Ministry – Page 5 – Stefan and Marie Dell

Exchanging Summer For Winter

In 7 days, we are exchanging the heat and humidity of summer here in Orlando, for the cold weather in South Africa for two full months. And we can’t wait!

The main reason for our home assignment is to reconnect with you.

We wish we could visit with each one individually, but sadly, time fly by so quickly. If at all possible, could you come and see us at one of these events?

June 4: We are speaking in the services at Rosebank Union Church, Johannesburg (8:00, 10:00 and 18:00)

June 10: Join us for an American picnic in the Rosebank Union Church Amphitheater (12:00-14:00) Please RSVP for catering purposes

June 16-19: We will be in Colesberg

June 20-21: We will be in Bloemfontein

June 25 and July 2: Join us for a tea and cake at our Campus Crusade for Christ office, 398 Rigel Ave S, Erasmusrand, Pretoria (15:00 – 17:00)

July 22: Join us for tea and cake at 38 Beethoven St , Vanderbijlpark (15:00 -17:00)

July 23: Join us for tea and cake at N.G. Fontein Kerksaal, 58 Van Wouw St, Sasolburg (15:00- 17:00)

July 30: We are speaking at Westville Baptist Church, 2 Church Pl, Westville, Durban (8:00, 10:00)

Please pray for us for safe travels and that we would be able to finish well here before we leave.

We can’t wait to see you!

Your Missionaries

Stefan & Marie

P.S. Thank you for your prayers for our trips to India and Canada. We had very productive times. We will tell you more in person, but for now, here are a few photos from our trips.

First His Campus, Now His Community

“The Christian life never meant much more than attending church to Mebrete. As a first-year student in northern Ethiopia, he was challenged to attend a discipleship group. He soon realized that his mission was to study and share Christ!

Attending Evangelism and Discipleship Training, Mebrete group was asked to make a plan to win his campus for Christ. He came back with a simple plan–to win his roommates for Jesus, according to Acts 1:8.

Mebrete began making his roommates’ beds, laying his hand on each bed and praying for the salvation of each of his seven roommates (see photo on the right). Today Mebrete tells about the dramatic conversion of six of his roommates before he left campus. The seventh also accepted Christ a year after he graduated. Mebrete helped them grow and become involved in spiritual multiplication. While a student, Mebrete shared the gospel with over 2,000 students, and 35 of them put their faith in Christ.

When about to graduate, Mebrete sensed God’s call to become a missionary in one of the most difficult parts of Ethiopia. He started sharing the gospel on the Ethio-Sudan border, and people began responding.

The new church Mebrete planted has grown to over 50 members and become self-sustainable, with local leaders and financial support raised in this resistant area. When Mebrete felt it was time to leave the church in local hands, he moved to Azezo and planted a second church, mentoring the leaders of the first church from a distance. The second church now has over 20 members.”

Stories like these reminds us of God’s power to use a humble, obedient person. Pray with us that we would also be like Mebrete.

Stefan is currently in South Asia meeting with church planters. Please pray for his safety and that he would be an encouragement and support to our church planters.

Marie is on her way to Canada to speak at a conference of global digital strategy leaders. This surprise invitation came as a result of her testimony about Peter’s death. She would appreciate your prayers. Also pray for Kenneth and Monica and their American “grandparents”, Keith and Kay, that are looking after them while their parents are traveling.

Your prayers encourage us. Thank you!

Mebrete’s name has been changed for his security.

From Drunkard to Church Planter

Nelaam*, was lying in hospital in an Asian country, nearly paralyzed from alcohol poisoning. Out of desperation, he had cut himself repeatedly. One of our church-planting pastors visited him. The pastor explained the gospel. Nelaam believed and became a follower of Christ.

Nelaam is now married to a wonderful Christian wife (who came from the dominant religion). This couple shows people the “JESUS” film and use a strategy called “Prayer, Care, Share”. They have lead 20 of the 100 families in their village to the Lord!

In this Asian country, in a grand vision, staff members are working to train 4,200 new lay leaders like Nelaam in their nation. These trained workers will plant churches using the “JESUS” film, implement the “Prayer, Care, Share” and other strategies. The results to date are extraordinary. Of 700,000 villages, 300,000 now have a church! Staff members hope to see a church planted in each of the remaining 400,000 villages, many in the most challenging areas.

As Stefan work with the church planting leader of this vast country, we want to do everything we can to help him and the other Spirit-filled workers fulfill the great vision, particularly in the difficult areas. Above all, they need prayer.

We want to ask for your intercession for the church planting teams. Please pray for their protection, that God will restrain radicals, open hearts and whole villages to receive the gospel. Pray also for us, as we encourage and assist with operational support, that the Lord will make us sensitive to His guidance. Would you also pray for the protection of our family? Recently we have experienced many kinds of difficulties that could make us feel discouraged and we recognize the influence of the evil one in it.

Thank you so much for enabling us to serve our church planting missionaries around the world.

*Name Changed

A Church Planter’s Advice

Last week I (Stefan) returned from a meeting in Ethiopia with all our African leaders involved with church planting. It was wonderful to be in Africa and to connect with so many of our old friends, it felt like a reunion.

In a recent interview with Marie’s team, one of those friends, Dismas Shekalaghe (second from right in photo) from Tanzania, gave the following advice regarding church planting:

Understand that a church is not a building.

A church is the people who believe in Christ. In many churches, our focus has been to make people comfortable. When people get comfortable, they are just enjoying religion, instead of enjoying Christ and sharing Him. They do nothing in terms of obeying the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.

Buildings should never be the focus if you want to plant churches that are multiplying. Focus on people, because Jesus focused on people. Jesus never focused on material things. Imitate Him.

2. When people commit their lives to Christ, make sure they are fast in sharing their faith.

Think of the woman at the well. When she met Jesus and experienced Jesus, how long did she take to share with her village about Jesus? She told them right away, a simple message!

When the pastor alone shares his faith, very few people will be reached. If everyone is sharing their faith, many people can be reached. This means the church can multiply very fast.

Since we started working with Global Church Movements two years ago, we have been able to plant more than 250 churches. We are partnering with more than 200 churches and trusting the Lord for 67,500 new churches in Tanzania by 2020.

Wow! We celebrate what God is doing in Tanzania and pray for them as they work towards the 67,500 new churches! Thank you for enabling me to be part of the team that helps church planters like Dismas to reach their countries.

Please also pray for me as I travel to Spain this weekend where I will attend a meeting of church planting organisations working in Europe.

A New Opportunity

News from Stefan:

At the start of our missionary careers, our team studied Henry Blackaby’s book “Experiencing God”. A concept that stuck with us is “Look where God is working and join Him.” Through the years we have tried to do that.

In the last few years, God has been uniting Christian organizations and churches. They are locking arms for the sake of His Kingdom, in unprecedented ways. We are seeing incredible efforts to spread the gospel and plant churches all around the world. It truly is a beautiful movement of God.

The past few months, I started to sense that my time as global technology leader was coming to an end as a result of changing organisational direction with regards to technology. As I started looking for God’s activity, we were drawn to what God is doing in and through church planting movements. Our September letter spoke about this a little. Campus Crusade for Christ’s church planting focus is called Global Church Movements. They have their hands full with all that God is doing.

To my delight, I was asked to join the Global Church Movement (GCM) team to oversee the operational activities of the team, as well as the operations for the Global Alliance for Church Multiplication (GACX). This alliance has over 50 partners who all work toward seeing 5 million churches planted by 2020. I will also be the global liaison with 3 of our regional leaders.

We are very excited about this new opportunity as it allows me to not only use my technical and operational skills, but also my leadership development and networking skills. I’m again reporting to Dr. Bekele Shanko. I served under him in the Southern and Eastern Africa area from 2004-2010. Bekele, a fellow-African, is the vice president for our Global Church Movement and a man of great faith and vision.

By the end of 2016 we were aware of 986,236 new churches planted by GACX, mostly in areas where few or no churches existed. I can’t wait to see what the future hold!

God is clearly at work in the church planting world and we are privileged to have the opportunity to join Him. We look forward to your prayers and ongoing support in this new adventure.

Your Missionary

Stefan

P.S. Marie will continue in her role as the Communication’s leader for the president with a special focus on our organization’s Global Communications.

Strange Season

Fall (as autumn is called here) is strange. This is our fourth Fall here and we are still amazed, amused and even shocked at the strangeness of this time.

We understand from non-Floridians that Fall is anti-climatic in Florida since we hardly see any leaves change colour (imagine a Palm tree with red and orange leaves…). But that certainly does not stop anyone from celebrating the slightly cooler season with gusto!

We attended our fourth Fall Festival and it was again a wonderful time of connecting with friends. Fall festivals are usually sponsored by churches or in our case, our head office hosts one. It usually includes a Hay Ride (tractor ride on hay bales), a pumpkin patch with hundreds of pumpkins to choose from, drinking apple cider, eating toffee apples and a corn maze (even if it’s fake, made by a jumping castle type set-up). All-in-all a great experience!

Then it is Halloween.

Again, it’s a big community gathering. Neighbors we haven’t seen since last Halloween will be in the streets, chatting and visiting as if we do this every day.

For weeks homes have been decorated – some with pumpkins, scarecrows and autumn colours. Others with evil ghosts, skeletons and witches. Some homes with both.

One thing is clear to us: this time of year is a special time to connect with our community. Please pray for significant interactions with people, for connections we will be able to maintain through the year, not just in the Fall.

You can see some more photos of our Fall experience here.

5 Million Churches

In the last two week:

Kenneth’s leg was declared healed
We survived the effects of a grade 1 hurricane
The children successfully completed their first month at their new school

All things we are very grateful for.

We also attended a meeting of church planting organizations.

Did you know?

There are 7 billion people in the world.
There are only 2 billion people who identify as Christians.
There are 5 billion left to reach.
There are currently 5 million churches in the world.

The Global Alliance for Church Multiplication (or GACX), is trusting the Lord to help start at least 5 million new multiplying biblical churches and faith communities, covering every neighborhood, village, high-rise and digital community in the entire world. We believe God is calling the body of Christ to do this by 2020.

As we receive reports from all over the world of the impact of these partnerships in planting more churches, won’t you praise the Lord with us and continue to pray for continued wisdom, unity and impact.

You can learn more about GACX here.

Dr. Bekele Shanko, VP for Global Church Movements shares about Campus Crusade's role in GACX — Dr. Bekele Shanko, VP for Global Church Movements shares about Campus Crusade’s role in GACX

These are exciting days as we see the Lord work in special ways to unite Christians to work together for the fulfillment of the Great Commission. Thank you for joining us in this great task.

A New Academic Year Starts

Today, 15 August, our 10-week school holiday ends. The children are reluctantly looking forward to the new school year as they start a new school and a new curriculum.

Here are a few snapshots from our summer:

Thank you for your prayers for our Global Leaders Conference (26 June- 1 July). Our meetings went well and our leaders left Orlando encouraged and better equipped to lead our missionaries in their quest to see the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

Marie had a wonderful visit in South Africa with her Mom and siblings. The last time they were all together was February 2013. What a treat to celebrate their Mom’s 70th birthday together.

While Marie was away, we joined co-workers at their cabin in North Carolina. It was a wonderful break from the Orlando heat and humidity. The lowlight was that Kenneth broke his leg by colliding into an unsuspecting tree from a rope swing. After getting a screw in his leg he is recovering well. Please pray for his complete healing.

We appreciate your prayers as we start the new academic year. After the slower pace of summer, we are back in full swing. We look forward to a fruitful year as we try to bring the Good News to a lost and hurting world.

Requests and Reunions

10 million multiplying disciples by the year 2020!

We are starting with very strategic meetings with 250 global leaders today (24 June) here in Orlando. The main agenda of our meetings will be to discuss the shifts required to enhance our efforts toward this goal.

We would covet your prayers for:

The safe arrival of all our leaders.
The Lord’s guidance and wisdom as we discuss the shifts needed.
The city of Orlando that is still reeling under the tragic events from the shooting on June 12th.

Following the meetings, Marie has a quick visit to South Africa to celebrate her Mom’s 70th birthday. All 5 the siblings will be in South Africa for the event, so this is a big treat.

Please pray for:

Safe travels for Marie (she has an interesting itinerary because we used airline miles)
Stefan and the children as they fend for themselves.
A big reunion and celebration for the Ferreira family.

For fun here is a link to a few photo’s of interesting postbox’s here in America

#PrayForOrlando

On Sunday morning we awoke to the horror of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. Right here in our back yard!

Orlando, the tourist capital of the U.S is such a warm, welcoming community. It makes this tragedy even harder to comprehend. Today we have felt and witnessed a profound sorrow for the lives taken by this unjust act of violence.

Our prayer since Sunday morning has been, “Lord, what would you have us do?” Continue to pray with us for guidance from the Lord. Here is what we already know:

Walk closely with the Lord
As we seek to love in word and deed, we are to be sensitive and yielded to the Holy Spirit.

Pray
“Bring your presence to bear, Lord Jesus, by your Spirit and through your people. May your servants weep with those who weep and wail with those who wail. Extend your tear wiping hand—reach into this great tragedy with an even greater grace.” – by Scotty Smith

Serve
In the days ahead we will look for opportunities to be the hands and feet of Jesus. City officials have established an online form for volunteers. We’ll hear more soon. In the meantime there are some basic acts of service we and our co-workers will pursue, including to:

Give blood.
Provide meals for caregivers and counselors.
Offer water and sunscreen to mourners, city workers and others standing in the sun.
Provide financial assistance to families of the victims where appropriately needed.
Join churches in making care packages for families that are staying with their injured members in hospital.
Offer grace and encouragement as we pray with all who are willing.

So often, tragedy make you pause and evaluate your priorities in life. Please pray with us for many opportunities to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to our grieving community.

We appreciate your love, concern and prayers for us and for Orlando.

The flags outside our local High School today