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.
We have often spoken about the Jesus Film, the most viewed and most translated film based on the Gospel of Luke. But there is a new film available! It is a dramatization of the Gospel of John and is produced by one of our partners.
On the Jesus Film Project website and app, it is available as the full film and in 49 segments. The segments are short, anywhere from 2 to 7 minutes long.
As Easter approaches, as a family, we’ve been watching a segment each day of the “I am” series. It’s been powerful and the short questions afterwards have sparked good conversation with the children. It really brings John’s gospel to life in a new and meaningful way.
We’d like to challenge you to use this Gospel of John film series in your devotions in the days leading up to Easter. We pray that you find fresh insights into the meaning of Easter.
Click to go to the full version of the Gospel of John on the Jesus Film website.
Alternatively, you can download the Jesus Film App on your phone or tablet. Here is what the Gospel of John looks like on the Jesus Film App.
Prayer Requests: During Easter our missionaries will have many outreaches, both through face-to-face interactions and on-line efforts. Please pray that many will be drawn to Jesus through these events. Marie departs for Argentina tomorrow where she will attend a global meeting of our digital missionaries. Pray for fruitful interactions and that the Lord will accelerate our efforts to equip many to use digital tools to spread the gospel.
May you have a special Easter as we celebrate the Risen Lord! Thank you for your part in ensuring the Easter message is spread through our work.
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.
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.
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
“Not again!” came the sigh from Kenneth and Monica.
In the past 45 days, our family was involved in three car accidents. Twice we were rear-ended at red lights (blame cell phones for driver’s lack of attention).
Crutches
And on Wednesday, Stefan was involved in a crash that left his tibia bone fractured. He needed surgery and some screws to correct it and will be on crutches for the next three months.
We would appreciate your prayers for our protection and for the Lord’s provision for all the medical bills. Despite the drama, we can see the Lord’s hand over us and friends and co-workers have helped us in many practical ways.
Digital Ministry in Africa
“In my country the day is coming when it will not be safe to meet in churches for fear of attack by people from other religions. So we are preparing the believers to meet digitally instead of in churches,” said Moses, one of our missionaries from a prominent African country. He was one of 40 missionaries from 17 countries who attended a workshop I (Marie) helped lead in Nairobi, Kenya at the beginning of November.
Despite the challenges of internet connectivity in Africa, we are already seeing thousands of African visitors to our websites and social media channels. We know this growth is because of the growing number of smartphones now available. So we were training our missionaries how to use these channels for the spread of the gospel, using locally produced content. Pray for our missionaries as they implement this training.
Personally it was a big treat for me to be back in Africa – to hear the call of the “Piet-my-vrou” and to watch monkeys in our hotel garden.
Thank God for all He is doing around the world and for your part in it. I am grateful for the opportunity to help train my African brothers and sisters in the use of digital tools for ministry.
This week we received a letter from our dear friends Helmuth and Niina Garoeb from Namibia who reminded us of a wonderful experience we had twenty years ago and the subsequent fruit. Helmuth was a student involved in our ministry at the University of Durban Westville until 1997, where he studied geology.
In 1998, with Helmuth as our in-country organiser, we led a team with participants from Finland, South Africa and Swaziland for three weeks in Windhoek to launch Campus Crusade for Christ Namibia at the University of Namibia. Niina was a Finnish exchange student at the time and volunteered with us.
Looking back, we hardly knew what we were doing, however, it was a great opportunity to see God at work. Now twenty years later, Helmuth has been a part of it all from volunteer to board member to joining as missionary (13 years ago) with Niina also in the mix for most of this time.
Helmuth and Niina look back at some of the things God has done the past twenty years:
“We want to thank God for His continuous faithfulness. We do not even know all the stories of what God has done and continues to do in people’s lives but here are some things that we can praise God for:
All the main campuses in Windhoek (plus Ondangwa, Rundu and Katima Mulilo) have (had) student movements of evangelism and discipleship.
Jesus Film teams travelled all over Namibia, visiting villages and local churches. Now local pastors become Jesus Film partners to do the work in their local communities.
The Jesus Film has been recorded (lip sync) into Kwanyama, Otjiherero and Khoekhoegowab.
The “Knowing God Personally” track has been translated into Kwanyama, Afrikaans and Otjiherero.
The “Walking with Jesus” follow-up DVD-series has been recorded in Kwanyama.
We currently have six full time staff, two interns, two salaried staff and dozens of volunteers.
The national office was built with local resources and all current staff are locally hired.
We work in collaboration with several local churches and some other Christian organisations.
And the work continues… there are many who still are to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ!”
Wow! THANK YOU for partnering with us in this part of God’s work and mission in Namibia. Little could we have known that a student project in September 1998 would spark such a movement of God.
Continue to pray for Helmuth, Niina and our other missionaries working in Namibia. Also pray for the teams that have recently left to start ministries in countries we can not even mention. Pray that the fruit we have seen in Namibia will also be true for these countries!
Last month, Marie prepared a report for our board of directors who met in Korea. The President’s report was particularly exciting. It tells the story of remarkable progress in fruitfulness God had given our ministry.
We thought we would highlight a few of the statistics so you could praise the Lord with us, because He is at work around the world!
STUDENTS:
In two years, our overall ministry to students experienced a:
• 43% increase in campus presence (from 5,007 to 7,149 campuses).
• 32% increase in Multiplying Disciples.
In North Africa and the Middle East, the team saw expansion from a presence on 104 campuses to 342 campuses (240% growth). This is remarkable considering the opposition from the majority religion.
LEADERS:
In two years, our ministry to leaders or influences in major cities grew from working in 50 cities to 265 cities.
JESUS FILM:
2017 Statistics (This includes roughly 1,500 Jesus Film partners):
• People exposed to the gospel through the film – 375,000,000.
• Indicated decisions for Christ – 42,000,000.
• Churches planted – 432,000.
DIGITAL MINISTRY:
There are four million unique visitors per month on our web properties, plus another 4.1 million engaged in 100 social media channels per month. Removing overlap, that is altogether about 6 million visitors per month in 2018.
A specific example is that of Everystudent.com, one of our evangelistic websites, is now seeing 1,300 people indicate receiving Jesus Christ every day.
• Total Number of Visitors in 2017 – 23.2 million.
• Total Number of Visitors from Jan – June 2018 – 15 million.
Prayer Requests:
1. Praise the Lord with us and thank you for your part in taking the Gospel to everyone around the world!
2. Our new school year starts on Monday, 13 August. Pray for Kenneth as he starts Grade 10, and Monica Grade 8. It will be her last year in Middle school.
3. Pray for stamina, wisdom, insight and passion as we continue to utilize the many opportunities for the expansion of God’s Kingdom.
Marie (above) acted in a skit to teach digital principles. The actors were from 5 different countries and it was fun to practise the skit virtually in preparation for the conference.
Thank you so much for praying for our Global Leadership conference. All 350 global leaders arrived safely in Orlando. We had a wonderful time sharing stories of what God is doing around the world. We were also encouraged to keep spreading the gospel until every last person on earth had an opportunity to hear about Jesus.
Your prayers sustained us through a very busy ten days. Thank you!
Stefan and fellow church planters strategizing together.
Prayer Requests:
1. Praise for a successful conference for all our leaders and for God sustaining my team as we hosted it.
2. Pray for good implementation of all the plans made during the conference.
3. We are taking two theological courses during this month. Pray that we will learn a lot and grow in our love for our Lord.
4. Our Swiss ministry has been developing a ministry strategy called MyFriends. Stefan will be joining them next week as a part of an international learning community, to understand the strategy and look for other ministry applications. Pray for safe travels and good learning.
Finally, we wanted to let you know about an excellent resource called Art of Parenting that has recently been produced by our FamilyLife ministry. If you are a parent of young children or teens, or know parents who are raising families, you will definitely want to look into this and/or pass this along. Art of Parenting is a free digital experience, designed to help individual parents, stepparents or couples instill faith in their children. You’ll enjoy an in-depth library of rich and inspiring videos from all kinds of parents. These are real people sharing helpful insights from God’s Word and their purpose-filled, but not perfect, lives. The free online course can be accessed at your individual pace, or with other parents to work through the small-group series. Learn more at FamilyLife.com/Parenting.
Thank you for participating in our work through your gifts and prayers.
Dinner with the Professors in the Republic of Georgia
2011 Visit to Namibia
