The World We See - ACCI Magazine

THE WORLD

THAT WE SEE HOPE

OPPORTUNITY

JESUS

OUR MISSION IS TO SEE WHOLE LIFE TRANSFORMATION IN INDIVIDUALS, FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES

BY EMPOWERING PEOPLE TO LOVE WELL.

Ps John and Francine Hunt

We see a world where all people can hear the gospel and experience the fullness of life Jesus intends.

Perspective is everything.

When you read or watch the news, or even just look out the window, do you see a broken, hurting world?

What’s more, it’s just a small sample of ACCI’s amazing Field Workers, with work like this taking place every day throughout the world.

Or do you see hope and opportunity? Space for Jesus to move? We know that Jesus is the answer to all the problems our world faces. And as his hands and feet on the earth, we have a special role to play.

May you be inspired by the part you play in all of this and recommit to pray, give and go.

WE ARE HERE ON MISSION. HIS MISSION.

Ps John Hunt

This publication is a celebration of the work that you make possible and our shared commitment to seeing the name of Jesus declared throughout the earth.

It’s full of incredible stories of transformation, Godbreathed conversations and moments of humble service that are bringing Jesus into people’s daily reality.

And may it uplift your spirit as you remember that the harvest is indeed plentiful.

ACCI Director

CHURCH PLANTING

WAKU WAK LIFE CHURC EU GENE AND F IONA GEBER T JAPAN

KU CH

“We are changing Japan one life at a time and making disciples who make disciples.

Our hearts are set on building God’s kingdom and spiritual family home.”

ACTIVITIES •

Worshipping God together through vibrant weekly church services in the city of Fukuoka.

•

Growing in faith through regular life groups and discipleship groups.

•

Outreach in the local area through kids’ activities, community meals, English classes and university ministry.

STORY We met Mr O through our food ministry and his interest in the gospel soon grew. We have seen him accept Jesus and he now loves God’s word and studying the Bible. He has grown through discipleship and has been baptised. Mr O also recently gained employment after many years of being unable to work.

PLEASE PRAY FOR •

Impact and lives changed by our outreach activities in the community.

•

God’s peace, protection and good health for our family serving in Japan.

PARTNER OR LEARN MORE

“We are seeing lives transformed as prodigal sons and daughters – including from non-Christian backgrounds – are embraced in a faith-based community for the first time and emboldened to live missionally in their community.”

ACTIVITIES •

Hosting weekly services and discipling the growing church community in Malang.

•

Renovating a building for church gatherings and for use as a community centre.

•

Planning new outreach activities, including university ministry and low-cost early childhood education for families in need.

STORY God continues to remind us that every relationship counts. Recently, we were at the local park and our two-year-old son got stuck going down a slide with another young boy. Our families began chatting and we invited this beautiful Muslim family to our house for a meal. They told us they have no ongoing contact with Christian people and so this was a new experience for them.

They have since invited us to their place and we look forward to meeting with them again.

PLEASE PRAY FOR •

Unreached people to come to know Jesus and start to transform their communities.

•

Unity and wisdom in raising leaders and shaping Waypoint’s ministry focus as the church continues to grow.

PARTNER OR LEARN MORE

C

CHURCH PLANTING

WAYPOINT COMMUNITY CHURCH LEIGHTON AND GR A CE G ALL A GHER

INDONESIA

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

MANDATE MINISTRI R O S S AND D ONNA

THAILAND, NORTH & SOUTHEAST ASIA

E IES

“Missionaries are just very ordinary people doing extraordinary things for God.” ACTIVITIES •

Training leaders throughout Thailand and North and Southeast Asia to reach people for Jesus.

•

Providing practical assistance and Karen-language Bibles to Karen people in Myanmar and Thailand affected by the civil war.

•

Producing training materials to further develop existing and emerging leaders.

STORY After many years in ministry, we are still learning to be ready for every opportunity God has for us. One day when we were living in China, I (Ross) walked past a house with a Victory 1700 cc motorcycle out the front. I got to know the owner of the bike and we started going on rides and having coffee together. After a few months, I invited him to see our community centre and eventually to attend a concert and then, to church. It wasn’t long before he was saved and baptised and eventually leading Christian meetings. All because I asked him about his motorbike!

PLEASE PRAY FOR •

People receiving Karen-language Bibles; that it would encourage, bless and transform them.

•

Leadership training with Thai, Karen, Lahu, and Hmong leaders.

•

Complete healing for Ross from cancer.

PARTNER OR LEARN MORE

“We train leaders who plant churches.”

ACTIVITIES •

Training and developing leaders to plant churches throughout Europe – including in the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.

•

Establishing networks for leadership development and church planting.

•

Mentoring and empowering next generation leaders.

STORY Daniel and Mirela Rozanski became part of a church planting project that we helped to start in Poland about nine years ago. Through this project they became connected to LifeHouse Church. This relationship inspired them to plant Koscioł Echo (Echo Church) in Gdansk, Poland. This church has seen 120 people baptised since it commenced and is a fast growing, youth oriented, nation impacting church. Most excitingly, the church recently started a church planting academy, with a goal to plant a church in each of Poland’s 17 university cities. They are currently in the process of launching a campus in Warsaw, with preparations underway for churches in the cities of Szczecin and Białystok.

PLEASE PRAY FOR •

God to provide more European leaders to partner in church planting and leadership development initiatives.

•

More Australian churches to get a heart for the spiritually barren continent of Europe.

PARTNER OR LEARN MORE

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

STEPHEN AND MAYLIN WYNDHAM

CENTRAL EUROPE

UNREACHED PEOPLE

SARAH ARD CAMBODIA

DU

“The thing that excites me the most is seeing Cambodians who don’t want anything to do with Christianity coming to Jesus, being transformed, and finding that they can be faithful disciples of Jesus within existing Cambodian culture.”

ACTIVITIES •

Helping people on the outskirts of Phnom Penh and nearby provinces experience Jesus within their culture and traditions.

•

Sharing the gospel and making disciples in a way that’s relational, easy to replicate and doesn’t require literacy skills.

•

Teaching people how to disciple others.

STORY Socheata was battling severe psychosis and bi-polar disorder, with medication proving ineffective. Her family took her to see many different shamans before asking if I would spend time with her. “Perhaps Jesus can help her,” they said.

I took Socheata out for the afternoon and we talked. The Holy Spirit was very present and she immediately understood who Jesus is and began to depend on him with her whole heart. She was born again and that day began a journey towards both spiritual and physical wholeness.

PLEASE PRAY FOR •

God to transform the nation of Cambodia from the inside out through the gospel.

•

The networks of disciples within Cambodian culture to flourish, mature and multiply rapidly in the next few years.

PARTNER OR LEARN MORE

“The safest place to be is right in the centre of God’s will.”

ACTIVITIES •

Providing grief and trauma counselling and prayer for wounded soldiers, refugees and people displaced by conflict.

•

Training pastors, diplomats, school teachers, NGO leaders and medical personnel in mental health and trauma first aid.

•

Preaching in churches and equipping pastors to care for their congregations’ spiritual and emotional health.

STORY I was ministering in a refugee hub to families who had been displaced by the war in Ukraine. It was mostly mothers and their children. One 10-year-old girl had lost her voice because of trauma and hadn’t spoken for months. I started praying for her and her family and suddenly this little voice opened up and she started to talk again. This kind of trauma recovery timeframe is absolutely unheard of.

PLEASE PRAY FOR •

God to continue opening the right doors and creating opportunities to counsel and pray with those who need it most.

•

Protection during travel into war and conflict zones.

PARTNER OR LEARN MORE

S

MINISTRY IN CONFLICT ZONES

SHARRON JONES

UKRAINE, ISRAEL & GLOBAL

WHERE W

WE WORK

CHILD FOCUSED DEVELOPMENT

CHILDREN’S FORTRESS AFRICA BEN AND IR ENE HAY KENYA

S

“Our vision is to see vulnerable children restored to holistic wellbeing and God-given purpose through discipleship and acts of love.”

ACTIVITIES •

Supporting children and young people who are at-risk of, or are, living on the streets of Nairobi.

•

Strengthening local families through capacity building and income generation activities, and helping reintegrate children back into their families.

•

Offering education scholarships and access to community libraries and sports programs for street-connected children.

STORY We met Joseph several years ago. He was living in a rehabilitation centre for street children and was keen to learn sign language so he could help others.

Children’s Fortress Africa supported him to do two years of formal study in sign language. He now volunteers in rehabilitation centres where there are deaf children and teaches the other children sign language so they can communicate. He also helps local families with a deaf child to connect through sign language, and signs for the deaf community at his church during services.

PLEASE PRAY FOR •

God’s protection over our staff as they travel long distances on dangerous roads to meet with street children and connect them back into their families.

•

Chains of addiction to break and for children’s hearts to be open to Jesus.

PARTNER OR LEARN MORE

“To truly ‘pursue justice through empowering communities to transform their society’ – as our vision statement says – we must constantly adjust our programs and projects to account for the differentiated needs of each person, family and community.”

ACTIVITIES •

Empowering children, families and communities in central Vietnam to transform their lives and livelihoods and lead their own development.

•

Supporting families to generate income through raising livestock and growing vegetables.

•

Improving children’s health and safety through providing bike helmets, learn to swim programs, clean drinking water in schools, mobility aids and life-saving heart surgeries.

STORY We met Nghia in mid-2023. She and her husband were struggling to make ends meet and provide for their four young children. Through our income generating activities, the couple received a cow to supplement their income.

Just months later, tragedy struck with Nghia’s husband killed instantly in a motorbike accident. The cow was now their only source of income. Support from our generous donors allowed us to provide Nghia with a second calf so she could double her income. With the recent birth of a calf, Nghia is now raising three cows which is helping build a strong and secure flow of income for the family.

PLEASE PRAY FOR •

Health, joy and growth in body, soul and spirit for us and our family, and for our team and their families.

•

An overflow of practical, yet powerful, opportunities to connect with and reach people in need. Plus the resources to do it!

PARTNER OR LEARN MORE

RELI

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

AOG WORLD IEF VIETNAM

KELVIN AND R EBEKAH WIND S OR VIETNAM

EDUCATION

HELPKID ALIS ON AND NAR EL ATKINS ON SRI LANKA

DS

“HelpKids impacts and uplifts the lives of children through education, keeping children in families where they belong and giving them a hope and a future.”

ACTIVITIES •

Offering early education and after school tuition to low-income families in Colombo, as well as educational scholarships and life-skills programs, through the HelpKids Education Centre.

•

Providing water filters, solar lights, home garden equipment and chickens to families in need (Project Hope).

•

Supporting residential children’s homes throughout Sri Lanka to shift their focus to family reunification, while also supporting the wellbeing of full-time carers of the children in these homes (Kinnected).

STORY In Sri Lanka, there is considerable stigma around disability and many children with disability are excluded from preschool. Roshan* was rejected by many local preschools due to having autism spectrum disorder. When he started coming to the HelpKids Centre he had no understandable language, didn’t make eye contact and couldn’t follow directions. Over the course of a year at the centre, he developed his language and social communication skills and now loves attending school and playing with other children. Staff also helped his father get medical attention for untreated mental health issues which has made a positive difference for Roshan and his family. *Name changed to protect privacy

PLEASE PRAY FOR •

Good health, protection and provision for our HelpKids team, and the children and families we serve – particularly as Sri Lanka’s economy continues to struggle.

•

God’s provision over all our projects, especially the HelpKids Centre; that it will continue to impact, strengthen and transform the lives of children in our community.

PARTNER OR LEARN MORE

EDUCATION

LESOTHO

SEPHEO J O SH AND BELINDA GR OVE S Lesotho

O

“Ten years of working with the most rejected children has proven to us that no child is too far gone. We will never stop searching for the impossible ones because we know that if we can just get a child to Sepheo they will find life and they will transform.”

ACTIVITIES •

Identifying and supporting children and young people living and begging on the streets of Lesotho’s capital Maseru.

•

Working with government and other partners to trace relatives and find the best home environment for children to return to.

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Operating Sepheo School, which provides a supportive environment for street-connected children to catch up on years of missed education.

STORY The first time we met Puseletso*, aged 13, he was living on the streets, dirty and high on drugs. We learnt Puseletso and his siblings were sleeping in caves on the outskirts of town. Their mother struggled with her own personal trauma and addictions and often had boyfriends over. The children said home didn’t feel safe. Over time we were able to enrol Puseletso and one of his siblings in Sepheo School and provide coaching and mental health support for his mum so she could look after them. The children are now permanently living at home and happily attending school. *Name changed to protect privacy

PLEASE PRAY FOR •

God’s protection for staff who have to confront perpetrators of abuse and fight to protect children in highly dangerous situations.

•

Mental and physical wellbeing, and God’s continued guidance, for everyone involved in Sepheo.

PARTNER OR LEARN MORE

“Mental health should not have the power to create social and financial poverty for families already struggling with lack of understanding and resources.”

ACTIVITIES •

Facilitating mental health courses and awareness training for workplaces as well as academic and home environments.

•

Helping those with mental illness return to study or work and live in recovery.

•

Running conversational English clubs.

STORY University student Linh* was struggling with depression and reeling from a relationship breakdown when she attended a course run through CapacityVietnam’s Better Mental Health Project. She says the ‘Becoming an Emotional First Aider’ training gave her practical tools to build resilience and improve her mental health. Since attending the course, she has also applied the principles to support friends and classmates facing mental health challenges. She is now committed to being an ‘emotional first aider’ for others. *Name changed to protect privacy

PLEASE PRAY FOR •

Connections with the community and relationships with local and national mental health authorities to help move mental health forward in Vietnam.

•

Health, strength and wisdom for CapacityVietnam staff as they work in this pioneer field in Vietnam.

PARTNER OR LEARN MORE

CA V

MENTAL HEALTH

APACITY VIETNAM MICHAEL AND R HIANON WALL S

VIETNAM

We believe God is calling the next generation of Field Workers to help take the gospel to all parts of the world.

Our intern program is designed to help people grow in the call of God on their lives, while assisting them to better understand the mission field.

ACCI INTERNS: •

Spend 3-6 months on the field, working alongside an experienced ACCI Field Worker.

•

Complete ACCI’s Intercultural Ministry Competence Course, to grow their cross-cultural understanding.

•

Receive coaching from ACCI staff as they consider what God might be calling them to after their internship.

“THE INTERNSHIP GAVE ME A TASTE OF WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO SERVE LONG-TERM ON THE FIELD AND DEEPENED MY HEART FOR UNREACHED NATIONS. WITNESSING HOW GOD IS WORKING ALL OVER THE EARTH WAS TRULY INSPIRING AND SIGNIFICANTLY ENLARGED MY HEART AND MIND.” Amy Battocchio Former ACCI intern who’s now serving fulltime in Nagasaki, Japan Find out more at acci.org.au/go

ACCI INTERN PROGRAM

ACCI Interns, Sydney Airport

Operation Uganda, Uganda

Support Kingdom Projects Did you know you can help ACCI Field Workers and Partners with one-off projects?

For example, you or your church could help: •

Buy sound equipment for a church in Japan;

•

Build a playground for an early learning centre in Uganda;

•

Educate refugee children in Thailand; or

•

Broadcast the gospel to unreached people groups throughout Asia.

Check out ACCI’s new podcast and blog Want to get the sound of missions in your ears?

Subscribe to ACCI’s ‘One Life at a Time’ podcast for regular reflections on scripture, community development, church planting and cross-cultural communication.

If you’re short on time, head to our blog for a summary of these conversations.

Head to our Kingdom Projects page to find the need you can help meet today!

PODCAST BLOG

The Together Co, Cambodia

Become a OneLife partner and help fuel the growth of global missions

Is God calling you – or someone you know – to missions?

OneLife partners provide vital support for the growth of missions around the world, through supporting the day-to-day running of ACCI.

ACCI’s Intercultural Ministry Competence course is designed to prepare people just like you for life in the field.

OneLife funds enable us to: •

Staff our operations centre with skilled and passionate team members;

•

Provide practical assistance and advice to field workers; and

•

Help ensure Australian churches have the best possible impact with their missions giving.

If your church shares the vision of changing our world one life at a time, we encourage you to become a OneLife partner.

The course combines academic and Biblical principles with practical field experience. It’s delivered completely online, and you work through it at your own pace.

IMC IS FOR: •

Current and aspiring Field Workers

•

Missions pastors

•

Emerging leaders Position yourself for effective cross-cultural ministry. Sign up today!

PRAY. GIVE. GO.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

PRAY We believe in the power of prayer!

Join us in prayer for: •

Missions: Pray for our Field Workers and their families, as they preach the gospel, plant churches, train leaders and disciple those around them.

•

Relief efforts: Pray for our workers and their families as they seek to empower and support people in need.

•

Australian churches: Thank God for the many Australian Christian Churches – like yours – that are passionate about missions and relief.

Pray that their heart for the nations would continue to grow!

Remember, you can stay up to date with all the latest prayer needs and praise reports from the field by joining our prayer mailing list.

Visit acci.org.au/pray to sign up today.

GIVE Your generosity makes all of this life-changing missions and relief work possible!

From church planters to social workers, school teachers to street evangelists, all ACCI workers depend on support to do what they do.

Visit acci.org.au/give to learn how you can support the incredible men and women following Jesus’ call to disciple the nations.

GO Going on a short-term missions trip is a great way to see the work you care about up close and deepen your passion for missions.

If you’re not already running trips through your church, contact us to see how we can help. And if you feel called to work overseas, we can help with that too – including through internships and intercultural training.

Visit acci.org.au/go to learn more

Sensitive Country

W E SE E A W O R LD W C AN H E A R T HE G O SP T H E F U LLNE S S OF LI

WHER E A LL PE O PLE PEL AND E X PE R I E NC E IF E JE S U S I NTE ND S.

acci.org.au