“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!
With travel restrictions resulting from Covid lifting slightly, Stefan had the privilege to visit three countries to be part of gatherings where strategic church planting conversations took place.
A personal highlight was visiting a young pastor couple in Finland that we have been coaching over the past few years but have never gotten to visit. Stefan meets with the husband Pyry and Marie with the wife, Anniina. They are experimenting with a model of church planting that is attracting young Finns who are church-less, but looking for authentic faith. It is exciting to see young families finding Jesus and being obedient to His call to make disciples.
Stefan is currently in Moldova.
This story from Moldova is a reminder of God’s power to transform someone and use them for His Kingdom:
“Oxana stood apart from the others, arms crossed, cigarette in hand. Everything in her body language said, “Leave me alone.” She had reluctantly come to the picnic in the woods that afternoon with other non-Christians after some Jesus Film® workers invited them.
One staff member took the initiative to talk with Oxana about Jesus, and she became curious about the hope God offered.
She agreed to attend the next group meeting, and it was there she gave her life to Christ. Within the week, her mother, sister, and niece did the same. Turning her indifference into a passion for the Lord, Oxana quickly shared her faith 100 times. After watching Magdalena, an evangelistic film about the life of Jesus from the eyes of Mary Magdalene, she invited 25 people to meet in her home as a small group. Oxana is now part of the church planting team in Moldova. She said she cannot imagine her life without God.”
Thank you for your partnership in helping to bring the gospel to people all around the world.
Left to Right: Martin, Stefan, Tanya, Aliona & Igor in Moldova
Prayer Requests:
Pray for safe travels for Stefan and good connections with the church planters he is meeting with at the moment.
Pray for Kenneth and Monica to walk closely with the Lord.
Pray for our friends Pyry and Anniina as they help plant churches in Finland.
Pray for Igor, Aliona, Martin, Tanya, and Stefan as they give leadership to our church planting efforts in Europe.
“For years, we’ve asked God to grant us opportunities to serve the body of Christ with digital strategies. Working with Global Church Movements, our Digital Strategies team recently had the opportunity to organize a vision-casting meeting with over 110 pastors and denominational leaders throughout Chad. At the end of the meeting, several denominations decided to open the doors of their churches for digital training.” These are the words of our friend and fellow-missionary, Bayang Mognanguele from Chad in Francophone Africa.
Stefan met Bayang in 2015 and Marie in 2018 when she was in Kenya to help train our staff members in Digital Strategies, where he was a participant. The team from Chad has embraced digital strategies and it is exciting how they are using them in every sphere of their ministry.
Bayang continues, “In July, we trained the first 143 pastors. Several pastors admitted they had believed technology is evil even though people use it every day. To give them an experience of digital ministry, we called all the participants to use the devices at their disposal to announce the gospel to at least one person. They did this by SMS, phone calls, movie clips and social media.
One pastor shared that his childhood friend accepted Christ over the phone as a result of the training.
All the pastors have committed to training their local church members. Thus, hundreds of Christians will be mobilized through these leaders. Despite the political and economic crisis in Chad, God is really at work mobilizing His army. We have several requests from other regions for training that we will conduct in the coming days.”
Thank you for your partnership with us that help Bayang and our other missionaries to share the love of Jesus all around the world
Prayer Requests:
Pray for Bayang and our team in Chad as they continue to train pastors to equip their church members to use digital tools to spread the gospel.
Pray for the annual meeting this week of the 90+ member groups and churches of the Global Alliance for Church Multiplication (GACX). It is a hybrid meeting, with around 230 participants meeting in person and around 1,000 joining in virtually.
Praise the Lord that Kenneth has settled well at university and Monica is enjoying her Grade 11.
One of the joys of our roles at the global head office is the privilege to help equip missionaries around the world with training and resources.
Meet Comfort in this 7-minute video. It showcases her journey of discovering Jesus on her mobile phone and the impact of our ministry. Marie is blessed to have helped the team in Ghana over the years.
Imagine thousands of people who are finding Jesus like Comfort. This is what we do to help seekers find Jesus online, grow in their faith, and train them to share the gospel with others. Comfort’s story shows a full circle of digital ministry impact. Comfort now serves with our local ministry in Ghana.
We feel so honored to have you on this journey with us! God has done great things these last few years, and we are so blessed to call you friends and partners.
Continue to pray with us for many to find Jesus.
Prayer Requests:
Thank the Lord that Kenneth started at the University of Florida. Pray for him to find a Christian community to join.
Pray for Comfort and our missionaries around the world as they share the gospel.
Pray for our church planters and their efforts, especially for creativity, as the pandemic requires new ways of safely connecting with people.
