Category: Stefan

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 nearly 30 years of ministry, we have rarely seen this level of commitment to discipleship and spiritually building into the lives of others as we witnessed in Finland. 

A quick photo with Anni and Pyry. Marie is wearing a marino wool jersey knitted by Pyry’s sister for her.

Fifty Finns, mostly under the age of 30, gathered for the Easter weekend to learn skills to help others grow in their faith and multiply their lives into more people. They are the leaders of small church communities from around Finland. 

Although we were there to lead two workshops – which went very well because of your prayers – we felt like we were there to learn from them. Here are a few things we learnt:

1. “Tell me your Jesus story.”

Every conversation started with, “Tell me your Jesus story.” Immediately, each conversation went to a profound level of sharing and learning how God had intervened in each person’s life. It was also a celebration of God’s miraculous restoration of people – some coming out of very dark backgrounds.

2. Be fully present

We hardly saw any cell phones; we learned that before the weekend, they had decided to put their phones aside to be fully present with one another. It was so refreshing!

Marie leading her workshop – look at the beautiful ocean view in the background.

3. Ask good questions to grow.

The Finns take their meals seriously, we had five a day, but they consider two as snacks. At every meal, participants came up to us and asked questions. They wanted to grow in their faith and help others grow. They even made notes while you were answering.

4. Sauna and Splash

Sauna time is an essential part of Finnish discipleship. Deep conversations take place while sweat is pouring down your body. The retreat center had two saunas, and every night the men gathered in one and the women in the other. The fact that everyone is nude may contribute to the openness of the conversations. The sauna next to the sea also has the added benefit of cooling you down in frigid water when you get too hot. Monica received high praise for staying in the freezing water for 45 seconds! Her mother only got knee-deep.

We left Finland so encouraged! We know the Lord is raising people from every nation to bring the gospel, and witnessing these fifty people in action, we have great hope for a large harvest from Finland.

It was beautiful but freezing! Imagine how cold the sea felt.

Please pray for the following:

1. Pyry and Anni Winter as they lead this movement in Finland.
2. That the Finnish leaders manage their time well, having full-time jobs and leading their churches.
3. Monica as she makes her final university decision. She has narrowed down her choices between two universities.

Retreat center close to Turku

Easter greetings from a beautiful and freezing Finland!

This Easter weekend, Stefan is returning to the gorgeous retreat center pictured above with Marie and Monica. 

Stefan wrote in our November 2021 newsletter, “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.”

They invited us to join them as speakers at their retreat this weekend.

They expect about 50 participants. Each participant will have the opportunity to choose 1 of 3 workshops on Friday and from another 1 of 3 on Saturday. Stefan is presenting his workshop on Friday, and Marie on Saturday. These participants are members of the 15 churches planted in the last few years. 

It will be the first time Marie will meet Anniina in person, so exciting.

Freezing in Finland

Prayer Requests:

1. For each of the workshops that we will present during the Easter retreat. Pray for a good connection with our audience and that the lessons learned will accelerate the spiritual growth and fruitfulness of the participants.
2. For safe travels while we are in Europe. Next week we will visit Marie’s sister and her family in England before our return.
3. For Monica as she decides which university to attend. She was accepted at eight and will visit one offering her a good scholarship from 16-18 April in Chicago. She needs to make her final decision by 1 May.

“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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Praise the Lord that Kenneth has settled well at university and Monica is enjoying her Grade 11.

Alexa came to me (Marie) for prayer during the altar call. I asked her what I could pray for her. Her immediate response was – “I want to say ‘yes’ to Jesus.” It was such a joy to pray with Alexa as she fully surrendered her life to Jesus. Throughout this past weekend, we saw several students commit their lives to Jesus.

We had the privilege to minister at a youth conference in Deming, New Mexico. Six churches from various denominations in Deming put resources together and invited missionaries from Youth with A Mission (YWAM) and Campus Crusade for Christ to minister to the young people from their town. 

We joined six YWAM missionaries and planned a weekend for the youth that included the gospel, understanding their identity in Christ, and growing in their walk with Jesus. On Saturday night, we also challenged the youth to consider serving the Lord in missions. Eight young people responded to the calling of God on their lives. It was a holy moment to pray with them and recognize the Lord at work in their lives.

God answered your prayers on our behalf, and we praise the Lord for the opportunity to hang out with these young people and teach them how to “braai” marshmallows around the fire the South African way while imparting spiritual truths. Seeing their excitement for the Lord has been a great blessing. Thank you for praying for us!

Deming turned out to be remarkably similar to the Karoo, where Stefan grew up in climate and aridness. It was a treat to stay on a pecan farm and learn how labor-intensive it is to farm pecan nuts. We enjoyed eating the delicious nuts.

Here are a few photos from our weekend in New Mexico.