Dave and Mindy, after eight fruitful years of serving as World Outreach mobilizers, recruiting and coaching more than 20 people for the mission field, will transition into retirement and continue serving with World Outreach as Mission Assistants (volunteers). Their time with World Outreach has been their greatest ministry venture. Although Dave was an EPC local church pastor for more than 25 years, this was the first time that they were true equals in ministry. They have learned to appreciate each other’s strengths and compensate for each other’s weaknesses.

Here is one story of God’s faithfulness in their ministry.

Though we have been reaching out to refugees and immigrants for many years, two years ago we felt a new sense of call when we realized just how many Afghans had been brought to San Diego County. People from a region in Afghanistan which never had missionaries come to them were now housed in Hotel Circle in San Diego, just four miles from our home.

Dave recalls a day last December when he was given the address of an Afghan family that had just arrived in the U.S. “All I had was an address and a $25 gift card. I had never met this family. They had no idea I was coming. But I knocked on the door, and it opened! In typical hospitable Afghan form, they invited me into their small apartment, sat me down on a chair, and offered tea. To my pleasant surprise, they spoke fluent English and we were able to have a conversation. I had no idea at the time where this new friendship would go.”

The next day we contacted the San Diego EPC church and found out that they already had a team in place to minister to this family. We quickly agreed to be part of that team. As time went on, we and other team members made it a point to visit them often, and it was always a joy. They have three young children, including two girls who love books. And Mindy loves to read books to children!

One afternoon in March, a group of kind-hearted souls were visiting from the EPC church in Orange, California. We took them on a home visit to meet this fun, young family. It had been raining that week, and during the conversation it came out that this family had no car, which is common. “How do the girls get to school?” one of our friends asked. They walked. “In the rain?” The silence answered the question.

After tea, we left a gift of sweets for the family, prayed, and went on our way. As we drove away, a man from the church in Orange blurted out, “They need a car. Those girls shouldn’t have to walk to school in the rain.” But cars are expensive. And with the cost of new cars skyrocketing, even used cars are out of reach for refugees. “I know somebody who will donate a car to this family,” he said. And he took it on as his personal mission to make sure that this family had a car.

Sure enough, they got a car. When the rains begin again in Southern California, the girls will not have to walk to school in the rain. What’s more, this car has become a source of livelihood for this family. The father works all night, driving for Uber. The girls come to a tutoring program that we are a part of. We are now truly friends with this Afghan family. They will be visiting us this December to see how we celebrate Christmas.

We should ask, where is Jesus in all of this? Isn’t he right in the middle of it? The time will surely come when they ask their new American friends for a reason for the hope within them. In the meantime, we are living the gospel in front of them.

The call to be a global worker is a beautiful call, but the call to be a missionary among those in our own country is also beautiful. The nations are coming to us. God is bringing them. Look around, who are they in your community? Are you ready to meet them?

“We love because he first loved us” (I John 4:19).

Our time as formal World Outreach workers is coming to a close, but this is not a goodbye. We are excited to see what the Lord has next for us.

Dave and Mindy Fenska

“Now that I know God, He makes me feel brave enough to share the gospel with my Muslim family members. I know now that I don’t have to worry about what other people think of me because I only care what God thinks of me.”
– Saimeera*

I first met Saimeera in June of 2020 when she was looking for someone to help her read the Bible. The only believer in her family, she was brand new to the faith and had never had any Christian friends or been to church before. During our first meeting, she asked me to teach her how to pray. As I talked her through what God teaches us about prayer, her eyes widened. “You mean we can just say anything that is in our heart to God and He will listen to us?” she said in amazement. In nearly every one of our meetings, she was so overwhelmed by the good news that she started to cry.
 
Saimeera takes the Word of God very seriously. Every time we met, she brought a list of questions that had come up during her reading the previous week. She reads the Bible every single day because she wants to know and understand all of God’s Word. Her questions revealed a sincere heart: she was doing everything she could to digest and comprehend everything she was reading. “Why was Jesus called the Son of Man if he wasn’t actually Joseph’s son?” she asked one week. “Are the people who rejected Jesus just like me before I understood the gospel?” she asked another week.
 
Often, new believers can gravitate toward one particular mentor and only feel comfortable learning and sharing with them. While this is completely normal for the beginning of someone’s faith journey, it is essential for newer believers to eventually gain confidence in talking to and sharing with a wider variety of people. In October of 2020, Saimeera was brave enough to start attending an online women’s Bible study. “If I have anything I want to say, I’ll send you a private message,” she told me. By February of 2021, not only was she regularly attending the Bible studies, she chose to share an insight with the group every single week. Just recently, I witnessed her encourage another girl from a similar religious background who is experiencing persecution from her family.
 
Saimeera’s faith journey has been a huge encouragement to me over the past year. From her careful attention to the details of the Bible to her incredulous wonderment at the fact that God would care to draw near to her, her life provides a sweet reminder for all of us who have perhaps grown numb to the good news of the gospel over time. As we rejoice to see how God is at work in the life of one woman in Indonesia, let us also rejoice that the same God is at work in our lives and in our communities every day!
 
*Name changed for security purposes

Written by WO Worker, JB, serving in Southeast Asia

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.