As you’re already aware (or have guessed), the COVID-19 emergency has significantly impacted IC’s ministry in several ways. Our office staff is working remotely, we are facing funding challenges, and we have canceled and postponed international projects and other events through June. But this crisis didn’t take God by surprise and it’s not stopping us from furthering the gospel around the globe!
My friend Michael serves as an IC International Leader in Ukraine, coordinating N2N projects throughout the year, hosting International project teams, and launching strategic prayer efforts to empower the ministry to lead thousands to Christ in his country.
The urgency to make Christ known among the nations does not stop. Thus, International Commission does not stop. The body of Christ is needed now like never before to continue to pray and give so that national believers can be enabled to “go and make disciples” in their community.
The average cost to send one American on a short-term evangelism project is $3,100. The average cost to support an entire N2N project is $2,500.
Will you please prayerfully consider investing in an N2N project? You or your church group could invest a fraction of the cost (or sponsor an entire project) to support dozens of national believers to be equipped and enabled to share the gospel, make disciples, and see national churches grow!
Ongoing N2Ns this month are in Peru, Bulgaria, Albania, and North Africa. Leaders in other places around the globe are praying, planning, and training for their future projects. Let me know if you’d like to invest in the work of these indigenous missionaries!
What’s new?
- Mexico: Our American team was not able to go to Tampico in March, but the local churches continued their project as an N2N and reported 439 professions of faith in Christ!
- Celebrations: Our Celebration dinners for this spring have been canceled, but our development team is currently working on ideas for converting some of them into super fun virtual celebration events which will enable us to invite even more people to join us. If you have some creative ideas for an online event, send them my way. If you’d like to help us host one — even better!
- Funding challenges: Across the board, all over the globe, charitable giving is down for churches and nonprofits like ours. That means that IC is currently unable to fully fund all of the projects, events, staffing, and resources we had planned for this year. But this challenge is a catalyst for exploring creative new ways to invite giving and reach new donors.
- Working from home: while the vast majority of our staff already works outside of the HQ office in TX, our administrative staff is also working remotely full-time during this quarantine. We’re focusing on storytelling, preparing for upcoming projects, developing new training resources, communication, checking in with our partners, and spending lots of time…
- Praying: Prayer is certainly not a new thing for IC; it’s the foundation of our evangelism model and everything else we do. Our staff begins each day and every meeting with a time of focused prayer. But now, we have been given extra time to pray for new givers and goers, for our international leaders, for our church partners, for new strategies, for open doors, and for all of our beloved supporters.
Please join us in dedicating intentional time for prayer. It’s the fuel that powers the harvests that we see around the world.
What’s next?
- Website Update: We’re about to debut a new giving portal that will enable donors to set up bank transfers for all types of gifts (ministry partnership included). This will add a higher level of convenience while significantly reducing the transaction fees incurred. I’ll let you know when that’s ready, and I’m happy to answer any questions you might have.
- Translations: Another silver lining to this weird time is that I can prioritize editing some of my backlog interviews. Several of those need translation, so one way you can help me this month is by finding someone who can write an English transcription from Spanish, Russian, or Ukrainian. If you know of someone who could do that, please connect us.
Family Updates
- Neighboring: Good neighboring while social distancing is tricky, but we’re spending a lot of time outside, chatting with neighbors as we see them, sharing our playset with those who feel comfortable sending kids over, checking on those around us, meeting needs as we discover them, and praying as we walk around our block.
- Quality time: In fact, we’re taking a LOT of walks and enjoying playing games together more than usual.
- Food packing: Our church is very active in presenting opportunities for members to serve those in our communities who are most affected by this crisis, and Ella has been able to go help out with a local ministry packing meals.
- Spring Activity Bags: Packing fun Easter activity kits for lower-income students from a local school was another service project from our church that we all got to do together.
- Little Free Library: The elementary school near our house has a new Little Free Library, so we decided to contribute some books during a recent walk.
As always, but especially during this hard time for our nation and world, my family is trusting the Lord for our provision through the partnership of our beloved supporters. We want to emphatically thank those of you who have stuck with us thus far, and especially if you are continuing to give sacrificially and pray daily. If you haven’t gotten a call or text from me recently, you will soon. We also know that you are facing challenges and would love to hear what your needs are so that we can meet those if possible and pray for them specifically. We are all in this together…separately from our own houses.
Blessings!
The Kryptonian 