Anchored Testimonials

In 2015 I was a 24 year old young man with great passion for the Lord and the lost but not knowing how to reach them. My first 4 months in South Sudan were spent in an intense bush training led by Jeremy and the other team members. This is the training I needed. 

I was trained in cross cultural living, cross cultural evangelism, discipleship, and church planting. I learned how to live communally as I lived in close quarters with 7 other guys, mostly Africans. I learned how to resolve conflict with these brothers- we had no choice, we were stuck together!

I was very well equipped for ministry through training in chronological Bible storying and language learning. This training was exactly what I needed, and I wouldn’t be the missionary, or man I am today without this training. 

I don’t think it’s common for missionaries with 2 years experience to be asked to start a new team in a context like Chad when applying with AIM, but that’s what happened with us in 2019! Any preparedness I had at the time is largely due to Jeremy and the team I was trained and mentored by. 

Jeremy and my team leader at the time continue to be mentors to me in life and ministry and I’d say this is one of the greatest values of this training- their commitment to continue providing mentorship long after the training is over. 

When/where were you trained?  Puerto Maldonado, Peru. I served on the Xtreme Team from August 2005 to June 2007 which included a 4 month training from August to November 2005. 

Where did you serve?  Amazon Jungle in Puerto Maldonado, Peru 

Current role/position - IMB Missionary to Asians

 

How has our training helped you?  - The training 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 4 month 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 first, 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.   

Do you think others should have access to their type of training? Yes, 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. 

My name is Steve King, former Western South America Regional Leadership Team member responsible for the oversight of the ministry of the Xtreme Team. My role was to work closely with the Xtreme Team 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 the Xtreme Team. Two examples of Xtreme Teamers 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 Extreme Team 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 as an Xtremer. 

I also think of Efrain, a Colombian indigenous young missionary candidate who came to the Xtreme Team for training and for an opportunity to serve. Efrain served in the jungles of Peru with Xtreme 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 in the conveniences of modern America. Their training taught them to 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 Xtreme Training. Any candidate for missionary service who seeks to live among isolated people groups will learn to thriving 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 the Xtreme Team ministry. The ministry of equipping and empowering all followers of Christ to be ambassadors for Christ everywhere reflects the vision and heartbeat of the Xtreme Team Training. 

When/where were you trained? Puerto Maldonado, Peru 

Where did you serve? 3 months in Peru, almost 1 year in Kaabong, Uganda, Currently serving in Nairobi Kenya   

Current role/position:  Refugee ministry with IMB in Nairobi 

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. 

Maybe 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 prayed they all came to tell me the Lord was wanting 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. 

Do you think others should have access to their type of training? Absolutely! 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

When/where were you trained?  We were trained during the first Xtreme Team training between October, 2003 and February, 2004. 

Where did you serve?   Immediately after the training we served in Bolivia then Peru.  A few years later we were called to serve in Brazil for a short time as well.  We have always served with small unchurched tribal groups in the Amazon Basin. 

Current role/position: Associate Cluster Leader, Colombia/Panama sub-cluster, AMP (IMB) 

How has our training helped you? The training was excellent and absolutely essential to get us started on the field.  We were exposed to sound missiology such as the use of narrative, how to team, principles of first church and house church, how to learn language, and so much more.  It was a time of intense mentorship.   

If I had to name one thing, however, that was foundational to everything else that was taught, I would say, “obedience-based discipleship.” The principle there is if God has taught you something, either from His Word or from the other brothers and sisters, and you do not put that which you have learned into practice, then you’ve failed.  As disciples we are called to obey more than to simple “know.” 

Do you think others should have access to their type of training? Absolutely. I believe that good training prior to deployment sets up a missionary for long-term success.  Even if your commitment is for a relatively short time, say two years, you would do well to dedicate the first months to intense, purposeful training so as to be that much more effective for the rest of your term. 

I enlisted Jeremy’s team to lead a training in Ecuador. This training covered all the bases to prepare our missionaries for sharing the gospel in a remote tribal context. Our missionaries were mostly nationals from Ecuador but included two US Journeymen. More than half of our mission volunteers dropped out the first week. 5 completed the training. 

After the training we sent them out in teams. One of these teams lived in an unreached area of the Shuar people who were very resistant to the gospel. This team, consisted of a journeyman and a tribal national. They were used by the Lord to win a family to faith in Christ which opened the door for an IMB family to continue that work and reach out to other villages. That journeyman is now a long term IMB missionary serving in a closed country. The training and experience  prepared this young man to faithfully serve the Lord in a war-torn country in North Africa with his family. The training works! 

Later I was privileged to supervise the Xtreme Team working in Bolivia and Peru. This training is the best overall training I was able to work with in over 20 years as a missionary with the International Mission Board. In my opinion making the training difficult has the advantage of preparing these young missionaries who often face even more difficult challenges. 

The best part of the training is that it purposely strips away the idea of comfortable Christianity to the point that most either give up and quit or learn to cling to the Lord and their teammate because that is all they really have left. 

I was a Ugandan national partner with the Echelon team of the IMB in South Sudan and Northeastern Uganda. I went through the Echelon training in South Sudan from October 2015 to January 2016. The training equipped me with communication skills (storytelling, language acquisition skills, understanding cultures) that were necessary in sharing the gospel in the place I was sent. I learned to rely more on the Spirit of God to do the work of transformation than myself pushing since all I had was stories. Stories of an amazing God and his love towards those He created, and the world. 

After going through the Echelon training, I was able to serve four more months in South Sudan, and then moved to Northeastern Uganda where I served another two and a half years. I now serve as an apartment life coordinator building relationships with residents with the goal to share the love of God with them. I also serve on the worship team at my Church: Travis Avenue Baptist Church. 

Whether one is going to the mission field outside their home country or not, I believe if they have a chance to attend the Echelon training, they should. The Echelon training is not mainly for the people that one is going to minister to although they too will enjoy the fruits that come with it. It is deeper discipleship training that I think every believer should get

I was trained in 2008 in Peru. I can honestly say that this training was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, but it provides so many important skills missionaries need, and God used it to shape me into the person I am today. 

The training stripped away all unnecessary facets of life, and I had to grow in my walk with the Lord just to get through each day. The most lasting lesson for me was learning to depend on the Lord every single day, to provide the strength, wisdom, and encouragement I needed. Also, the classes on the spiritual disciplines were my favorite to learn and then apply. I served in the Andes mountains of Bolivia, as well as in the Amazon Jungle of Peru. 



Currently, my family and I are ministering to refugees in Nairobi, Kenya, and I am still applying everything I learned in that training to the task here. I definitely think every missionary should have the opportunity to participate in this training; there is something to learn for everyone, no matter how many years they have been on the field! 

When/where were you trained? Puerto Maldonado, February 21, 2007 first day of three month training. 

Where did you serve? primarily Peru (Tigre River, Loreto, and Pucallpa) 

Current role/position: Owner of Pendergrass & Holder Plumbing and owner of The Wishy Washy Laundry 

How has our training helped you? My training under J and Susan taught me the true meaning of 1 Corinthians 9:27 "I discipline my body, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be unqualified." The Gospel reaching the Tigre Quichua was on the line, and being unqualified (physically, emotionally, and spiritually) in the unforgiving Amazon was unacceptable. -not because I would be viewed as lacking, but because I would not have survived. We rationed our food, worked with our hands, and learned how to live in community as the Church. 

Before that training I had excused myself from memorizing Scripture telling myself I just wasn't good at it. I lacked the spiritual discipline to apply myself. However, when I learned that large-portion Scripture memorization has been a part of Yahweh-followers since the dawn of time, it became a joy to continue that privilege as a modern Christian. Those skills helped me carry the good news of a loving God to the unreached, and frankly, most of the hardships and barriers I've faced since then seem small by comparison. 

In short, that training set me up for success. 



Do you think others should have access to their type of training? I do. I believe that, so long as trainees approach in humility and check their privilege at the door, they will thrive. 

When/where were you trained? 2010 Ecuador 

Where did you serve? Bolivia/Peru 

Current role/position: Business Professional/eCommerce Sales Operations 

How has our training helped you? This training challenged me in every area that is needed for field work. It challenged me spiritually, physically and mentally. I was forced to ask deep questions about myself, about God's word and how to apply it. It put me in a place that I had to be dependent on God, not just in theory but in practice. 

 There were areas that I thought I had surrendered to the Lord long before but He show me once again that I had not. It was a refining process in my personal walk. It helped me to look outward as I shared the Gospel in a cross cultural context. 

I became aware of challenges I would face and how to look to Scripture for the answers. I gleaned from the experience and wisdom of my trainers. My effectiveness in ministry would have been greatly diminished having not passed through this program first. My ability to access the most unreached people and communicate the Gospel effectively was increased exponentially having gone through this training. 

This training was by far the most intense season of my life. It pushed me in ways I had never experienced. The Lord has used this to shape who I am today. The intensity is the only way to push deeply into your own heart and uncover the sin that is there. The training environment allows you to test your boundaries while still having a safety net in place. Once you have faced these challenges you can take that confidence to the field and apply it to the work. You will learn to think cross culturally and apply the Word to your particular context. You will acquire the skills to take the Gospel to every corner of the earth. Do not miss this opportunity to follow God with everything that you have. Take this course and reach the nations. 

Do you think others should have access to their type of training? Yes, this will challenge you much harder than you will yourself. It is no accident that Jesus instructed the disciples as a group. You can't grow in isolation. This training will give you the spiritual community you need to be sharpened and refined for the work ahead. You will be more effective having gone through this training, guaranteed. 

I went through Xtreme Team training in the jungles of Peru in 2008 and, while it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, that 4-month period was the foundation for a 14-year missionary career that spanned two continents and three languages. Without the training I received, I would never have lasted. 

So much of what I learned has proven useful in church planting endeavors in both Bolivia and Thailand. I was taught to craft chronological Bible story tracts that have been invaluable in walking through the Scriptures with new believers and spiritual seekers. I saw how to persevere and even thrive despite hardship and suffering. And I learned that true leadership looks more like humility and being a living example of holiness than I ever imagined. 

But the most important lesson was something J told us over and over in training: “The kind of church you are will be the kind of church you plant.” That message was constantly reinforced as we were pushed to love one another sacrificially, serve one another well, bear one another’s burdens, and take care of each other through difficult times and in difficult places. The constant message of training was that we would need each other to accomplish the Great Commission task and that our enemy would constantly try to tear us apart, which would necessitate our continual engagement in warfare against his schemes. If every missionary went through training like this, I highly doubt team conflict would be the main reason cross-cultural workers leave the field.   

Jeremy & Susan are uniquely experienced and qualified to train the next generation of missionaries. They have faithfully served for decades in some of the toughest terrains in both the Amazon Jungle and African Bush. They have trained hundreds of men and women for the mission field, including me. 

I served as a missionary in the Amazon Jungle from 2003-2005 with the previously unreached indigenous tribe, the Amarakaeri. I was trained at a camp in Peru with continued training in the jungle town of Puerto Maldonado, Peru. Jeremy and Susan’s training prepared me for my missionary calling and their ongoing leadership and encouragement helped me persevere throughout my time on the field.

Their coaching and instruction emphasized physical discipline and strength training necessary for navigating the jungle rivers as well as evangelistic equipping for reaching and making disciples of an indigenous culture. Jeremy & Susan also taught survival skills including building a fire, tying knots, fishing, cooking, creating a shelter, and first aid. We learned chronological Bible storying, church planting, and small-group disciple-making.

Our training also made time for prayer, worship, Bible study, testimonies, and lots of laughs.   

The skills and tools I developed through this training have blessed every job and ministry I have had since. Thanks to my time with Jeremy & Susan, I am better equipped to work with a team, set and accomplish goals, complete specific objectives, endure hardship, prepare for difficult tasks, share the Gospel with the lost, preserve unity with those around me, and share life with people from all cultures. 

Jeremy & Susan are one of the strongest, most faithful, most evangelistic missionary couples I have ever met. Their missionary training is part boot-camp and part spiritual retreat, all rooted in a Great Commission passion to bring the Gospel to all peoples of all nations. 



This missionary training will benefit anyone with a heart to serve and a calling to make disciples. This unique training has already benefited hundreds of missionaries and will prove valuable for short-term mission teams, long-term missionaries, church leadership staff, individuals and families preparing to engage a new culture, or Christians simply desiring to grow in missions