Since its inception, our Overseas Ministry Programme has directly impacted the lives of thousands of people in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe through the Church services, leadership seminars, Bible College lectures, women's conferences, youth events and children's outreaches that our ministry teams have conducted. Many people have heard the gospel and accepted Christ as their Saviour; many others have been inspired to get involved in mission, while countless church leaders and Bible College students have been more equipped to serve the Lord.
As part of our overseas ministry programme LMI raises funds to support the national church in community and outreach projects in various parts of the world. When our ministry team accepts an invitation to visit a country, our goal is not only to minister God's Word but also to ascertain how best we can partner with the national Church in order to serve its vision. As a mission we want to strengthen the hands of our brothers and sisters in Christ who need encouragement and practical support. By supporting specific projects, such as building bush churches in remote areas and providing pastors and evangelists with much-needed transport such as bicycles and motorcycles, LMI seeks to enhance the witness of the national Church in its own community.
One of the greatest needs of the national church is for adequate training of its leaders; such is the immense growth of new converts in many third world countries today. The aim of our leadership seminars is to provide training to equip church leaders and to give them the opportunity to meet together for prayer and the ministry of God's Word. This is so important as many of the people who attend the seminars are working in very remote areas, which can often make them feel isolated and sometimes discouraged. By providing a meal for the leaders we give them the opportunity to talk and share fellowship together, and by inviting them to enrol in our Leadership Study Programme they are able to build on the seminar teaching they have just received.
"I am thankful to God that the team were willing to accept my invitation to come to Burkina Faso. The seminars that we have had with them during these five days have been a great blessing for my colleagues and myself. The teaching on leadership has changed our lives. The Bible characters used in the teaching during this seminar have shown us our weakness and helped us to seek to please God in our ministry... Many of our pastors have never been to school and have only learned the Bible in the local dialect and unfortunately we have no books in this dialect to help them. So they need to be helped by some teachings like we have had during this seminar with LMI."