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Pam Arlund
Kansas City, MO
Ever hear one of the following statements?
1) The main reason missionaries fail on the field is because of interpersonal conflict. Not because of lack of knowledge but because of lack of spiritual formation.
2) One of the most urgent needs of a church planting movement is for people to be trained and healed as they themselves also begin to train and lead others into healing. Toddlers in Christ need to be able to lead babes in Christ into inner healing.
This is why we in All Nations Family have partnered with Fresh Start For All Nations. They provide a model of inner healing that is powerful, effective, and easy to pass on across cultures. For me, as a missionary trainer, an inner healing model that works is not in and of itself enough. We have to offer an inner healing model that is easy to pass on from person to person and across all cultures. Fresh Start does that. Like the Gospel itself, it is both simple and powerful. I suppose this is so because it's based on a couple of core Biblical truths: forgiveness and abiding in Christ.
I have the privilege of working in pioneer church planting contexts. People who experience movements to Christ out of non-Christ oriented cultures often arrive in the kingdom extremely traumatized. They have been abused and mistreated at all levels of a society that does not know how to treat one another. They often do not know how to change their behavior even after they start following Jesus. I remember one believer (with a Muslim background) who had struggled to follow Jesus for several years. Finally, in exasperation, I taught her that after she forgave someone (in this case her son), she wasn't allowed to keep flinging it back in his face over and over again. She agreed and began to approach her son from a place of grace and forgiveness. Their relationship changed dramatically and quickly. Sone was reconciled to his mother as he saw the power of Jesus for the first time in his mother's life. The neighbors heard what they didn't hear: no more screaming coming through the walls anymore. They wanted to know why and were soon exploring how to follow Jesus. If Jesus had power to heal that broken relationship, then he had power indeed!
Forgiveness through Jesus is powerful, simple, and profound enough to provide a fresh start to entire people groups. That's why we believe in Fresh Start. That's why all of our missionaries go through Fresh Start training, first for themselves and secondly so that they can pass on to others what they have received.
Pam Arlund
Director of Training – All Nations Family Kansas City
Pam I Am