Multiplying the Experiment

Nearly 30 years ago, the Waodani asked my dad, Steve, to teach them how to care for the felt needs of their own people as a door opener to share the Gospel. After spending 18 months with the Waodani and moving back to the USA, he didn’t think that the North American church would ever get on board. We enjoyed being doers and fixers, not trainers. After putting the idea down on a sheet of paper, he put it in the back of his file drawer. This experiment would never work.

After my dad spoke at a local church, Gene Walrath volunteered and recruited a couple of guys from his church to join my dad in trying to figure out how to develop tools that could be used to train indigenous Christ followers, like the Waodani, to meet the felt needs of their own people as a door opener for the Gospel. This is what Jesus did. He went from town to town healing people physically. They began to follow Him, and He would teach them about the Kingdom. It has been said that people don’t care about what you know until they know that you care. This was Jesus’ model.

What began with a few guys working in an aisle at a Lowe’s store to develop the first ITEC dental chair, eventually moved to a storage unit, then a warehouse, and finally to building a way-too-big, small office and hangar. After 15 years, there were seven people, a robust dental chair, and an eyeglass kit. The idea of training had begun to gain momentum.

At the 20-year mark, ITEC was beginning to do more trainings in Africa than in South America. The team was growing. This training experiment was now being talked about in churches. People were reading The Great Omission and going through The Missions Dilemma.

Then COVID hit. Nobody could travel. Churches began to ask themselves how they could have a long-term impact on a short-term trip once they were able to travel again. At the same time, we were wondering how we could multiply this model once travel was possible. During COVID, one church brought teams down to ITEC to be equipped so they could train with us overseas and eventually be able to train overseas without us.

Now, after nearly 30 years, we have a team of more than 50 people at ITEC and many more volunteers around the country. We are working with multiple churches in the USA and Canada. Each year, we are training more than 500 indigenous Christ followers around the world, and we train in seven, soon to be eight, disciplines. Those disciplines are: dental, medical, eyesight, film, farm, small engine repair, emotional trauma healing, and small business development. We are also training a lot of those we have trained to become trainers themselves, further multiplying this training experiment.

Let me invite you to join this experiment. First, pray that the Lord will continue to open doors of opportunity with indigenous Christ followers, as well as churches who want to see a long-term, sustainable impact on their short-term trips. Please share this with your pastor or missions pastor, and with mission-minded friends. You can also join us financially as God multiplies our work by donating through our website.

The experiment that was started in the jungles of Ecuador is now actively taking place on five continents and among many unreached people groups as we train indigenous Christ followers to meet felt needs as a door opener for the Gospel. As you join us in prayer, sharing this mission, and giving financially, this experiment will continue to multiply. For more information, please visit itecusa.org.