Ministry Update – Rivers and Refugees

Elche, Spain: 
God did CRAZY miraculous things through a team of ordinary people who answered the call to go work with churches in Spain to share Jesus with people in their communities. This International Commission project has been postponed twice because of lockdowns, but the local Christians have had all that extra time to pray for people that are close to them but far from God and to plant seeds of the gospel. We simply got to be a part of an incredible harvest and the beginnings of a revival all throughout Western Europe. Here are some highlights.

• The church that my friend Alaina and I partnered with, Casa de Padre, runs a shelter for homeless men, and that was our base of operations for the week. We got to spend time with the men every evening; building relationships, sharing stories and testimonies, praying, discipling, eating, and dancing. I’m pretty sure that’s Jesus’ M.O.
• A man named Angel was the leader of the Hell’s Angels in the area 3 years ago, but has been radically saved by Jesus Christ and now directs that shelter.
• Most of our home visits were with refugees from Central America. Being in a new place and trying to scrape by without any official status or established support system, many of them were searching for hope and seeking God.  
• The local churches organized a very high-energy, celebratory closing rally at the ampitheater in the main city park. My favorite part was when church leaders baptized 35 new believers in a kiddie pool up on the stage while the band led a vibrant time of worship. There were no less than 4 volunteers with mops trying to keep the stage dry. I loved it.
• Team members from Texas, Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Spain shared the gospel with 1,269 people face-to-face and witnessed 77 rededications and 282 salvations!

Check out this miracle story from our Spain team

Listen, y’all: the Christian life you read about in Acts is still a thing and you can experience it…if you’re obeying the Great Commission. If you’re missing out, let’s talk.

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Del Rio, Texas and Acuña, Mexico 
Three years ago, I went to the border town of Del Rio, Texas with a team from my home church (Rockpointe) to learn about the migrant crisis and to partner with river missionaries Shon and Janeene Young to serve Border Patrol agents and the asylum seekers they release. That ministry partnership has continued and expanded, and this June I had the opportunity to go back with another team. This time, in addition to serving at the Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition, we worked with Iglesia Bautista Estrella de Belén across the river in Acuña, Mexico to host a tech camp and VBS. Here are some highlights.

• The VVBHC is privately run by a coalition of local churches and helps legally-released asylum seekers arrange travel to other cities after welcoming them, giving them an orientation, praying for them, and providing basic needs as necessary. Members from our team got to volunteer there in various roles each morning.
• I got to pray with migrant families as they had a snack and waited to complete their arrangements. Most of them have very traumatic and tragic stories which are hard to hear, but it was a blessing to offer an open ear and a shoulder to cry on.  
• We stayed at a mission house owned by “Granny B”, who has been hosting mission teams for over 20 years. She has an amazing testimony and lots of wisdom and encouragement to share.
• For three evenings, we helped to run a VBS and tech camp at Iglesia Bautista Estrella de Belén for parents and kids in their community. The science, technology, and creative activities we provided in partnership with Tekton Missions were unique opportunities and thusly a huge draw. Half of the attendees were not members of the church and many have stuck around.  All 107 participants heard the gospel, and at least 4 parents accepted Christ!
• One afternoon, we visited another mission center planted by Estrella de Belén in the town of Noblasi to participate in a kids’ Bible study and to help families carry food packages back to their homes. Many welcomed us in a short visit and prayer.

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Amman, Jordan
A team of 11 Americans worked with international IC staff members and local believers to serve refugees (notice a theme?) and share Jesus in their homes. I expected hard spiritual soil and resistance to the gospel, but I found surprising hospitality and openness. I also heard a lot of incredible testimonies and miracle stories from persecuted Muslim-background believers.

• Marka Church, who was sort of the hub of the project, makes home visits every day year-round to welcome and serve refugees from war-torn parts of the Middle East. They run a private school and workshops for sewing, soapmaking, woodworking, and mosaics to give refugees opportunities for education and skilled work.
• On our first night, we had a huge crazy feast at Marka Church where we ate and mingled with refugee families from the community whom the church invited. Some had Christian backgrounds, some Muslim backgrounds, some non-religious, but all had fled war or persecution and were not church members. Interpreters from the church and Google Translate came in handy.
• Our group had the unique privilege of visiting a bedouin family with 16 kids in their tent on the Syrian border. We shared stories, had tea, learned about their history and lifestyle, talked about Jesus, played frisbee, got a tour of their home, and heard some incredible singing.
• In the past several years, I’ve heard and read a lot of stories about Jesus approaching Muslims through miracles, dreams, and visions. But I heard so many of those first-hand on this trip that I can tell you it happens all the time.
• We shared the good news with 368 people during home visits and saw 39 of those saved! 

I also made a new friend from Iraq named Aqeel who was born dead and came back to life, was conditioned as a child to become a terrorist, survived a suicide bombing, met Jesus in dreams, was jailed and beaten when he spoke against Islam but was miraculously set free, and finally came to Jordan and met a pastor who told him more about Jesus and led him to faith. When he found out my brother fought in Fallujah as a Marine, he asked to video chat with him. During that call, they talked about things only people who experienced that war can understand, shared their testimonies of faith, and made peace with each other as former enemies. He taught me a lot about Arab culture and encouraged me to be bold about proclaiming the divinity, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus to Muslims.

In case you were wondering: yes, we DID get to go to Petra and some of us went to the Jordan River to see where Jesus was baptized!

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Thanks for praising the Lord with us for all of these lives saved and seeds sown, and thanks for keeping up with my ministry and for continuing to support me in prayer and giving.

If you’re up for joining me on one of these missions adventures, let’s talk!

If you would like to begin or increase financial partnership with my ministry, please let me know. 

Please do continue praying for my family as we grieve the loss of my mom in August.

May God bless you!

Ministry Update: Going and Growing

International Commission Staff Retreat 2022

What’s New?

• 20+ Trips: International Commission is going full steam again this year, sending teams around the world on 19 International and 3 North American projects! Our Idaho and Panama teams this year reported 1,729 salvations last month, and we have two teams headed out this week to Cameroon and Albania. Pray for Gloria, a long-time friend and faithful ministry partner, who is part of that Cameroon crew!
• Growing IC AV Club: I’m very excited to report that my media team is growing at IC!
  • My coworker Brooke has moved into our Development department to focus on content curation and creation for social media, blogs, email, etc.! She’ll also continue spearheading evangelism training for our participants and developing new resources for churches and individuals.
  • Samantha is a brand-new staff member who is also joining our Development department to coordinate our marketing strategy and help us reach more of the people we want to mobilize. Pray for Samantha as she raises support and gets started.
  •  Zoie is a new office volunteer who is helping us with video production and digital archiving. IC’s 50th anniversary is coming up next year, and Zoie is digitizing and cataloging LOTS of videotapes, photos, and documents from the mission field dating back to the 1970s.
• Growing engagement: With more team members and more collaboration, we have been able to strengthen our social media content workflow and strategy in the past few months, resulting in a 2000% jump in our reach and 200% increase in engagement. Please pray with us that this growth will continue and will help us form new and meaningful relationships with people who are passionate about missions and mobilizing others!
• Staff Retreat: A contingent of our multi-national staff got together this month for a week of worshiping, praying, playing, bonding, growing, reconciling, celebrating, mourning, resting, eating, creating, and encouraging.
• Biazi Family: We were especially happy to have the whole Biazi family with us at the retreat and the office for a few weeks. Pastor Marcio leads a church in Rio Preto, Brazil and serves as our National Coordinator there. His wife (Margarete) and daughters (Rafaela and Vitoria) are all involved in IC projects and have incredible testimonies and talents. Rafaela has been a part of my media team for a few years, too, and it was extra fun to work with her in person again. We love them a lot and my family was blessed to take them to the Dallas Zoo one weekend.

About Ukraine
If you’ve been supporting my ministry for a while, you know that I really love Ukraine and have many friends there; both nationals and ex-pats who are involved in churches and seminaries across the country. I want to express my gratitude to those of you who have asked how you can pray and help over the past couple of months. From the beginning of this invasion (which is in fact an escalation of the occupation that has been going on for 8 years) until now, every Ukrainian pastor that I know — and the others connected to IC in Ukraine, Poland, Russia, Moldova, and Romania — have stepped up to lead their churches in caring for their communities. The Baptist churches and seminaries across Ukraine are especially well-organized and connected, and they have done an incredible job with communications and logistics to move people and resources where they need to go. As God would have it, since the very first day, IC has been able to send support to our partners there as they respond. Some of those funds were already allocated for N2N projects that were planned in Ukraine and now have been (obviously) modified and expedited; some were donated specifically for this purpose by American partners who wanted to help (including some of you — thank you!). 

In one particular case, “Pastor Z” (whom I met when I worked in the Sumy Oblast in 2019) began moving refugees out of and resources into that region on his own dime. After he raised some support through personal messages to other believers, he was able to bring two tractor-trailers full of supplies from central Ukraine to a certain town but saw long lines of people who still didn’t get food and clothing. Pastor Z and other friends in the network got the word out and more funds poured in from Christians inside and outside Ukraine. He was able to order more trucks and purchase two buses to help refugees escape dangerous areas. Pastor Z also organized a special evangelistic outreach for Easter and is now trying to extract civilians from Mariupol. Let me know if you’d like to help with that financially. My main point of contact for this response has been my friend Luba, a national who I have worked with twice during IC projects. Please pray for Luba; right now, she is in Poland serving refugees who have crossed the border.

It is a high privilege to be so intricately involved with these believers, both as an organization (IC) and as an individual, but it has also been an immense burden to hear from my friends there every day as atrocities and desperation continue to escalate. In our day and age, we see news and images of the destruction of war all the time from all over the world. But it hits home when those are places you have been to and have your own photos of; places that are home to your personal friends. Please pray with me that God will preserve life, put an end to the violence, and restore peace and freedom to Ukraine. Please pray with me that friends who have left their lives behind can return and rebuild. Please pray with me that God will stop Putin; whether by taking him out or changing his heart.

IC’s leaders and partners in Ukraine, Poland, and Romania minister to the practical and spiritual needs of Ukrainian refugees.

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What’s Next?

• North Carolina: In May, our Development team will spend a few days in Winston-Salem to host another Celebration Dinner. 
• iCelebration: We’re currently in production for a special online “iCelebration” on May 26th! Since we only do these Celebration Dinners in a few locations each year and not everyone can come,  we want to bring the experience to you right where you are! Stay tuned for more details, but go ahead and register now! it’s free.
• Staff stories: During the retreat, we filmed some testimonies from staff members sharing how they have seen Jesus change lives from darkness to light. Keep an eye on our Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube as those stories debut in the near future.
• Spain: I’ll be headed with a mission team to Spain in June! The churches there have been praying for lost friends for three years as this project has been postponed twice, so we expect to see a great harvest.

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At the Dallas Zoo with Brazilian coworkers

Family Updates

• Classes and creativity: Evie, Maisy, and Mia continue to enjoy dance and tumbling classes at Illuminate (the art studio at a church near our house) and Evie has started attending a horse club every month with a friend from church (I get to accompany her and hang out with the horses, which I’m really enjoying). Ella has landed the lead role in an original production at Illuminate and we’re super proud! Levi makes up games all day.
• Getaway: We got to take a quick getaway to attend a homeschool convention and stay at an Airbnb. It was fun and much-needed. 
• Outreach: We all attended a Holi festival celebration at a city park to get messy and have gospel conversations with Hindu neighbors in March (a great evangelism opportunity if you have a South Asian population in your area). The older two and I participated in a workday for our city to install a new playground at a park near our house. We’re excited to see our town growing and improving, and we like to get to be a part of it.
• Murphy hits hard: In the past year, we have replaced our AC system, water heater, garbage disposal, dishwasher (twice), refrigerator, van, and an entire bathroom. God has graciously allowed us to afford it (savings, stimulus checks, and tax credits have come in handy), and we’re not going to let it steal our joy or keep us from living on mission, but would you please pray that stuff stops breaking?
• Mom’s health: I’m not going to detail it all here, but please pray for my mom’s health. She has been in the hospital for months and needs to get well enough to get a kidney transplant.

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If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading the whole newsletter and for lifting all these things in prayer. My family highly values you and your support, and those things have been especially important in this season of life. Together, we’re charging forward on mission into a world that is quite obviously falling apart and we’re taking the hope and light of Jesus into dark places to see them transform. Let’s keep going and growing!

Ministry Update: Show Me

Tanner looked happy to see us when we knocked on his door. His eyes lit up when we introduced ourselves and why we were there. Shantel asked if he has a relationship with Jesus and he replied, “a little.” He hasn’t been to church since the one he attended as a child was destroyed by a tornado but wants to reconnect with God. I asked if we could share a story, and he stepped onto the porch and paid rapt attention to the Evangecube as Shantel shared the gospel. He said he wants to pray for salvation but doesn’t know how. Shantel told him more of her own story about how God has forgiven and restored her, then led him through some questions in the testimony guide — and he was ready! He asked me to guide him in a prayer to confess his belief in trust in Jesus and then we welcomed him into the family of God. He gave us his contact information for follow-up and said he was excited to reconnect with Christian fellowship. Tanner didn’t have a Bible, so Pam (a local church member) gave him hers. I advised him to start reading in the gospels and he said he couldn’t wait to begin!

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What’s New?
Throughout the past year, as God has been leading IC to invite churches and associations in the United States to host evangelism projects just like the ones we conduct all over the world right in their own backyards — because it will work here, too.

In October, we mobilized a team of short-term missionaries from several states to work with 8 churches in the Osage River Baptist Association in Western Missouri who said, “Alright – show me” (rough paraphrase). After months of preparation and prayer, pastors and church members took us to visit homes, businesses, and parks to share Jesus and welcome people into the family of God. We recorded 933 gospel conversations and 108 decisions for Christ! We also had the privilege of training believers to share their faith in simple ways. Pray for these pastors and their congregations as they follow up with the new believers for discipleship and continue the work of evangelism.

• Celebrations: We just wrapped up our Celebration Dinners for the year, having hosted our North Carolina, Dallas, Oklahoma City events in September in October. Now we’re already on to planning our Spring events! Celebration Dinners are our fundraising banquets where we get to catch up with staff, friends, and supporters, tell stories of what God has done in the past year, and raise more funds for missions. We had a special guest speaker for our Dallas event, Jonathan Evans! If you weren’t able to join us (especially if that’s because you live many, many miles away like most of my ministry partners), you can watch Jonathan’s inspiring and challenging message here. 

Don’t miss our latest episode of the E+E Show with Dr. Chris Gnanakan! This was one of my favorite conversations on the show so far. We talked about the keys to entering closed countries, the importance of training and trusting indigenous leaders, the purpose of missions, the role of hospitality in evangelism, and the secret of discipleship multiplication.

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What’s Next?

• Board Meeting: our HQ staff is now planning our reports for our year-end board meeting, and we have some exciting (and crazy) stories to tell about how God has been moving in the U.S. and around the globe in the face of a pandemic, refugee crises, natural disasters, coups, violence, travel restrictions, food scarcity, and many other difficulties. Despite the darkness of our world, He has proven Himself good on His word over and over.
• More videos! As projects and events for the year wrap up, my team and I will have some time to revisit some video shoots and edits that have been on the backburner. Watch out for some more IC Stories videos, interviews, training videos, and Reels on our social media.

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Family Updates

• Classes and creativity: The girls are all still enjoying their dance and tumbling classes, and Mia and Maisy just finished up a session of swimming classes. Ella has really found her niche with acting and has recently had several opportunities to perform with her studio (we’re SO grateful for the high-quality and affordable opportunities we have through the Y and their performing arts studio hosted at a local church). Speaking of acting: we also finally finished a short film we’ve been working on as a hobby for the past year! We filmed “The Lost Student” during a family getaway at an AirBnB in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and you can check it out here.

The kids enjoyed joining us for parts of our Storytelling with Purpose evangelism training course at RockPointe Church this fall. Here they are practicing the 3 Circles gospel presentation. Levi was building with Lego bricks. Anyone know of a creative evangelism tool using those?

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Thanks so much for continuing to pray and give! My family is grateful that God has brought us back to full funding with the addition of some new Ministry Partners to our support team and has given us new opportunities to share the gospel here in the United States this year. IC is still sending teams overseas, of course, and you can apply now to join one of our mission trips at home or abroad. Check out our trips schedule and let’s talk about where God is leading you next year. I’d LOVE to go with you on the mission field!

Ministry Update — Virtual Reality

As reopening phases begin across the U.S. and many other nations are still shut down in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, IC is still facing significant and unprecedented challenges — and we’re doing so by harnessing the silver linings of our “new normal” to employ creative ministry methods to continue furthering our mission and vision in this increasingly digital world. Virtual communication is suddenly normal, and we’re using that for God’s glory and the spread of His fame.

Here’s one example: in May, we hosted our first-ever online iCelebration to share ministry updates, stories, and opportunities with our faithful partners and new friends. It took an immense amount of learning, work, and problem-solving, and I’m incredibly proud of our team for pulling it off and leading our organization into this new “virtual reality” of online events.

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What’s new?

• Budgetary changes and challenges: IC has significantly restructured our budget for the rest of the year to prioritize the ministry areas we are still able to support in the midst of global travel restrictions. We’ve seen declines in donations because of economic stress, but we also have fewer costs since most projects and events scheduled to take place before October have been canceled or delayed until 2021. As we strengthen and adapt various aspects of our ministry during this time, we do need new major donors to partner with us financially so that we can meet our remaining goals for the year and start next year in a strong position. If you know somebody who has continued to thrive financially during the pandemic and would like to invest in Kingdom growth, please consider making an introduction and send me a message about connecting with them.
• Working from home: Our HQ office  is set to reopen at full capacity next week, but we will all be working from home two days a week from now on. That will save us some organizational and personal expenses and will give staff members more flexibility to meet with church leaders and other ministry partners.
• Praying with International Leaders: As the whole world has been learning to use videoconferencing, we’ve been able to include more of our International Leaders around the world on our staff devotional meetings and it has been an amazing blessing to hear their stories and pray with them. Despite what you may see on the news, this pandemic has not stopped the global growth of God’s Kingdom!
• Team reunion calls: We also started a new tradition of reunion calls for our International Project team members who worked together overseas within the past year. Our leaders and participants reminisce, hear updates from the nationals conducting long-term discipleship, church planting, and future project planning, and share feedback from their experience with our staff. As and added bonus: both the International Leader calls and these team reunions are an excellent source of quotes and testimonies for social media 😉

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What’s next?

• Webinars: With IC’s first iCelebration under my belt, I’m getting back into webcasting!* We’re currently developing a new series of webinars to equip believers to share their faith and learn more about their role in missions at home and abroad. (*I worked on the production crew for webshows at LifeWay for several years. After 4 years at IC, I’m still discovering unexpected ways that God prepared me for this ministry!)
• US Projects: Speaking of missions at home, our Mobilization and Area Strategy teams are solidifying plans for new cross-cultural evangelism projects in the United States later this year! I am really, really excited about this. Stay tuned for more info…
• IC Ambassadors: Actually, I can’t tell you about this yet, but I want you to pray that this new program will have a strong and effective launch in the next couple of months.

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Family Updates

• Serving the community: I’ve been visiting laundromats on weekends with Conduit North Texas to pay for customers’ washes and talk about Jesus. RockPointe Church has really stepped it up to meet needs in our community and we’ve enjoyed participating in some of those service projects. Ella has continued to volunteer with one of her friends.
• Neighboring: Our neighbors are starting to emerge for driveway conversations, playtime at the park, and even visits to our backyard. This makes us happy.
• Gardening: We figured now is a great time to restart our vegetable garden, and it’s actually going really well!
• Yay Days: at the end of June, we’ll be hosting “Yay Days” with fellow RockPointe Church members; it’s like a 3-day VBS in our backyard (think Backyard Bible Clubs). We’re pretty stoked about that. Pray that we can forge rich and lasting relationships with more neighbors and that everyone will stay healthy and safe.
• Block Party: Conduit Church North Texas will soon start hosting block parties to bless our neighbors and build community. The first one will be in our neighborhood on June 27!

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“Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful.”
– Hebrews 10:23

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God’s plans are often different from ours — but they’re always better. That’s true anytime, of course, but it’s especially evident this year; He has allowed circumstances beyond anyone’s expectations or understanding which have forced IC to find new ways of bringing hope to the hurting all over a world in crisis. We may never comprehend why He permitted this pandemic to disturb and destroy lives, economies, careers, mission efforts, etc. What we do know is that He is the ultimate answer to all of those problems, that He has commissioned His church to spread and demonstrate that truth in a broken world, that His judgments are righteous, and that this situation has pushed IC to modernize and innovate in areas that we wouldn’t have otherwise had time to explore. Because of that, we will be more effective in carryout out the Great Commission than ever before. We (my family and International Commission as a whole) are so incredibly grateful for our faithful partners who have continued to believe in this work and to make it possible through your giving, going, and praying.

NEWS: New Giving Method

As promised, our new online giving portal is live and available. If you visit internationalcommission.org/give, you can now send a unique or recurring gift by credit/debit card with a much lower transaction fee or set up a bank draft by linking to your bank account.

The giving page and the new form are secure. IC will not actually receive your account information; credit/debit card transactions are processed through Stripe and bank drafts are connected through Plaid (so you will authorize transfers through your online banking account). IC will not share any of your personal information externally.

If you have a recurring donation already set up through Flipcause: you are awesome, I am grateful for your faithful support, and don’t worry — you don’t have to change anything until you hear otherwise. We’ll be working with our processors to move recurring gifts to this new system over the next few months, so you can wait for further instructions or let me know if you’d like to go ahead and switch. The advantage of this new method is that the credit/debit card fees are about half the cost compared to Flipcause and the bank draft fees are very low (I’ll explain the calculation formulas if you’d like).

I want to reiterate that I know this is a difficult time for many of you — financially and otherwise — and that I highly value your partnership in giving and in prayer. Please do let me know how my family and I can support you during this season. We’re in this together.

On that note, look at what God did through us last year:

These numbers have grown in the past couple of months because we’ve received final reports from our year-end National-to-National projects in Africa and South Asia. Look at what has been accomplished through your partnership, the work of IC’s leaders and participants, the faithfulness of local churches around the globe, and Jesus’ power!

I had the privilege of hearing from international leaders from dozens of countries during staff conference calls last week, and that will continue throughout this week. Among all the amazing stories of triumph and trial faced by our brothers and sisters around the world during this crazy time (some are dealing with quarantines as well as increased persecution, but are standing firm, pressing on in creative ways, and seeing the Kingdom grow), one thing is crystal clear: God is not stopping and His mission is not canceled nor postponed. Why would we stop now? Let’s move forward together, team!

Ministry Update – Not Going but Not Stopping

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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

 

Ministry Update — Insane Since Ukraine

A LOT has happened since I returned from Ukraine, and I apologize for the delay between newsletters. God has been at work in big ways and my family and IC staff have been busy in the past months. Here are some of the bigger updates, news items, and highlights.

Our Ukraine team had participants from Ukraine, Romania, Germany, South Africa, Brazil, and the United States. We all met in Kiev and then traveled to work with churches all over the central and eastern parts of the country. I worked with two churches in Hklukhiv along with my friend and interpreter, Luba. Our host pastor, Leonid, has a zeal for evangelism that kept us busy visiting homes to share the gospel.

Hlukhiv is way up north on the Russian border. Many of the people in this part of Ukraine have a very different worldview compared to those of us from Western Europe and North America (and even western Ukraine). Older generations commonly hold Soviet values, and the Russian Orthodox church influences their culture’s view of scripture and religion. Many people in Ukraine are bound by the chains of religion and don’t know about the salvation and abundant life offered by Jesus through a relationship with Him. It’s by grace through faith, not by works!

During one amazing visit, we were hosted by an elderly cancer survivor who was given just months to live four years ago. She figures that God sustains her life so that she can maximize her time sharing the hope of her Healer with others. Thusly, she invited two of her lost neighbors over to hear our testimonies and learn about Jesus. They had hesitations and strongholds at first, but as we continued to pray for them and explain the gospel, they both responded to the Holy Spirit’s calling and accepted Jesus!

Our team recorded 176 professions of faith in Christ! That’s big-time in Eastern Europe.

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Our annual staff retreat was a great time of celebrating, worshiping, praying, eating, learning, strategizing, welcoming, singing, pranking, and working together with our IC family from around the U.S. and the globe. Now we’re on to a full year of taking the gospel to the nations with our partners around the world! 

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Family Updates

• Grief and Goodness: My paternal grandmother, whom friends called “Dot” and the whole family called “Nana”, went home to be with Jesus this November. We drove to Tennessee to attend the funeral and spend time with family and friends. It was a bittersweet time for several reasons. Nana was my last grandparent living on earth, so the dynamic of family gatherings will forever be different. But we mourn with the joy and sure hope of knowing that we’ll see her again and that she joined her husband, daughter, siblings, parents, and many other relatives with whom she longed to be reunited and who also loved Jesus. All four of my grandparents have left incredible and inspiring legacies of character and faith. While in Tennessee, we were blessed to spend time with some close friends and to attend our church in Franklin (Conduit) and to grieve along with another dear family who had lost a daughter only weeks before. And as only God could have planned, Kim joined that family and several other Conduit friends on a mission to Guatemala about a month later during the week after Christmas. When committing to the trip earlier in the year, nobody knew all that would transpire in the time between or that both of our families would be grieving. But God used the time for healing. Look how Jesus meets us in our brokenness and redeems all things!
• Guatemala: During that trip, the team worked with the Juillards (another beloved Conduit family, who lives there) to serve women at the El Refugio shelter and children at an orphanage. It was a refreshing opportunity for Kim to take a turn on the field, reconnect with our long-time friends, make new friends, be the hands and feet of Jesus, and fall in love with a new place and people.
• Dad Camp: In the meantime, I took time off work to care for our kids and show them a good time. We went to museums, the zoo, an aquarium, Legoland Discovery Center, and even a wedding!

• Keep Corinth Beautiful: We joined volunteers from our community this fall for day of cleanup at one of our favorite local parks, organized by the city. We were rewarded with free Chick-fil-A at City Hall.
• Caleb’s visit: We hosted a friend we met in Haiti years ago, Caleb, at our home for a few days and set up meetings to help him raise support for a school he’s building for his children’s ministry near Jacmel. The kids introduced Caleb to S’mores
• Vacay: We took a trip to Houston and Waco to see the Johnson Space Center (a bucket list item for me), check out a Doc McStuffins exhibit on Baylor’s campus, and visit friends.
• Happy Holidays: We enjoyed hosting my parents for Thanksgiving and having a quiet Christmas at home before Kim’s trip. I rang in the New Year with the kids while she marveled at a 360º view of fireworks from a rooftop in Guatemala!
• Ella’s 10: This update is a huge one: our oldest daughter just turned TEN!

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What’s new?

• Mobilizers’ Huddle: My Perspectives coordinators introduced me to a monthly meeting of local like-minded missions mobilizers who collaborate to help each other make meaningful connections and learn from one another to become more effective in our ministries. Alli (my office neighbor and Development team member, who has also recently taken Perspectives) and I attended our first meeting this month and are excited about plugging into this community of fellow co-laborers from other organizations.
• Neighboring: My family continues to make progress in learning our city and building friendships with our neighbors. A local pastor (whose church is involved in IC projects) has been helping me learn more about the history and culture of our area (I’ve been surprised by some of the differences between Middle Tennesse and North Texas) and I’ve recently read some books on Christian hospitality and neighboring which have been helpful. Please pray that we will continue to be intentional and diligent about inviting our neighbors into our lives and that we will forge deep friendships.
• Development VP: We have a new Vice President of Development at our office! Mark Matthews (sadly, his middle name is neither John nor Luke) joined our staff last months to lead the Development team in new and continuing strategies for building relationships with donors and other partners around the U.S.

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What’s next?

• Website: I’m working with our IT Director, Alex, on new website functionality and user experience improvements in conjunction with a design overhaul. What’s that mean? Basically, our website is going to look and flow better and make it easier for visitors to learn who we are, go, and give in various ways.
• Events: In addition to our regular Celebration Dinners, we’ve been hosting IConnect events around the country, and we want to do more! These events are more casual, smaller events like trivia nights or ice cream socials intended to introduce new people to IC and invite them to go on mission with us. If you want to host an IConnect, let me know! We’ll do all the planning, resourcing, presenting, etc. and you just have to pick the time and place and invite people to come.
• Perspectives: I’m taking the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course at the certificate level this spring, and I’m loving it so far. This fifteen-week course explores the theology, history, and methodology of missions.
• Film: Remember Ivy and Alaina, whose testimonies I featured in September? I’m working with them and our Mobilization Coordinator, Weng, to continue telling their stories throughout the year — what’s changed in their lives since the Philippines, why they’re going again, how they’re preparing and fundraising, etc. — and then going with them later this year to cover their experiences in Mongolia. I’ll edit these stories into a documentary film to inspire other young adults to follow Jesus in taking the gospel to the unreached.
• Mexico in March: I’m going with an IC team to Mexico in March to share Jesus in the Tampico area. While there, I’ll capture stories and shoot an orientation video for new participants.
• Translations: I have an extensive backlog of interviews and testimonies that need translation before I can edit them, and I’ll be working with some volunteers to get those transcriptions done in the next few months. If you or someone you know well is fluent in English and Spanish, Romanian, Russian, or Ukrainian and would be willing to help, please let me know!

 

Expect to be surprised during your first international project with IC, because God will work miraculously through you. Come see what I’m talking about by joining me in Mongolia July 22 – August 4? There are only about 40,000 Christians in the entire country of 3 million, but the Mongolian church (less than a generation old) is already sending missionaries to unreached peoples in their country and beyond. Churches in Ulaanbaatar are praying for 22 Americans to participate in this international project. I promise you that there is nothing as satisfying and exciting as sharing Jesus with people who have never heard his name. Will you GO?

 

Ministry Update – The Immigration Edition

🇺🇸 DEL RIO REPORT 🇲🇽

Shortly after returning from the Philippines, I heard about a mission trip to the US-Mexico border with my TX home church, and immediately knew I should go. I’ve been feeling convicted for a while now to go share the love of Jesus with migrants coming to our country, and I also wanted to go listen to their stories and learn about the realities of the situation first-hand.

Where We Went
On August 30, I arrived in the border town of Del Rio, Texas with a team from Rockpointe Chruch to spend the weekend serving migrant families and Border Patrol agents with the Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition. The incredible Pastor Shon and Janeen Young lead this ecumenical ministry serving the asylum seekers who are released to them from Border Patrol every day. This Coalition began in April (there’s a long and amazing story about that formation, but I don’t have time to tell it here) and Southern Baptist Disaster relief teams responded shortly thereafter. Samaritan’s Purse sent in a crew to help manage operations and provide resources in June, and short-term volunteers have been coming steadily. Chaplains from The Billy Graham Rapid Response Team serve there as well, sharing the love and message of Jesus and helping the migrants begin healing. We did a lot of listening and learning.

What We Did
On Saturday, our team grilled for Border Patrol agents at a couple of stations and heard their perspective on the issues they’re facing. My main takeaways are that they love their jobs, their country, helping the asylum-seekers (whom they regularly rescue from the river), and catching bad guys.

That evening and the next day, our team had the privilege of welcoming the families to the U.S. and serving in all of the ministry areas at the center.

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How it Works

 

Watch this video or read below to learn what happens during a migrant family’s visit to the Coalition respite center.

When families arrive at the Coalition center after processing (transported by Border Patrol or buses arranged by Border Patrol), they are welcomed with smiles and greetings in their own languages (when possible) and directed to an orientation room to watch a video about next steps while someone entertains their kids.

Following that, they are assisted in contacting their sponsor and making travel arrangements with bus lines and/or airlines to report to their declared destination city, which they must do within a certain time period.

Then they’re free to get new clothes, toys, baby items, backpacks, or other basic needs, take a shower, take a nap, and eat a meal. Meals are prepared by Samaritan’s Purse in the kitchen trailer and served in an air-conditioned tent staffed by Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplains and other volunteers.

After letting the families settle in and enjoy their meals in a calm, comfortable atmosphere with worship music playing, chaplains will join them for a conversation. This is usually the point in the visit at which they’re ready to receive encouragement and counseling, talk about Jesus, and open up about their experiences to begin letting go of their baggage, healing, and casting their burdens upon Jesus. As the chaplains explained to me: throughout their time at the center (usually a few hours or so, although some stay overnight), the “armor” they came in wearing has been chipped away bit by bit at each station as they’ve had needs met and experienced hospitality and love. These chaplains are trained in crisis counseling, and they do a good job of helping migrants process what they’ve been through in the past several months or years and “allow themselves to cry and let it all go.” That’s when their stories come out. They’re stories of terror, loss, death, abuse, hope, faith, sacrificial love, resilience, survival, and miracles. I met people from Honduras, Venezuela, Congo, Haiti, Cuba, Ecuador, and other places. So many of them left their homes to protect their children from being trafficked by gangs for cartels.

Most of these parents are solid Christians who need exhortation and others are very responsive to the gospel (208 have accepted Christ since they started counting on July 16th). In any case, this will be a day they will NEVER forget and will take their testimonies and faith with them wherever they go. The chaplains encourage them to join a church community who will care for them, show them the ropes, help them learn our culture and language, guide them through their legal process, and give them a place to contribute (to the Kingdom and the economy)*.

When the families are finished at this station and their departure van/bus arrives, everyone in the tent gathers around to pray for them, then walks them out to the bus to send them off with hugs, blessings, waves, smiles, and tears.

Now I understand what Janeene (with VVBHC) meant when she said, “We feel like we’re sending out missionaries all over the United States.”

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Their Stories

Here are a handful of the stories I heard from the migrant families I met. Because they’re fleeing dangerous situations or people and because they’re awaiting a judicial process, I can’t tell you their names or show you their faces. I’ll just use initials. But these are real stories of real people that I think you should hear.

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J, R, and their son A had a hard journey from Venezuela. They came (like many) to prevent A from being trafficked there.

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D and his family stayed at a church in Mexico for a while and felt safe there. The priest employed him to renovate the roof of the church building, but then refused to pay him, knowing that he needed to move on regardless.
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L & M stopped for a short time at a town in Mexico and attended a church where people were friendly and helpful. Until the priest demanded all their money.
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C, J, and son C from Honduras were robbed by Mexican police at a “checkpoint” (it was a random stop with cones deployed in the middle of the road).
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B & R traveled from Haiti, through Cuba and Central America, to find a better life. Their 5-month-old baby girl was conceived and born during the journey. I had the blessing of welcoming them and helping guide them through in Haitian Creole. B also speaks Spanish, but we bonded over my mediocre skill and it was especially meaningful to talk about Jesus in their heart language. And their baby is ridiculously adorable.
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E and his son A came from Honduras and had a lot of trouble on the way. E is mad at God for allowing him to suffer so much loss, misery, pain, and injustice, but he knows that God is the only reason they made it through. After a tearful discussion with Chaplain John, he rededicated his life to Christ.
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That same E and A arrived with M and her 10-month old son B, but the two pairs are not related; M is on her way to meet her husband who is already in another city in Texas. They came to the center together because E ACTUALLY SAVED THEM FROM THE RIO GRANDE! M was carrying B when her group was swept down the river by currents. The rest were killed, but E pulled these two out. M says B was drowning, so I don’t know how he was resuscitated, but the Patrol checked him out and a paramedic on our team assessed him and advised M on what to watch out for over the following 72 hours.
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R, S, L (6), and P(10) from Ecuador were crossing the Rio Grande when R lost his footing and was holding on to L’s hand with all his might until his fingers slipped out of hers and he went under. R says he was submerged “fully flat” on his back when something lifted him up out of the water — and his wife and kids witnessed it. R is fully convinced that it was Jesus, and that He brought his family here for a purpose.
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All of these people endured a lot of suffering and injustice along the way and witnessed a lot of death; some due to the elements, some resulting from disease, and some because of cold-blooded murder. But they also saw God show up and all of them credited Him for sustaining them.

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Want to get involved? Here are links to
GIVE or GO 

🇵🇭 CALL ME … ZACH? — PHILIPPINES REPORT 🇵🇭

51,192 people indicated decisions for Christ this July in Cebu City, Philippines when 18 Americans and 1 Cambodian worked with 49 Filipino nationals and 11 churches to share the gospel in homes, schools, universities, neighborhoods, taxis, hotels, and wherever else we found listening ears! Pray for the local churches as they follow up to make disciples who make disciples, as well as for our IC Philippines leaders as they conduct National-to-National projects throughout the year.

About the title: it’s not unusual for me to be given a new nickname by the nationals when I go on a project overseas. But this time, it happened by accident when our team member Rebecca kept calling me “Zach” by mistake. She said had no idea why she thought that was my name, but she couldn’t kick the habit and several of us just ran with it for fun. It’s continued in our communications on Facebook Messenger following the trip, and now I’m getting targeted ads on Facebook as “Zach”.  Honestly, it’s a funny reminder of an incredible team whenever I see it.

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Highlights

• We had an incredible multinational and intergenerational team on this project! Several IC staff members made up our crew; both Americans and Filipinos. A few more were seasoned veteran IC participants and several were first-timers. Every single one was all-in on the mission, there was no drama, and everyone loved spending time together. I have to be honest: that doesn’t always happen. This was a special team and I miss them already.
• Four of our new participants were inspiring representatives of “Gen Z”, and I absolutely loved watching them discover the joys and challenges of cross-cultural evangelism. They were blown away by how God worked through them and they are now very well-practiced in sharing the gospel! Watch a couple of their stories:

• I also loved seeing how these teens and young adults made sure to “turn it over” to the locals before the end of the week, training them to lead people to Christ in simple ways. That’s a vital part of our church-based model, and I was blessed to see how naturally they got it.
• It was an honor to finally get to work with our Filipino staff! Weng (our Missiouri-based mobilization coordinator) and her sister Ruth (director for IC Philippines) have been serving with IC for 30 years all around Southeast Asia. Their niece Faith is also on staff and joined our team as well.
• Most people in the Philippines speak English in addition to Tagalong (or Cebuano and other local dialects in our area), so that made our gospel conversations easy.

• I spent the first few days of the project with Station of Life Glory Church (in a floating village by the coast) worshiping, preaching, ministering to kids, and sharing the gospel in homes in their community. This church’s leadership development strategy is simple: personal evangelism and discipleship in their own neighborhood. In fact, The current pastor was saved three years ago and discipled by the church planter (also a national) to lead the flock. Station of Life saw 165 professions of faith during the project (some in partnership with other churches in surrounding areas).
• Later in the week, most of our teammates joined together to take on an unprecedented opportunity: we were granted access to any public school in Cebu City by their Minister of Education. So we — along with local pastors, student leaders, and other church members — shared the gospel story in classrooms and schoolyards with tens of thousands of students!
• I had some of the best seafood of my whole life in Cebu in the company of some of the friendliest, funniest people I’ve ever met.

Check out my “Cebu City, Philippines – 2019” album on Facebook for more pictures and stories!

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What’s new?

• Interns: Rafaela and Vitoria Biazi (from Brazil) have been doing an incredible job at our office! They’ve mainly been working on some graphic design and training resource update projects, and Rafaela has also done some smashing video and social media work (for example: she created the “IC Stories” branding I used in the two videos above and the ad at the end of this newsletter).
• Recruiting: IC is looking for a new VP of Development, a Marketing Strategist, Web Developer, and more Mobilization Coordinators.
• Del Rio: I went with my church to serve migrants and the Border Patrol at the US-Mexico border — and to listen, love, and learn. Stay tuned for that report, coming soon!
• Celebrations: Our Celebration Dinner in Granbury went great, and more are coming up this Fall.

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What’s next?

• Ukraine: I’ll head with a team to northern Ukraine at the end of September, and I’m so excited to return to that beautiful country to share the love and hope of Christ!

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Family Updates

• We had our big “Summer Birthdays Party” last month at a local park with a splash pad and an adjacent air-conditioned room! Gathering with friends — and Kim’s parents, who came in from Missouri for the party — we celebrated Maisy’s 5th, Mia’s 2nd, and Levi’s 1st birthdays!
• A new homeschool semester has begun! The older girls are also starting new classes at a local arts school. Ella is continuing to study art, Evie is doing tumbling classes, and Maisy is beginning ballet.
• We’ve recently met some more of our neighbors and have continued developing friendships on our street. Thanks for praying for our community engagement! Please keep it up. We have long days and it’s a challenge to make time to hang out with people who don’t live under our particular roof, but we are called to and we want to do so more.

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Please prayerfully consider where you’ll go in 2020. Let’s GO!

I Married My Cousin in Alabama (and other true stories)

My first official ordained officiation was to marry my first cousin Emily … to one Mr. Damyon Jolley! I had the distinct privilege and honor to join this couple in holy matrimony on June 8th in Florence, Alabama, with my Evie as the ceremony’s flower girl.

That trip was one of many over the past couple of months, which have been action-packed with ministry, family happenings, and family ministry happenings. Highlights follow:

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What’s New?
Over the past couple of months…

• Our development team traveled to North Carolina to host a celebration dinner in Winston-Salem along with staff and partners in the area. I ran A/V, captured photos, and conversed with our guests.
• Since we flew into Charlotte, a few of us made a visit to the Billy Graham Library while there. We were inspired to learn more about his life and to be reminded of his ministry’s influence on our own. For instance, IC adopted the Operation Andrew model from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and prayer is the foundation of everything we do.
• I ran A/V and provided media support for our spring board meeting near our HQ office. We had a great time with our wonderful board members.
• Following the aforementioned wedding, Brent (IC President) and I met up in Birmingham to attend the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting. We hosted a breakfast for the Fellowship of Baptist World Ministries and were honored to have Dr. Paul Chitwood (International Mission Board President) join us and speak to the group. I was also glad to welcome Philip Nation (Director of Advancement/Global Impact Churches at Baptist World Alliance), with whom I formerly worked at LifeWay. While at the convention, I did some networking, reconnected with other friends, and caught a few interviews.

• I spoke about personal evangelism at Christian Business Nurturing, a local networking group I attend.
• My team had a booth (under a shade tent!)  at a big Christian music festival called Celebrate Freedom at Texas Motor Speedway. We met hundreds of people and invited them to join us on mission, gathered a stack of interest cards, gave out IC stickers, and shared the gospel.
• Gary Godkin (IC Mobilization Vice President) and I shot an interview with Pastor Chad Selph, who does an amazing job leading his church in evangelism internationally and locally.
• I’ve been working on a much-requested series of training videos for our mission trip participants. This project has been a lot of fun and I’m glad to be deploying these resources to help our mobilization team prepare their teams for the field.

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What’s next?

• Help is on the way! My Media department is growing! At least for a while; Rafaela and Vitória Biazi are coming from Brazil next week on a temporary visa to assist our office with media and other ministry needs. These young adults are the daughters of one of our regional directors (Márcio Biazi, pastor of PIB Norte Rio Preto) and are well-versed in IC’s ministry from their experience translating for international teams and leading N2N projects. Rafaela and Vitória are gifted evangelists and ridiculously-talented creatives (which runs in the family) and I’m stoked to have them here; especially since they can cover for me while I’m in the Philippines. No pressure, right? 😉
• Philippines: Speaking of which, I’m excited to be headed to the Philippines soon to work alongside another powerhouse there: The Masuecos family. Our mobilization coordinator Weng Bruner’s relatives have been leading projects with IC in their native Philippines and surrounding countries for over 20 years and have seen tens of thousands saved. I can’t wait to partner with them in sharing Jesus and to capture stories of how God is transforming lives and communities in and around Cebu City!

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Family Ministry Updates

• Cross Training: Kim and I both served at Cross Training (Rockpointe Church’s skill-based VBS-esque evangelistic program) this year and had a blast. Most of the kids enjoyed it, too (two were in the nursery and Ella got sick).
• Chin Ministry: Rockpointe took a day off from services one week for “Hands Across the Community”, wherein church members work on various local missions projects. I got to work with Ella and Evie on a Chin community garden and enjoyed seeing them invest some sweat along with their friends to bless these precious refugees.
• Community: Thanks for praying for our new small group and our neighborhood engagement. We’ve been meeting with and living life with a couple of families from RPC and it’s been really valuable to confide in each other, bear one another’s burdens, dig into the Word, pray for each other, and have fun! We had a good turnout at a recent cookout and enjoyed spending time with and blessing our neighbors. A few of the kids canvassed the street with me beforehand to invite people, and we had great conversations and made new friends.
• Conduit: Conduit Church is planting in North Texas! We’ve had a few interest and strategy meetings already and are excited to be a part of the launch. It’s pretty surreal that this is actually happening. The meeting location (a school, just like old times) is over half an hour from our house and we’re really involved with Rockpointe, so we’re still praying about what our long-term involvement with Conduit North Texas will look like. But we’re definitely going to partner with them in getting started and in glocal mission work.

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Thanks to all our ministry partners for your prayer, friendship, and support! You work hard for the resources you share to help send us, and you spend time on your knees interceding for us and the ones we’re working to reach. We don’t take that for granted, and we’re so grateful for the part you play in the Great Commission!

Blessings!