What Happened?
The Story of ACTS

Pastor John Rushing at Lake Victoria.

We’ve heard it said that our perspective on the most important things in life is almost always 20/20 looking in the rearview mirror.

Through the years, as Christ has worked in me, through me, around me, and at times in spite of me – I’ve seen the hand of God and the movement of the Spirit’s wind in too many ways to number.

It’s 2019! In this season of life why would I have considered embracing leadership training with African pastors and church leadership as a life imperative? I have served in a dynamic church body since August of 2003 on its executive team and plan to remain on the pastoral staff in a part-time capacity in a ministry I still love! It was my decision several years ago to retire in early 2020 from full-time and move to part-time.  In January of 2019, something changed. Big time. I did not see it coming. I’ll circle back to that pivotal experience. Stay with me.

As an older child, I remember church services when missionaries from places around the globe brought their stories, slide shows and appeals for prayer and support. The images and stories always moved me. It was Africa that stirred me most. I thought as an 11-year old that I’d eventually land on the mission field somewhere, and it would most likely be somewhere in Africa. 35 years later, I finally did on a short-term mission trip to Malawi in East Africa. When the Malawian Airlines jet landed in Lilongwe, “Finally,” said my heart. Since 1998, I’ve returned to Africa on short-term missions to Malawi, Kenya and Uganda (10 trips in total).

From the first trip to Kenya in 2005 until 2019, I’ve engaged in pastor and church leadership training. The first took place in a 20’x40’ dirt-floored, mud-walled, tin-roofed church building in a tiny Kenya village with no more than 20 attendees. Two years later, the location, venue and the crowd size grew considerably to 300+ pastors and church leaders. This has become the norm on every trip. My passion is to elevate the effectiveness of pastors in their capacity as disciple-makers in their churches and communities, affecting genuine life change in those who come to know Christ.

In the Book of Acts the Holy Spirit fueled an empire-wide movement of disciples making disciples! That’s the idea and that’s the challenge for any pastor of any congregation, large or small, on any continent with any people group.

So, that’s been my African journey: pouring what God has poured into me into my brothers and sisters who are giving their all to love and lead people to life change in Christ in East Africa. Let’s circle back to paragraph two and tell the rest of the story.

In January of 2018, I returned to Kisumu, Kenya after a six-year hiatus. The 2018 leadership conference was a great success. In addition, our team started a sewing center for widows to begin supporting their families. We ministered to street boys and orphans as we had on previous trips. Attending that pastor conference were the governor of the southeastern province of Uganda and his pastor. After returning to the United States, I received an invitation to present the same conference for three days in Uganda. The Lord provided the resources, and in January 2019 I made the trip to Siabona (“to see far”), Uganda and back to Kisumu leading conferences in each location respectively (425+ total attending).

I had been reading Spirit Walk by Steve Smith (published 2018) several weeks before making the trip. I had just read Chapter 4, Surrender to His Will and Word, and got smacked in the face by the section titled The Blank Paper of Surrender. At the tail end of the trip, unequivocally – in a way that leaves no doubt – the Holy Spirit spoke in me while making the bumpy, dusty 9-hour van ride from Kisumu on our way back to Nairobi. He wanted to write something very different on that blank piece of paper than I had ever imagined, or even wanted. You see, I went thinking, “This is my final trip to Africa.”

The next pages for John Rushing are to include a laser focus on building up catalytic disciple-making pastors and church leaders who will replicate themselves many times over in the places God plants them within the African nations wherever God calls me to go. The Spirit spoke clearly. I have not negotiated with God. I have not doubted His voice and mandate. On that day, in that van, on those dusty roads ACTS was born. The African Continental Transformation Society has become a reality. When God speaks something, it is!

So, what will this look like in the coming years? I only know what I believe it can be. It’s in God’s hands to keep me healthy and provide the resources to bring the vision to life and see its fruit abide and last, just as Jesus said: “You didn’t choose Me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name.”