Ben Armacost's blog

On May 24, I said goodbye to my very best friend.  

Buhendwa, more popularly known as Fred, is a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) who came to Australia in 2007.  I met Fred just a few months after he arrived and involved him in a Reboot disciple training group (our first not-Australian group) and his life has been in high gear ever since. 

Fred has led over 60 people to the Lord, started numerous groups (including a church in his home), trained countless believers, and participated in mission trips in Tasmania and on mainland Australia. 

I have always enjoyed reading John Maxwell's wisdom on leadership.  One of my greatest aspirations has been to finish well, and after 17 years in Tasmania, I have faced just that challenge!   Over the past three months, I have poured my heart into doing all I can do to prepare workers for our departure: training, encouraging, equipping, and praying--with as many people as I can.  I had envisioned taking some last-minute trips to see our favourite sites and enjoy Tasmania's beauty one final time, but I've opted instead to invest in people as much as I can.

Greetings from Hobart! For a year we have been quietly contemplating a move from Tasmania to the mainland, and Sydney was our primary target. We felt the need to be in a place where we could have increasing influence to train disciple trainers and accelerate the movement. This move would come after living and serving in Tasmania for 17 years--almost exactly one-third of our lifespan--and would naturally be a very hard thing do to.

My apologies for not writing for such a long time!  I've just returned from an extended trip to Germany, London, and the USA.  However, this trip wasn't part of my plan.  On January 29th I received a call indicating that someone was needed to lead the T4T (Training for Trainers) conferences in Germany.  The man who was slated for the job was sidetracked by a family matter and could no longer be there.  I got the call just 2 weeks before having to leave, so as you might guess, those 2 weeks involved a mad rush in preparing for a big event. 

Much has happened in the past few months that I can only explain as the power of the Holy Spirit at work in the lives of people.  Among these is a CPM stream which has taken the gospel message from Tasmania to Manila, capital city of the Philippines.  In October, an Australian man named Peter left the church which meets in the home of Carlos & Josephine, moving to the Philippines.  While he was there, he attended a church and described his experiences with Training Faithful Trainers in Hobart.  Pastor Vher took great interest in learning about this new method, but Peter didn't

Six years ago I participated in Strategy Coordinator Training.  Those four weeks helped us to make some foundational changes in the way we approach ministry and gave us some wonderful tools such as T4T, upon which much of our present methodology is based.

Tasmania is home to refugees from many nations, among which are the Nepalese of Bhutan.  Launceston is Tasmania's second largest city and has over 500 Nepalese refugees--more than twice as many as in Hobart.  But among those 500 were very few Christian believers; most come from Hindu or Buddhist backgrounds.  God has laid on the hearts of Nepalese AIM trainers Paul and Isaac to target their own people in that city.  Paul discovered that many of them are "long lost relatives," many of whom were uncles, aunts, and cousins that he had not seen in years (or in some cases, never met) due to circ

Greetings once again!  Much has happened since I last wrote 2 months ago, and now that I am back from my trip to the USA, I will bring you up to date with what God has been doing in our midst. 

I had mentioned before that 10 people give their lives to Jesus at a camp which Aris organized in early July.  In the wake of this camp, we learned that a lady named K. opened her home to host a new outreach group which has been meeting weekly. 

We just returned from a great weekend in Sydney where I was the speaker at a combined church camp.  The camp was held at a conference center near Fitzroy Falls about 2 hours from Sydney.  This was an exciting time for us to train and motivate about 80 people in sharing their faith, forming new groups, and making disciples that reproduce.  We rejoice that 10 people received Jesus as Saviour during the weekend and of course that generated a lot of excitement!  Aris, the pastor and camp organizer, will forming several new groups to train these new believers and sees great potential in these gr

Today marks a very special day in our history.  Five years ago, we conducted our very first Reboot disciple training group.