Thursday, May 1, 2008

World Christians

Bill and Joy Boerop, long-time friends from Atlanta, stopped by the house today to talk about a book manuscript joy has in the works.

IMG_1320

Bill and Joy are true "world (not worldly) Christians," having given their lives to equipping the body of Christ to fulfill the Great Commission of Christ -- to make disciples of all nations. Bill held his first World Thrust seminar in 1974 and he and joy formed World Thrust International in 1984. The ministry is based in Atlanta but they spend much of their time on other continents, especially Africa of late, equipping church leaders to guide their churches into effective missions strategies.

I met Bill when I was on a church staff in Atlanta and responsible for the church's missions outreach. We became friends and around 1985 Bill hired me to write a training manual for their ministry -- a "train the trainer" manual to equip church leaders to teach others about the priority of world evangelization. That manual, Bill told me today, has been used to equip leaders in more than 30 countries around the world. So the Lord used Bill to help me learn to write. (He therefore shares the credit and the blame!) I'm grateful for the confidence he had in me at that time.

Bill is Dutch (he pronounced "Kruidenier" correctly when we first met!), and Joy was raised in China as an MK (missionary kid). Her book will be a page-turner when it is published. The average Christian in America can hardly relate to the experiences Joy will tell about and how God used them to shape her life

IMG_1323

No comments:

Post a Comment