It is always amazing to see where our materials end up and how God uses them – usually beyond what we can even imagine.
For example, when our mentoring materials were first developed in the early 2000s (in Berlin) a neurosurgeon from Chile, who was working in Berlin, asked if he could translate the materials into Spanish. At the time, we had no idea if we would ever need a Spanish version, as our focus at the time was Eastern Europe.
In retrospect, our short sightedness is rather obvious! Our materials in Spanish are now being used across Latin America and the Caribbean in ways we could not have imagined at the time. But God was ahead of us and so when we were asked to provide training into Cuba in 2009 (and other Spanish speaking countries), our materials were ready to go.
Another example of God using our training in places we did not imagine happened on Phil’s last trip to Cuba. Javier, who has been training leaders across Cuba with our materials for many years now, shared how many Chinese Christians have begun attending his church in Havana. Well years ago (you guessed it), we had our materials translated into Chinese (Mandarin) and had begun the training there. Though we currently do not have teams teaching in China, Phil was able to provide these materials for use by Javier in Cuba….in Chinese. Since Javier has used them extensively in Spanish, he will now be able to train these Chinese nationals in his home country.
As usual, God was before us preparing the way to accomplish his plans for his Church. Often we feel we are just along for the ride, trying to keep up with what he is doing.