Mere Missions

T he H oly S pirit : E mpower • 95

Connection Story Joseph Biswas is an unassuming, gentle Bengali Spirit-filled follower of Jesus. Through this one humble, Spirit-filled person, we have been honored to equip, commission, and release

several Bengali movement leaders, who in turn have equipped and released Bengali church planters leading to new Communities of the Kingdom being planted. Rejoice and be amazed at how the Holy Spirit empowers an unassuming Bengali follower to advance His Kingdom. Pastor Joseph of the Evangelical Bengali Church in Queens had already started outreach in Jackson Heights but had a yearning for more. When he heard about World Impact’s Evangel Schools of Urban Church Planting in 2017, it sounded like just what he needed to train more of his congregation to plant churches. Pastor Joseph arranged to meet with myself and Luke Raughley (World Impact staff). During this meeting Joseph arranged for one leader of the church, Oliver, to attend our Newark Evangel School of Urban Church Planting. It did not take long to see the results. One week after Oliver returned, Pastor Joseph wanted to meet with us. “Oliver is a changed man,” he said. “We need more of this.” We began making plans on how to get Joseph and his Bengali team the resources and training they needed, and decided that the Evangel Dean Training that October in Wichita, Kansas, would enable Joseph to facilitate his own Evangel Schools in his context for his church plant teams. Having no extra money to pay for the training and travel was a small hurdle to jump over. Another problem was that Oliver