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!