On the Church of the Nazarene Trinidad and Tobago District, Senior Pastors Rian and Alvilene Williams and the members of the Arima Church of the Nazarene (COTN) have a deep passion to see souls saved in their community and in the wider Nation. In 2014, this passion led the Arima COTN to send a team to the Casa del Oracion (House of Prayer) Church of the Nazarene in Cali, Colombia, where they met Adalberto and Nineye Herrera the Senior Pastors of the church.
The Casa del Oracion (House of Prayer) Church of the Nazarene in Cali, Colombia has effectively used the Master’s Plan Conference, Encounter, and Prayer Summit – a cell-based discipleship strategy – to increase their church assembly from small beginnings to 15,000 in attendance with six worship services each Sunday.
By GOD’s providence, unexpectedly, a door opened to allow the Senior Pastors, along with their son Juan David and his wife Marianna who serve in the church as Youth pastors, to become available to facilitate a Master’s Plan Conference, Encounter, and Prayer Summit for the Arima COTN in Trinidad in early 2015.
District Superintendent Dr. Victor George welcomed GOD’s servants from Colombia to Trinidad and Tobago. He thanked the Pastors and Church Board of the Arima Church of the Nazarene for bringing the Master’s Plan Conference, Encounter, and Prayer Summit to the District. He described this initiative as being in alignment with the District’s current Refocusing direction for significant growth in community influence and Local Church membership.
The Master’s Plan Conference took place at the Arima Church of the Nazarene’s main Sanctuary at 6:00 p.m. on Friday 9th January, 2015 with 200 persons in attendance, including Pastors from across the Church of the Nazarene Trinidad and Tobago District and other denominations. The Conference was facilitated by Pastor Adalberto Herrera with the assistance of a translator Kevin Garcia. Pastor Herrera told the story of the multiplication growth of their church after years of struggle. The Master’s Plan involves saturating the church in Prayer for the salvation of souls, engaging the church in community evangelistic Bible Studies, then for mature believers to prayerfully choose to form a cell with 12 new converts whom they would disciple (mentor). As converts mature, they would repeat the process.
The Encounter Retreat followed on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th
at the Grace Communion International Camp Site in Samaroo Village with 62 participants, comprising of Pastors, Leaders and new believers. The Encounter Retreat was facilitated by Pastors Nineye, Juan David, and Marianna Herrera with the assistance of 3 translators. Teaching focused on Jesus Christ taking our sin upon Himself and becoming accursed that He might remove the curse of sin upon our lives and upon our families. Believers will experience a radical transformation when they fully embrace the forgiveness of sin and dynamic saving power of the Holy Spirit that is our inheritance through faith in the resurrected Jesus Christ. Participants gave testimonies of breakthrough in family matters, physical healing, and spiritual renewal.
The weekend ended with a Prayer Summit with well over 200 persons in attendance. The focus was the corporate anointing by which GOD moves only when believers are united. By faith in the power of the Cross and the resurrected Jesus Christ, the church engaged in declarations of victory over sin that persisted in our communities. Pastor Nineye Herrera ministered encouraging those present to be like the Palm Tree that is able to withstand the hurricane strength winds because its roots grow deep and wide only stopping when it encounters ROCK around which it would cling. Alleluia!!
Pastor Rian Williams believes, “this Master’s Plan Conference, Encounter and Prayer Summit is the start of something new at our church, where we believe God is leading us to grow deep and wide.” That is, “Deep in the context of holiness, spiritual disciplines and leadership skills and wide in terms of reaching our nation for Christ.” His desire is to see the vision of the Master’s Plan spread not only throughout Trinidad and Tobago but into the wider Caribbean.
Rev. Kwame Payne
District Communication Team
