Sarah J spoke with Paul Gibbs, founder of Pais Project

Paul: Yes, here goes. The first stage is when you get a vision and there's a sense where it's a revelation to you but to nobody else. People believe in you but they don't believe in it. In the early days of Pais I had lot's pf people who believed in me but they didn't really understand this idea of reaching schools. One of the big things they didn't understand was that I wanted to make it free. Anybody who comes on Pais it's free to them. We provide accommodation and we provide training and all that is free. Normally what happens is people would pay for that and that money went to someone like me to run the course. This stage can be quite lonely for a while.

The second stage is revolution. What happens is that in some ways you create a revolution; it's a new way of doing things because pioneers create a new path that didn't exist. That now threatens the old way of doing things. People who don't believe in it and thought, poor Paul, he's a lovely guy but bless him, it's not really going to work, they now begin to see it works, but the problem with that is it can threaten the traditional way of doing things. How do we cope with that? How do we not become bitter? How do we not become prideful? How do we work with people?

The third stage is resistance. What happens here is what you're doing doesn't go away, it flourishes. Those who may be struggling with the old system or the old way of doing things can struggle with that and sometimes withdraw the resources you need and that stage is all about not comprising to get resources, not compromising the very things that made you unique or your vision unique.

In the final stage it talks about reproduction and it talks about the fact that even though you created this new path, many other people walk down that path. For instance for me, we started the Pais project and a thousand missionaries have been on Pais for at least a year plus others for about ten years. That's a lot of people. When you begin to think about all the other people who have gone on leading churches, created their own ministries and it becomes out of control, you just realise this massive ripple effect. My stories are their stories and that's a really exciting place to be.

It's quite a candid book. It's an 'I'm going to tell it how it really is' kind of book, because I think to be forewarned is to be forearmed. I think there aren't enough pioneers. There's too many people not taking enough risks, too many people just doing exactly what they have been taught to do and not really going with their gut instinct, but maybe something has to change. It's about that as well.

Sarah: The book is part one of a trilogy, what's going to come up in the other books?

Paul: The next book is called the Cloud and the Lion. For Pais we don't think the schools or the world needs a new kind of system or a new kind of programme; we think it needs a new kind of person. We need Christians who understand the principles of Jesus a little bit better and that's what this book's about.

The book is an alternative way of looking at morality. It talks about the presence of God and the principles of God in our lives. In the Bible the cloud represents the presence of God. It talks about living above the line, but what do I have to do, what should I do mentality? When we get people led by the Spirit and people who have that kind of heart, what's the dramatic difference? We're seeing that in schools all over the world. We see that in Thailand, we see it in Ghana. We had an assembly in Ghana just a few weeks ago where something like 350 students in a school asked God to come and live in their lives in an assembly. It was incredible.

Sarah: Fabulous. Once again Paul, if people want to find out more about Pais and the work that you're doing and get involved in it what's the website for that?

Paul: It's www.paisproject.com.

You can buy The Line and the Dot from Cross Rhythms Direct for £13.29.