They all gathered longing to know the one who had died for them!

They all gathered longing to know the one who had died for them!

Following the call of God all the way from Northern Ireland to Cambodia in 2011, David and Esther Allen have spent the last six years making disciples and building churches and are now releasing local believers to lead in the nation. David explains.

When my wife Esther and I obeyed the call on our lives to go to the nations and make disciples, we had only one way in our hearts and minds to do church.

We grew up going to church in a large building sitting on wooden pews with hymn books following a traditional way that was in my small mind the way all nations should do church.

How wrong I was! Recently I sat in a small bricked-in area at the back of one of our village church leader’s houses. I sat as the gathering of about 25 people started making a joyful noise onto the Lord, praising God without the fancy things we need in the West and sadly are so evident in Third World countries too.

But in that moment I had a realisation that Jesus would have fitted into this poor village setting more than he ever would in our Western attempt at church.

The people that had gathered did so with nothing more than a deep longing to know the one who had died for them more and more. This I believe makes Jesus smile!

We are so excited about what God has been doing in Cambodia. Over the past year we have seen seven of these village churches start and grow. We have trained up Cambodian nationals to do the church planting, and now our emphasis is on equipping local leaders to impact their own communities in a way that is culturally appealing to the Khmer people without wavering from the truth of the gospel.

Recently I handed over the National Leadership to an amazing Cambodian pastor called Chamnap. Why? Because Elim go into the nations to train, develop and mentor nationals, empowering them to lead their people in the days ahead. This year we hope to develop our church leaders further and have a goal to double our church plants to over 15.

We are so excited about being part of Elim in the nations. We are just one example of many that are seeing lives changed in different countries with vastly different cultures but with one and the same message. Jesus is for all the nations of the world.