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How AIM Started:
Struggles Along the Way
Several years later, Jocelyn Woosely, a young lady who helped at the
Gateway, was killed in a car accident in Mexico. The staff retreat
that year was painful as we mourned her passing. God showed me that
He brands those He loves. I remember standing up in front of the
staff and trying to express this to them. I'm normally a pretty
unemotional guy, but I couldn't hold back all the feelings.
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At 17 years-old, Estie spent
a year on the mission field |
A few years ago, one of our staff felt God saying He “was going
to do a shaking in the ministry.” The way in which she shared that
impression itself shook some people up. I think the people who
struggled with it the most all left within a year.
We've watched in the last couple of years as AIM’s discipleship ministry, something we call “the Next Step team” has grown and taken greater
prominence in the scope of our overall ministry. While we started
out as a short-term ministry, we've become more and more a
discipleship ministry that focuses particularly on college students.
We've also seen God giving a greater priority to the teaching of
listening prayer.
Making Disciples Through Missions
Over time, God has modified the vision. Our focus has crystallized
around using missions as a discipleship tool. We've seen that the
web is an efficient way to share opportunities with others. We've
seen that the longer and more intensively we can disciple young
people, the better the long-term fruit.
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Meeting the King of Swaziland
on a 2004 outreach |
I've found myself getting older. As my children began to grow up, I
became consumed by the urgency of the task of discipling them. This
began to bring focus to what God has shown me. People like Scott
Borg had similar experiences and helped shape the vision. Young
people are crying out for someone to invest in them and care about
them. There's a lost generation that wants to be shown how to count
for Jesus. The revelation about how to reach out to them may be
progressive, but the target remains the same.
The AIM board and I have for years sought a few leaders who could
come alongside me and take the administrative burden off so that I
could focus more on ministry. Only recently a number of new leaders
have begun to do that, positioning AIM for even greater impact.
As AIM moves forward into the future, a number of new ministries
like the Institute, the FYM program, and all of our church planting
initiatives hold particular promise. God's showing us how to reach
our world. There's a generation of young people who deserve a higher
calling than the risk-averse life of compromise that the church has
given them.
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| Karen and Seth with Emily |
That's what my wife, Karen, and I have sought for our
kids. Estie lived in the slums of Nairobi and Matamoros for a year.
Emily ministered in drama and dance in South Africa for a year. Our eldest, Talia, joined AIM’s staff after graduating from college. Our other two, Seth and Leah, spent two months ministering
in Swaziland.
Our five children represent for me the generation that AIM has
targeted. They are eager to make a difference, but need to be
discipled and shown how to do so. Maybe you're like them or maybe
you know others like them.
God has called us to raise up a generation of radically committed
disciples of Jesus. We're inspired by Jesus' own example and seek to
follow the methods by which he imparted abundant life to His
disciples. That's the vision, that's the mission.
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