Group photo after getting-to-know-you games conclude.
(Photo, caption courtesy Haggai)
International (MNN) — What would our world look like if leaders used their sphere of influence to further God’s Kingdom? That’s the driving force behind the Haggai Institute, which trains Christian leaders to share their faith at the workplace.
Haggai’s VP of International Training, Arthur Dhanaraj, says they’re currently training leaders from 20 countries at one of their international centers.
“You name any profession, we have it. These people come with a great commitment of making a difference in their nation,” shares Dhanaraj. “We have all kinds of ‘spheres of influence.'”
Haggai is training leaders who are judges, medical professionals, lawyers, professors, scientists, retired army personnel, architects, university principals, financial consultants, bankers, human resources professionals, hotel owners; “and the list goes on and on,” Dhanaraj states.
At the current training session, “70% of the participants are from Asia, 15% Africa, 15% Latin America, and a few of them are from former Soviet Union countries.”
(Photo credit Haggai)
Haggai training lasts from 15 to 30 days. Haggai alumni lead the training sessions and teach leaders how to effectively share their faith at the workplace. Since each alumnus develops his or her own course materials, lessons aren’t based on Western thinking.
“We have leadership subjects like confronting, leadership, communication, and how to pass on the training that they have received,” says Dhanaraj. “These people are committing themselves to go back and train at least 100 others in the next two years.”
This commitment results in a multiplication effect: thousands of people in places Western believers can’t reach get to hear the Gospel in a context they can understand.
However, the process can’t begin without your help.
“When you support this ministry, you support a missionary for a lifetime,” Dhanaraj says, explaining that sponsorship provides the financial support leaders need to attend training sessions.
Send a national leader to the next Haggai training session.
Most importantly, surround the current training session and its participants in prayer. Pray for understanding so each lesson will “sink in” and be put into practice. Pray for softened hearts to receive the Gospel. Pray that people who don’t know Jesus will come to know Him through the words and actions of Haggai alumni.
“These nations will be reached, and they are being reached,” concludes Dhanaraj.
