Thank you so much for your prayers after our last semi-annual update. We were touched by the number of people who let us know that they were praying for us during our season of trials. It’s been a great six months, one where God taught us to pray in ways that we hadn’t before and where we managed to get a few things done. God also continued to bless us with stories from our local partners.
ANSWERED PRAYERS
The last six months have been a season for prayer. Right from the beginning of the year Anna, our Executive Director, felt that God was calling us to put aside more time to pray. We organized a few prayer retreats for different parts of our work. As we have stopped to seek God we’ve seen Him respond in remarkable ways.
Finances
By the middle of our financial year (April), we realized that for the first time we had a significant financial shortfall. Nothing like a shortage of funds to get you serious about prayer! As we tried to practice good stewardship by stopping all growth, God kept creating divine appointments on airplanes or at airports, whereby our Regional Coordinators would end up sitting next to key denomination leaders who would beg them to expand the program to their country.
And so we prayed. Hard. Despite our desire to make sensible plans, raise more funds, cut back spending, do something, we felt that instead God merely said, “Watch and pray.” And so we did… while nervously biting our fingernails. God of course was incredibly faithful. With no push from us, our local partners simply started to cover more costs. Again and again Regional Coordinators reported, “I don’t know what happened. The partner paid all the expenses.” By August, TCT expenses were down by half. In addition to our vanishing expenses, money came in, and as we finish the financial year, we have a modest surplus. We really don’t know how it happened. The best we can explain is that as we prayed, God multiplied our loaves and fishes.
Partners
Our TCT Asia Coordinator was disappointed that his area hadn’t seen the same growth as other regions. As he prayed, he felt God calling him to fast. Initially he only planned to fast for one week, but in the end he felt that God gave him the strength to fast for 40 days. During this time, he asked God to bring five new partners and that current partners who weren’t active would begin to progress. God answered his prayer mightily. Within six months, he had done five orientations and started the process of launching two new partners in Nepal, two in India, and one in Bangladesh. Leaders who had gone through orientation nearly a year ago suddenly called back, ready to get started. And a partner in Sri Lanka who had seemed weak trained 150 churches who are doing many Acts of Love on their own. We are all praising God for the growth He is bringing.
A Prayer Walk
Bududa, Uganda experienced a severe drought from November 2018 to April 2019. When the March rains failed, the situation was desperate for the rural people who depend on their crops to survive. The local TCT trainer in Bududa felt strongly convicted by the 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” He organized a 22-kilometer (13.7-mile) prayer walk around Bududa Circular Road with multiple pastors from the area. The pastors came together on April 18th to fast and pray for three days. On the third day, 300 people gathered to march around Bududa, praying. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky as they began to walk. But when they had walked a little more than five kilometers, they were hit with a downpour! They decided not to take shelter, but to continue their walk, praising God for answering their prayers and healing their thirsty land.
WHAT’S NEW
We’ve been hard at work creating resources for practitioners, sharing the TCT program with church networks in Africa, and—for the first time—making it possible for churches in the West to partner directly with TCT partners in specific countries.
The Framework for Transformation — Now Online!
As we’ve gone around telling stories of amazing things God had done in the Majority World, more and more people have asked to implement the TCT program—sometimes in contexts it was never meant for. By 2017, we were concerned that people were seeing TCT as The Answer for poverty, instead of grasping the truth:
God is powerful. God transforms.
As we prayed and pondered what to do, we felt that God was asking us to create resources to help people understand the biblical principles RW’s work is built on. Principles that can be applied to any work among vulnerable people.
It was a huge undertaking. Much bigger than we expected! But we are delighted to announce that frameworkfortransformation.org is finally complete. There, you can download all 7 booklets for FREE and find articles and summaries of each principle. We’ll be adding more content over time, as the learning never stops. We hope you’ll visit often and find truths to strengthen your own ministry.
New Partners
In 2019 we started TCT with new partners in 6 countries
- Angola
- Kenya
- Ivory Coast
- Sierra Leone
- India
- South Africa
We now are working in 26 countries. You can see a full map of the countries we work in here.
Key Funding Opportunities
We’ve been working on creating a path for churches in North America and New Zealand to support churches in a specific country to participate in wholistic discipleship. We now have a library of Country Briefings with funding opportunities ranging from $3,000 to $8,500. Check out our library of Country Briefings here.
CHURCHES THAT INSPIRE US
One of the most encouraging parts of our work is hearing back from the churches about how they are applying what they’ve learned during training and how God is using them to bless communities and bring glory to Himself. Here are a few of the great stories we’ve heard in the past few months.
Benin
In one village, there was a family who lost their four-year-old child. They were so distraught that, although their corn fields were ready for harvest, no one in the family went out to work in the field. The church saw the situation and mobilized to help. They worked together to harvest all the corn and bring it to the family’s home. They didn’t try to evangelize or invite the family to church, but only said, “We did this because we want you to know that, even though your child has died, God does love you.” On Sunday, the whole family of 12 people came to church. They said, “We are here because you came and helped us and showed us love. We want to worship the God you are worshipping. We also want to be part of God’s family.”
Sri Lanka
On Easter Sunday 2019, Islamic jihadists perpetrated a coordinated bombing of several Christian churches and hotels in Sri Lanka. Since that attack, Christians have a negative attitude toward Muslims. The relationship is broken. As we taught Module 1, the churches from the area where the bombings took place were really touched that they should show love to their Muslim neighbors. They went home from the training with their eyes open for opportunities. So, when a Muslim family’s roof was dammaged and leaking badly, the church stepped in to repair it for them. Even a small Act of Love can be powerful after such a terrible act of violence.
Uganda
Mr. Oboya is one of nearly a million refugees from South Sudan now living in Uganda. He, his wife, and two of their daughters fled the violence in their home country, and now live in a refugee resettlement area in Uganda. While all refugees face enormous hardship, Mr. Oboya and his family are especially vulnerable. He and his wife are elderly and incontinent. With no sanitation facilities nearby, the situation was serious. The neighbors began to complain of the foul smell and filthy conditions of Mr. Oboya’s little hut. The local church had been studying TCT and asking God to show them who they should show His love to. They quickly identified Mr. Oboya’s family as the neediest. They worked together to build a bath shelter next to the family’s home. Until this Act of Love, the family thought that no one in the world cared for them. Mr. Oboya said, “I thank the church leaders for helping me in my condition. We are very desperate as a family, and other neighbors look at us as a burden. Only the church doesn’t see us as a burden.”
INDIA TRAININGS
In His Image
“We held a Theology of Disability workshop for churches in our area. Afterward, 25 people from different churches asked us to train them on how to include those with disabilities in their organizations and churches. During that follow-up training, we saw people realizing how their small actions were excluding those with disabilities (which includes the elderly), and we now see those participants making changes to reflect God’s heart for all people—they are changing the way they speak about disability, doing more home visitations for those who cannot maneuver the church building, volunteering with the children at the center, and seeking more training.” – IHI Founder
Ending Gendercide
“Back in 2015, we held a two-day workshop on Ending Violence Against Women for 30 pastors and church leaders. It was the first time that the participants had been taught about the treatment of women and girls through the lense of biblical truth. In August 2019, several people from that group returned to be trained as trainers. It was such a joy to see how God has worked in their lives over the past four years. One pastor from Bihar faced a lot of ridicule after the 2015 workshop, as he began to treat his wife with love and respect. But he persevered, and now both he and his wife are well-known champions for women in their area. If there is any case of a girl or a woman being abused or in distress, this couple is called in to help.” – EG Director
Thank you for supporting the work of Reconciled World. We never cease to be honored and grateful to be allowed to play some part in God’s transforming work.
For His glory,
Anna Ho
Executive Director