Great Commission Course - July 2002

Every July Frontline Fellowship runs a Great Commission Course (GCC) in Cape Town. This year participants came from Canada, USA, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

The GCC is an intense and practical mission training programme. It involved many outreaches, film evangelism, literature evangelism and personal evangelism in overcrowded informal settlements, prisons, hospitals, railway stations, shopping centres, mosques and on the streets. Blankets and Bibles were distributed in squatter camps; and film outreaches were held in civic centres and in a tent that we specially hired to assist a Church planting project in Khayelitsha.

Residents of Khayelitsha challenged the missionaries to a soccer match – which was held on rough terrain with livestock wandering on and off the field. The game was very intense and ended in a draw! In overtime the soccer match was won – by the missionaries! This was in spite of our people having been marched across the mountains the whole night before. There were some aching muscles afterwards.

Part of the practical training was placing participants under physical and emotional pressure and depriving them of sleep. Each morning began with PT and running at 6:30am. Most mornings were filled with intense lectures. Most afternoons and many evenings we were engaged in outreaches. And some nights there were “practicals” which on one rainy night involved hiking up and down a river in a dark forest. As this was to simulate a Bible smuggling operation in a restricted access area, strict silence was maintained and no flashlights could be used. Candidates were laden with hundreds of Arabic Gospel booklets each. These had to be carefully waterproofed as everyone got soaked slipping and sliding up and down the river.

The night before the soccer match, we completed an outreach in Khayelitsha, then we held a prayer vigil, placard protest and one-on-one evangelism outreach outside a pornography shop, then at 10:30 pm, we began an all-night hike across the magnificent mountain ranges that surround Cape Town. Of course the participants wore backpacks which were filled with hundreds of Arabic Gospel booklets. This time it wasn’t raining and we enjoyed a spectacular starlit view of God’s creation. By the time we all were able to stagger back to base, it was after 6:30am!

The parallel children’s programme Great Commission Kidz was also a tremendous success with the children mastering the Evangelism Explosion presentation, the Walk Thru’ The Bible (Old Testament), the Apostles Creed, the Ten Commandments and many Scriptures. Some of the children took part in outreaches in the townships as well.

The last command of our Lord Jesus ought to be our first concern.

Plan now to join us for the next GCC in July 2003.