Discipleship method prepares believers to handle tragedy

International (MNN) — When Dave McIntyre worked with at-risk children in Brazil, he noticed a problem. Children and teens were gripped with substance abuse, teen pregnancy, domestic violence and trauma, but had no strategy to cope. It seemed as if they were being held spiritually captive.

Today, McIntyre, director of Set Free Global, trains church leaders to use the “top of the cliff” method with their congregants. If believers are prepared to handle tragedy before tragedy strikes, it would be like stopping them from falling off a cliff rather than scrambling to mend their wounds when they lie broken on the ground.

McIntyre says, “Why are we teaching these methods to people that have suffered the damage and been destroyed? How can we get the same teachings to a place where people are in danger of being hurt and destroyed? It’s preventative medicine.”

Set Free Global’s Light Academy in East Africa has seen promising results by using this strategy. Over 4,500 vulnerable children are currently enrolled in Light Academy primary schools across East Africa. Set Free Global has also received requests to set up centers from church leaders in Nigeria, Angola, Kenya and South Asia.

“We’re discipling them from kindergarten all the way through high school graduation,” McIntyre continues.

“If we can retain those students all the way through the program, they will have been taught spiritual freedom and how to walk with Christ in freedom in a very dark place.” 

Pray that the Lord will expand Set Free Global’s influence into the areas that need it most.

“Most of the people who have been martyred for Christ in the last few years have been martyred in Nigeria, and the churches there have suffered an incredible amount of very real hurt and abuse and pain,” McIntyre says. His hope is that “top of the cliff” will prepare believers to forgive even in places of extreme poverty and high risk of martyrdom.

Header image of schoolchildren courtesy of Set Free Ministries.