Our visit to beautiful South Africa is over and we are back in Orlando. We are grateful for the Lord’s hand of protection over our trip (the many kilometers driven and especially the very turbulent flight from Johannesburg to Frankfurt) and over our home in our absence.
You can enjoy a few photo highlights from our visit here.
On our return, we heard a report from Dr. Steve Douglass (the president of Campus Crusade for Christ) and thought we would encourage you with a few of facts he mentioned:
- In the last 7 years, over 2 million churches have been planted by partnership (Global Alliance for Church Multiplication and other partners) with whom we are working.
- Of the 7,000 languages on earth, over 3,000 have enough of the Bible translated for evangelism and discipleship to occur. Over 2,200 additional languages have Bible translation projects started.
- A recent professional survey done to measure the results of the use of the JESUS film in one year, indicated that in 2015, the JESUS film was used by God to generate 186 million exposures to the gospel, 37 million indicated decisions for Christ and 370,000 groups planted.
- Last year, our campus ministries launched 1,000 new campus works around the world.
- In the digital realm, EveryStudent.com in English (one of our evangelistic websites) sees well over 40% of the people who indicate decisions for Christ go into a digital follow-up process.
He concluded with this: “God is moving today. He has given us the opportunity to be in the thick of what He is doing. But our abundant opportunities to see great fruit could wane. So it seems to be compelling to follow the exhortation of Jesus in John 9:4: Work while it is yet day.”
Thank you for your support that enables us to “work while it is yet day”.
Our new academic year started today. Please pray for:
- Kenneth (Grade 9) and Monica (Grade 7). Kenneth started high school, so we would appreciate prayers for the parents as well as they adjust to the American high school scene.
- Wisdom and stamina as we catch up on our jobs after our long absence.
- Stefan’s travels from 19-28 August to Western Europe (Zurich) and Eastern Europe (Macedonia), where he will be meeting with our church planting leaders for those areas.