We are in the path of Hurricane Ian. In one prediction, shown above, we are smack in the middle of the potential course (see the blue dot). While Ian is a strong storm at the moment, the forecast seems to have it calm down a little by the time it reaches us.
Stefan and I have returned from our meetings in Turkey, and Kenneth is home from university, so we are glad we can be together as a family during this storm.
We have done what we could to prepare our home for this hurricane, and now we are praying for the storm to weaken and for God’s protection.
Please join us in prayer:
Pray for the hurricane to weaken.
Pray for God’s protection of our brothers and sisters who are affected by this storm.
Give thanks for the Lord’s guidance and fruitful meetings in Turkey.
This week, Stefan meets with church planters from Europe as they gather in Turkey for mutual encouragement and to learn from each other. In some places, the “soil” can be very hard, so they trust the Lord for new ideas and ways to connect with people in societies where they often question the relevance of the church.
In addition, the ongoing Ukrainian war and the refugees are creating opportunities for the church to show the love of the Lord. Believers have done a lot already, but coordinated efforts can enhance this even more. Pray that this gathering will help make those connections stronger.
In Africa, the coordinated efforts of our church planters in 36 countries during May resulted in great fruit.
256 trainings took place, equipping 22,357 people for church planting.
1,672 (676 new churches and 996 groups were planted)
863,145 people heard the Gospel of Jesus
101,566 people prayed to receive Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord.
Each of these numbers represents a person that the Lord touched. There are many stories, but let us share this one from Guinea-Bissau. In one of the villages, a young lady who suddenly went dumb and lame in both legs six months earlier started to talk after one of our church planters ministered to her. She responded to the prayer of faith to the astonishment of everyone. As a result of this miracle, 20 churches were planted in that area.
We praise the Lord for what He is doing and how He continues to draw people to Himself. Thank you for joining us in making Him known.
Prayer Requests:
Praise the Lord for His provision for our passports. Stefan, Marie, and Kenneth received new passports, and each passport has a miracle story as there were many complications in getting it.
For the European church planters to be refreshed and inspired as they meet in Turkey.
Next week, Marie will also travel to Turkey for meetings with the Global Executive Team. She is coordinating their program and will also facilitate two sessions. Pray for wisdom, insight and stamina for our leaders.
Monica is starting to submit her university applications. Pray that the Lord will show her where He wants her to attend and reveal what He wants her to study.
On our last Friday in South Africa, our youth pastor allowed us to share with 45 young people how effective their testimonies are to help others find Jesus.
Many Christians think they need theological or evangelism training before sharing about Jesus. But we all have a story of our lives before we became Christians, how we became Christians, and what our lives look like now (after receiving Christ).
While the young people were practicing their stories in pairs, we prayed for them to have many opportunities to tell their testimonies in the future.
One of the youth leaders reported that his sharing buddy confessed that he had not yet become a Christian but was moving closer to making that decision. We prayed for that young man to take that vital step.
Back In Orlando
We returned to Orlando with our hearts filled with African love and memories. A particular highlight was Marie’s sister from the UK, and her children, were also in South Africa. It was a sweet reunion for the Ferreira family. All the siblings were home for the first time in 6 years. We had precious times of fellowship and lots of “swallowship” – great braais and desserts!
We loved our time in South Africa and reconnecting with friends and family.
Prayer Requests:
Monica started her Matric year. Pray for stamina and guidance from the Lord as she starts applying to universities.
Kenneth continues his engineering studies. Pray for diligence.
Marie has two projects she is working on that are way out of her comfort zone. Pray for the Lord’s wisdom and creativity as she leads these projects.
Stefan has several people on his team with family members with health challenges. Pray for him to be a good ear and support to them.
“Thank you all for praying for my mission trip to Jeppes Reef earlier this month! Leaving on the trip and only knowing one person, was terrifying. But it was an amazing experience getting to know fellow young Christians and, on returning, counting them as friends.
The week-long trip provided an excellent chance for me to grow spiritually. We hosted a bible club for children from the community. It is unclear how well the kids received our message due to language barriers, but we saw many smiles of appreciation for the time we spent with them.
Handing out food and soap was a chance to show the faith James talks about in James 2:14-17. Please continue to pray that the seeds we planted will grow and that no one will mislead them with false teaching.
I hope Christ’s love does not get lost in our desire to be moral and ‘good’ people. Jesus died and loves us all, regardless of our sins.”
Making sandwiches at 5:30am
Prayer Requests:
Pray for the gospel seeds planted in the hearts of the children and young people in Jeppes Reef to germinate and grow.
Pray for me to continue to grow in my love for Jesus.
Pray that our last month in South Africa will go well. My aunt and cousins from England are also coming soon, so it will be a wonderful reunion.
Chapman’s Peak (not even the howling wind could stop us from admiring the view).
Greetings from South Africa!
We travelled the Garden Route to show our children the Cape coast’s beautiful sights and connect with some of you. We love catching up with people, hearing what God is doing in your lives, and sharing what we have seen God do in our lives and around the world. We are having a wonderful time. It is good for our souls to be back!
Monica is excited to join a youth mission trip with our Johannesburg church, Rosebank Union, this Sunday, 26 June – 3 July. They will travel to the Thembalethu Nkomazi Centre in Jeppes Reef, Mpumalanga, where they will host a children’s bible club and sports clinic and do maintenance projects around the centre.
Prayer Requests:
Pray for the group’s safe travels and that the Lord will prepare the hearts of those they minister to next week.
Pray that each participant will get to know and love Jesus more.
Pray that Monica will bond quickly with the group and make good friends with her fellow participants.
We recently heard this inspiring story from one of our elderly church planters in North Africa – he had preached at a church in the countryside where many people received Christ. As he headed home, the civil resistance group met him and accused him of being a traitor, working for the military. They were armed and forced him to walk 18 hours over mountains to their village, with no water till his feet were blistered and bleeding. On arriving there, he was thrown into prison. The other inmates asked him to preach, and many accepted Christ!
After his release, he praises God: “I had to walk 18 hours for those prisoners to hear the Gospel!”
May we all have the same attitude as this dear man!
There is great excitement in the Dell household! We are coming to South Africa at the end of May. We can’t wait! Since our last visit, it has been a long three years, so we are excited to reconnect with you and our family.
Here is our tentative plan:
26 – 31 May: Johannesburg
1 – 18 June: Colesberg, Garden Route and Cape Town
19 June – 17 July: Gauteng
18 – 31 July: Vaal Triangle
1- 7 August: Johannesburg
You can contact us via email or WhatsApp.
We are looking forward to our South African trip.
Meet Bekele:
Recently, Marie hosted a Zoom webinar for American ministry partners who have significantly funded ministry opportunities around the world. Since one of her guests was Dr. Bekele Shanko, our Vice-president for Global Church Movements and Stefan’s boss, we thought you would love to hear what God is doing in the church planting world. If you don’t have time to watch the 30-minute video, you can find Bekele’s part at the 17:30 minute marker.
Please Pray:
For Kenneth’s passport renewal process to be completed speedily. He is already in South Africa and had to travel on a temporary document due to various delays. He is returning to the USA in mid-June to start his semester early.
For all the logistics of our trip to fall into place.
For safe travels to and in South Africa.
For our team members who are covering our responsibilities while we are traveling.
We wish you a very special Easter. We trust that you were able to reflect yesterday on the death of Jesus and what it means for us as believers. The words of Jesus on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” from Mark 15:34 reminded us that because He was forsaken, we never have to experience that! What an incredible comfort it is that God said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Hebrews 15:5b)
This weekend, all around the world, Christians have a unique opportunity to tell the story of Jesus. We are already receiving reports of how God is touching people’s hearts through various outreach programs our missionaries have planned.
Would you please join us in praying that many will come to know Jesus this weekend?
We received this heartwarming video from our ministry in India that they produced with a partner ministry to serve as a spiritual conversation starter. We sent the English version to our Indian neighbor, who responded very positively. Maybe you can also send it to someone you know. Watch it in any of the 11 languages.
This week I (Marie) celebrate my 50th birthday. Wow, it is hard to believe that I have been alive for half a century! I feel that I have so much to learn and discover, so I can’t wait for the next 50 years!
As children, we used to say, “one day, when I am big, I am going to …”. Many of those wishes were silly, but some of them were deep-rooted dreams. My dream was to be a missionary. Even though the details weren’t clear, I knew I wanted to tell others about Jesus.
So, needless to say, I am living my dream! What a privilege that is, and you enable me to have a front-row seat to be part of what God is doing around the world. Thank you!
My favourite bible verse is Ps. 23:5b “ …my cup overflows.” I certainly can testify that the Lord’s blessings and goodness to our family and me overflow so much that I have to drink out of the saucer to keep up!
Prayer requests:
Thank the Lord for my good health and many blessings.
Praise the Lord that we could book tickets to visit South Africa during June and July. We can’t wait to see everyone. Three years is a long time!
Pray for our 120 missionaries from Ukraine. You can follow their live feed prayer requests and sign up for a slot on the 24h prayer chain. We are grateful for the Lord’s protection over them so far.
We are always encouraged to hear stories of God working in people’s lives. Marie recently compiled a report about the impact of our ministry, and she thought you would enjoy reading these short stories.
Mongolia
In October, our ministry were able to have an in-person student conference for the first time since the pandemic started. They ran ads on Facebook to invite participants, targeting college students who lived nearby. Around 150 students came to the meeting. Of these, 60 indicated decisions for Christ!
New Zealand
Dana, a young woman working in a mental health service, started a Bible study with her colleagues. They met weekly to pray, study and encourage one another.
Because the group was open to everyone in her workplace, curious non-Christian colleagues sometimes came to read the Bible with them too! Amy was one of them, coming faithfully each week.
In one meeting, only Dana and Amy showed up. Dana had been hoping for an opportunity to talk with Amy about the gospel. Using her GodTools® app, Dana shared the “Knowing God Personally” presentation with her. Amy asked Christ to forgive her sins and give her a new life!
Asia
In a country where all online content is monitored, censored and often blocked, between January and October 2021:
28,189,119 people interacted with the ministry by watching a video, reading a post, chatting, or opening and clicking on content.
Of those people, 2,265 made a decision to follow Christ after a conversation with a ministry team member.
Over 1,200 of those people were connected with local churches or fellowships!
Ghana
Emmanuel, from Ghana, received church-planting training from our ministry. After the training, Emmanuel returned to his village. He began sharing the evangelistic tract called the Four Spiritual Laws, and 15 people indicated decisions for Christ. Emmanuel began to meet with them.
After Emmanuel’s group invited a “JESUS” film team to show the film in their community, another 22 people joined their group. Emmanuel identified two people in the group — now a small church — who were zealous to win souls for Christ. He trained them in how to use the Four Spiritual Laws booklet.
When one of them, Ezekiel, moved to a nearby community, he began sharing the gospel. He has since planted a church that now has 34 members.
Thank You!
Because of your generosity, Dana, Emmanuel, Ezekiel, and many others have been equipped and resourced to reach their communities with the life-changing news of the gospel. Thank you for your generosity to our family to be part of this ministry!
We celebrate the birth of our Saviour and want to thank the Lord for what He has done in 2021. There were hardships and some great things that happened this year. Here are a few:
Highlights:
Kenneth completed his school career and was accepted at the top university in Florida.
Stefan and Monica had an opportunity to travel to South Africa and visit our families.
Marie started a new role as the Global Communications Director.
In the last three months, Stefan has traveled to meet face-to-face with several of our church planters around the world. These times together has been a blessing.
Over 3.4 million personal gospel presentations were made through our ministry despite the pandemic, leading to over 435,500 personal decisions. Some of these occurred in some of the most challenging parts of the world to reach with the gospel.
Lowlights:
The death of dear friends and co-workers to Covid and cancer.
Continued restrictions due to the Covid pandemic and also the economic impact on our beloved South Africa.
Your partnership with us enabled us to continue to serve the Lord as missionaries. We do not take the privilege lightly.
We are praying that you and your loved ones have a special Christmas. We celebrate that “the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). What a privilege we have to tell others about His grace and truth!
