IMPACT REPORT April 2022
ЧУДО КАЖДОГ 2
ГО ДНЯ
Do you know what the text means? It’s Russian for A Miracle Every Day. And we are believing for a miracle in the midst of the war with Ukraine.
“In the midst of despair, Steve shares testimonies of hope.” Steve Weber is the writer of the Russian version of A Miracle Every Day. He and his wife Kristi have lived in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, for over 27 years. They raised their family of six children in the Ukraine. In the midst of despair, Steve shares testimonies of hope. Stories of brave Christians who share the gospel in word and deed all over the country. People helping each other – providing food, shelter, transportation and documents. “Ukrainians are teaching the Western world that remembering the name of the Lord our God is, in reality, true hope and true life!” To encourage Ukrainians, Jesus.net has decided to speed up the launch for the Ukrainian version of A Miracle Every Day. Steve and his team are passionate about reaching more Ukrainian people with God’s Word. This is the miracle of A Miracle Every Day. Words of encouragement can reach those in the heart of the conflict on their phone or laptop – not just in the Ukraine but also in Russia. You can follow Steve’s updates here.
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Getting Personal
with Jan-Willem Bosman
Jesus.net is a safe space for anyone to discover Jesus. In order to understand its size, scope, and impact, we took time to interview co-founder and CEO Jan-Willem Bosman. Jesus.net has been in existence for over a decade. Wow! Can you talk about how it began? Jesus.net has always been a collaborative endeavor. Back in 2005, I was working with several other European organizations – Swiss, French and Polish groups. Together we began to see the possibility of creating a centralized, guided journey toward Christ in multiple languages. In July 2009, Jesus.net began to serve as the central hub for all our content, but it was operated on a volunteer basis. In 2016, we decided to step out in faith and come on board full-time. Jesus.net is still a collaborative organization built on trust and friendship, not a top-down structure. But today we have over 100 partners sharing the gospel using Jesus.net resources. What have been some of the challenges in developing an online ministry? “There are many challenges – but I like the challenges.” In the early years, we really had to work at convincing people that online ministry was important. Until a few years ago, people thought that doing “virtual evangelism” was not real ministry. It was only when the pandemic hit, that they began to see that is not the case. They are on a spiritual journey. We want to guide them step by step towards Jesus. First, we want to give people access to the gospel by connecting their search to the Bible. Then we help them get to know Jesus. About his life, his message, and salvation. When people know the basics, they can start to grow in faith and deepen their relationship with Jesus and God. And we encourage and help them to share the gospel with others. An obvious challenge that has affected so many of us is COVID-19. How has it affected Jesus.net? Within the first few months of the pandemic, we lost 20%
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of our annual funding. This was obviously a struggle, but it ultimately caused us to rethink things. We began to ask those who were part of the ministry – especially those receiving A Miracle Every Day – to help. They have blessed us with generous support! In a matter of weeks, the world was almost completely reliant on the internet for social activity, work, and ministry. Online traffic almost doubled within the first two months. People were searching for answers and Jesus. net was providing answers and encouragement. Churches were also stuck trying to figure out how to move their services and ministries online, and we were in the perfect position to help them. Can you let us know more about yourself – about your family, your passions, and what prepared you for this role in Jesus.net? I was born and raised in the Netherlands in a traditional Dutch Reformed church. I met my wife, Marjon, within the church, and together we have four sons – now all adults. I studied engineering at the University of Delft and worked for a decade in telecom operations. While working in the IT market I had an encounter with God and felt a call to move into Christian broadcasting. In 2009 I had another major encounter with God where I felt the call to become an internet evangelist. At first, I really struggled with this, but even before I took a step of faith, I had three separate people ask me, unprompted if I was an internet evangelist. So, I was encouraged to step into this calling. What do you like to do outside of your role with Jesus. net? Outside of work, we love to indulge in anything having to do with the outdoors. I love sports, watching and playing soccer, ice skating in the canals when they freeze over in winter, and holidays in the mountains camping and hiking. I also like to run, and I do half marathons and marathons. But even more than that, I have a passion for sharing Jesus.
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How have you witnessed Jesus.net grow in the last few years? How is that growth impacting outreach? What tools are you most excited about expanding? I’m really excited about the future! There is so much to do. The Life of Jesus is a three-hour word-for-word movie of the Gospel of John. In 2016 a friend approached me at a conference and said, “A businessman I know bought a movie and wants to show it to millions of people.” The rest of the conference we spent brainstorming ways to share the movie in an innovative way. One of the first things we did was to change the title from “The Gospel of John” to The Life of Jesus. Then we cut it into a mini-series of eight episodes because someone might not sit down for a three-hour movie, but they’ll watch a series. Later, we cut it into twenty-one “chapters” and put it on YouTube. We also divided it into clips and even created a viewer that lets you choose what verses you want to watch. Now it has been translated into over thirty languages! In 2021 alone, The Life of Jesus has had over 105 million views with 50 million more just this January! We are working to stay interactive with the audience on as many platforms as possible and lead them to take steps toward Jesus and become his followers. A Miracle Every Day is growing too. When Eric [Celerier] felt convicted that by sharing personal stories and mistakes we could witness to others, at first, I didn’t think the idea was very innovative. But people really felt it was a very personal approach. Now more than 800,000 people have received A Miracle Every Day emails, and they are being sent out in twenty different languages daily. Are you witnessing a tangible impact in individuals’ lives? Can you share a few stories? It is [my] reason to get out of bed. We are seeing 4,0006,000 people visiting our site daily and we receive personal testimonies from all over the world. One woman told us she had completed all of the steps to commit suicide, but right before, she went to our site and chose not to do it. Now she is one of the e-coaches on the website. Another woman who started out receiving A Miracle Every Day asked if she could volunteer to translate it into her own language. Now she is stepping into that role as a full-time missionary. So we are seeing the fruit of our labor in one way or another every single day. What’s Next for Jesus.net? By 2025 our goal is to have reached over 500 million people in 53 total languages with the Life of Jesus and A Miracle Every Day. I also have a vision for more online coaches and for more innovation that will help make Jesus.net personal for each person who comes to us. I also believe that Jesus.net can bring people the gospel in their first or second language and ultimately reach 99.9% of the next generation online.
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How can you help achieve this vision? Great question! We have a prayer network of over 17,000 people that pray weekly for the needs of readers, and you are welcome to join this army. We are also looking for more online e-coaches to answer people’s questions and for translators. If you feel empowered to share your time and talent in this way, please let us know. And last, but certainly not least, we are active and effective because God provides financially through friends like you. The story of Jan-Willem Bosman and the birth of Jesus.net is truly inspiring. His heart is clearly present in every aspect of this ministry. Jesus is the reason, the motivation, and the outcome.
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O U R IMPACT IS GROWING! The three fastest-growing A Miracle Every Day languages this year:
4,988
Spanish
English
126,607
69,398
Portugese
39,874
...subscribers to the Russian A Miracle Every Day!
TESTIMONIES
“A Miracle Every Day is my spiritual guide. It helps me a lot in my personal, professional, work and financial life. My faith increases and I feel accompanied through his impartations with the Almighty Word of God.”
- Spanish reader from Peru
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“Every morning I listen to A Miracle Every Day. The words really keep me going and have opened my eyes to my own relationship with Jesus. I realized I needed to recommit my life to Him.”
- Reader from the USA
“I lost my wife to cancer last year. My daughters and I miss her terribly. But it is such a comfort knowing that in the last months of her life, she found great comfort in A Miracle Every Day. Even though we didn’t get our miraculous healing, the emails made the greatest difference. For her and for me.”
- Reader from Germany
People in Ukraine and Russia are already connected to Jesus.net through online courses to learn about Jesus!
855
1,355
...subscribers to Russian Jesus.net courses!
...subscribers to Ukrainian Jesus.net courses!
+5,000
6,922,830
Our prayer network has grown from 13,000 to 17,000 since last November!
This is the number of emails we send out to encourage people daily!
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