Stefan and Marie Dell

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!

Crashes and Crutches – How Quickly Life Can Be Changed

Crashes

Doef!

“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.

Twenty Years Later …

2011 Visit to Namibia

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!

Starting a New School Year in August is Still Weird …

Kenneth and Monica with a mysterious friend.

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.

Skit and Strategy

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.

Snipers and Spiritual Toolkits

Snipers with night vision goggles were standing on strategic corners. An armoured vehicle was parked at the entrance. Our luggage was scanned before checking-in to the hotel. Yes, this was our welcome at the hotel. I was alarmed and wondered what it meant for our safety in this Middle Eastern country. Then we heard we were staying in the same hotel as the military delegation from many nations attending the annual Arms Show. And boy, did we see decorated soldiers! High profile people that came to select the latest weapons and equipment for their military toolkits. It was very impressive.

While the Arms Show was happening, forty of our digital missionaries met together. These missionaries all have one thing in common – they create digital content for countries where they could get into trouble for sharing the gospel. Together we learned from one another and also worked together to ensure an integrated digital experience for the users of the websites and apps managed by our missionaries.

At the end of the week, a colleagues commented “The soldiers came here to improve their military toolkits, but we came to improve our spiritual toolkits.”

Many stories were shared of what God is doing for His Kingdom through the internet – for example, in a big closed country, an evangelistic website had over 600 000 visitors per month since December. Every month, over 10 000 people clicked the “I just asked Jesus into my life” button. The site is so popular that it made the front page of a local newspaper – where the religious leaders warned people not to go to the site. Of course, that had the opposite effect!

Please pray for the safety of our missionaries in these countries. Many risk their lives every day to speak boldly of Jesus.
Pray also for the digital properties in these countries – for protection and for great fruitfulness to come from people visiting the sites.
Pray for Stefan’s visit to India the next 10 days. Pray that he will be an encouragement to our church planters there and would know how best to support them in their efforts. They will also celebrate 50 years of our ministry in India. A big milestone!

Would God Accept Me?

“Norah is from a closed country in the Arabian Gulf. With problems at home, she had a deep need for love. She found no love in the dominant religion.

After attempting suicide, Norah searched online, trying to discover who God is and if Christianity could bring her love. She found one of our evangelistic websites on Google and chatted with Miriam, one of our missionaries. Norah asked if God loved her and would accept her with all of her problems. They began to discuss Norah’s questions every day on WhatsApp. After three months, Norah made a clear profession of faith. She told Miriam, “I love Jesus so much!”

Miriam encouraged Norah to watch the JESUS film. Afterward, Norah said, “I want to read the Bible.” Miriam encouraged Norah to read the Bible on a website. A few weeks later, she wanted a Bible she could hold. Miriam told her this would be too dangerous. They put Norah’s hope for a Bible in God’s hands.

Miriam also encouraged Norah to share her faith with others. Norah talked with her brother about Jesus. After two months, he too, had accepted Christ. Soon she had told eight people about Jesus.

Norah started a discipleship group. She invited eight people and started two discipleship groups. Two of the eight new believers have started telling others about Jesus.

Recently, Norah emailed Miriam that God had answered her prayer. An unmarked box had arrived in the mail, containing Christian books and a Bible!

Norah continues to disciple others. She is now also extending her outreach further by doing graphic design for the discipleship website.”

In North Africa and the Middle East, missionaries like Miriam have trained more than 800 Arab believers to share their faith with seekers online.

On Saturday, 6 May, Marie travels to the Middle East. Her team will conduct a five-day workshop with missionaries in countries closed to the gospel. Helping them to create and distribute content for digital platforms so that users can find Jesus. Digital content, for the most part, can be freely accessed, so we have an unprecedented opportunity to spread the gospel across borders that are closed for missionaries.

Please pray for:
1. Safe travels and protection for all our missionaries traveling to our meeting.
2. Our missionaries to receive the skills, inspiration and innovation needed to make digital pathways for people to find Jesus and grow in Him.
3. Praise the Lord for Stefan’s productive meetings in Poland with European church planters.
4. Praise the Lord that Kenneth now has his learner driver permit (hence the smiling photo). Of course that also implies a prayer request for his parents as they teach him how to drive.

Relief Work in Puerto Rico

Marie’s team with some of the care packages we packed – ready to be distributed.

“Even though Hurricane Maria cost the life of my wife of 43 years, I have no regrets that we chose to stay to help our community.” These were the words of a pastor we worked with in Puerto Rico. He and his wife could have been airlifted from Puerto Rico the day before the storm hit the island. They decided to stay and be the hands and feet of Jesus in their community.

Stories like this and seeing how the church stepped into the mess to serve their communities has been my highlight of our visit. We worked in conjunction with GAiN (Campus Crusade’s humanitarian arm). This was GAiN’s first trip of five humanitarian groups being sent to Puerto Rico. We partnered with Campus Crusade Puerto Rico and churches to come alongside schools and individuals who need help to recover from the devastating Hurricane Maria that hit in late September 2017.

The impact of the hurricane was everywhere, but what was most striking was the people’s resilience. Despite the hardship, people are not defeated. Especially Christians are making a huge impact by their service and help to their communities. One of the churches is a hub for receiving donated food and supplies, and we sorted through the mountains of tinned food and toiletries to create care packages for families. I became an expert in checking expiry dates on the tins!

Packing care packages.

My team’s principle work was at a school of 235 students that lost use of three classrooms due to the metal roof being blown off. We worked for two days to put tarps on the remaining plywood roof and drying out the classrooms and, of course, building rapport with students and staff.

Getting ready to tarp the school roof.

Thank you for your prayers for our safety and for us to make a difference. We were thrilled to receive a compliment from one of the hurricane relief coordinators. He told us that at times when they receive volunteer groups it is like herding cats, but our team was like having pit bulls – they couldn’t keep up with our hard work.

Prayer requests:

Praise the Lord for the work the church is doing in Puerto Rico and pray that they will not grow weary as the relief phase now moves into the re-building phase.
We met many people who experienced major trauma during the hurricane. Pray for continued healing and comfort.
Praise the Lord for the successful meeting held for our Global Church Movement leaders in Manila. There were 229 leaders from 89 countries. Stefan had a wonderful time connecting with the church planters from all around the world.
Kenneth and Monica will start their end of the year exams soon. Pray for diligent preparations.

To Puerto Rico and the Philippines

Stefan had a wonderful visit with our Eastern European staff members last month. He loved hearing stories of what God is doing and how churches are planted in places like Moldova and Georgia. He was thrilled to pray, plan and partner with them to trust God for even greater multiplication and church growth.

Philippines:

Stefan’s team travels to Manila on Wednesday (21 February) for a meeting with church planting missionaries from all around the world. This meeting serves as a time of training, refocusing strategy, sharing best practices and encouragement. Your prayers for safety, unity and great learning would be appreciated.

Puerto Rico:

Marie’s team travels to Puerto Rico on 20 February to assist with Hurricane Maria relief efforts, coordinated by GAiN (the humanitarian arm of our ministry). It is five months since the hurricane hit that country, but a lot of work remain. Pray that their service will be an encouragement to the churches they partner with and that it will open doors for the church to minister to the lost in their community.