your testimony, share the 3 circles. If you can, share the JESUS Film. Help the

new believers meet together to feed on God’s word and worship the Almighty.

And remember, across Africa 13,000 church planters are agreeing in prayer

with you. In America, intercessors are agreeing in prayer for you to help each

church you work with to start a daughter church. So be filled with hope. Be

filled with the power of the living Christ. He who has called you is faithful! He

will not leave you or forsake you!

This has been “Multiply,” and I’m Dean Davis asking, “Who will you share this

encouraging word with today?

#EncouragementForVillageChurchPlanters #90-Days #FastAndPray