Stefan and Marie Dell

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.

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.

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:

1. The safe arrival of all our leaders.
2. The Lord’s guidance and wisdom as we discuss the shifts needed.
3. 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:

1. Safe travels for Marie (she has an interesting itinerary because we used airline miles)
2. Stefan and the children as they fend for themselves.
3. 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

 

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

Stefan’s News:

Meeting our global ministry leaders and missionaries always encourages me. I then hear first hand how the tools/platforms we develop and work on, help them to reach people for Jesus.The past month I had the joy of attending our global church planters conference, our global technology leaders meeting and connecting with missionaries that work in some countries that are very closed to the the gospel. I thank God for your partnership with me that enables me to serve them.

Global Technology Leaders

Please pray for my Mom who is in hospital with a pulmonary embolism.

Marie’s News:

Many Christians pray that the Lord would help them to make their lives count for Him. Dr. Steve Douglass, the president of Campus Crusade for Christ, for many years have motivated believers to make their lives count by walking closely with the Lord, praying for God’s supernatural help, caring for others and sharing what God has shown you.

For the last year our team worked closely with him to make these principles available to an audience that would not necessarily hear it from him or any of our missionaries. On March 1st, we launched www.makingyourlifecount.org in conjunction with his daily radio program that has a listener audience of over 5 million listeners.

This has been an exciting but daunting task. Please pray with us that thousands of believers will be encouraged to become multiplying disciples in their communities. Please visit the site to see how God can use our partnership to encourage believers – maybe you will also learn something new.

This young man turned 13 on January 6th.

At the start of 2016, it is good to look back at what God is doing. He is stirring people to seek Him out, and then speaking to their hearts in life-changing ways. The numbers below show the big picture of His work through one of our evangelistic websites, EveryStudent.com.

                      VISITS                     DECISIONS FOR CHRIST

2015              22,302,684               333,910

2014              18,901,179               251,269

2013              11,012,987               169,178

2012              5,060,560                76,359

One young woman’s story gives a glimpse behind these numbers.  People find EveryStudent.com in various ways–someone’s recommendation, an article or video on Twitter or Facebook, etc.  Rachel was among the majority, who find EveryStudent.com through their own Google search.

She wrote, “I struggled with loneliness, anxiety, and moodiness. I finally got to a point of wanting out of the negativity. I dove into Buddhism/Zen, meditation, crystal/energy healing, and finally, Chakra healing.

“I knew God existed; I think I was just purposely denying Him. Replacing the name of God with “universe” felt so much easier. The last straw was when I paid nearly $200 for an online Chakra healing program that PROMISED happiness forever. I was desperate.

“I was alone in my room, putting all my hope into this program, and about to watch a live introductory seminar. In my heart I heard, ‘You don’t need this; turn it off.’ And I did.

“I got to your website with a question I typed into Google. Once I found it, I was stuck on it. You write in such a friendly, approachable, and comprehensible way. Finally I could understand who Jesus is.

“I felt so invited by Him through your site to be in a relationship with Him. I prayed a prayer of salvation on my knees in my room after reading one of your articles and have been changing ever since. I am so thankful for getting to know Jesus and for the way I am changing and growing. I am loving my journey.”

When we hear stories like Rachel’s, we not only give praise to the Lord for His grace, but we also thank Him for your partnership with us, enabling us to serve Him.

We would appreciate your prayers for Stefan as he travels to the Middle East today to attend a conference for our staff members that work in countries that are closed to the gospel. Pray that he would be able to encourage them, especially the technology leaders.

Your Missionaries

 

Today Americans commemorate Thanksgiving, a celebration that dates back to the Pilgrims in 1621 as they thanked God for the harvest. In 1777, Congress proclaimed the fourth Thursday of November a National Day of Thanksgiving.

Despite any circumstance, we all have so much to give thanks for, so let us be people of gratitude.

For example, last week we participated in a “Thanksgiving Feast” outreach for interns at Disney World. The interns come from all over the world. Nearly 200 young people attended, and after two powerful salvation testimonies, a gospel presentation was made. Several of the interns indicated an interest in spiritual matters. Marie is doing follow-up with a girl from Uganda and a Zulu girl from Port Shepstone.

Two days later, Marie spoke to 40 students at Monica’s school about film translations, using the JESUS film as an example. She was able to hand out “JESUS for Children” DVD’s to all the children. Because you can’t speak about religion in public schools, she was very careful, then amazed, when the two teachers asked her to also show a short film used to start spiritual conversations. Here are 2 links to examples:  Jesus Film Media and Global Short Films

Please pray that the students and their families will watch the DVD’s.

As we eat our turkey, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie this afternoon with co-workers – be sure that your name will be on our list of people we are grateful for!