Reaching the unreached with the Gospel
of Jesus Christ is a nonnegotiable requisite for World Mission
Centre. That being the case, the Live School was specifically
designed to train people to reach unreached people groups.
The first School in 2000 trained 51 candidates who became the
leaders of 34 teams made up of a total of 483 short-term
missionaries sent by World Mission Centre to reach and plant
churches among the 100 Least Reached People Groups in the 21
countries of Southern Africa.
Some of the people groups to whom those students ministered live
in areas difficult to access, others are isolated and reclusive,
while many hold world views steeped in animism and Islam.
Despite the hardships during their months in the field, students
saw extraordinary breakthroughs in healing, deliverance and
salvation among those they were sent to reach with the
Gospel.
Breakthroughs also came through acts of kindness, such as digging
water wells, and plowing and planting a field with corn; sometimes,
it was a power showdown with the demonic.
In everything, it was the Holy Spirit who worked in and through
those students "immeasurably more than all we [could] ask or
imagine" [Eph. 3:20]. By the end of that one outreach phase, 33
least reached and unreached had the beginnings of a church for the
first time in history.
In subsequent Live Schools, the curriculum has been tested and
tried. Repeatedly, the training has produced quality graduates with
the passion, drive and will to reach unreached peoples and able to
manage the harshest of situations.
Today, there are Live Schools across Southern Africa, with more
starting in India, the Ukraine and the Middle East/North Africa
region.
These new schools are in areas where the local church does not
have easy access to mission/leadership training and yet is
relatively close to unreached people groups, sharing a language and
familiar with the culture.
Because the training takes place where they live, at the
socio-economic level of the society in which they live, those they
are trying to reach do not perceive them as outsiders, and outside
financially support is less needed.
Real life examples
The Nantempo of Mozambique - Predominantly Muslim, this formerly
unreached people group had no Christian testimony or Scripture
among them until 2000, when students from the Swaziland Live School
did the outreach phase of their training among them.
Although they encountered much opposition, prayer and friendship
evangelism proved unstoppable and, by the end of 2000, there were
the beginnings of a church, with a Mozambican pastor coming
alongside to care for it. At the end of 2007, there were at least
five churches amongst the Nantempo and a steel church building has
been constructed.