Dear Friends of Dynamic Churches International,

Recently Al Middleton has introduced me, Hans Timmermans, as the Interim Director of DCI. Let me give you a little background:

In 2002 Al & Mary Middleton and I met in a restaurant in Ontario for the first time. I was on the verge of travelling to the Netherlands for ministry purposes. Al introduced me to the one-to-one discipling approach he had developed over the previous years. I was excited! “This is a tool I can use in Europe,” I thought. I became an Associate Missionary with DCI to train people in the Explosive Growth, along with the one-to-one discipling and leadership development.

During the next 6 years I trained people in Europe and Ontario in various churches and mission organizations that inquired about DCI. In 2008 Elly, my dear wife, went to Malawi, Africa with her sister Anna to follow up on a missionary endeavour her sister and her husband had started there some years earlier. During return visits in 2010 and 2011 Elly discovered a real hunger for the Good News.

In 2011 I resigned the missionary pastor position I had with Village Missions and joined Elly to begin a discipling ministry in Malawi. God had brought some godly men to her attention in 2011 during a pastors’ conference she had organised in Mzuzu in northern Malawi. In early 2012 we travelled together to Malawi during January and February; we planned to stay for two months. Our goal was to train local men to equip their own people and disciple them. They know the languages and the culture. They are used to the food and the local travel conditions. Mzuzu is in the north of Malawi, in the poorest part of that country. Malawi ranks 5th in the world’s poorest countries index.

As we know, we become part of God’s family through new birth (John 1:12; 3:3-16). And to live victoriously through Jesus Christ one needs to give up on self sufficiency (“I have been crucified with Christ…” Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:11).

The situation in Malawi, especially in the villages, proved to be ready for receiving this Good News. The DCI Team doesn’t mix any humanitarian work into their mission; they travel with the Word and aim to have people saved through the one-to-one discipling through using the Dynamic Basics and the Dynamic Discipling Al Middleton so generously designed and made available for this purpose. When God saves souls, their life outlook changes dramatically, often immediately. We have so many testimonies of changed lives listed on this DCI branch website: www.northernmalawinews.com. Please go there and read and praise God for saving so many thousands in Malawi and beyond.

The Good News is spreading organically to the rest of Malawi from the north. Also, the surrounding countries, Zambia, Mozambique and Tanzania are being reached through the organic spread of the Gospel. Sometimes people want to know “how many” and “how far,” but organically moving outward means you lose track of where and how far the message has travelled. Wasn’t that how the early church reached their known world and beyond?

Since you have read this far you must be interested in the work of God through Dynamic Churches International. You may be asking yourself, “How can I help and where is the greatest need?”

1. New Testaments. Without these in the local languages the work slows. We could use 10,000 a year effectively. These are given to those who have completed the one-to-one Dynamic Basics discipling booklet.
2. Printed materials: Dynamic Basics, Dynamic Discipling and leadership training booklets in local languages.
3. Translation funds: as the Good News travels to other places, new languages are encountered. Nothing communicates the Word as reading it in your mother tongue.
4. Support for the DCI Team, John Singinie, George Chipeta and Caleb Chirambo.
   a. Personal support (inflation is rampant in Malawi).
   b. Fuel: diesel fuel is almost $ 5.00/litre.
   c. General Funds to finance the ministry.
   

Elly and I are self-supporting, we don’t draw a wage from DCI. The lesson we learned in Malawi is that the Good News cannot be forced to spread, it needs to spread organically, from person to person. The right conditions for this exist in many areas of Africa, where people live without hope. The Good News gives hope and brings God’s order to families and villages.

Thank you for your prayers and support of Dynamic Churches International over the years. My prayer is that we can go a little further together as we all do our part in spreading the Good News to the lost.

Yours in Christ,
Hans Timmermans, Interim Director of DCI
dcitimmermans@gmail.com
Mobile: 519-859-9812