1) What needs does
your ministry have?
Our greatest need right now is prayer. We need committed
Christians who can commit to spend time every week in prayer
for us. We need people to pray for our protection, our
progress, and our growth. The second need that we have
is our financial need. We would like to build a
Missionary Training Center which would allow us to mobilize
and train a larger number of Cameroonians as
missionaries. However, it would cost us $50,000 to build
it, and we do not have those funds at this time. So we
have great opportunities that we are not yet able to meet
because of our lacking the funding to expand.
2)
How much is the average
scholarship in the Future
Leaders Program? Each
Scholarship varies, based on the needs of the individual
receiving it. However, the overall average comes to
about $180 per student per year, $15 a month. This
covers not only their scholarship but also the cost of
discipleship materials for them, the cost of the development
projects that they're working on, and the cost of hiring some
teachers to help in teaching the Bible Studies. So then, in
order to have 300 youth receive this help, we need to
raise a lot more regular support. However, we
are beginning with what the Lord has provided so far
(which is helping 51 students) and trusting that as He allows
our work to grow He will also provide the funds to support
it.
4) Which people
groups do you hope to work with in
Cameroon? Our team feels called
to every people group (tribe, language group) in Cameroon
where there is no indigenous church among them. Our
research indicates that there are 6 unengaged
people groups left in Cameroon. We have
already mobilized, trained and sent out a group of
missionaries to one of those, so there are 5 left.
5) Why do you
think that such a big goal is realistic?
We believe that we are doing what God has called us to
do. We also believe that God can do anything, absolutely
anything! And we believe that God enjoys taking weak
vessels like us and using them to accomplish His magnificent
purposes.
6) How do you
expect to reach 6 entire people
groups? By
facilitating, enabling, inspiring, and mobilizing
believers in existing local churches that are near the
unreached people groups. We are not the
ones doing most of the work, but our role
is casting vision for the body of Christ in Cameroon to
do what Jesus has called us all to do. If God continues
to work and confirm our words in the hearts of His people
here, then we will succeed. We are standing on the
shoulders of hundreds of missionaries and church workers who
have gone before us and laid the groundwork. We believe
that God has called us to be catalysts to a potential church
planting explosion. By ourselves we are inert, but with
the others that God has already placed here, we could see some
amazing things in just a few years.
7) Sammy, why did
you put so much time and energy into raising 24/7
prayer support in 2008-2009? There
are three main reasons. First, for the
power. I believe that the prayers of the saints are
powerful and effective and that when the church prays, God
acts. Secondly, for the protection. The
kind of work that God has called my team and I to
involves many dangers, both in the spiritual realm and in the
physical realm. We sometimes go into villages where
Satan and the powers of darkness have reigned for centuries,
and I go with seeds of light. We will most likely
face various forms of sorcery, spells, and witch-craft being
directed against me. This work involves sometimes being
in danger from poisonous snakes, wild animals, and (in some
cases) hostile hosts who could poison our
food. We believe that these things will not
harm us as long as we are covered by the prayers of
God's people and walking in His will. Thirdly, for
perseverance. The knowledge that we are
being prayed for during every hour of every day is a
source of crucial accountability. It helps us say
no to temptations, and helps us to keep on running the
race even when things are tough.
8) Why did you
choose to go under International Teams, as your mission
agency? We chose them for several
reasons. The first is that God gave us a strong
sense of peace about them. Secondly, they are very
flexible in how they do ministry. They do not have a
"one size fits all" kind of ministry philosophy. They
recognize that how one does ministry will vary based on the
culture in which one works, the gifts of the one ministering,
as well as the leading of the Holy Spirit it that
context. Thirdly, they were willing to facilitate the
kind of ministry that God has called us to, whereas
many other mission organizations that we looked into were
not. Also, our values and the way that we
view ministry in general fit very well with them.
In our opinion, International Teams does a very good
job of finding a ballance between being relational and being
strategic, and of combining the two.
9) How can I
learn more about International Teams? 1)
Go to: http://www.iteams.org/
2) Choose your country. 3) Explore
10) How long do
you expect to be in Cameroon? Our
dream is that I will be able to leave Cameroon by the end of
2015, with there being no unreached people groups left there
that are not already being reached by someone else. We
would then go to other African nations to do similar
work. Whether or not God will bring this dream to pass
so soon - that is up to Him.
11) What do you
hope to see as a long-term result of your work in
Africa? As a team, it is our hope,
our dream, and our prayer that by God's grace, and by His
power working through us and many others like us -
that every unreached people group in Africa would be
reached with the gospel and that an army of one million
African missionaries would be raised up from the African
church to go to the remaining unreached peoples of the
world. It is our dream to see the Great Commission
fulfilled in our generation, to look up and see Jesus coming
in the air. This is our team's long term vision.
12) Is the work
that you are doing dangerous? Dangerous
is a relative term. Living in Chicago is
dangerous. Much of what we do in Cameroon will be
life-threatening, if you look at it from a human point of
view. However, because it is what God has called us to
do, we consider it to be the safest thing we could ever do.
We each have only one life to give for our Lord.
Whether we die early, or die daily and live long on this
earth, what difference does it make?
The following quote expresses what we often feel.
"I cannot, I dare not, I
shall not give any less than my all to Him who gave His all
for me - whose all was imeasurably more than I could ever
give. I do this not only out of a sense of passionate
duty, but also out of love. I do it out of love for Him
who is Love Incarnate! I could do no other."
If your question has not been addressed here please
contact Sammy Weber by email, or by filling out the "Contact
Me" form on this website.