SPOTLIGHT ON MISSIONS: Michael & Laura Strong

• BMAA National Meeting — A young man I have been discipling and working with, Isaiah, completed his assessment and was approved by the churches of the BMAA to join me as an intern (officially) beginning in June. We are working on a plan to focus our discipleship time together to invest in him while working together to invest in our community making disciples. He will learn biblical exegesis, core theology, homiletics and general leadership skills. We hope to have a robust internship program that multiplies well-equipped, spiritually mature ministers, especially in the area of church planting. I am praying and looking for additional interns to serve and be assessed for a season before being referred to my mission’s organization for assessment. This is the same path Isaiah traveled.

God is opening doors to cross-cultural borders and giving me opportunities to invest in myself in brothers and sisters who may not be like me or speak English. I am overjoyed at this opportunity and hope to seek God in serving them well and giving them whatever He has for them to equip and encourage them as they invest their lives in others for the glory of God. I desire to see a truly multicultural, international community worship and serve together weekly in our church planting work. I have also made it known I desire to train up and send out bilingual pastors into the Twin Cities metro to reach the nations with the gospel.

• Ministry Growth and Expansion — Laura and some of the kids were able to serve the women and children of Healing House the day before Easter. Laura led the women and children through two books to share the hope of the gospel. The first is called The Story of Easter and is geared toward babies and toddlers. The second book is The BIG Picture Interactive Bible Stories in 5 Minutes. She taught the story “Jesus Saves His People” which tells of Jesus’ last days on earth and how the Son of God rescued His people from sin. She then led them through some activities pointing to what happened in the death and resurrection of Christ. This was an awesome opportunity to love our neighbors in a ministry that helps people we are called to serve as well as to disciple our children in what it looks like to be a follower of Christ. Laura has been able to get approval from management at Healing House to begin leading a Bible Study for the women beginning in July. She plans to begin teaching the material in the recent BPH Titus study guide, though that may change.

We have also been preparing to add new disciple micro group (3-4 people) Bible Studies. In the meantime, we are seeing new faces attend our study groups. We are praying for them and sharing the hope of the gospel. We are also inviting those who hunger to be discipled to join us as we commit to investing our lives in them.

Since our last update, we had another young man commit to membership. We are working through some important details prior to completing the process but hope to see this formally happen soon. We do still have a couple of women who desire to be baptized in accordance with Jesus’ command and their response of faith. We are trying to find a place with a baptismal or pool to host the service.

Two of our daughters are gathering people to start their Bible Studies. We are helping them learn how to plan, organize, prepare and administer studies. This includes creating a formal plan that includes a budget. We hope this will equip them for future ministry fruitfulness within the church wherever God calls them. We may be doing the same thing in a slightly modified way for one of our sons, John, who has a similar interest.

As I add interns, I hope to focus my time in a new way, leading to more personalized time with each of our people and special blocks of time praying for them. I will be developing faithful men into leaders and looking to see our women developed into the same by my wife and other women called to this work in the coming months. We have a great hope to see the fulfillment of Titus 2 in our church plants.

For more information on this ministry, contact Bro. Michael and request to be included on his email newsletter list. (brothermike@nnccmpls.com)