The training I had helped me in a tremendous way then, but it has also helped me thoughout the years as my wife and I have served in different places overseas. At the time of the training, I was serving on a team of young men that sought to get the gospel in a culturally appropriate way to indigenous tribal people groups. We were based in a city, but would travel, usually through small boats, to small villages and live in a jungle community for a couple months before returning to the city.

During the time in the village, we would live as much with the people as we could by working in their fields, helping them make houses, hunting with them, and doing whatever they were doing. As we lived there, we discipled the locals and taught them the story of the Bible from beginning to end using Chronological Bible Storying.

Our training in 2005 was invaluable to our life and ministry. Not only did it teach us how to live and work in the jungle among these indigenous peoples, but it also taught us how to minister to people there.

We learned that we must be people who abide in the Lord and His Word. We learned to listen to and value others and their way of life, as long as it doesn’t contradict the Bible.

Through the Chronological Bible Storying method that we learned, we saw that the Word of God is truly the most important and needed resource that we have. It must be this that we seek to give others. We learned that we can’t just give people the Gospel in the same way in which we learned it, but we need to give people the Gospel in a culturally appropriate way in which they can understand it and give it to others.

In all, this training taught to walk with Christ, and considering people all over the world are different, we need to learn their culture in order to serve them, care for them, and minister to them in an appropriate way.

I highly recommend this training. It is lead by excellent, experienced missionaries who have a deep understanding long to train others, so the Gospel may continue to go around the world.

— David, a worker in S. Asia

My name is Steve King, former Regional Leadership Team member responsible for the oversight of the ministry of the teams in Western South America. My role was to work closely with the Anchored Leader. As such I had a great vantage point for observing the progress of the ministry. I met regularly with the team leadership, reviewed their strategies, and accompanied them in training as well as traveled to visit teams in the remote areas where they worked.

My vantage point was more than that of a strategic supervisor. As a catalytic house church planter in north Quito, Ecuador, I also had the opportunity to mobilize both support and personnel for their team. Two examples of graduates that stand out to me are Levi and Efrain.

Levi is from the Quichua people of Ecuador. Our house church network supported him and I worked closely with the Anchored Leadership to connect him with them for training and missionary service for several years in the Peruvian jungle. Today Levi and his family continue to serve the Lord as part of Ecuador's own missionary sending agency. Levi learned his missionary skills through the Anchored program (then called Xtreme Team).

I also think of Efrain, a Colombian indigenous young missionary candidate who came to Anchored for training and for an opportunity to serve. Efrain served in the jungles of Peru for several years. Later, when I formed a special team with the ministry of seeking contact with uncontacted tribal groups in South America, Efrain joined our team. The training he received was significant to his success with us.

Both Levi and Efrain learned two key things, central to making reproducing disciples: First, they learned how to make disciples who hear from the Lord and obey Him. They learned how to tell God's story through Chronological Bible Stories, how to equip disciples to make disciples, and saw simple, obedient churches form in isolated parts of South America.

Secondly, through their training, they learned how to thrive in these difficult places lacking the conveniences of modern America. Their training taught them how to live with less, how to find the essentials they needed in jungle or mountain locations, and how to become part of the remote community where they lived and worked.

Any candidate for missionary service who seeks to start rapidly multiplying and easily reproducible churches will benefit greatly from Anchored Training. Any candidate for missionary service who seeks to live among isolated people groups will learn to thrive in the difficulty of isolation and limited resources.

I highly recommend the training for all, even those who seek to make disciples in urban settings. You will also learn how to apply simple church methodologies that make disciples who make disciples, resulting in new churches that also multiply.

I am now a practitioner of simple church methodologies in the US; methodologies which I learned overseas and in conjunction with Anchored’s ministry. The ministry of equipping and empowering all followers of Christ to be ambassadors for Christ everywhere reflects the vision and heartbeat of this Training.

— Steve King, veteran missionary and church planter

I lived a very sheltered life. I had never spent time outside of home or separated from my family, I had no concept of the world outside myself. As I approached adulthood (19) my heart was becoming more sinful and prideful. This training was presented as an opportunity for me as I had always wanted to do overseas missions. This training was the hardest thing I had ever done.

The team of about 10 girls was constantly covered in bug bites, we were often sick, we had to do a lot of manual labor. Though it seemed we were all suffering, we suffered together, which has helped me to more clearly understand “bear one another’s burdens”.

We went to bed when it got dark (no electricity) we woke up when the sun came up. Each morning was a new and beautiful morning, waking up with the sun to spend time with the Lord.

My favorite lesson from the whole experience was learning how to craft stories in the language. From this training, I learned how to slow down and study scripture in depth and how to craft stories that would be easy to tell and would be easy for others to retell. This also was an incredible tool in learning language as I was eager to soak up God’s word in this way. To this day I use the Bible story crafting method that I learned in this training.

Because the training was so manual labor intensive I also learned how to endure hard things and how to push through. I almost quit half way though my training but my leadership asked me to allow my teammates to seek God on my behalf to ask Him if I should be done. After fasting and praying, they all came to tell me the Lord wanted me to stay. I share this lesson so regularly as I see it as a beautiful example of what the Body of Christ is meant to do.

Years after the training, being married, and becoming a mom, my family and I have faced some impossible situations, but both my husband and I have gone through this training and carried lessons that have helped us to cling to the Lord and His goodness and His promises. We have pushed through with faith to see the Lord’s plans in the midst of pain. Now we have reached our goal of being a family and serving in overseas missions together and we still carry the lessons we learned so many years ago.

I honestly don’t think I would have entered the mission field with a healthy perspective if I had not gone through this training. I honestly think a training like this should be required as it tests the limits of things you will absolutely face.

— Lainey Johnson, missionary in East Africa

I was trained in Peru, in a training camp outside the city of Pucallpa. I served with a few communities in the Amazon jungles of Peru as well as helping with a training camp in Colombia during my two years as a journeyman for the IMB.

I am now a military wife and mother of two boys which leads to continual changes. I currently serve as one of the leaders of women’s ministry for our church, as well as the church advocate for global fingerprints, a child sponsorship program for the Evangelical Free Church, while homeschooling my boys.

The training I recieved has been very helpful in my continued study in scripture as well as ministry and discipleship. I learned the importance of the story and how to use it in teaching lessons both to adults and children. While knowing a verse here and there is good it can be easily forgotten or taken out of context, but a story gives a broader view. A greater context. Truths to hold on to for years and foundations to continue to grow on. It leaves those listening something to meditate on throughout the day, or whenever something triggers that story to their memory.

The Lord tells the Israelites to tell of the things He has done from generation to generation. He wants them to pass down the story so they will remember who God is and what He has done. That has not changed. He wants us to tell his story. This training will help you learn to share those stories from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.

In addition, as a military wife, I have had to be continually ready to move into new cultures and communities. I believe the focus of embedding yourself into a new place as a student, ready to learn from those around you has been a beneficial life skill and could be useful to anyone.

God is faithful as he sends you out to the mission field, but what a blessing to go with preparation for the unknown by people who have lived the life faithfully and trained others in grace and humility.

— Lindsey Cole, former IMB missionary and military wife/mom

Well I really want to thank God for using Jeremy and Robert especially in my ministry life. I received this training in the year 2015 in Kujok South Sudan 🇸🇸. This training has been my first & strongest foundation for the Christian life and what the Church looks like. It has completely transformed my life.

I am now serving in Sudan and South Sudan. My current role is as a missionary proclaiming the good news, raising up and training biblical leaders, Church planting, trauma healing. I also participate in biblical peace building training and building up the healthy communities.

There is a big need for the others to join this kind of training. I am praying many others can attend and benefit like I did.

My last and very important word is let us continue this work together for the equipment of the saints to join that transformation which is happening in Sudanese communities.

— Nasser Moses, national missionary to Sudan and South Sudan