Stefan – Page 2 – Stefan and Marie Dell

New Mexico, Here We Come!

This weekend we have a unique opportunity.

A partner in New Mexico, who we have met through church planting efforts, has asked us to speak at a Youth Retreat in their town, Deming. High school and university students from various churches in Deming will join us. The purpose of the retreat is to help the youth consider their life purpose and what God might be calling them to do.

We will join a group of six people from Youth With A Mission (YWAM) to lead the retreat.

We are both excited and a bit apprehensive at the prospect of this retreat. We do lead the youth at our own congregation, but it is a tiny group. This retreat is requiring us to step out of our circle of comfort.

Would you please pray for us?

Pray for our preparation. We will lead a workshop on:

How to grow in your relationship with God.
How to share Jesus with others using your personal story.

In addition, on Saturday night, we will challenge them to consider how they can become life-long laborers for God’s Kingdom, no matter what career they choose. It has been good for us to reflect on our calling and journey – we certainly could never have imagined how God would use us when we said a feeble “Yes Lord, send me” many moons ago.

Please also pray that:

The students will indeed hear the call of the Lord for complete surrender of their lives and respond to it.
The partnership with YWAM will bring the best from our groups together for God’s glory.
Kenneth and Monica will be safe at home. They are preparing for their final exams of this school year.

We value your prayers and support. Thank you!

Celebrate 50 Years of Blessings

Today Stefan turns 50.

We celebrate his life and the blessing he is to us as a family and many others. He made a long list of what he is most thankful for, and we condensed it to seven things.

Here it is – in no particular order:

Growing up on a farm in the beautiful Karoo.
Getting married and sharing the same calling with Marie.
For beautiful children and watching them grow up.
Wonderful family and friends around the world.
As an adrenaline junkie – many adventures that involved tricks high in the sky, down in the ocean, and anything with speed in between.
Traveling around the world and seeing God at work everywhere.
Serving our missionaries and helping countries be more effective through good systems, platforms, and church planting strategies.

Thank you for your part in encouraging and supporting him.

Tomorrow (13 April) Stefan and his team are hosting another “Bold Moves” online conference for our church planters worldwide. This one is offered in nine languages and will celebrate the progress made in church planting over the past 10 years and focus on the task ahead as we continue to look for ways to establish churches everywhere.

Please pray for:

Stable internet and connections
The participants to be encouraged and equipped
Increased fruitfulness of all our missionaries
13 April is also the start of Ramadan, the month of fasting, for followers of Islam. Pray that God will use this month of spiritual openness to reveal Himself to them.

800 New Churches a Day!

During 2020, the JESUS Film team projected that an estimated 30 million people indicated their decision for Christ. That’s one person almost every second!

The JESUS Film is now available in more than 1,870 different languages. Ministry partners who use JESUS played a crucial role in planting upwards of 293,000 churches. That’s 800 every day!

Even during the pandemic, virtual translation workshops aided new script creation, but remotely. Ministry partners like YWAM and Renew World Outreach took on an even greater role to translate JESUS for smaller language groups. In 2020, 105 new translation projects were completed.

A missionary in Southeast Asia who serves as the television broadcast coordinator shares: “Due to the pandemic, we have such a captive audience at home, so many people are tuning in and watching {satellite broadcasts}. What draws them more than anything is the fact that they can watch these programs, the JESUS film, in their ethnic heart language. We get confirmation all the time when we ask, ‘How did you find out about Jesus?’ And they say, ‘We saw Him on TV, and we love it because it’s in our own language.’ Someday we will see people from every nation and tribe and language gathered around the throne, worshipping our Savior and Lord, all because we partnered together and we stood in the gap for such a time as this.”

Hearing these stories always remind us of the privilege of serving the Lord and how grateful we are for your support that enables us to do this.

Reverend Dell:

Stefan was invited by one of our partner groups to be ordained as a minister. We are required to complete a certain number of theological courses throughout our staff career, which we have done, but we were not seeking ordination. In light of Stefan’s work worldwide as a church-planter, having the title “Reverend” makes it easier for him.

What made the ordination ceremony special was that our good friends, Marnus and Mariette van Niekerk were in America for business at the time, and they joined us. Due to Covid restrictions, we were only 11 people at the ceremony, but it was very intimate and meaningful.

Prayer Requests:

This month our ministry is celebrating the impact of what God has done through all of us over the past decade. It culminates in a three-day online celebration event on 24-26 February. Marie is part of the design team for the event and will appreciate your prayers.
Kenneth is waiting for responses from the universities where he has applied. Pray that it will be clear which university will be best for him. For us as parents, navigating the USA college system is intimidating.

Tidings Of Good News!

This is the season to celebrate the good news as announced by the angel in Luke 2:10: “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”

This year, the need for good news is probably stronger than ever, and so we want to end 2020 by telling a few good news stories. May this remind you that the good news of Jesus still causes great joy for people and that together with you, we have the privilege to spread that good news!

Praise the Lord for the following stories:

When Covid-19 hit, our church planting leader in Ethiopia, Miktile, contemplated the poor internet service in many parts of his country and the fact that most church planters did not have smartphones. It occurred to him to send out the church planting teaching on spiritual multiplication via WhatsApp messages.

He sent out the training in short messages to 9,409 staff members and volunteers, asking each person to forward it to others. Within a few days, 63,105 people were receiving his daily texts and putting them into action, resulting in some 200 churches being planted!

Further north, our European team leader, Martin, reported that in Switzerland, far more people are attending online church services than had been attending in person. The same happened in the Middle East and Asia. “In a country in Southeast Asia,” reported Ricky, our leader for the region, “Of the 35 churches that we directly planted, 30 experienced a growth of at least ten times. One church went from more than 100 attendees before lockdown to 2,262 online!”

Perhaps most dramatic, in one Southeast Asian country, 10,000 churches existed before the quarantine. During Covid-19, believers lived out “Prayer-Care-Share” by passing out 1.3 million facemasks. Within a few months, the 10,000 churches had become 300,000 home groups and missional communities, and many believers saw their neighbors turn to Christ.

Give thanks for the many people who for the first time this year, are celebrating Christmas understanding why Jesus came to this earth and the significance of it to their lives. Our partnership made it possible, so we thank you and wish you a Merry Christmas! Celebrate the impact of the Good news proclaimed by the angels over 2,000 years ago!

P.S. Enjoy a few photos from our neighborhood this season.

Celebrate 10 Years Of Growth

Last week was the last of the monthly, global, online conferences Stefan’s church- planting team hosted. When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, some 2,000 Global Church Movements staff members worldwide were suddenly confined to their homes. It seemed that church-planting efforts would screech to a halt. But God had a different plan.

As the world pivoted to online meetings and churches began streaming their services, God began giving creative ideas.

Since July, God has helped Stefan’s team to host a monthly Zoom meeting in eight languages. They called the conference series “Bold Moves,” and every month, we based the theme on a bold move they could take to become better church planters.

When Stefan volunteered to become the conference director for these conferences, he could not have foreseen the challenges he would experience. However, he is looking back now and is in awe of how the Lord has helped them to connect with many church planters. Usually, when they would have a face-to-face conference, they would have, at most, 350 people attend it. Through these online meetings, they could have between 1,300 and 1,800 people attend.

Last week’s conference focused on celebrating what the Lord has done the past ten years through our church-planting efforts. We thought you would enjoy watching this video as you have been part of making it possible. Thank you for your partnership. Click on the image to watch the video.

History of Global Church Movements

We want to pray this blessing over you as put together by some of our church planters from around the world. Click on the image to watch the video.

Blessings Song by Church Planters

Prayer requests:

Praise the Lord for the effective Bold Move conferences and pray that the impact of it will continue to help our church planters.
Marie tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday, Stefan has also started to feel sick (Monday). Pray for her healing and the rest of the family not to get the virus.

How A Disaster Turned into Success

The dress-rehearsal was a disaster! And we were three days from the actual event! Emotions were running high in Stefan’s team as they were trying to find solutions for all the technical difficulties.

The dream was to have a Zoom conference for all our church planters and partners around the world. The content would be short 10 minutes slots delivered by different speakers, break-out groups of 6 people to discuss the content, and apply it to their context. For this, we had to ensure that people end up in discussion groups with people who spoke their language. We had to stream the conference in 8 languages.

This meant lots of things could go wrong. And with the dress-rehearsal, it did!

However, God heard our cries for help. On Tuesday, 14 July 2020, the Bold Moves 3 conference kicked off with a bang!

People from 116 countries joined the conference using 1,309 devices. Many of the devices had more than one person watching. We are so grateful for the good participation. The technical issues were minimal, and some things worked that we have no explanation of why it worked. We can only say that God did it!

One of many Zoom screens – this one has Spanish speakers

Thank you so much for your prayers!

Since this worked so well, we will do it again on the first Tuesday of every month till the end of the year. The topic for August is to explore partnerships in urban church planting efforts.

Kenneth managing the Spanish stream and Monica the 3rd English stream

Watch one of the short stories from Moldova told at the conference to inspire others to think creatively in reaching people with the gospel.

New Opportunities To Equip More People

Amid lockdowns, restrictions on travel, and uncertainties, Stefan’s team had a great idea. Why not have an online conference for our nearly 3,000 church planters and partners?

We have never attempted to do something like this. Usually, we will have smaller, localized conferences because of the cost involved. But COVID-19 is allowing us the opportunity to experiment and try something new.

On 14 and 15 July, for three hours each day, they will virtually bring together our church planters from over 150 countries and will offer translations into 7 languages. Each language will have a specific link to follow the short presentations and then go into virtual groups to discuss what they have learned and how they can implement it in their own ministry.

Stefan, the conference director, shares, “We desire for every church planter to have the mindset of multiplication in everything that they do. We will be looking to whet their appetite by sharing examples from around the world of others living that out.”

Please pray for the following:

For the conference:
- That the church planters will be encouraged and motivated towards the task of fulfilling the Great Commission.
- All the technical stuff – Internet connectivity, conference platform, speaker and system transitions
- The translation of the conference – for people to understand.
- Follow through by teams, cities, and nations after the meeting. That partnership opportunities may be discovered and explored.
We are taking some required theological training until 24 July. These courses are our last ones to fulfill all the requirements of our organization. We are excited to be completing this but need stamina and diligence for it amid all our other responsibilities.
For Kenneth and Monica to enjoy the last few weeks of their summer vacation. They are due to go back to school on 10 August.

Be assured of our prayers as we all make adjustments to living with the reality of COVID-19. May the Lord flood you with peace and a strong sense of His presence.

I thank God for you and for Indian Church planters

Clickety-clack. Clickety-clack. As the overnight train shook from side to side, I was laying in my narrow bunk thanking the Lord for His growing church in India.

That day, my travel buddies and I visited several new churches in the Northern part of India. We had taken the overnight train to get there – and believe me, the trip was a cultural experience. However, all the discomfort was worth it when we saw how God’s church is growing despite the increased hostilities toward Christians.

We went there to encourage our church planters in their work, instead, I was humbled and encouraged. As I listened to the stories of how the new believers came to Jesus through miraculous healings or the breaking of demonic bondage, I was again in awe of our Powerful God.

Today we celebrate Thanksgiving here in America. You are on the list as someone we are thankful for. Thank you for your investment in our lives and in turn, into the lives of church planters around the world. Thank you!

Train accommodation – don’t let the smiles fool you.

How 27 Years Makes a Big Difference

Marie and Alex from Bulgaria

Twenty seven years ago, as a brave and naïve second year nursing student, I took my first flight on my first missions trip. At the age of four I declared that I wanted to be a missionary when I grew up – this was my chance to taste the missionary life.

My destination – Sofia, Bulgaria.

The country recently opened up to the gospel after the fall of communism and we were ready to tell students the Good news of Jesus. There I learnt many things about God, myself and the sinfulness of people. I also learnt that I wanted to be a missionary the rest of my life!

Fast forward 27 years and I just returned from Sofia. This time, I trained 42 of our missionaries from Central and Eastern Europe how to use digital tools to spread the gospel. We met in our beautiful national office, run by our Bulgarian missionaries.

My highlight – Alex.

Alex, a Bulgarian student who was wondering about the purpose of life and the existence of God. While searching the internet he found our evangelistic website everystudent.com. After reading many of the articles, Alex became convinced that God was real and Jesus offered a way for him to connect with God. He accepted Jesus in his life, and through resources on the site and an email follow-up series he grew in his relationship with the Lord.

Alex became convinced that the site needed to be translated into Bulgarian for his countrymen to also discover the Good news about Jesus. He contacted our ministry, and with their help, he translated the site. He advertised on FaceBook to make the site known.

It was my privilege to help Alex develop his strategy to reach Bulgarians. The past three months he had 40 000 site visitors and 400 people invited Jesus into their lives. We planned together what next steps he could take with these new believers and how he could see more people visit the site.

I was thrilled to see how the Lord has been working in Bulgaria. From the humble efforts of a few South African and American students who went to share the gospel there in the early ‘90’s to a fully-fledged Bulgarian ministry.

Thank the Lord for what He is doing in Bulgaria and pray for Alex and our missionaries from the other Eastern European countries to serve the Lord with all their hearts and skills.

See photo from Marie’s trip here.

Also thank the Lord for Stefan’s healing – he was given the green light last week to start walking again. Pray for him as he will be meeting with our church planters in India from 19 February -2 March.
Oh happy day! Returning the wheelchair.

2019 Is Here! But Let’s Look Back And Celebrate 2018

We want to wish you a very special 2019 in which you will see the Lord’s goodness every day. We look back at 2018 with gratefulness to the Lord.

Highlights:

The Lord’s provision through our partners, their continued prayer support and encouragement. After 24 years in ministry, this is one of the most extraordinary confirmations of the Lord’s calling.
Kenneth and Monica had a fun and full year at school. They loved the sport and club activities that included: tennis, swimming, waterpolo, robotics, green team, science olympiad, chess, math club and tech sazzy girls club.
Marie’s added responsibilities have help her connect with our missionaries who use digital tools and platforms to reach people for Jesus. She loves connecting them with resources and best practices.
Stefan enjoys working with our church planters in South Asia, Western Europe and Eastern Europe. A trip to the country of Georgia counted among his highlights for the year as he personally had the opportunity to help lead a professor to the Lord. (See the story below)

Lowlights:

Toward the end of the year we had three car accidents within 45 days.
Stefan broke his left leg in one of the accidents and is in a wheelchair for three months.
Monica was diagnosed with an impacted tooth and will require braces to have it corrected.
The unfavorable exchange rate made our finances very tight this year and we know many of our ministry partners also felt the strain of the harsh economic climate.

Thank you for your part in our lives!

The story below from Stefan is a reminder why celebrating the birth of Jesus is so special – He came to make a way for all of us to be reunited with God. Thank you Jesus!

It was Wednesday afternoon, and my colleague Virgil and I felt a bit off from jet-lag since arriving in Tbilisi, Georgia. All the Georgians were going out to practice the first sessions of the church planting training we were there to present. Even though we needed some rest, the thought that moved us out the door was “Our training is so simple. Just walk up to students and show them the 2-minute clip on your phone. Yes, The Amazing Question clip would make it easy.”

Our group took the metro and then walked to the University. After sharing with some students, we moved to the next group who were open to speak to us and give their feedback to the video clip. Except it turned out that the 4 “students” were either professors or PHD candidates. We invited them to meet again on Saturday evening at one of the restaurants. Two came. Besides an amazing conversation around the 2-minute clip, we finished the evening going through an evangelistic Gospel track. The one professor accepted Jesus into his life. It was such a special time of celebration and he continues to keep contact with us and the local ministry.

Dinner with the Professors in the Republic of Georgia

Have a wonderful 2019!