It’s exciting to see God send out new laborers into His harvest! Each missionary, couple or family we send go as new points of light for the gospel to transform tribes and languages and peoples and nations. We’re encouraged by new staff who are trusting God to touch Middle Eastern nations, difficult western European countries and Southeast Asian tribes.
Panz and Nancy Alvarez were sent by our team to the Philippines. They train local believers to reach oral cultures (those without written language who primarily use stories to communicate truth) with the Story Runners set of Bible stories translated into their native language. Here is what happened recently.
Three months after our Cebuano School of Storying in Davao, Mindanao we returned to see for ourselves what is happening as a result. It was very encouraging and we rejoice to see God glorified!
One highlight was observing Jurene tell a story on the topic of prayer to a group of 25 high school students. Jurene was one of the testers during our training which meant she was not a follower of Jesus at the time. After hearing the stories from the Bible, she received Christ herself! She has been attending a discipleship group with one of the trainees. And now here she is, leading her own story group!
Another trainee, Libni, taught the storying strategy to missionary candidates at the Asian Center for Missions and is in Indonesia preparing to be a full time missionary himself. Also, two of the trainees will do a special training in November among another tribal group. And there were other results:
- 29 Story Fellowship Groups are being held
- 79 People prayed to receive Christ
- 118 People were trained to tell Oral Bible Stories
- 2 House churches were started
- 27 People have started their own story groups after being trained by an original participant
Rochelle and I so appreciate the faith you show in God as you partner with us in this ministry! Your gifts and prayers enable us to build and develop Cru’s global sending capacity, sending more US staff who help develop evangelistic movements like the storying training of the Alvarez’s in Southeast Asia.
As 2014 comes to a close would you consider giving a special Christmas gift for our ministry of sending Cru staff internationally? Together we can see the next 50 to 70 Cru missionaries get started building new spiritual movements! We are asking God to provide $17,000 for ministry expenses, back salary, family medical expenses, more orthodontia work for Josh, and travel expenses for the US Staff Conference.
If you are able to give to the Lord for our ministry, please give online from your bank account directly at http://give.ccci.org/0257817. Then please email us so we know of your gift and take a moment to update us on your family, any change in address or phone, and tell us how we can pray for you.
God has blessed us with wonderful partners like you who pray for us and financially support our ministry. Your encouragement and care strengthens us as we serve the Lord in this Sending ministry. It is a blessing and joy to share this work with you! God bless you and your family in this coming year!