Last month, Chinese mobilizers gathered together in California from April 17-29 for an exciting series of trainings that put them ahead of the curve. Part of the training agenda included learning The Unfinished Story and Interface, both receiving great feedback as mobilization tools for Chinese churches. So much so, that two participants who took The Unfinished Story chose to stay to take the Interface Seminar also. Eight new mobilizers joined the facilitation team, and 28 mobilizers attended refresher training.
Making the training even more special were two key leaders from our International team, Reverend James Chak and Geoff Gunton. Reverend Chak, who was the International Chinese Coordinator for many years, flew into California from Hong Kong and has been instrumental in translating SM material into Chinese. His role in this training was to introduce newly released material called “Introduction to SM.” This new material is replacing the first part of Kairos Facilitator training and gives a foundational look at Simply Mobilizing as a ministry. He also introduced “Building Beyond Blessing,” a two-part series that will replace Generic HFTC and focuses on building up mobilizers to learn the ethos and values of Simply Mobilizing to better assess the proper training tools needed for unfamiliar churches beyond their own.
With multiple courses now available in our toolbox, this is the vision and direction that Simply Mobilizing is steering toward as an international ministry. Providing tools for mobilizers catching the vision to reach churches beyond their home church. Church Coordinator training is still useful and available, but these new tools further equip those ready to network and mobilize a movement of churches within their cities and multiply efforts beyond. Receiving this training first is what puts our Chinese mobilizers ahead of the curve.
Our heart as the US National Coordinator Team is for new training material to be released in all of our languages at relatively the same time, not just English first. We want to equip all of our mobilizers at once and get these materials in every mobilizer's hands as quickly and effectively as possible. We rejoice and celebrate that our Chinese brothers and sisters were first able to experience this new training material and now get to run with it to forge the path ahead.
Also joining the training was Geoff Gunton, who is the Associate Director for Simply Mobilizing. Geoff flew in from Australia and shared the most recent SMI updates and parts of his itinerary while traveling on this side of the hemisphere. What an incredible blessing it was to have both Geoff and Reverend Chak as guests for this training and traveling in the States.
U.S. National Coordinator, Colleen DiRaddo, joined the training via Zoom after personal matters prevented her from making it in person. She shared insight into the structure of SM, the USNCT Policy and Procedures Manual, and valuable direction for a much-needed conversation regarding mixed-language Chinese congregations to effectively reach second-generation youth growing up in America.
Overall, this Chinese Upskilling was beyond successful and is sure to open doors for more mobilization opportunities among Chinese churches, the next generation, and more. We are deeply indebted to Joseph Yen, our U.S. Chinese Language Coordinator for all of his diligent hard work, preparation, and exceptional execution of this training for his team of mobilizers.