CDM African iTIM Mission Report – Chinese Diaspora Mission

iTIM seminars in 2017-2022

In the first 5 years, we had 4 full- iTIM seminars at our CDM Africa Headquarter and at least 6 partial-iTIM seminars in other countries in Africa. Here some details will be given about the 4 full-seminars for local African churches.

1. 2017 iTIM Seminar

In 2017 we held our first full-iTIM Leadership seminar. The seminar was held at KBTC Limuru and we had 50 participants who are Bible school principals and reginal directors from all over Kenya.
During the 1^st seminar at KBTC We were able to sign agreements with 41 Bible school principals and local church Pastors to start iTIM study in their Bible schools and churches.

We did a follow-up recently and found only 12 out of the 41 schools are using iTIM.

2. 2018 iTIM Seminar

The second full-seminar was Held at Kabuku Prayer Center in June 18^th to 23^rd the year 2018 and we had 43 participants who are Local Pastors and Bible school principals

3. 2019 iTIM Seminar

On 2019 July 26^th -29^th we had the third full-seminar at CDM HOUSE in Limuru and 42 people participated and 18 of them were new member who had never participated on our seminars before. Please be noticed: due to the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 we did not conduct any seminar because of the restriction and safety measures and also, we couldn’t do the online training since in Kenya internet is not much used mostly the local Pastors use the tradition way to preach and teach so it was impossible to get them online for online training.

4. 2022 iTIM Seminar:

On 2^nd to 5^th October, we held an iTIM leadership seminar at Kabuku Prayer Center and 29 participants this are local Pastors and seminary principles including 3 Tanzania Pastors attended and two certified leaders from USA Pastor Du Junjiang and Pastor Jiang wei who together with Pastor Gong trained in the seminar, including the following topics as before:

The Great Commission in the Bible
The ministry of the lay believer in the history of the church
What the church is doing today
Introduction to iTIM’s mission
iTIM curriculum and training series
iTIM masters learning methods and operations
How to lead effective discussions
How adults can learn effectively
How to plant a church using iTIM
How to implement change and accept the iTIM challenge

We also had group studies that were conducted by Certified Trainers Pastor Du, Pastor Jiang, Certified Team Leader Pastor Ding, Pastor Richard, and Pastor Lekorere

Out of the 29 participants, 26 of them got registered to the online system and all are on the process of being certified as group study leaders.

In all, in a period of 5 years, we had 4 full-seminars and 164 participants and 60+ Bible Schools in total.

Seminars:	Date:	Participants:	Bible schools
1^st seminar @ KBTC	July 24^th -29^th 2017	50	31 bible schools
2^nd @ Kabuku prayer center	June 18^th to 23^rd 2018	43	26 Bible schools
3^rd @ CDM HOUSE	June 26^th to 29^th 2019	42	25 Bible school
4^th @ Kabuku Prayer Center	October 2^nd to 5^th 2022	29	N/A
TOTAL:		164 Participants	82 Bible schools

Other Seminars:

Within the five years we also had seminars in Kakamega, Mombasa and Suba in Kenya, we also had a seminar in Ethiopia, Rwanda and Tanzania and a total of 170 students participated on these seminars.

Summary

As a result, in a period of 5 years, we had at total of 334 participants who attended our iTIM seminars. They are in different places mainly in East Africa.

iTIM Online Administrative and Support System

this is an online portal with resources such as books, white board videos and courses to equip saints and involve them in mission

we introduce iTIM-Online to the local pastors and Bible school principals to help them with itim study so that they can be certified as GSLs (Group Study leaders).

Benefits of iTIM-Online:

Students can access all reading materials online which include reading documents and white board videos that help in the smooth learning of the students
Students can sit for their exams online and submit them for grading
Students can do group study online led by their GSLs by doing so they are able to exchange their ideas on the topic they are discussing
Trainers are able to monitor their student’s performance and each course

iTIM Resources:

iTIM has courses that can help equip Gods people in the local Churches so that they can serve effectively in church ministry:

our plan is to make sure every believer can be involved in effective ministry and serve effectively not only to sit in church and listen to the pastor preaching (watching performance).

We want every Christian believer to do discipleship and our Lord Jesus Christ commanded by doing so we will be fulfilling the great commission.

The iTIM Curriculum:

iTIM provides a curriculum of 18 courses in five ministry areas, or tracks which will help you “make disciples” and multiply ministry in your church

Leaders Guides are available for 12 of these courses. By means of a 4-day seminar, Pastors will be equipped to use those resources.

iTIM Leader’s Certification Process

The updated iTIM Lead Leader certification process is detailed below:

1. First of all, students need to be recommended by the pastor and approved by the pastor of the church before they can sign up for the seminar. Seminars are held both in-person and online.

2. students should attend the whole seminar and participate in group discussion and learning.

3. Within 1 month after the end of the seminar, participants are required to complete all assignments and group discussions in the 12 lessons of the seminar; And within 6 months after the workshop, continue to complete the group study of the seminar internship course. Under the supervision of the certified team leader or trainer, students practice at least 2 of the lessons in practice according to the leadership specifications in the group leader’s guide.

4. After passing the assessment, the trainee will be qualified as the internship leader of the iTIM Disciple Growth Group, which is valid for one year.

5. the internship team leader will practice the group leadership of one of the courses in the Discipleship Series through the help and guidance of the certified team leader, this should be done in 9 months

6. After completing the internship, the intern group leader will submit the ” Leadership Summary Report” according to the actual situation, including the assessment of the group members. After passing the assessment, you will be certified as an iTIM GSL, which is valid for 1 year.

7. The group Leader is required to lead at least one iTIM course every year and submit the annual life and service summary Report to update the certification.

Challenges Facing the iTIM- Online Program in Africa

Most of the local Pastors don’t have good education, they need to be trained in IT knowledge
They don’t have much computer/smart phone knowledge that making it difficult for them to do online training/study
Most of them are deep rooted in the tradition way of preaching and they are not ready to embrace change of discipleship
Most of them are poor hence they can’t access the equipment that can enable them to access online training and studies
Kenya/Africa is not very developed and hence internet connection is not available in all regions hence making it difficult for some of them to do the online study

iTIM Online Progress:

one month after the 4^th full- seminar on 2^nd to 5^th October 2022 we have over 40 members on iTIM online and they are all in process of completing the iTIM leadership seminar assignment so they can be intern GSLs and lead group study in their church and seminaries.

At the moment 3 of them have already completed the assignment and their assignments are on the process of being graded by our certified trainers

Currently we had 40 out of 334 participants who attended our iTIM seminars have registered on the online portal. Hopely 300 hundreds can get registered online by the end of 2022. They will attend iTIM discipleship and lead others to do discipleship.

Future Plan

In 2023 we plan to have at least 3 seminars in different regions so that we are able to get more people to use iTIM in their church or seminaries, which will promote discipleship in Kenya and the African region in general.

For iTIM leaders and trainers who have passed the certification, we will also organize further training to improve their equipment and skills in scattered mission and discipleship group leadership.

We plan to work with Churches, regions directors or seminaries Principals that are willing to use iTIM study, such as St Paul’s University, Narok Bible College, KBTC and etc.

We have put in place the goal of 100 people to be certified as GSLs-CDM’s assistant missionaries in Africa and get 600 church members participants in the iTIM discipleship under the leadership of our missionaries by the end of 2023.