Beth and William Sawyer, a couple from a small county in North Carolina, have only been training with Zúme for a few months together, but they already have an abundance of stories to share about its impact around the world.
In Ohio, a woman named Christine has been using the tools provided by Zúme to reach and train her house churches. Now she wants to become a coach herself. Another woman wants to use Zúme to reach her Muslim mother and help her realize that she needs to give her life to Jesus. In India, a 75-year-old attendee of the Sawyer’s training is excited to use its new tools to reach people on the street there.
William shares the excitement of seeing someone in Zúme training express, “’Why wasn’t I doing this before?’ It’s really cool to see that light bulb come on over their head.” He and Beth are enthusiastic about how they can use Zúme in many different contexts.
“God can even use you in the hospital bed,” Beth says. A few summers ago, William got an infection and ended up in the hospital for nearly a week on vacation. But there, he met a man named Hunter, a Christian “hungry for something more than what he had.” William shared Zúme with him, then the two prayed together and went their separate ways. A year later, Hunter showed up to a Zoom training that the Sawyers were hosting and has begun training people in his church to use the tools that he has been taught.
William has even started training in the local North Carolina medium- and minimum-security prisons with a team of three or four others. Before COVID, they trained groups of 70 or so inmates at a time, and now the outreach is starting to ramp up again. William says that God is refining his heart, as he had a hard time with the idea of interacting with sexual offenders. But “they need Jesus, too,” he says, and he hopes that the inmates who take the training continue to make disciples “in the back,” behind the prison walls where outsiders can’t go.
“God’s story needs to get out there,” Beth says. “We are all called to be disciples who make disciples—not just missionaries, not just preachers. Every one of us have been called to make disciples.” And “Zúme in general is just so accessible, so adaptable, so versatile. It’s one of those things you can use anytime, with anybody, anywhere. Is a great, great tool, and [there are] lots of tools in that toolbox.”
The Sawyer’s full story and many others of Zúme’s impact can be heard on the Zúme Multiplying Disciples Podcast, which you can subscribe to on many different platforms. Check out our website to add Zúme’s tools to your own toolbox and become a disciple who makes disciples.
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