Stefan and Marie Dell

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? 

Like so many around the world, we have been house-bound since the middle of March. Two things have kept us very busy:

1. 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. 
2. 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.

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:

• How do we reach people online?
• How do we disciple people online?
• How do we do church online?

Feel free to sign-up and spread the word.

How can we pray for you?

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.

We are grateful for your prayers and support.

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:

1. Praise the Lord for His protection during the passing of Hurricane Dorian. 
2. Praise the Lord for the improvement of Monica’s impacted tooth.
3. Pray for stamina as we all have full programs and to hear clearly from the Lord each day.
4. Pray for our digital efforts to bring the gospel to bear fruit.
5. Pray for the church planters to experience God’s protection, passion and provision as they plant churches around the world.

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!

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.

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.