Faith News Network

Church of God Delegation Visits ‘Send the Light’ City

A delegation led by Church of God World Missions Director, Dr. David Griffis and Assistant Director, Dr. Thomas Propes, recently returned from a trip to Bangkok and Southeast Asia. Bishop Ronnie Hepperly, Church of God Superintendent of Southeast Asia, worked with Field Director Andrew Binda in planning the excursion. Others attending were Missions Administrator Bob McCall, Pastors Terry and Kaye Harris with a delegation from their church (The Crossing) and state bishop of Tennessee, Mitch Corder.

Over the course of the trip there were several meetings with national overseers and top leaders from throughout the region. In addition, while there the team credentialed twenty-nine leaders in the Church of God.

“This was an unprecedented time of affirmation for our ministry partners,” stated Hepperly. “It was the first time that all the national leaders from the area were able to come together to hear about the World Missions initiative ‘Send the Light to the Cities.’ It was enthusiastically embraced by all in attendance.” According to Hepperly, the church planting aspect of the Send the Light Project for Southeast Asia will be carried out through the Global Fire Advance (GFA) church-planting model. The model has already seen exponential growth in Africa, India and Latin America.

“The nation of Sri Lanka and its National Overseer Premadosa Ginigalgoda eagerly adopted the model and signed a formal agreement with us,” Hepperly continued. “In this agreement, the Global Fire Advance model was embraced as the delivery system to birth new churches throughout the nation.”

A meeting was held with all the Church of God pastors under Bishop Ginigalgoda’s jurisdiction to cast vision and share the model.

“The response to the GFA model was above and beyond expectations,” Hepperly concluded. “God is paving the way for an extraordinary move of the Spirit for harvest and growth.”