A Cinderella Story
When Daniel* arrived in the Latin American city, it seemed spiritually dead. But Daniel was intent on following God’s lead. As a missionary with a native ministry, he would serve as the Holy Spirit directed, visit with those who welcomed him, and pray for those who did not. His task would not be easy, or so he thought. But he was ready and eager to share the gospel through whatever windows the Lord opened.
He began his work as humbly as he lived his life: by inviting others into his home. As the days passed, he faithfully led a small Bible study there, and soon, word of his presence spread. “God began to work,” the ministry leader said. “Something was happening.”
One evening, the Bible study lasted until 11 p.m. People did not want to leave. This became a regular occurrence and, eventually, people wanted to be baptized. Then, the new believers began to hold prayer vigils, and, from across the city, people came. They shuffled from their work and their homes, carrying their addictions and sorrows with them to this place that was filled with the Holy Spirit. “Alcoholics in the city heard about a place where people were rehabilitated and healed and they began to arrive,” the ministry leader said.
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A Cinderella Story
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So many people packed into the small home each week that Daniel opened two new preaching locations. Every week, he baptized people, and each month, more people volunteered to open their own homes to new Bible studies. “There is a revival in this city,” Daniel said. “There is an anointing on the services. There are times when I go to bed at one in the morning and then get up and have the house full of people hungry for the message of salvation.”
Through Daniel’s missional heart, God had turned the city upside down. This small, simple fellowship had suddenly become a literal representation of Matthew chapter five:
“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.” (Matthew 5:14-15)
Now, the ministry reports that it is common to see new believers sharing the gospel on street corners across the city. “God walks through the streets,” the ministry leader said. “He brought new life to a city that seemed dead.”
Missionaries like Daniel go where they are called, and they trust God will provide for their needs. This means that, often, they survive on food given to them by others. Sometimes they preach in bare feet. One missionary once rented a pair of pants before he preached at an evangelism event. “Most live without necessities others take for granted, such as shoes, soap, and good clothing,” a ministry leader said. “Even as they work to reach the country’s poorest, missionaries struggle to provide for themselves and their families.”
These humble workers serve the Lord with gladness, even when their clothes are torn or their stomachs are empty. They trust in God’s provision as they bring others into His kingdom. And with your support, they persevere in their work, transforming communities and towns and villages across the world in Christ’s name.
Silence Is Not an Option
For a moment in time—when a democratically elected president stood at Myanmar’s helm—a generation of young adults hoped life would be different than it had been for the generations that came before them. But in February 2021, when that same president was overthrown in a military coup, that dream shattered.
Now, villages and towns across Myanmar stand empty—flattened in air raids or destroyed by battles between the country’s military and resistance fighters. Roads are so heavily bombed or guarded that they are impossible to navigate. The internet and electricity rarely work. And the generation of young adults who once saw a glimmer of a different future find themselves drowning in a life they never expected, forced to make choices they never imagined they would have to make.
*Name changed for security
In February of this year, the military activated a long-standing conscription law that makes men ages 18 to 35 and women ages 18 to 27
subject to two years of military service in an effort to regain ground lost to resistance fighters. Among those whose names were recently called is that of a pastor and father of a young family who serves with a native ministry in the central part of the country. “His deployment is imminent, and he may be ordered to leave for his assignment at any time,” the ministry leader said.
But other potential draftees—an estimated tens of thousands, in fact—have fled the country every month since the law’s activation to avoid being drafted into a war they don’t want to fight. Others chose to join the resistance. And many more now hide in remote jungle regions, joining men, women, and children who were forced to run for their lives as soldiers advanced on their homes.
The United Nations estimates that more than 3 million of the country’s 55 million people have now been displaced because of the conflict. Approximately 18.6 million need humanitarian assistance. “We’ve also received reports of shooting at unarmed fleeing villagers,” James Rodehaver, team leader for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a UN report. “We have confirmed at least four cases of beheadings and multiple enforced disappearances of individuals, as well as several villages and homes that have been burned.”
Like the young pastor who will be forced to fight, many other native missionaries are not immune to the nightmare of this
seemingly never-ending war. “Myanmar is a living hell,” a ministry leader said. “We humbly request your ongoing prayers during these trying times.”
Despite what seems like an impossible situation, however, these missionaries continue to do the Lord’s work. And with the increasing displacement of more people fleeing the conscription law, that outreach has become even more important. “It might seem like an unfavorable time for ministry, but we felt compelled not to remain silent,” a ministry leader said. “We actively sought and created opportunities to engage in ministry.”
Missionaries forced to flee their own homes evangelize and hold worship meetings among other displaced people in their jungle sanctuary. Some teach school to the displaced children, even providing final examinations to students. Others continue with the risky distribution of Bibles, using smugglers’ routes to carry Scripture to people in desperate need of hope. “Fleeing to China because of the civil war, I worked as a home-maid with tears as my constant companion,” one refugee said. “Receiving the Bible was transformative; reading it daily has given me peace and reassurance of my salvation, and it has helped me overcome depression.”
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Myanmar is a living hell. We humbly request your ongoing prayers during these trying times.
African Inmates Transformed by Gospel Message
In a prison filled with some of Africa’s most violent criminals, the atmosphere was as unsettled as the air before a thunderstorm. The inmates were restless and unafraid, too hardened by their pasts and hopeless about their futures to care whether they caused any more harm. Here, life was nothing more than a waiting game with every one of the 166 inmates destined for execution.
But none of this intimidated the missionaries and their medical outreach team who gathered outside the prison gates one Sunday morning. They were excited at the opportunity to not only treat the sick, but also present the gospel.
“It doesn’t matter if men don’t need them anymore because of their wickedness,” the missions team leader said. “They must hear the gospel of life of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The missionary tasked with presenting the gospel spoke with confidence through the power of the Holy Spirit. And as he preached, something miraculous happened: men began to weep.
TO RICHES
As followers of Christ, we are all Cinderella stories. The Prince of Glory has taken us out of the poverty of our sinful state as enemies of God and transferred us into His kingdom. Adopted by our Father, we are now royalty and heirs of all the riches of God.
Now, we can move out into our world without fear of people’s rejection, knowing we stand confidently in God’s unchanging love for us, or fear of what they might do to us, knowing we are under God’s constant care, or even fear of death, knowing we’ll be instantly in His presence.
“It was the first time that we had experienced such a moment charged with emotions provoked by the power of God,” the missions leader said. “It was extraordinary!”
When the speaker concluded his message, an inmate raised his hand. “It is now that I have discovered my true state and have all the answers to the questions I have been asking myself unanswered for years,” he said. “After listening to this word, I now know where I am going.”
Thunderous applause erupted after the speaker’s final prayer, and the 120 Bibles the missionaries brought were not enough to meet demand.
After the main gathering, the inmates attended their medical consultations. “Now it is up to the medical brothers to lead the individual inmates to accept the Lord during the medical interview,” the missions leader said.
During a follow-up conversation with the prison warden the next day, the missions leader was once again in awe of God’s hand at work. According to the warden, many inmates had begun to read their new Bibles, and some even formed small groups to discuss the teaching they’d heard the previous day.
“The whole establishment is in a state of great joy,” the missions leader said. “He [the warden] did not know how to explain it to us. All our thanks go to our Lord Jesus Christ who blessed this work and crowned it with memorable success!”
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Knowing the Father’s perfect love for us casts out fear, and this is the reason native missionaries are able to boldly enter the scariest, darkest places in our world to share this transformative truth with others. Thank you for standing with them through your gifts and prayers.
David Bogosian President and CEO
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