Through the incredible work of our global staff, Living Water International is witnessing a noticeable increase in the number of people being reached by the gospel message through our Flourish model.
In our fiscal year 2019, over 200,000 people were able to hear the gospel from the evangelism efforts of our staff and local church partners.
Over the past few years, Living Water has implemented the Flourish model in our WASH (water access, sanitation, and hygiene) Program Areas around the world. The Flourish model focuses on three elements in a WASH Program Area (WPA):
- Organize churches to make a collective impact that affects whole districts and conduct field visits to arrange church envisioning workshops. Through these activities, Living Water becomes a trusted partner that relies on the power of the local church to come together and lay the groundwork for a collaborative change.
- Administer contextual Bible storying workshops to promote evangelism and discipleship through a focus of biblical stories and dialogue, which leads churches to become unified around their core beliefs. When these trainings are thoughtfully woven into a WASH program, they de-mystify evangelism and discipleship, create space for Bible-infused conversations, and unify different churches in a community.
- Enable WASH-focused church mobilization using a step-by-step guided process that puts churches at the center of each program area. Activities for this process include: supporting pastors to envision their own congregations, helping churches identify the specific servant leadership roles that they are called to play, conducting trainings for church leaders and volunteers, and organizing regular reporting meetings.
Today, Living Water International has been able to successfully implement the Flourish model by expanding our field-testing to Kenya, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. We are also excited to announce that the Flourish facilitator’s guide has now been translated into nine languages.
The Flourish model allows the local Church to become more visible as an ambassador for developmental growth in thirsty communities. When churches arise to take on a servant-leadership role within their own communities, they help meet the physical and spiritual needs of their neighbors and lead people into an experience of Christ’s love.
