Ministry training in Martinique

A ministry training seminar was held recently on the island of Martinique. Forty-seven leaders (pictured below), representing seven Caribbean islands participated in an intensive class in Christian Leadership offered by Ambassador College of Christian Ministry (ACCM). Seventeen of the participants received additional training to prepare them to teach the class to others.

The event sprang from the vision of Kernani Cheny, one of GCI’s pastors in Martinique. Kernani invited ACCM leader John McLean from Australia to come to Martinique to accredit instructors. Though unable to make the trip himself, John sent U.S. leaders Greg Williams and Charles Fleming to conduct the class and then to work with the smaller group of 17 (pictured below), to accredit them to teach the class to others.

On the final day of the event, the group discussed plans to offer the class to other groups in the Caribbean in upcoming months. The group also committed to meeting again in Martinique in June 2015 to be accredited to teach ACCM’s “Jesus and the Gospels” class. The goal is to accredit instructors to teach at least four of ACCM’s core classes.

Charles Fleming commented: “It was exciting to see this cooperative effort by GCI leaders from different regions of our denomination. ACCM is administered by GCI in Australia, the course instructors came from GCI-USA and the students came from various parts of the Caribbean. Over the past few years about 30 Caribbean leaders have taken at least one of ACCM’s 10 courses. They found them to be extremely helpful and that created not only a desire for more, but a vision for training ACCM instructors in the Caribbean. Those in Martinique (who are French speaking) have indicated a willingness to travel to French-speaking congregations in Africa if there is an interest among those congregations for taking ACCM classes.”

To learn more about ACCM, go to http://www.ambascol.org/.