In This Issue

English Street

In October 2007, the Innsbruck (Austria) City Team launched an outreach ministry in the form of an English club that they named English Street. The mission of English Street is to reach the community through the useful tool of English and help the Christian youth reach their peers for Christ. English is a great tool because every student in the Austrian school system is required to learn it and native English speakers are in high demand.

From the very start the team received encouragement from the nationals, but also heard realistic statements like,  "It takes a while for something to get going, especially in Austria." In general, the Austrian people like to make sure something works before investing in it. They soon found this to be true in their situation. For the first couple of weeks, some families in the church sent their youth. They had a great time hanging out and helping them with their English homework.

The weeks that followed brought the same youth back again and again. The team realized that what had started out as a potential outreach had become a core event because it was only the youth from the church who were coming. Despite that, they thanked God for the youth He brought, continued to pray that He would use this club as a tool to reach the community, and had brainstorming meetings on how to re-shift their strategies.

God is blessing the Innsbruck City Team through English Street as  they invest in these youth and  encourage them to bring their friends. God is working through the team, and they know He will bring the youth He wants them to reach.

Prayer request: Please pray for English Street. Pray that God would continue to work in the lives of the youth who are coming, and that they would start to bring other youth, too. Pray that the Innsbruck City Team will be able to reach these youth effectively and continue to be used by God in their lives.

Growth in Venezuela

The following is taken from the recent prayer letter of one of our staff in Venezuela.

Problems. Although we tend to view them negatively, problems are not always a bad thing. In fact, at times they can be good. Recently, we and our church have been experiencing a number of very good problems. For example, Bill, ReachGlobal staff, has completed the World Missions Academy's (WMA) new manual on evangelism/comparative religions (a 70-page manual introducing 14 non-Christian religions or religious perspectives, targeting how to evangelize). Completing the manual is a good thing. However, it also created a problem, because this course is by far the most popular course the WMA has offered. The enthusiastic response to enrollment (almost 200, and more sign up each week) created the problem of economically making a large number of manuals available. The church invested $2,500 to professionally print 500 copies. Four weeks into the course, about 75% of this investment has been recovered through enrollment fees. Attendance has been high, reflecting a broad spectrum of the church's congregation, from young people to adults, and the students are thrilled with the course and what they're learning about evangelism.

Most importantly, they're putting these ideas into practice. The harvest is ripe, and we're seeing people come to the Lord each week through the church's various evangelistic initiatives. It is astounding how the Lord is blessing. For example, during the last two weeks, the class has studied witchcraft, spiritism and the occult, and how to reach these people for Christ. A few weeks ago, a warlock (a male witch) came forward to accept Christ at the close of prayer meeting. It was a very powerful conversion, as he removed his necklace with its religious paraphernalia, broke it before the congregation and declared his desire to leave it all behind and follow Christ. The following Saturday, an evangelistic campaign was held in a local neighborhood, and among the 25 people who accepted Christ was another warlock. Witchcraft and spiritism are commonly practiced by a large portion of the population. (Maracay, Venezuela is one of the witchcraft capitals of the world). It is a true blessing to see these people leave Satan's lies to embrace the gospel and God's Truth. Moreover, it is a privilege to be used of the Lord as a small part of the whole process of reaching these people for Christ.

Needless to say, with more and more people accepting Christ each week, this has created another good problem. The church's discipleship program is gearing up as quickly as it can to incorporate these new believers. Every available corner of the church's property and the adjoining property is being used by discipleship groups. The church is asking the congregation to open 100 homes in which to hold discipleship groups. We praise God for this incredible "problem."

Prayer request: Praise God with us for the work he is doing in Venezuela. Pray that His truth would continue to change lives and bring people out of darkness. Pray that our staff and the church would be able to respond to this ripe harvest and provide the needed follow up and discipleship to these new believers.

HIV/AIDS Forum follow-up

In the January 2008 issue of Sand Castles, we told you about the HIV/AIDS Forum that took place in November 2007 in Ukraine, organized by the ReachGlobal Kiev City Team, EFCA TouchGlobal and AIDS Care Education and Training (ACET). While the Forum itself was a success and a great answer to prayer, the positive ripples are still being seen.

The Kiev City Team continues to see demand for the educational, training and inspirational materials they produced. This is a great blessing, as well as a challenge. The team has begun distributing 8-DVD sets of plenary sessions and selected seminars from the Forum, which could form the core of a Christian HIV/AIDS training curriculum. There is still an amazing response to the documentary film "Voices" that the team produced. They have completed a Russian version, which could increase the demand exponentially as ministries in Russia are starting to hear of its availability. Furthermore, the Russian translation of "The AIDS Crisis: What We Can Do" by Debbie Dortzbach and Meredith Long has been attracting much interest as it fills a need for materials not written from a strictly African or North American perspective. They have personally distributed over 550 films, 50 sets of the lecture series and nearly 2,000 books to direct users (i.e., not to book stores or resellers), and are hearing wonderful things from the people who are using them.

There are also six people from a church plant who have taken the training for certification in HIV/AIDS prevention with ACET. They are now equipped to teach lessons in school, which provides them "access" to students on a regular basis. This is an excellent platform to provide students with tools that might just save their lives, both physically and spiritually, as it opens the way for spiritual discussions. The effort put into the Forum is bearing dividends in the lives and ministries of some who were not originally involved, but who see this issue as critical both to their calling to student ministry and their calling as members of the church to impact the community.

Prayer requests: Please pray that God would show the Kiev City Team how  to put these materials into the hands of churches, ministries and individuals in Russia who could use them to  impact people's lives.

Turkish/French New Testament

Brian and Sarah are ReachGlobal workers who were originally serving in Belgium. Although they are now preparing to start a new ReachGlobal work in Rome, they are still seeing the fruit of their labors in Belgium. The following is Brian's report on the recent publishing of the New Testament.

After many years of waiting for what must have been God's timing, the Turkish/French New Testament has finally been printed, shipped and delivered to three countries. Of the 12,000 copies printed:

  • 5,000 copies were sent to Agape (Campus Crusade) in France. There is a significant Turkish population in France.
  • 6,000 copies were delivered in Belgium where several of our Belgium/Turkish partners have taken possession for distribution.
  • 1,000 copies were sent to Istanbul where French is still an important language of study.

It is strange to see this project come to fruition after leaving Belgium. After many years of waiting, raising finances, and solving problems, we are grateful to our friends in Belgium who are helping to distribute this resource for ministry among Turks in French-speaking areas. We are grateful to those who have underwritten this project and have waited these eight years to see the investment bear this initial fruit in the printing of these Scriptures.

Prayer request: Thank God with us for the printing and distributing of His Word. Pray that those receiving these New Testaments would be open to the message of salvation and that God's Word would spread to those who have not yet heard.

End of Sand Castles publication

Dear Readers,

For more than two years, we have been sending the bi-monthly Sand Castles publication, sharing  stories of what God is doing on the field through our ReachGlobal workers and partners. We have been pleased to report to you the growth, new initiatives, changed lives, and the spread of the gospel through faithful workers.

While these stories are by no means ending, the way in which we will share them with you is changing. We are going to discontinue this Sand Castles email publication and will be including these stories from the field through other existing publications, ReachGlobal News (monthly) and Pray ReachGlobal (weekly). The audience for ReachGlobal News is primarily missions pastors and local church leaders. The primary audience for Pray ReachGlobal is anyone interested in praying for ReachGlobal personnel and ministry. In each issue of these publications, the story will focus on a specific area of the world and will have a specific prayer need to go along with it. Stories will also be incorporated to our new ReachGlobal and EFCA Web site which will be launched in early fall 2008. If you would like to continue hearing about the work of ReachGlobal by subscribing to the ReachGlobal News, click here. To subscribe to Pray ReachGlobal, click here. If you have any questions about this change, please contact us at reachglobal@efca.org.

Thank you for your faithful readership and prayers.

Sincerely,

ReachGlobal