The first lesson for 20 pastors on discipleship and counseling took place on December 15, 2020, in the city of Blantyre. They all serve diligently in Malawi and Mozambique. Eleven churches were founded in Mozambique and nine churches in Malawi. For more than two months young pastors learned to help new believers to grow in faith. Without their wives and children, they went to villages and towns to plant churches. Many of them live in poverty and only have enough for the essentials.
Since we could not meet them in person we did all the lessons online. This was our first experience with distance learning and we grateful to God that despite all the chaos in the world, the Word of God keeps spreading, people come to faith and churches are growing.
For the second year we work with them, thank you for your support. Support for one pastor and his family to us costs $100 per month. We believe that God blessed the preaching of the Gospels so that 20 churches could be planted within one year in Mozambique and Malawi.
Typhoons, floods, and landslides are natural disasters in Vietnam that happen yearly. But last year was worse. More than 250 people died. People lost livestock, crops, houses. Forecasters said that the typhoon will damage all areas, but one area has suffered more than other areas. We prayed constantly about it and had the great desire to be there to help people in their trouble, but we could not get there since it is 560 miles from us. During our bible study, God prompted me to mention this need again and on Sunday after the meeting, our brother Vietnamese (Seann) called and said, “I’m here, at the disaster area.”
So we flew there the next day and rented a bus, bought 220 grocery sets and clothes went on a 6h trip. When we arrived at a place that provided for the distribution of essential items we saw that there were more than 500 people. We met people who walked for 9 hours to get some food from there. Many volunteers have been called here to help. We added the Word of God to our gifts. We shared food and by faith with joy. In all three communities that we visited, we shared the word of consolation, sang hymns, and prayed. Here we clearly felt what it means to be more blessed when giving rather than receiving. “
Inspired, we return home. Dear friends, we are grateful for
your prayers, for your support, for your hearts, and that we can spread the
gospel of God’s grace through a work of mercy and a labor of love. Yes, the
Lord will reward you!
The Baptist Association of the Omugo refugee Camp in the Arua area on the west of the Nile, Uganda, organized a three-day conference. Many people gathered despite the Covid-19 Lockdown. Among those who came, there was also a Satanist. His name is Loki (name changed) and he was sent on a mission to kill pastors who came to the conference. But the prayers of believers did not give him rest.
Loki himself belonged to a secret society called “Eliminators”. This society has its own base. Their agents sent to disrupt functions in churches, to scare and kill believers. Their community includes both men and women. If somebody joins them, the first thing they do is ask the new Satanist to name them a family member and this beloved person in the family should be sacrificed. Many people have been killed in a similar manner in the camps in the north of Uganda. We thank God for the fact that Loki was freed from demonic addiction. He was well-armed, but repenting handed over his weapons to the church leaders. All items of worship and amulets were burned as the first apostolic church did.
We pray that Loki will be faithful and steadfast in the
Lord. Please pray for his growth in the Word of God and knowing His way!
We learned about the “Open heart Ministry” when we were visiting Kansas City in 2016. And in 2019 we opened our own counseling center. This is God’s way of healing tormented hearts.
Here is a brief testimony from an employee of the Children’s
Ark – Maria Unrau:
“25 years of experience with children orphans helped me understand the depth of pain children experience through betrayal, rejection, and violence. The “Open Heart Ministry” is exactly what we lacked in the upbringing of the children. While I have little experience in counseling, but everything I apply gives positive results. During one of the sessions, the student opened up about all the resentment and pain in relation to her mother who abandoned her she was 10 years old. Being back at the shelter she missed her mother, who was waiting for her and tried to call. Years passed, and she still prayed and believed that her mom would come for her. And then a miracle happened – her mother answered the phone.
The girl heard a familiar voice, which was irritable and rude. Her mother began to scream at the child: “Why are you calling? I’m visiting and I can’t talk to you.” And hung up the phone. The girl burst into tears. After ten years her mother picked up the phone for the first time but they didn’t have a conversation. The pain of rejection tortured a grown-up girl. Healing came during prayer when she forgave her mother. God consoled and healed her wounded heart! This is just the beginning. We still have work in from of us for the rest of her life.
I am grateful to Christ that He called me to be His tool for
His kingdom.
Dear Church, thank you very much for your
participation by prayer and financially. By God’s grace, we had an opportunity
to make a youth camp with a mission in the South of Thailand. It was a blessing
for our youth, from two of our “Avoda” projects, to have a fellowship and serve
together through children camp and mercy ministry, helping local people in the
South. The church where we had our camp, doesn’t have children ministry
because there is no one who can lead it. We expected not a big number of
children to come, especially because it’s a Muslim area. The first day was
beyond our expectations because God brought more than 50 children and young
people, some came with their Muslim parents, two of them continued to come for the
next few days. Children were happy to participate in all the camp activities
and learn together how we can see God through creation, listen to Him, and talk
to Him. When we asked at the end who has ever been in a camp like this, and who
has ever heard about God and Jesus before, guess how many hands were up? Only
one. One boy, out of 56 children and teens said that he heard about God before.
What about the other 55 children, what about their families?
We realized, that God brought us to the right place, these
people need Jesus! Now we have a burden to pray for God to send the right
people to serve there and might be for us to visit that place more often.
Besides kids camp, we had an opportunity to serve the elderly in this church.
Most of them came to Christ after the tsunami that happened here many years
ago, some don’t have any family members who would take care of them. Thank God,
we could give some food packages to families, share about God’s love and help
some in repairing some houses. Some of our youth members also come from needy
families, but it was so nice to see them giving caring for others. When we were
leaving, we didn’t promise, but we said we hope to come again at least next
year. They are waiting. Please pray for us to do this and also for the faithful
people to come and serve there.
Davy Yohane was born on August 30th, 1968 in the province of Tete County Tsangano in Mozambique. He is married to Selina and they have seven children. Davy had a heart problem, and in 2013, his health deteriorated. Davi asked a Christian to pray for him and the Christian Community prayed for him for almost a year. Then Davy testified: “I started to feel better and my health improved. Finally, in the 2014 year, I recovered completely.” After the healing Davy turned to Jesus and accepted Him as his Lord and Savior. He realized that God was the One who healed him! Davy was a nominal Christian who was just attending church. He was still fighting with drunkenness and dishonesty.
Davy heard God’s call in 2020, and in January was enrolled in a church planting school. After three months of intense training, he was sent to plant a church in Mphulu in the Tsangano area, not far from his home. Together with his wife, they did great work: 58 people repented. Davy is grateful that the Lord taught him to be helpful and used him in communicating with people in his own country. He led five men and women to faith, which belonged to the sect “Gule Vankulu”. Pray for his family. They live in a very poor village and survive by growing corn, potatoes, beans, and vegetables. Pray for a timely rain so that they get a good harvest.
Thank you so much for the support of our evangelists, for prayers, financial assistance, and the training through Zoom. We are glad for the opportunity to work with you!
