The Joy of Flourishing Leaders

I recently got news that our training materials are being used overseas by the hidden church. It brought me such joy to learn how God is using lessons I wrote years ago to equip leaders in hard places. In each case a leader in our community asked for permission to translate then took the workbooks to other lands.

Oh the wisdom of God! Some 13 years ago he told me to train leaders. He said, If you train the leaders, they will take care of their flocks. It happened back in the season when HCI was making the huge transition from the church, where it all began, to a standalone nonprofit. During a healing prayer session, the Lord gave me a vision. Jesus and I stood at the top of a waterfall, the stream that fed the waterfall was behind us. In front of us, far below was a vast plain fill with a sea of people. Too many to count, perhaps millions. They were marching toward us in unison. And looking at us. No, their eyes were fixed on me, not Jesus. They looked hungry, even desperate. I had nothing to offer them. I squirmed, and pictured running away. “Why are they looking at me?” I asked Jesus. He looked down at me and smiled, “They can't see me yet.” I found reassurance in the “yet.” It meant that they would be able to see Jesus at some point.

Then suddenly a man popped up over the edge of the cliff in front of us and ran toward me. It was as if Jesus was invisible. I became more and more jittery. What did he want? Right before he reached me, the Lord handed me a warm, fragrant loaf of bread. It was undoubtedly the most beautiful loaf of bread I've ever seen. It smelled of olive oil and rosemary; it was warm and dense and massive. The sides and bottom were smooth, as if it had been baked in a pan, and the top delightfully curved as bread does when it rises while baking. I immediately thrust the bread into the hands of the approaching man. He looked at it, then me as if to say, This is what I wanted! This is what I have been waiting for! He did a little hop, spun around and disappeared over the edge of the cliff.

I looked at Jesus. He was smiling at me and his face said, You did it. That wasn’t so hard, was it? I was smiling too! I got to play part, a wee part but a part non-the-less in giving the bread of life to a hungry man. Then another man popped up and the scene repeated itself. Then a third, a fourth, all the way to a tenth one or even more. I am not sure. Each one had a similar response: Joy over receiving the bread, then hurrying off without even taking a bite.

When the men stopped coming, Jesus and I tiptoed over to the edge of the cliff, 10 feet away, and looked out on the plain. The crowd had broken into groups. The men were distributing the bread, each one to his own flock. The people looked peaceful, content, as they waited to get a huge hunk of bread torn from the loaf. It was a repeat of the feeding of the 5,000? Perhaps. I was not sure, but somehow as often happens in visions, I was sure of the message. The Lord was calling me to feed leaders. If I fed the leaders, they would feed their flocks.