As I look back over the past few months, I see a theme emerging: listening. My husband and I took a 40-day sabbatical to listen to God. In March, we had an organization-wide week of prayer; we again spent the week seeking God for breakthroughs and listening for His voice. We’ve also embarked on a 6-week listening tour with our local partners. Their stories remind us that, even as lockdowns have stopped us from doing all that we might have wished to as an organization, God is still at work in His Church and His world. In this semi-annual update, we want to share some of the stories, program updates, and prayer requests we’ve heard and encourage you to continue praying.
Pray for Myanmar
Please join us in praying for the Church and people of Myanmar. The military seized control of the government, placing newly elected officials under arrest, on February 1. Ever since, the military has been cracking down on demonstrators, rounding up and arresting anyone they think may oppose them, and terrorizing the people in Yangon. The violence is now spreading from the city to the rest of the country. Please pray for God to thwart the plans of evil and powerful people. Pray for protection over the Burmese believers, and especially pastors and our TCT Director and his family.
PROGRAM UPDATES
Churches Stronger
Strengthening churches with practical lessons that are easy-to-access.
We continued with the Churches Stronger program, which was launched last April to help strengthen churches during the Covid crisis. Over the past six months, we’ve delivered one lesson per week via WhatsApp and Messenger. The lessons are being shared with approximately 30,000 pastors in the Majority World. Topics covered included:
Listening to God in our decision-making,
Marriage and parenting,
Managing money,
How to celebrate Christmas when you can’t gather
- Please pray that pastors would have no trouble accessing the materials and that churches would be strengthened.
- Pray that we would have wisdom in what topics to address and in planning for the future of the program as the season of Covid hopefully begins to normalize.
The Create Commission
Working at the intersection of truth and art.
Due to a Covid-related drop in funding, we shut down our office and studio space. Amazingly, as we stepped out in faith, God provided a large, bright working area in the same building as an organization serving children with special needs. We are now paying a fraction of the going rate for rent and have the opportunity to bring art to children with disabilities from low-income families. It’s a huge blessing from God! And we finally held an in-person exhibition of art that had been created exactly a year ago in a major artist residency that ended just as lockdown set in. The result was a surprisingly good turnout given the circumstances, many meaningful conversations, and coverage by a TV station.
- Pray that God will use art to challenge people to think again about how they see cities and the poor who live among them.
- Please pray for our plans to have our own permanent space in the coming years.
Truth Centered Transformation Asia
Training churches so they can experience God’s transforming power in every area of life.
We welcomed new country-level coordinators for the Philippines and India in November 2020. New partners have received Orientation in the Philippines and Nepal, and in Bangladesh two new partners have launched the program. In India, one local partner with 650 churches graduated the program in December.
All this activity meant we relied heavily on virtual trainings, and in the past 6 months we completed 10 online trainings in Asia.
- Pray that we would be sensitive to the Holy Spirit in identifying new partners and in right timing for programs to start. Pray for new partners to launch well and to see God move in their churches.
- Please pray for churches in gospel-hostile places. Pray that God would use the TCT program to win favor with the government in areas where anti-conversion laws have passed, so that the Church is still able to reach out and grow.
Wholistic Development Center
A two-year vocational and discipleship program for young adults in Southeast Asia.
Our 2020/2021 school year went forward as usual, unaffected by Covid. Our current group of students is nearing the end of their time with us. Graduation is the second week in May! We’ve already begun to receive applications from prospective students for the fall.
- Please pray for admissions decisions, that we would be sensitive to the Holy Spirit regarding who He has chosen for the school. Pray that He would already be working in the hearts and minds—“preparing the soil”—of each of our future students.
- Pray for our graduating students to continue in a strong foundation of the Lord their last few months with us and as they go out into work and ministry.
In His Image
A center for children with autism in India.
Due to the pandemic, all schools have been closed since March 2020. The center continues to reach out and provide online services for those families who have internet access. We have also been working on renewing our permission to operate. Despite numerous hurdles, we are thankful to hear that our application is now moving through the system.
- Please pray for parents who are exhausted after a year of being home with their children. Many of our families relied on their children’s time at In His Image to get a needed break.
- We were awarded a grant about six months ago that has been held up by some new government restrictions on donations. Please pray that permission will be given for us to receive the money.
- Pray for the launch of a new program training educators in worldview topics related to disabilities.
Worldview Training Initiative
Teaching truths to counter the lies that hold nations in brokenness, India.
Over the past few years, God has expanded the scope of issues that our Ending Gendercide trainer has the opportunity to speak into—retaining a passionate message of God’s concern for vulnerable women and girls, but also bringing a biblical perspective to topics like caste, career, and shame. This year, we realized that the program had outgrown its name and really needed a new identity. After much prayer and discussion, we are excited to introduce our Worldview Training Initiative.
In the past six months we have done 18 online trainings on a variety of topics.
- Please pray for the opportunity to speak and write on issues like male-female relationships, sexuality, and political engagement. Pray that the Lord will grant wisdom in bringing God’s truth to those subjects.
- Pray for the Holy Spirit to touch the hearts and minds of those who hear our messages, and that they would be willing to change their behavior to reflect biblical values.
Truth Centered Transformation Africa
Training churches so they can experience God’s transforming power in every area of life.
Over the last six months, we have done a variety of face-to-face and online trainings with our partners, depending on conditions and restrictions each faced. For some it has meant reviewing the materials they learned in February or March last year, just before going into lockdown. In other areas we have been able to move on to the next module. In one area we ended up doing a trauma counseling program because so many of the pastors were in crisis. By February, much of Africa was returning to normal travel and group gatherings. Many of our local partners are eager to restart in-person trainings.
- Pray for pastors and churches who have struggled the most during this past year. Some have lost income and are struggling to feed their families. Some churches have shrunk as people have fallen away from the faith or are fearful to come back. Many have mental health struggles.
- Pray for the program in DR Congo, which is expanding. Pray for discernment and timing, for safety in travel to remote areas, and for every necessary resource. Pray that the churches will be strengthened to glorify God in their communities.
Despite ongoing travel restrictions, we’ve managed to keep busy the past six months. Like most everyone, we’ve had countless Zoom meetings. We’ve also done hundreds of WhatsApp calls with local partners. Here’s a snapshot of some of our other activities in Africa:
CHECKING IN ON OUR SECONDED STAFF
“Seconded” staff are team members who have been called to work in areas where RW doesn’t currently have a program. While they remain part of RW, they also have accountability and support from a second organization in the city where they’re working.
One of our team is living in Lebanon and working with Syrian refugees. She reports, “We had a leadership retreat for the house church the first weekend of January. We discussed the vision of a church-planting movement that could reach even more families in the community, and even extending back to Syria. They drew their own 6-month and 1-year vision for what the church could look like, and they talked about what responsibilities and roles they would each like to take in the church. And then a week after the retreat the government started a 24/7 curfew which shut down everything. We haven’t been able to meet since. The curfew has slowly relaxed, and I’ve been able to move around the neighborhood for the last few weeks and visit people. But we probably won’t be able to meet as a house church for several weeks.”
- Please pray for all the families affected by the explosion last August. There are still many homes and businesses in need of repair and also deep trauma among those who experienced the blast.
- Pray for an end to the economic crisis (currency has lost 90% of its value since 2019) and for some kind of government action to bring relief.
Another family is working with artists in Hungary. They shared, “None of us would have thought that 6 months after moving here we would be dealing with a worldwide pandemic. This challenge has affected how we as a family have been able to settle and connect. But there have been some wonderful opportunities despite this. Since November 2019, I have joined with a studio in Budapest established by 7 other artists. God is already working in this space. He has plans for these artists and longs for them to call him Father. I see my role as one that comes into this established space and, through the Holy Spirit, acknowledges and encourages the work that He is already doing.”
- Hungary instituted another major lockdown at the beginning of March. Covid cases are very high, and we’ve had 20,000 deaths in a country of 10 million people. Pray for health-care workers and those who are in the hospital. Pray for all of us—kids and adults, singles and families—as we navigate life under these strict restrictions.
- Pray for artists at the studio to experience the living God who is so different from what they might think of Him based on politics and past encounters with the church.
UPDATES FROM PARTNER CHURCHES
Over the last few weeks we have been meeting with each of our partners (about 50 denominations and church networks in 20+ countries) to hear and understand their experiences from the last year. For some it’s been a great year; others are struggling. Here are a few of their stories so you can join us in celebrating how God has been using the churches and pray for the many challenges they are facing.
Bangladesh
Our partner in Bangladesh raised funds so churches were able to distribute food in their communities when many people had lost their incomes due to lockdowns. The church members are Muslim-background believers, and they face a lot of hostility. The denomination leader has received numerous death threats as the Church has grown in these areas. But God used the believers’ sacrificial love to change things. People were amazed that the churches distributed food fairly to the whole community, rather than keeping it all for themselves, and many former enemies have come to Christ.
Uganda
One of our denomination partners shared about the challenge of so many pastors “vanishing.” They’ve simply disappeared and stopped answering their phones. It appears that, facing immense financial need, they either left the ministry or moved back to their home villages to live with extended family. Some have given up on God, feeling that He abandoned them in their time of need. Please be praying that God will restore their faith and provide for these leaders to return to ministry.
Kenya & Zimbabwe
Partners in both Kenya and Zimbabwe shared many stories about how God has blessed their efforts to grow gardens to support themselves and their communities during Covid. In one remarkable testimony, the garden produced 15 times as much as it had in previous years. Zimbabwe church leaders shared that this year they are expecting their biggest harvest ever!
India
A local partner in India asked for prayer for a translation of the Bible that they are doing. The language is spoken by 10 million people, yet they have no Bible in their language. There have been several attempts by different organizations, but all were abandoned. The team who have now taken on this translation have faced intense spiritual warfare, with everyone facing personal, health, or financial crises since being involved.
Kenya
Before Covid, one tiny church with eight adult members began seeking to reach out to their community. Pooling their resources, they repaired a road and showed love to a man known to be a thief by fixing his roof. They continued serving during Covid, giving food to those in need, especially the elderly. As their neighbors have experienced the love of Christ, they’ve been drawn to its Source. Today there are 49 adults attending the church.
Thank you for taking the time to read this update and for supporting the work of Reconciled World. God is sovereign and is working all things together for the good of those who love Him. We can trust His promises in every circumstance—from a coup in Myanmar to a financial crisis in Lebanon to a worldwide pandemic. Our prayer is that you will experience His faithfulness and comfort as well.
