Category: Ministry

Impacting the Next Generation

In December and January, we saw a record number of students gather for conferences around the world for training in prayer, evangelism and discipleship. We are very encouraged by what the Lord is doing in the emerging generation as many of these students commit themselves to being instruments in the Lord’s hands for the furtherance of His Kingdom. 

Here are just a few of these conferences:

1. In South Korea, 7 000 students attended prayer and fasting days in 12 locations.

2. In Hong Kong, during the conference, a “Life & Death Education” experience was a profoundly impactful exercise, where students simulated the end of life with mock coffins and funeral photos of themselves. They considered the questions: “If life is so fragile, what is the meaning of life?” and “Who is truly the King of my life?” 

By the end of the conference, over 50 students had surrendered to the calling to full-time service. Many had discovered their new identity in God and their new mission — to be a witness of this gospel of “radical rest” to a restless generation. 

3. In the U.S.A., 12 Winter conferences took place with 7 200 students attending.

Here in Orlando, three students left the Winter conference with car trouble. They called an Uber, and during the ride, they shared the gospel with their driver, John. By the time they reached their destination, John had placed his faith in Christ.

Meanwhile, at the Minneapolis conference, a first year student named Braden — who wasn’t a believer — attended with his friend Evan. After watching his peers live out their faith for two days, his intellectual barriers began to fall. During the conference while driving in a car with friends, Braden suddenly yelled out, “I want to trust Christ!” His friends explained how he could do that, and Braden received Christ right there in the car.

We thank God for each of the students. Join us in praying for them for boldness and faith as they live for Jesus. 

Yours in Christ,

Stefan & Marie

“I’ve Never Seen So Many Come to Faith”

A missionary recently shared, “I can’t remember another season when I’ve seen so many people come to faith in Jesus.” What a statement of joy! And what’s even more encouraging is that we are hearing this same refrain from teams in many nations.

Just last week, our missionaries serving among students worldwide gathered for their quarterly virtual meeting. Their reports were overflowing with good news — this year, they have already seen a 27% increase in the number of students hearing the gospel and a 40% increase in students becoming multiplying disciples — young believers who, like in 2 Timothy 2:2, are helping others follow Jesus and do the same. Praise God!

Here’s more from the missionary in Chicago who shared that inspiring line above:

“Through our Roseland outreaches alone, at least 75 individuals indicated decisions to invite Christ into their lives!

We partnered with local church leaders to set up prayer and outreach booths at two community festivals. Handing out cookies opened the door for over 350 spiritual conversations with adults and another 350 with children — many of whom began a relationship with Jesus.

Darrell, a man from a Hindu background, stopped by for cookies but expressed curiosity about Jesus. After an hour-long conversation with our team, Darrell chose to put his faith in Christ as his Savior.”

Stories like these fill us with wonder and deep gratitude — for God’s work in people’s lives, and for your faithful prayers and partnership that make these moments possible. Together, we are seeing the gospel reach hearts in places and ways that only God could orchestrate.

Photo credit to Monica Dell – these are King penguins from Argentina. They are over 1 meters tall.  The chubby brown ones are the juveniles. Their coats aren’t as compact as the adults, so they look much bigger.

Please join us in prayer:

  1. Praise God for the many open doors and hearts ready to receive the gospel.
  2. Pray for wisdom, stamina, and grace for Marie as she helps solve complex challenges that will strengthen how we communicate with and resource our missionaries globally.
  3. Pray for Monica’s protection as she travels to Antarctica (12-22 Nov.) — and praise God for this unique opportunity she has to witness there.

Blessed by the Next Generation

Visiting with the five students from Bloemfontein and two staff members.

“Tell us how you knew God called you to become missionaries.”

Three weeks ago, we were unexpectedly invited to speak to five students from our Alma Mater, the University of the Free State. They are involved with Campus Crusade for Christ and were in Johannesburg as part of a mission project to help our ministry at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Some of the students feel the Lord’s call to become missionaries, so listening to our journey, which started when we were students, was very helpful. Our 20-minute visit turned into an hour because they had so many questions. Sharing our story, we are again in awe of the Lord’s faithfulness in our lives and the many partners who have joined us over the last 31 years in this journey. 

Speaking with these students is just one of the opportunities we have had this last month visiting our partners in South Africa. It is wonderful to reconnect with long-term friends and family. Being here without our children is different, but they are both doing well. We are also thankful that we can support Stefan’s mother in her recovery after two serious falls and two subsequent surgeries.

Prayer Requests

  1. Thank the Lord for the opportunity we have to be in South Africa.
  2. Pray for safe travels in South Africa and good connections with our partners.
  3. Pray for the five Kovsie students as they are on the journey to confirm their calling to mission work.
  4. Pray for the recovery of Stefan’s Mom after her falls and surgeries.

See You Soon South Africa!

We are enjoying Spring and the little ducklings that have made our pond their home.

Exciting news: Stefan and Marie are coming to South Africa at the start of June. We can’t wait to reconnect with you and our family. 

It will feel very different: Kenneth is now employed at a surveying company in Florida and Monica is doing an eight-week summer outreach project with our organization in California. 

Here is our tentative plan:

  • 5-26 June: Gauteng
  • 27-30  June: KwaZulu Natal
  • 1-13 July: Colesberg, Garden Route and Cape Town
  • 14-31 July: Vaal Triangle
  • 1-11 August: Gauteng

News From America:

Since both of us had some life-changing experiences at Student conferences, we find this news encouraging. From the end of December through the beginning of February, our ministry hosted 6,809 students at 12 Student Conferences. 

The attendance of these conferences was up by 32% from previous years. The Northeast conference (includes Boston where Monica is studying) hadn’t happened since 2010. Our staff members made a faith decision to restart the conference and planned for 250 students to attend. They had to use additional hotels and an overflow room when more than 650 students attended!

Praise the Lord!

Prayer Requests:

  1. Pray for our trip to South Africa – for all the details to fall into place.
  2. Pray for Stefan’s Mom. She had two bad falls and two surgeries in April. We hope to be of help when we are in South Africa.
  3. Pray for Marie as she leads the project of moving our 16,000 staff members onto a new communications platform this month.
  4. Pray for Stefan, he is the conference director for our global church planters conference next year. There are a lot of details to keep track of, and he needs a good team to assist him.
  5. Pray for Kenneth and Monica to walk closely with the Lord.

Jesus is Worth It

Celebrating Monica’s birthday at a Mexican restaurant.

Going on a mission project during our student years was instrumental in cementing our callings into full-time missionary work. Stefan went to Botswana and the Caprivi Strip in 1991, and Marie to Bulgaria in 1992. Trusting the Lord to provide for those trips gave us a good taste of the Lord’s faithfulness and how He uses other people as part of that journey. 

It is fun to see students still learning that lesson. Naomi, a student involved with our ministry here in the United States, talked to a friend after his mission outreach. She saw he was noticeably changed and thought, “I should consider this.” But when she found out she would need to fundraise for it, the fear was just too much. 

Later, she heard another student sharing about one of her own fears. Instead of giving up, this girl leaned into her fear, saying, “Jesus is worth it.” Naomi decided to trust God in the face of her fears. This past July, she did her first mission project. During a recent student conference, Naomi passionately challenged other students to invest their summer in missions: “Go! Even if you have to do it scared…because Jesus is worth it!”

May her challenge also motivate us to “Go! Because Jesus is worth it.”

Prayer Requests:

  1. Praise the Lord for thousands of students preparing for mission projects this year.
  2. Marie is attending our Global Executive Team meetings in Panama this week. Please pray for good meetings, stamina, and good health. She is feeling a bit under the weather.
  3. Stefan’s Mom needs to move out of her current accommodation, and we are praying for a place in a retirement village.  Please pray for a solution.

Looking Back At 2024

Kenneth and Monica on the University of Florida campus.

We wish our South African friends a special Day of Reconciliation today.

As we prepare for Christmas, we wish you ‘exceeding great joy’ as we celebrate the miracle of His birth. (Matthew 2:10) We are privileged to be messengers of that joy and hope.

We experienced a lot of joy this year:

  1. Kenneth graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in Geomatics on 13 December. He has several job offers and is excited about the future.
  2. We have an unexpected opportunity to be in South Africa over Christmas.
  3. The spiritual growth of the people we are discipling has been faith-building to watch, as well as seeing Kenneth and Monica catching the vision of building spiritually into the lives of fellow students.
  4. Stefan loved visiting Egypt and an Asian country to confirm reports of church planting growth there. In the Asian country, 26 generations of churches have been planted despite the prominence of another major religion. The generations mean a church that plants a church, and that new church then plants a church, etc. Stefan and his team were privileged to interview members of those 26 generations of churches, and it was amazing to see the accuracy of their doctrine.
  5. We celebrate nearly 500 leaders who have either graduated or are studying a Master’s program in Transformational Leadership. Stefan helps to coordinate the program. It is designed to produce leaders of character and competence who help ensure the health and sustainability of churches being planted around the world. Stefan loves seeing their growth in leadership.

We also had some tears:

  1. Stefan’s dad is facing some health challenges.
  2. Our cat, Foxy, went missing in August.
  3. The ongoing wars and unrest that several of our co-workers are experiencing in the 110 armed conflicts around the world. The stories we hear are heartbreaking, yet we know the Lord is also at work amid all the tears.

Thank you for your friendship, prayers, encouragement and support during 2024. May the Lord richly bless and use you!

Merry Christmas!

The Fruit of our Labour

Enjoying an African sunset

Greetings from South Africa!

Since 2000, we have been serving in various operational and administrative roles to accelerate the fulfillment of the Great Commission. Sometimes, the work required is to improve the communication system or the finance system to get money to our missionaries or to help train our missionaries to incorporate digital tools in their day-to-day ministry.

Last week in Johannesburg, we had the wonderful opportunity to join 60 of our missionaries from around the world who are involved in operational and digital strategies for a leadership conference.

There were several “wow” moments for us:

  • Reunion with leaders we have relationships with dating back to 2005.
  • In 2019, Marie was part of a leadership development cohort of 12 women working in digital ministry. Six of the ladies were at this meeting, and several of us met face-to-face for the first time. 
  • Meeting new leaders in person who we have only seen in Zoom meetings
  • Over the years, we have been involved in several digital initiatives to help the gospel spread. It was a blessing to hear reports of the impact and how our work’s training and examples have helped several countries start their own initiatives.
  • This is the first time Marie is back in South Africa in summer – seeing the Jacaranda trees in full bloom and the agapanthus flowers starting to come out is a treat!
  • We visited our South African office and recognized that Stefan was instrumental in recruiting and training several staff members still serving in operational roles.

Six of the Digital Dames

Explaining our work group’s findings

Praying together

Taking our friends from Panama, Philippines, Trinidad and Tebago, East Asia and USA to Nando’s

Most days, we are in the trenches, solving problems and helping support our missionaries worldwide. Last week provided a rare opportunity to look back on many years of service and experience the impact of our work. You have made it possible for us! Thank you for your part in fulfilling the Great Commission.

Your missionaries

In Florida and Around the World

Most American schools and universities have started the new academic year. Kenneth entered his last semester at university and will graduate in December. Monica started her second year, and she is an assistant in her residence looking after 22 first-year students. It was fun to watch her prepare to be their guide. She stocked up with evangelistic resources to guide them spiritually too.

A highlight of the past few months has been Friday evenings, where youth from our church and a bunch of Monica’s high school friends would meet at our home for some good food and Bible study. A number of the students were not believers in Jesus yet. We loved answering their questions and studying how the gospel is relevant in 2024. 

Much of modern culture assumes there is no God, so we have to solve our problems on our own. But the gospel announces a comforting rescue! The gospel declares that God has provided the help we need when we can’t help ourselves. We simply need to receive it.  The gospel is truly good news.

Two of the young people, we will call them M and T, have recently accepted the gospel and Jesus’ payment for their sins. We meet with them separately to make sure they understand the basics of our faith. We love helping new believers because it helps us to review what God has done for us through fresh eyes.

Thank you for enabling us to help church planters reach their full potential in other countries and also to help students grow in their faith in our local community. 

Prayer Requests:

  1. Pray for M and T as they grow in their understanding of what Jesus did for them and learn to trust Him in every area of their lives. Pray also for their families to become believers.
  2. Kenneth was in a car accident during Tropical Storm Debby, which went over Florida recently. Thankfully, the Lord’s hand was over him, and he did not even get a scratch. However, the car was written off. Please pray for a suitable, reliable replacement for that vehicle.
  3. Stefan is in Europe to meet with the our European church planting leaders. Pray that he will encourage them as they try new strategies that we see have succeeded in other European countries.
  4. Pray for Kenneth and Monica as they trust the Lord to do well in their studies and to impact the lives of other students for Jesus.

 A Few Easter 2024 Highlights

This year, the impact of our Easter Week campaign on the Jesus Film Project YouTube channel exceeded all expectations!

On Good Friday alone, we saw 3.5 million views of Jesus Film Content, marking a 50% increase compared to last year. From the days leading up to Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday and a few days after, our total views soared to 23.2 million, a 52% jump from the previous year. These numbers illustrate how ripe the harvest is and how God is using YouTube as a 24/7 evangelist across the globe.

This growth in the spread of the gospel on YouTube compelled our Jesus Film Project team to create new tools so that these millions of viewers can take the best next steps to grow in their spiritual walk and be connected to local churches and faith communities. They offered NextSteps journeys for some of the gospel content during Easter, and more than 50,990 people clicked to take the journey.

In a country where the gospel is scarcely known, and 96% of the community follows another major religion, we discovered Rose! Rose is a devoted volunteer whose life was transformed through her search for meaning. Rose’s journey began in solitude, exploring online for deeper life insights. On YouTube, she discovered the Jesus Film, a moment that not only filled her with new hope but led her to embrace a life following Christ. This digital encounter prompted a meaningful conversation via WhatsApp, paving the way for Rose to connect locally and eventually become an integral part of our ministry team. 

We praise the Lord for every person who watched the film and pray that He would use it in their life to draw them to Himself. 

Prayer Requests

  1. Praise the Lord for many who joined the 21-day prayer and fasting for spiritual awakening. 
  2. Praise the Lord for Stefan and his team’s safe return from Asia where they interviewed believers and church planters. Their stories humbled him. Stefan is now preparing to visit a country in North Africa. They will conduct similar interviews to understand the movements in that country and learn some best practices to pass on to other countries. Pray for safety and stamina as they visit churches around the country.
  3. Kenneth’s work in Alaska, is so remote that they fly in with helicopters to do the surveying. Pray for his safety and for him to savor this incredible adventure.

Journey from Anxiety to Peace

We are excited that her.Bible, the audio Bible in women’s voices that Monica and I worked on, is now also available on the YouVersion App. With over 210,518 active users who’ve played more than 3 million chapters in 2023, your prayers for this project are encouraging.

We celebrate the launch of their first YouVersion reading plan, “Journey from Anxiety to Peace,” in honor of International Women’s Day!

We love testimonies like this one from Caryn.

“I don’t think I knew I needed this audio version until I started listening…finding myself in a different place emotionally as I heard God’s Word in these beautiful, nurturing voices…as if a mother, sister, or aunt were reading the words over me. I know I’m not the only one.”

The Training Workbook for New Language Production

Coaching Women for More Languages

The her.Bible team is having great conversations with individuals from several countries to record the Bible in women’s voices in their local languages! 

  • Katy, the first woman to enter their coaching program launched heraudiobible.org.uk (NIV) for International Women’s Day in voices from the U.K.
  • The Biblica team in Egypt will have an Arabic New Testament available later this year.

Prayer Requests:

  1. Praise the Lord for the impact of her.Bible.
  2. Pray that more people will be coached to record their languages.
  3. Pray for Stefan and his church planting team as they meet in Columbia this week for their bi-annual in-person meeting. They have a full agenda and trust the Lord for wisdom and direction in many situations.
  4. Monica and Kenneth start their exams soon. Pray for wisdom and a calm spirit.