The first Alpha course in Pucallpa will finish this Thursday and I've learned a lot about training others to lead Alpha through it. I hope I'm able to apply what I've learned to the Alpha Training Conference I hope to have in January.

Although the course wasn't run the I would have liked and it didn't have the outcome I was hoping for, the pastor has been encouraged greatly by it and this week is beginning an Alpha course for the youth of his church. The pastor has become a friend of mine and he told me the other day one of the biggest impacts Alpha has made on him is that he's been challenged to invest more into the adults of his church, a huge encouragement me since I feel like that's a great need here in Pucallpa.

For the past week or so I've been inviting local pastors to an informational breakfast about implementing Alpha in their churches.  Currently it looks like there's about 20 or so coming and hopefully I'll be able to get 5-10 more before the breakfast (December 5th). I hope this breakfast will create some excitement about the Training Conference in January and will help the pastors to better determine which leaders from there churches should attend the conference.

I'm really excited because about 16 of them are part of the same church organization.  If the lead pastor, who is planning to come, gets excited about Alpha, I imagine Alpha could be implemented across all of their churches. Tonight I'm meeting with the pastor, a tiny older gentleman with a mustache about 5'1" tall, in order to get to know each other prior to the meeting.

I feel like a salesman for Alpha but it's a bit odd. I'm not actually selling anything and I don't receive any benefit personally if someone decides to use Alpha.

1 Comment

1. Jenny on November 23, 2009 at 4:51 PM

   Mark has a friend with him in Qatar who has led Alpha before. I think they're going to try to lead a group while they're there. Pray for them if you think of it!