“Thank you all for praying for my mission trip to Jeppes Reef earlier this month! Leaving on the trip and only knowing one person, was terrifying. But it was an amazing experience getting to know fellow young Christians and, on returning, counting them as friends.
The week-long trip provided an excellent chance for me to grow spiritually. We hosted a bible club for children from the community. It is unclear how well the kids received our message due to language barriers, but we saw many smiles of appreciation for the time we spent with them.
Handing out food and soap was a chance to show the faith James talks about in James 2:14-17. Please continue to pray that the seeds we planted will grow and that no one will mislead them with false teaching.
I hope Christ’s love does not get lost in our desire to be moral and ‘good’ people. Jesus died and loves us all, regardless of our sins.”
Making sandwiches at 5:30am
Prayer Requests:
Pray for the gospel seeds planted in the hearts of the children and young people in Jeppes Reef to germinate and grow.
Pray for me to continue to grow in my love for Jesus.
Pray that our last month in South Africa will go well. My aunt and cousins from England are also coming soon, so it will be a wonderful reunion.
We are always encouraged to hear stories of God working in people’s lives. Marie recently compiled a report about the impact of our ministry, and she thought you would enjoy reading these short stories.
Mongolia
In October, our ministry were able to have an in-person student conference for the first time since the pandemic started. They ran ads on Facebook to invite participants, targeting college students who lived nearby. Around 150 students came to the meeting. Of these, 60 indicated decisions for Christ!
New Zealand
Dana, a young woman working in a mental health service, started a Bible study with her colleagues. They met weekly to pray, study and encourage one another.
Because the group was open to everyone in her workplace, curious non-Christian colleagues sometimes came to read the Bible with them too! Amy was one of them, coming faithfully each week.
In one meeting, only Dana and Amy showed up. Dana had been hoping for an opportunity to talk with Amy about the gospel. Using her GodTools® app, Dana shared the “Knowing God Personally” presentation with her. Amy asked Christ to forgive her sins and give her a new life!
Asia
In a country where all online content is monitored, censored and often blocked, between January and October 2021:
28,189,119 people interacted with the ministry by watching a video, reading a post, chatting, or opening and clicking on content.
Of those people, 2,265 made a decision to follow Christ after a conversation with a ministry team member.
Over 1,200 of those people were connected with local churches or fellowships!
Ghana
Emmanuel, from Ghana, received church-planting training from our ministry. After the training, Emmanuel returned to his village. He began sharing the evangelistic tract called the Four Spiritual Laws, and 15 people indicated decisions for Christ. Emmanuel began to meet with them.
After Emmanuel’s group invited a “JESUS” film team to show the film in their community, another 22 people joined their group. Emmanuel identified two people in the group — now a small church — who were zealous to win souls for Christ. He trained them in how to use the Four Spiritual Laws booklet.
When one of them, Ezekiel, moved to a nearby community, he began sharing the gospel. He has since planted a church that now has 34 members.
Thank You!
Because of your generosity, Dana, Emmanuel, Ezekiel, and many others have been equipped and resourced to reach their communities with the life-changing news of the gospel. Thank you for your generosity to our family to be part of this ministry!
I (Marie) grew up seeing my father on his knees, praying for God to reveal Himself to those behind the Iron Curtain. When Communism fell, we celebrated it and shed tears of joy, and he recalled how he had joined believers around the world to pray for that to happen for many years.
Then his focus, and that of many believers, shifted to the Muslim world, praying for God to reveal Himself to millions of seekers.
We just completed 30 days of prayer and fasting for Muslims during their Ramadan month of fasting. My father passed away, but I wish I could have shared with him some of the stories I heard this month. Here are a few:
Surge in Subscribers to Arabic Church Online
More than 10,000 Arab-speaking Muslims in a closed Middle Eastern nation subscribed to our Arabic Church Online YouTube channel.
A Million Face Masks
In one country, our staff members and partnering churches have started distributing one million face masks to reach people for Christ.
The face mask comes with an evangelistic booklet and a note that says, “If you would like to have true peace, please visit these websites.” The websites have videos and articles to help point them to Christ as well as the “JESUS” film in their local language.
To date, 850,000 facemasks and booklets have been distributed through 805 churches in 63 provinces or cities in this secure country. This has helped ease restrictions for the church planters because authorities see that they are helping the communities.
No Restrictions Can Stop God
In a highly restricted country, eighty people have accepted Christ online during this month.
One young man, who we will call Matt, accepted Jesus on 12 May. He completed all of the basic follow-up lessons, and the week after he believed, he saw three others accept Christ as he shared the Truth that he had just found! Matt is now discipling these new believers, going through the basic follow-up lessons with them.
When our team met Matt online, he had Covid-19 and was searching for Truth. It’s fantastic to see through his story that NOTHING can stop the move of God’s Spirit. Not a global pandemic. Not an illness. Not strict lockdowns. Not even some of the highest security situations in the world.
Thank you
We know you are reading these stories in your hard circumstances due to the pandemic. Again, we want to thank you for your continued partnership with us as we bring the Good news to a hopeless world. We trust that your hope in Jesus will be real and encouraging for others around you. Be assured that we are praying for you!
Nothing could have prepared us for the circumstances of Easter 2020. We feel a bit like the disciples must have felt that first Easter – shocked, grieved and then amazed and hopeful. In the midst of this all, we have been so aware of the truth of Ps 46: 1-2 “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear …”
Have you had some similar experiences? Are you also grieving some things during the COVID-19 pandemic while you are blessed by the evidence of God’s hand in the situation?
5 AM Zoom call with some of our missionaries from Central and Eastern Europe
Like so many around the world, we have been house-bound since the middle of March. Two things have kept us very busy:
Marie is on our global crisis management response team, responsible for communications. Our ministry had to cancel countless mission outreaches and conferences. A personal blow for Marie was that the Global Communication’s Summit that she put together for communicators in our ministry, was also cancelled.
Helping all our missionaries around the world become on-line missionaries as they are not allowed to operate as before. We are creating training materials and meetings are now taking place over Zoom.
Seeing how quickly our missionaries adapted to their new realities is one of the highlights. It is also evident that there is a greater openness to spiritual matters as people’s worlds are shaken.
Observing this openness, especially for prayer, gave us a new idea. With the help of our Ethiopian co-worker, Miheret, we advertised a zoom prayer call on Facebook for 30 minutes to pray for COVID-19. We called our prayer experience “There Is Hope”. We decided to test it in Johannesburg first. People signed up so that we could give them more details.
To our surprise – 116 people signed up and on Friday night, we hosted our first event of this kind. We read scriptures and then prayed for different COVID-19 needs: the sick, the vulnerable, the healthcare professionals, our leaders and then also those who are affected economically by the situation.
There is Hope – Johannesburg zoom prayer call
We then also gave the 12 people who joined the call an opportunity to have a personal relationship with Jesus who is our ever-present help in trouble. A number of the people on the call were already Christians, but one person committed his life to the Lord. He has been going through a follow-up videos series with us.
Praise the Lord with us for this man’s salvation, and pray that he will continue to grow in his faith.
Pray also as we try this prayer experience in more cities for people who are curious about spiritual things. Sunday we tried something similar in Ethiopia and had similar results.
Pray for all our missionaries as they are trying different things to connect with people to bring the gospel to them.
We are spending more time in prayer at the moment – what can we pray for you in this time?
COVID-19 is a word that none of us have ever heard about three months ago and now it has transformed our lives. How are you coping with its effect? Know that we have been praying for you and your family, for safety and for peace. Our family is well despite the impact of the virus.
As the COVID-19 situation worsened around the world, our teams scrambled to produce a ministry guide of best practices for how to minister at a distance that has been circulated all around the world. It includes some links to ready-made content to share on the topics of fear and anxiety, which are so relevant right now. We also added other resources that could help as you reach out to others. (You might find it helpful to pass along to your church leadership and pastors or share on social media).
This week our digital team is hosting 5 webinars on 5 continents. Already 1,200+ people have signed up from Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and Latin America. We need your prayers.
Please pray:
For energy as coordinating these webinars will require early mornings, late nights and middle of the night working across timezones, all while working from home.
For the technology to “just work” as people connect from around the world and join these equipping times.
Our webinars will help people figure out new ways of doing ministry during COVID-19 and answering these questions:
Arobogast Henga unfolded a big piece of paper on which he had drawn his church multiplication chart showing the 25 “generations” of churches God had raised up in the past two years.
In church planting, “generations” is the term used to describe successive church plantings: a church plants a church (two generations), which plants a church (three generations), which plants another church (four), and so on. Four generations is considered a “movement,” but 25 generations of churches planting churches is simply amazing!
Arobogast, like his father and grandfather before him, had been a fisherman in Tanzania. His family had always practiced witchcraft, believing it would help them catch more fish. In 2011, hoping to excel in his fishing business, Arobogast traveled to a nearby district known for its high concentration of witch doctors. Instead, he met Kanagana, a Baptist preacher proclaiming Jesus. And just like Peter, Andrew, James, and John in Matthew 4, Arobogast immediately left what he was doing, followed Jesus, and became a fisher of men and women.
In November 2017 Arobogast attended an MC2 (multiplying churches and faith communities) training offered by our staff in Tanzania. During the training, he learned about the vision to plant a church for every 1,000 people on earth.
He also learned about the concept “person of peace,” “pray-care-share,” and the multiplication of disciples and churches. The training taught him to enable newly planted churches to sustain themselves through intentional discipleship, empowering new believers for ministry and raising up leaders to engage new areas with evangelism and church planting.
Arobogast is a devout disciple of Jesus, a passionate evangelist, and a prudent strategist of church multiplication movements. He walks from one village to the next, coaching church planters, casting vision for multiplication, and sending new leaders to other districts so they can find people of peace and expand the work. His vision is to see a church planted in every village in Tanzania.
But Arobogast is not the only one with this vision in his country; he is a part of a much larger, national, and even international, vision.
A Common Vision In March 2015, several Tanzanian church leaders were among the 123 leaders from eight countries who attended the launching of the East Africa GACX (Global Alliance for Church Multiplication). At that event, the Tanzanian delegation was inspired by the vision to plant a church for every 1,000 people in their country. Upon returning home, they agreed to work together and set a national goal of 67,500 vital churches. As they collaborate across church denominations and mission agencies, they learn from and support one another, they avoid duplication and competition, and they make a greater impact for the kingdom through increased fruitfulness.
GACX is a worldwide network of churches and mission organizations committed to accelerating global evangelization through multiplication of churches and faith communities.
Since the birth of GACX in 2011, it has grown to a membership of 90 global ministries with several national and regional expressions (like the one in East Africa). Between 2010 and 2018, through mutual collaboration and generous sharing of resources and strategies, GACX members have collectively planted more than 1.75 million churches and groups.
God is working in powerful ways all over the world, despite increasing government restrictions, persecution, and anti-Christian sentiment. Churches and organizations are working together, and believers are giving generously. Furthermore, the gospel of the kingdom is being preached, churches are rapidly being planted and technology has accelerated the way we do evangelism and send missionaries.
It’s all part of God’s plan: a former fisherman now catching men and women for Jesus, the Tanzania national plan to see a church planted in every village and neighborhood, the growing work of our church planters and the intentional collaboration of the body of Christ through GACX. Jesus’ vision of the gospel being preached in the whole world is becoming reality.
Personal Update Thank you for praying for Stefan’s mom as she recovers from her fractured pelvis. Stefan was able to find her a place in an assisted living facility and we are waiting for the paperwork to be finalized for her to move in there. Please continue to pray for her healing and for Stefan’s sister and family who is currently taking care of her.
Particpants at the Global Alliance for Chruch Multiplcation Meeting in Dallas, Texas. (Spot Stefan in the second row toward the middel)
The Power of Unity
When God created us, He said, “Let us make mankind in our image.” King Solomon concluded, “Two are better than one.” And before going to the Cross, Jesus prayed, “That all of them may be one, Father, just as you and I are one.” Unity, togetherness, and intentional collaboration are values that drive our practices in the Global Alliance for Church Multiplication (GACX). In September, 311 leaders from 156 organizations came together in Dallas, Texas for the annual GACX Forum where we could support, learn from, and partner with one another.
Since we started GACX in 2011, we have been growing in so many ways.
First, we have grown from 5 organizations to 89 that are working together to see a vital church or faith community established for every 1,000 people among every tribe, tongue, people and nation.
Second, by working together, we have helped to start about 1,75 million churches and faith communities worldwide, 35% of our global goal.
Third, our language is becoming “Let us,” instead of “Let me.”
Fourth, and more important, our most common attitude is, “How can I bless the kingdom of God?” “How can I help inspire and support others so that they could do more and better for the Lord?”
Since the GACX meeting, Stefan had the privilege to visit and work with church planters in Central and Eastern Europe as well as Barcelona. It is amazing what the Lord is doing!
Prayer Requests:
Praise the Lord for the GACX and all the churches planted through the alliance.
Praise the Lord for a new platform identified to help with internal communication among all our missionaries around the world. Pray for Marie as she leads the communication strategy for this platform.
Pray for Stefan’s Mom. Life has been rough on her and we need solutions to help her.
Pray for Kenneth and Monica to walk closely with the Lord.
Pray for our co-worker, Mike Haupt, who fell off a ladder and has several fractures.
It is a month since we returned from our furlough in South Africa, and many things have happened. Among them:
Monica started high school. She also had a good report from her orthodontist that her impacted tooth is starting to move into the right position.
Kenneth started grade eleven and already has a few swimming galas (or swim meets as it is called here) under his belt. He also began three courses at the university as part of a dual enrollment program.
Marie and the digital strategy team put plans in place for more people to hear about Jesus through digital means.
Stefan attended a global church planters meeting in Greece. Together, 275 church planters renewed their commitment to see five million churches planted.
We attended our first American baseball game.
We weathered the storm and panic brought by Hurricane Dorian.
Prayer Requests:
Praise the Lord for His protection during the passing of Hurricane Dorian.
Praise the Lord for the improvement of Monica’s impacted tooth.
Pray for stamina as we all have full programs and to hear clearly from the Lord each day.
Pray for our digital efforts to bring the gospel to bear fruit.
Pray for the church planters to experience God’s protection, passion and provision as they plant churches around the world.
Stefan and Prince (our leader from South Asia) is excited to be at the Global Church Planters Conference.
With our toes in the sand and the sound of waves crashing close by, we had a very beautiful experience on Sunday, 30 June. Stefan had the joy of marrying his younger sister, Melissa and her husband Richard, on the beach in Kosi Bay. What made this intimate family wedding so special was the fact that all Stefan’s siblings were together for the first time since December 2011.
Family reunions is just one of the many wonderful things about our visit to South Africa. Another highlight is seeing all our partners and sharing with one another what God is doing.
Speaking about what God is doing – we heard a great story from one of our church planters in India last week. It reminds us of the privilege we have to serve together for the fulfillment of the Great Commission. Rejoice with us as you read it.
“Rahina* saw a woman struggling with an incurable physical ailment touching Jesus garment and immediately getting healed. She was watching the JESUS film in her village in India. Rahina’s hope was revived!
Rahina, a mother of two boys was diagnosed with cancer of the tongue and had been under treatment for a year. During a religious festival, she was possessed by an evil spirit. As her troubles increased, her family took her to a village sorcerer with the hope of finding some relief. However, their efforts were futile.
Since the family was struggling to make ends meet, they could not afford to go for surgery as advised by her doctor. They were desperate.
At this point, Rahina’s sister in law, a Christian, asked the family to take her to a Prayer, Care, Share group (PCS group), an initiative of our church planting strategy. Sensing the pathetic situation of Rahina, Pardo* a PCS group leader, prayed for the work of the Lord in her life. After the prayer, Pardo arranged the screening of JESUS Film. That day marked the turning point in Rahina’s life! She accepted Jesus as her Lord and Saviour and began to trust Him for a miracle to happen in her life too.
After a week’s prayer, she experienced release from the bondage of the evil spirit. The PCS group continued to pray for her and they began to see her health being restored. After seeing the wonderful work of God in Rahina’s life, her husband and sons received Christ. Now her family is regularly attending the PCS group and sharing their testimony with others. As she began to learn the Word and grow in the Lord, she started a small Bible study group with 12 people.”
*Names changed for security reasons
Prayer Requests:
Pray for Rahina and her family as well as all our church planters to walk closely with the Lord.
Pray also for us to have good connections with our partners as well as potential new partners.
Another family reunion, this time with Marie’s family.
Argentina
– Marie attended a global gathering of our digital missionaries
We listened with rapped attention as
missionary after missionary shared how God is opening doors for them to reach
people for Christ using digital tools around the world, especially also in
places that we traditionally have limited mission activity due to opposition. Sammy
from Ethiopia told how their small little team led a social media campaign for
one month, inviting people to an event where they would train people how to do
evangelism. Twelve thousand people showed up!
I taught two training sessions and just
enjoyed the interactions and also the great Argentinian food and tango!
Marie and her helpers explaining the taxonomy framework we are using to tag all our content so that it can be used over all our platforms.
Albania
– Stefan joined our Eastern European church planters for planning and training
It’s been a roller coaster two weeks as I
have been connecting with our church planting leaders across Europe. We were
discussing training of churches, the challenge of a post-Christian/post-modern
society and the lingering results of communism on the church today. We
concluded that God is at work, even though it is harder here to see fruit than
in other parts of the world. We look forward to seeing how God will use our
strategies to see the harvest come in.
Stefan and Bekele Shanko (our vice-president for church planting) looking out over the city of Kruje
Adios
Florida – Goodbye Florida for the next few months
We left the hot and humid Florida for sunny
South Africa. We look forward to connecting with our family and ministry
partners over the next two months. We hope to make some stops in the Vaal
Triangle, Secunda, Cape Town, Durban and Gauteng and it would be lovely to see
as many of you as possible.
