Category: Ministry

Meeting Vladimir in Greece

Building capacity and sharing the gospel in Kyrgyzstan

“I encourage my team to share about Jesus Christ with anyone they meet. If you spend more than 5 minutes with someone, you have an opportunity to share the gospel.”

Vladimir & Erik Butz (Global Operations Leader)
Vladimir and Erik Butz (Global Operations Leader)

This was the testimony of Vladimir, from Kyrgyzstan. He has the heart of an evangelist, a passion to share Jesus Christ with others. The exceptional thing is that Vladimir leads the national operations team, not a field ministry team. This is a team of accountants, tech experts, office managers and administrators. Their primary calling is to provide support systems for our field teams in Kyrgyzstan. At the same time they are also living out a ministry of evangelism and discipleship as a way of life.

Even more amazing is that Vladimir’s team serve in a country that is nearly 90% Muslim. They take the initiative to boldly share the love of Christ daily.  Vladimir shared with excitement about his teams evangelistic outreach. That week his operations team shared the gospel with more people than the students ministry team!

We love being a part of developing leaders like Vladimir, who are skilled at building operations capacity for the ministry, filled with the Holy Spirit and passionate about sharing the love of Jesus Christ.

Our time in Greece with Vladimir and other operations leaders was an encouragement and also a time to collaborate and trust God for greater impact. Thank you for your prayers for us and our children that stayed at home.

Please join us in praying for:

  1. Greater impact & wisdom for our operations teams around the world as they work “behind-the-scenes”.
  2. Stefan’s travel to Korea (18-25 October) to attend our East Asia staff conference.
  3. Wisdom as our ministry trusts God for greater digital maturity and simplification of our global communication.
  4. Marie’s Mom, who will be visiting us in November, for safe travels and a wonderful time together.
  5. Irene, a Norwegian neighbour that prayed to receive Christ with Marie. Pray for her spiritual growth and her sons to know Jesus.

Click here to see some photo’s from Greece

Operational Force

Crary Kids

How can we help to accelerate the spread of the gospel?

The Global Operations leaders of Campus Crusade for Christ  will gather in Greece from 25-30 September to again wrestle with our part of this question. We meet every two years , for a time of collaboration, brainstorming, training and strategic planning that has helped tremendously to expand the impact of our organisation around the world. We call this the Operations Leaders Connection and had our first meeting in 2006.

Pray for the following:

  1. Traveling mercies – Stefan travels via London to attend a meeting about “data protection” laws around the world.
  2. Stefan will facilitate the Technology Leaders tract & Marie the Communications Leaders tract in Greece. Pray for sensitivity to the Holy Spirit’s leading and good interaction.
  3. Safety for all our leaders traveling from around the world.
  4. Keith & Kay Seabourn will stay with our children. Pray for stamina and strength for them.
  5. Kenneth, Monica and Moonshadow to enjoy the time with their American “grandparents”.

We are grateful for your prayers and support!

Jesus Appears in a Dream

Local Disney

Eleven weeks of school holiday flew past in a jiffy and our children started school again. Not being the new kid on the block made a big difference to Monica but Kenneth had to repeat the experience as he started Middle school (for Grade 6 – 8). You can pray for him as he settles and stands strong against the temptations that comes with this age group.

One of Marie’s joys is to collect stories from around the world of what God is doing through Campus Crusade.  Here is just one of the stories – this one from our colleagues in North Africa:

“Anna is a teenager living in North Africa and had been repeatedly sexually abused as she was growing up—even by supposedly devout men of her religion. She sought advice and comfort from a religious leader of her faith but received no satisfying answers.

About that time she passed by a house with a small sign which said, “Jesus is love.” Shortly after that, Anna failed a critical test at school and had thoughts of suicide. With nowhere else to turn she cried out, “Reveal yourself to me, ‘Jesus of love.’

Well, Jesus did appear to her in a dream and said to Anna: “Accept Me as your Lord and Savior.”

She immediately went back to the home with the sign about Jesus. They gave her a DVD called “Magdalena”—a version of Campus Crusade’s the JESUS film on the life of Christ. “Magdalena” presents the story of Jesus as seen through the lenses of women. Anna watched it three times, responded to Christ, and couldn’t stop crying for two days.

Transformed, she led her mother and sister to the Lord. She played the DVD for her fellow students, and in just one week 25 students came to Christ.

She is now a first-year student in university and leads a group of 30 women on her campus. These women are boldly telling others that Jesus is love.”

In the midst of all the reports of evil in our world, it is great to hear how God is working. Praise Him for His life-changing power. Continue to pray for mighty breakthroughs as our staff and disciples minister all across the world and thank Him for your part in it.

P.S. See our latest photos here.

School’s Over

8 Grad Party

They did it! Kenneth and Monica completed their first American school year well! Here are their thoughts and some new photos:

Monica: “The biggest lesson I learnt this year was:  to have or make friends, you have to be a friend first. I am also a “TCK” or a “two-country-kid”, which means I am influenced by both the countries I have lived in, just like my best friends that are from Brazil and Trinidad. I loved my teacher, Mrs. Haynes because she made it easier for me to adjust.”

Kenneth: “I met my best friend, Adrian, while walking home from school. He is originally from Porto Rico and I love eating some of their traditional foods. I miss South Africa, and especially our family, biltong, rugby and cricket.

I graduated from Elementary school and will go to Middle school in August. This is exciting and a bit scary because they say Middle school is very hard. My biggest lesson learnt is that God provides for your needs and often also your wants. For example, someone blessed me with a PlayStation.”

Kenneth and Monica now have their summer vacation for 11 weeks, or 74 days as Monica counted. This is a first for us, and we don’t know who needs prayer the most 🙂

Please visit our new Team Site technology.ccci.org

Praise and Prayer requests:

  1. Praise the Lord for Stefan’s productive time in England, Ethiopia, Nederland and South Africa and that the family here survived without him.
  2. Praise the Lord that Kenneth and Monica did so well in school and have adjusted nicely.
  3. Continue to pray for Lynne (Stefan’s Mom) for healing.
  4. Our Global Leaders meeting (16-20 June) here in Orlando. Pray for the safe arrival of our 200 leaders, productive meetings and stamina for Marie as she helps to coordinate the program.

Digital Tools

Hong Kong is a buzzing city. I joined 105 participants from 12 countries, mostly from Asia, to collaborate and develop new digital tools to help reach people for Jesus. Here are two of the tools we made one afternoon:

An evangelistic website: www.didjesuslie.com

Evangelistic Video: Here I am

[iframe http://www.youtube.com/embed/625pVHBV5GQ?rel=0 100%]

I’m on my way to similar gatherings to be held in Africa (Addis Ababa) and then in Europe (Amsterdam). I’m especially looking forward to connecting with my African brothers and sisters. Each continent has unique needs and connection points with the gospel. Pray that our collaboration will multiply our efforts to provide digital tools for each area.

Last Wednesday we voted in Washington, D.C and felt so privileged to have the opportunity. We are trusting that the voting in South Africa today (7 May) will go as smoothly.

Additional Prayer Requests:

  1. Pray for safety in all my travels. After Amsterdam I plan to briefly visit my Mom in South Africa. Her declining health has been a concern to us.
  2. Pray for protection and wisdom for Marie and the children during my absence.
  3. Pray for you, our partners. Your prayer requests showed that many are struggling with job security and in your marriages.

Answers to Prayer:

  1. Thank the Lord for good health and His provision.
  2. For my productive time in Korea and Hong Kong.
  3. Marie did very well in her course.
  4. The children completed their exams and we have one month left before the start of a long summer holiday.

Meet Moonshadow

20140402_123037

We are well but would appreciate your prayers for the following:
  1. Stefan will be in Korea and Hong Kong from 4-13 April. Please pray for safe travels and fruitful interactions as he learns how to serve our staff members in that region.
  2. Marie will be attending an “Old Testament Survey” course next week (7-11 April). Pray that she will learn a lot while juggling all her responsibilities.
  3. Kenneth and Monica are writing important State-wide Math, Reading and Science exams on 14 & 15 April. The grading influence many things so they are under pressure to perform well. Pray that they have clear minds and peace during the exams.
  4. Stefan’s mother, Lynne, is currently in hospital with various health struggles. Please pray for her and the health workers.
Meet Moonshadow – our adopted tom cat! Here in America the rules for keeping a pet are different, but we are learning fast. Since his arrival on Sunday, he had brought us lots of joy.
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We appreciate you prayers!

Hack-a-what???

GTO Manila Safe

Walking into the meeting room, I could have mistaken the chatting as a foreign language. Except, I knew it was just programmers lingo. Eighteen programmers joined us in Manila for our Global Technology meetings.

Campus Crusade for Christ is trusting God to have 10 million multiplying disciples by 2020. To track the progress toward the goal, we wanted to ensure that we have the right system in place. The programmers joined us to put their heads (or rather their hard drives) together and in less than two weeks integrated many existing systems into a data warehouse. We called this meeting a Hackathon.

It was exciting to watch the programmers from different countries and languages unite. Guided by the Holy Spirit, they developed the system. Thank you for your prayers – my expectations were exceeded and we continue to trust the Lord for wisdom to use technology wisely for the growth of His Kingdom.

Marie and I would appreciate your prayers for our teams as we develop a system to effectively communicate with our global leaders. My team works on the technology aspects and Marie’s team on the content.

Praise God – Kenneth and Monica both made some good friends.

Continue to pray that we will be a shining light for Jesus here in America.

Your Missionary

Stefan

See our latest Photo’s here.

Collaboration

GTL Sep 13

“Collaboration – the act of working with others on a joint project and shared goals”

Getting together with the technology leaders of Campus Crusade for Christ from around the world is always exciting. We get to see the great things that God is doing in other parts of the world and how similar our challenges are. Solving common problems together through collaboration has been a joy of our bi-annual “Global Technology Leaders” (GTL) meeting. I now have friends from all corners of the world because we have been able to solve problems together. These solutions have been helpful far beyond the specific area that first raised the need.

I am busy preparing to go to Manila, Philippines 20 February-4 March, for our next GTL meeting. The focus of this specific meeting will be “Leading as a Technologist.” Please be in prayer for our speaker Steve Bissell, and the leaders and participants:

Oumar, JR, Gabe, Jerry, Joseph, Timothy, Doug, Mark, Elaine, Sebastian, Jess, Ricky, Kelly, Azat, Salam, Touhami, Marla, Henry, James, Nick, Walter, Matt, Erik, Moses, Bob, Suneerat, Tachit, Peter, Daniel, Harvey, Jon, Michael, Johnny, Ric, Caleb, Dennis, Josh, Dave, Daniel, Karin, Mark, Russ, Mike, Todd, Mike, Richard (Yes I know this is a long list of names, but they would appreciate your prayers.)

We are grateful for your prayers!

Stefan

We have posted some new Photos here

Mariés Role

Kenneth Bday

We started 2014 with a lot more clarity than we did in 2013. Knowing where you live, work, go to school and church really helps. We are looking forward to a more settled year.

Marie is very excited. She took a few months to settle the family and discern what role God wanted her to fulfill in the Great Commission.

We at Campus Crusade for Christ are trusting God for 10 million multiplying disciples by 2020. We believe by reaching that goal, not only will the fulfillment of the Great Commission be possible – it will be inevitable!

As we work towards that goal, Marie will be part of the team that serves our President, Dr. Steve Douglass. Her focus is on communications. She is learning a lot about the best use of social media as we connect with our staff members and the many volunteers around the world.

Please pray for:

  1. Wisdom as we use various technologies, platforms and channels to connect with the potential 10 million multiplying disciples
  2. Stefan’s team, as they continue to bring innovative technologies to our leaders
  3. Thank God for Kenneth – he turned 11 this month! (The photo shows his breakfast party)

Click here for a few recent photos of our lives.

Your Missionaries

Showing JESUS at School

Monica Class

Eighteen third grade faces watched me intently as I walked the tightrope of Chrisitianity in a public school. Once a year, parents have the opportunity to tell their child’s class about their job or hobby.

Monica’s teacher invited me to speak about South Africa, but I had another idea. I could speak about my work, and being a foreigner, I had an excuse to “not know all the rules.” I prayed for wisdom to use this unique opportunity.

Over the past 20 years we have been involved with the Jesus Film, and the most fascinating part is the translation of the film into other languages. The Jesus Film is available in 1,191 languages, and holds a world record for being the most translated film in history.

I titled my presentation “How film translations are made” and had a fun drama with a part for every child. I showed them a short clip from the “Jesus film for children” and then offered everyone a copy.

There were a few stressful moments because I sensed the teachers didn’t quite know how to handle the situation. But both Kenneth and Monica’s class loved it. Each child took a DVD afterwards and I specifically chose one that had 20 different languages on so that all the students with other home languages could enjoy it with their families.

Praise and Prayer

  • Praise the Lord for the opportunity to speak at the school and for Monica’s teacher who privately indicated to me that she is a Christian.
  • Pray that the 36 DVDs that were taken will be watched by many people.
  • Pray for Kenneth and Monica to be shining lights for Jesus. They were encouraged that some class mates also identified themselves as Christians after my presentation.
  • Christmas time can naturally lead to spiritual conversations. Pray for boldness to use these opportunities.

Missionary

Marié