USA: Trailblazing Chaplain Makes Disciples Through Instagram

Source: Assemblies of God Missions, May 6, 2021

Civil Air Patrol Capt. Leia Eisenhower says her father’s church planting efforts led to her own innovative spiritual path: an online Instagram discipleship ministry reaching over 100,000 people with the gospel.

Eisenhower, 47, grew up in Bahia, Brazil. Her father, Eugenio Felix, launched more than 30 churches and also served as an Assemblies of God presbyter in South America’s largest nation.

“My father taught me that I couldn’t just read the Bible. I needed to explain it,” she says. Eisenhower says God answered her father’s prayers for her by calling her to ministry at the age of 14. She went on to attend Assemblies of God Brazilian Theological Seminary and served as a Brazilian missionary before coming to the United States in 2002 [and eventually became a chaplain in the Civil Air Patrol, currently based in New York].

Eisenhower wrote a book in 2019 called My Neighbors: The Theology of Relationships. The book, available in Spanish, Bemba, and English, uses the parable of the Good Samaritan to discuss relationships.

After [a] pandemic lock down, Eisenhower looked for the best way to teach classes based on her book. She chose Instagram’s platform for its worldwide reach and accessibility of communication through direct messages.

“I started to record a class with the Bible as my foundation, and the discipleship part began growing so fast I had to assign people to do things,” she says. “I began recording the class in different languages and having it translated. Every night I would get on Instagram and do a midnight prayer live.”

Within a year, she says over 100,000 people followed her discipleship messages and more than 100 have accepted Christ as Savior.

Read the full story.

For more on the ministry of military chaplains, see Burkina Faso’s Seven Army Chaplains Struggle Amid Jihadist Attacks (Christianity Today).

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Missions Catalyst welcomes comments, especially those that provide additional insights on a topic or story as a help to other readers. We reserve the right to screen comments and may provide light editing. Note that comments including links may be delayed so we can make sure they are not spam; we hope you will include relevant links, anyway!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.