Praise & Prayer Directory | December 2020

Dear friends,

 
 
 

Most of what we in EPC World Outreach planned to do in 2020, we didn’t. But everything God planned to do, he did.

After an initial period of postponing events and waiting for things to return to normal, we started scrapping our plans and trying things we had previously dismissed as impossible.  When Covid prevented WO workers in Asia and the Middle East from carrying out vital ministries, they rejoiced to find young Christian brothers and sisters stepping into the void and organizing themselves to deliver food and medicine. The WO candidate assessment and orientation program we were convinced could only be done face-to-face turned out to work pretty well (and in some ways even better) via Zoom. And for the first time candidates from outside the US were able to participate.

When WO trainers could not travel to a Southeast Asian country, they retooled their course to teach remotely with less lecture time and more student-driven learning and application. Within the following month, a third of the participants had already passed on what they had learned to 185 other leaders in their regions. Some of our workers feared a sharp drop-off when small group Bible studies were forced onto video platforms.  Instead, they were thrilled to find that members who had previously been timid and quiet (many of whom were brand-new Christians) seemed liberated by the new format and blossomed into very active and growing participants.

Looking back on 2020, we have so much to thank God for.  We’ve seen in many ways how his plans were better than ours.  Covid distancing forced many of us into more solitude, more quiet reflection, more listening to and enjoying our families.  It wasn’t what we were aiming for in our goals, but God aimed us there anyway, and we discovered how badly we needed it. Our thanks also go out to the financial supporters of our global workers.  Many prognosticators predicted that mission agencies’ contribution income would drop by 25% in 2020.  That was not our experience, as contributions remained steady.

Almost 30 years ago, Janet and I spent our first Christmas overseas, far from familiar surroundings and family. The OM ship, Logos, docked near the town where we were living, and invited us aboard.  There we met Akira, a Japanese Christian who told us about a young countryman of his who had come to know Christ after a childhood fever had left him totally paralyzed.  Limited to communicating by a system of blinks, he dictated poetry to his mother.  Akira paraphrased one of those poems for us, and my Christmas closing to you is his poem of praise to the One whose gifts to us are so often not what we would have chosen, but exactly what we need.

I’ve never sent a Christmas card,
   never said the Name
Of my Lord who gave up heaven
   and to a barnyard came

Yet my heart is filled with praise,
  on the Spirit’s wings it flies.
I have written, “Merry Christmas”
  on the inside of my eyes.

Written by Phil Linton, EPC WO Director

God’s Promise in to His People | November 2020

Dear friends,

 
 

Earlier this month, I received a cryptic text from our national translator, Jake, telling me he would be late for our scheduled call.  But it was only when I talked with him the following day that I discovered the grave danger he had been in. 

While he was at the local university visiting his brother, a medical student, three gunmen from a radical religious group attacked the campus and killed 22 students. Jake, his brother, and a number of other students hid in a basement room.  As a new father, Jake was acutely aware of his wife and child and their vulnerability if something happened to him. But he realized the students around him were trembling with fear and were without hope. So Jake stood up in the room and said he was going to pray for everyone’s safety (not in the usual Islamic way but extemporaneously in his own language). It was after that prayer he sent me his text.

About an hour later they were told that the area was secure.  As they left, many of the students thanked Jake for his prayer for safety. But Jake’s brother was angry at him for praying so boldly and visibly as a Christian. Jake was still shaken when he connected online with me the next day and asked for help to get out of the country. Why were we doing nothing for them except praying?!

I understood Jake’s anguish.  We do cry out to God daily asking him to give our teammates and their children a peaceful life (1 Timothy 2:2).  We pray for peace, but strangely God sometimes does not rescue his people out of dangerous places or conflict zones. Instead he sends them there! Yet He promises to always live with his people. I reminded Jake that God sent our son back into the country after he completed university in the States, and that we too have experienced the pain of losing more than twenty co-workers and friends due to the violence in this country. 

So, after some more talking and prayer online, Jake and I got back to the work at hand, which that day happened to be in Titus. A few days later the in-country team decided to meet weekly with their wives for worship, (alongside of the days the men meet for translation checking). In part they decided to follow the principle in Titus that older women should be teaching the younger women in matters of faith and practice. What a beautiful Bible application immediately in the lives of the translators! We praise God that the team is coming together even more than before in these difficult times.

Field story from two World Outreach workers on a Bible translation team. Names and locations have been changed for their safety. 

 

Community Life

Translation Project

If you would like to support the workers above in their ministry of Bible translation, we encourage you to give by clicking here. When filling out the donation form, make sure to do so indicating the Field Project Fund #296

In Search of the Source - Neil Anderson

For another look into the work of translating the Good News, read In Search of the Source: A First Encounter with God’s Word. You’ll get a glimpse into the lives of Neil and Carol Anderson as they work to translate the Word into the language of the Folopa people of Papua New Guinea.

Why Bible Translation?

Curious why translation of the Bible is so important? Watch this two-minute video by Wycliffe to understand how crucial this work is, and the urgent need for it. 

One Flock, One Shepherd | October 2020

“And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”
John 10:16

Dear friends,

Living in a country that holds one of the largest Muslim populations can be daunting, but the Great Shepherd has other sheep that are not currently of His fold.  After joining World Outreach two years ago, we moved to our city of a million people, and saw no one reaching out to the Muslim community. No Christians in our city had seen any Muslim come to Christ.  We began befriending and interacting with Muslims, while training local pastors and youth to do the same. This task can be laden with challenges, but we have seen fruit from this kingdom work and wanted to share two testimonies with you, showing the ways God has revealed himself and save our Muslim neighbors.

The King Cobra is considered one of the most poisonous snakes in the world; many in this country die every year from its bite. One night our believing friend, Nadia*, woke up to a hissing sound. She saw a cobra wrapped around the neck of her daughter, Mirai*, viciously biting. Nadia got up quickly and rebuked the snake in the name of Jesus, unraveling it with a stick until it left. After praying together, she and her family went to bed. The cobra bit Mirai six times. By any accounts, this should have killed or dangerously hurt her. But thanks to the grace of God, Mirai was spared – not even needing medical assistance. What a wonderful testimony Nadia has to Jesus’ power to save!

God is doing wonderful things in the house church we recently started.  In doing home visits with a family, we met Aanya*, their daughter.  She had been tormented by an evil spirit for months. She would see troubling things whenever she tried to sleep, and had horrible dreams. Desperate for help, Aanya’s mother and grandmother had taken her to a Muslim Imam, but that  only made her sufferings worse.

As we visited in the home and prayed for Aanya’s healing, God broke through! She is 90% better now, and continues dramatic improvement. She and her uncle put their trust in Jesus, and the other family members are very close to fully committing their lives to God!

These are just two testimonies of how God is moving in the lives of Muslims. The LORD Jesus is calling out to this other flock, through us, and they are listening to His voice.  We’ve seen this fruit in both long-term and short-term missions’ trips – in the States and abroad. Therefore, our challenge for you is to pray for Muslims every day and find a Muslim community near you to share the love of Christ with. How you can participate with God and other believers in this kingdom work to call those that are not yet part of the fold?

*names changed

 
Written by EPC WO global workers, R & S

Community Life

Support R and S

If you or your church would like to support R and S in their ministry, you can learn more and give online here. For additional information about their work, please email us!

WO Workshop

Take R and S’s challenge to heart and learn more about Muslim communities in your area and how you can share the love of Christ. Starting in November, World Outreach is offering a workshop on connecting with your Muslim neighbors. To learn more, visit us online.

And the Word Came with Power

If the stories above of of God’s providence captured your interest, we’d encourage you to read this story about a missionary working with the Balangao people as they engage in a spiritual battle. 

I Can Only Imagine: Rocky’s Story | September 2020

Dear friends,

 
 
 

This is Rocky’s story. It’s a story of joy and delight, followed by horror and sadness, and then an unfolding of the goodness of God in a way I could not have dreamed.

Imagine crowded buildings, where one can only see cracks of light through the walls and roofs above; of groups of dadhi walas (bearded ones) in long white robes and topis (skull caps), and of women clothed all in black with only their eyes showing; and other women wearing shalwar kameez (baggy pants and tunic), flashing blues, reds, pinks, and all hues as they wander down the street; of roaming goats, scooters, bikes, and carts loaded with vegetables or fruit to sell. And through it all the sounds of running children, honking horns, and echoing calls to prayer reverberating from mosque to mosque. This is where I live, and this is where I first met Rocky and his family a few years ago.

I wish you could meet Rocky, beaming smile, infectious spirit, and an absolute lover of Jesus. He became a follower of Jesus about two and a half years ago (was baptized with a bucket from our bathroom!)… and then, in the grip of mental illness, unresolved trauma triggers, and following a medication switch, committed a terrible murder and went to prison.

It is hard to put into words those dark days — trying to manage the police investigation, helping his grieving and terrified family, and somehow avoiding the journalists flooding the area. I thought his life was over — such a promising young man with his life destroyed. And the one who was murdered — the grief of a life ended too early. Rock’s older brother told his sister, the only girl of the family, to take poison, because surely the family of the victim would seek retribution. Instead, she came and lived with me and my teammates for the rest of the year.

Two weeks before this crime, Rocky sat in my living room, fearing he would hurt someone, having tried to commit suicide. We took him seriously, but with no mental hospitals accessible at that time, we didn’t know where to turn for help. Despite being in South Asia, in a mega city of thirty million, this was a village with family feuds that went back generations. All my training on strategies and church planting, of sharing my faith with others, my training in discipleship, and those seminars in spiritual warfare, none of it quite prepared me for this. Even growing up (as I had) in the Muslim world had not prepared me for this! These were dark and grim days.

But it wasn’t the end of the story. As in the gospel, the story doesn’t end with a life taken, and a life destroyed.

 

Rocky turned himself in to the police and went to prison. He took full responsibility for what he had done and said he was willing to face whatever punishment was decided, even knowing the death penalty was a possibility. About a month after going to prison, Rocky had a dream where the person he murdered appeared to him and said, “I forgive you.” In that moment he felt God’s forgiveness washing over him. He began meeting with other young men and teaching them what he had learned about Jesus. We were able to smuggle in some Bibles through a Christian NGO that visited the prisons. Eventually, my teammates were able to visit him; he would mention the scriptures every time, hungry for the Word of God. He was granted access to the music room in the prison where he was able to practice piano and guitar.

Somehow this prison, where he struggles to get enough food to eat and faces constant threats of violence, has become a better place for him than where he grew up. It has given him opportunities and a place to mature in the Lord. He continues to lead a group of young men that numbers seventy and continues to grow.

I have never met someone who devoured the Word with more hunger. Before we left the country this past winter, he smuggled a gift out of prison for all of us: a beautiful letter thanking us for our love and sending us his love, his copybook filled with handwritten scripture.

I share this story not to prescribe a way to do ministry. In fact, what strikes me again and again is the messiness of it all — all the mistakes. But, in spite of the craziness, all the sin and brokenness, I see God’s grace all over Rocky’s story. May that divine grace and glory and love continue to pour out over Rocky and the many others we all may come alongside.

In the words of Paul, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.”

 
A year ago, the prison had a huge gathering when a famous Bollywood star came to visit; the top warden asked Rocky to sing to an assembly of thousands of prisoners, the Bollywood guest, and the leaders of the prison. Rocky stood in front of them and sang, in English, one of his very favorite songs: the Christian song by MercyMe, “I Can Only Imagine,” along with some other worship songs in Urdu. How powerful it is, to know these songs were sung out to Jesus in front of thousands of prisoners.
 
Written by an EPC WO global worker
 
 

Community Life

Let the Nations Be Glad

Piper conveys a strong foundation for the need for missions in his book, Let the Nations Be Glad. This is a good read for anyone preparing for missions work or looking to see how they can bridge their work to God’s purpose. You can read an except here, or buy the book here.

Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus

Read the story of Nabeel Qureshi’s journey from Islam to Christianity, and the struggle in between, in his book Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity. 

Perspectives

Take a Perspectives class and learn about God’s mission, how the global Church has responded, and what the greatest needs in the world of evangelization are today – and how you can be a part of God’s story as he redeems people from the nations to himself.

A Birthday Prayer | August 2020

Dear friends,

 
 

As I’m writing this today, my birthday has just passed.  I was born on August 23, 1960.  I was born to a godly young couple, and from before I was born, I was in church.  My mother was singing in the church choir while she was pregnant with me.  I have been in church my entire life; I grew up surrounded by the gospel.  I went to Sunday School, sang in the youth choir, went to youth camp, recited parts in Christmas plays, and memorized John 3:16 at an early age.  I came to faith very early in my life and have been sustained and uplifted by that faith to this very day.  I’ve known the gospel my whole life.

Somewhere in the world today there is another man who just had a birthday.  This man was also born on August 23, 1960.  But unlike me, he’s lived nearly 60 years now and has never one time in his life heard the gospel.  He can’t quote John 3:16; he’s never heard it; never read it.  He’s never been to Sunday School; never attended a worship service.  He’s never had a Bible.  He’s never heard a Christian song.  He was born on the same day I was, but perhaps has never even heard the name, “Jesus.”  Whereas I have been surrounded by the gospel my whole life, he has never one time been exposed to the gospel in any form.

Oswald J. Smith is quoted as having asked, “Why should anyone hear the gospel twice until everyone has heard the gospel at least once?”

That is a convicting question for me.  I think about it often, especially when my birthday comes around and I reflect on my life.  Over the last number of years I’ve come to pray a particular prayer on my birthday.  I pray for the gospel to reach that man; the man born the same day as me, who has never heard the gospel.  I pray that in God’s sovereignty and by His grace the light of the gospel will somehow pierce the darkness in which this man lives; that he would have the good news of the gospel presented to him in a way that he could understand it, embrace it, and believe.

I don’t know if we will celebrate birthdays in heaven.  But I do wonder if one day I might meet this man in eternity and find that the gospel did reach him, and that he came to faith.  How glorious the thought of being able to celebrate with him his “new birth-day!”

When is your birthday?  Would you take a moment right now and pray for that person born the same day as you who has never heard the gospel?  Also, would you consider praying with the leaders in your church family about becoming involved in the EPC/WO Engage 2025 strategy to plant churches among Unreached Muslim People Groups?  Perhaps your church would even consider adopting an unreached people group.  For more information on unreached peoples, check out https://joshuaproject.net/.

 
Written by Wes Tuttle. Wes Tuttle leads worship and missions at River Oaks Community Church

Community Life

About Unreached People Groups

To learn more about unreached people groups, visit peoplegroups.org. Their database hosts information about more than 11,000 people groups all over the world, including the resources available to them that share the Love of Christ.

EPC WO Prayer Cards

Click here to view prayer cards for each unreached people group EPC World Outreach is connected to and sharing the Gospel with, via Engage 2025 and ITEN. If you would like these cards to share with your congregation, simply email us and we’d be happy to send some your way.

Reaching the Unreached

A third of the world will live and die without hearing about the love of Christ. Learn more about the task that still remains by watching this short video. Consider sharing it with your friends, family, and congregation too.