Doulos Partner’s History
In October of 2007 the Lord woke David Johnson, our Executive Director, up in the middle of the night and gave him the words Give, Go, Ask, and Expect. Out of that event, God led David to three men in Birmingham to discuss the possibility of starting a ministry that would pursue serious-minded believers in the United States that would partner together to carry the message of Christ to ends of the earth. Out of those meetings, Doulos Partners was born.
From that point until the official start of the ministry on April 1, 2008, much prayer and many discussions went into the formation of what Doulos would look like as a ministry. It became crystal clear that Doulos would be a partnering organization, not to create something out of nothing, but rather would look for church planting organizations that were already on the ground in different parts of the world and join them in KINGDOM work.
The Lord immediately led us to our first partner, World Link Ministries. Manny Fernandez, the president of WLM, was speaking at a church in Birmingham about their ministry in Cuba and how the Lord is working in that country. It was obvious to all who were involved in Doulos that this was something worth pursuing. So, we planned a trip to Cuba and as they say, the rest is history.
What God was and is doing through WLM in Cuba was exactly what we were looking for and it was obvious that we were to join God there. We entered into a formal partnership with WLM June 2008. As we developed as a ministry we were able to expand our support not only financially, but also from a leadership and on the ground perspective. The work in Cuba has been amazing and we continue to support this ministry to the present.
The next partner we adopted was Big Life Ministries located in Fort Myers, Florida. Since October 2009, we have been working with them in Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Turkey, Cambodia, India, and Pakistan. John Heerema, who is the president of BLM, has an incredible vision for the spreading of the gospel. I pray that the Lord will allow us to minister there for years to come.
As of July 2011, our newest partner is Reaching Souls International. They have been working in Africa for the last 26 years. The countries they minister to are Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. We are thrilled that God has led us to partner in this exciting part of the world and join Him in the exploding movement of the gospel there.
At this point in our history, we have seen our ministry grow each year financially, which is amazing in this struggling economy. We have also been able to increase the number of churches in our network to over 17,000. We have seen the numbers of those who are being added to the Kingdom increase each year exponentially. For that, we give God all the glory.
We, at Doulos Partners, are very thankful for our history. However, we believe that our best days and years are ahead of us. I am excited that you have joined our team, so that you can be a part of seeing God continue to chart the course of Doulos and to actually live out our history making progress.
In summary, we give all the Praise and Honor and Glory to the Lord Jesus Christ for our past, for our future, and for all that will be accomplished for the Kingdom.
