2016 Revive Our Hearts Ministry Report

2016 Ministry Report

DO NOT LET YOUR ADORNING BE EXTERNAL —THE BRAIDING OF HAIR AND THE PUTTING ON OF GOLD JEWELRY, OR THE CLOTHING YOU WEAR— BUT LET YOUR ADORNING BE THE HIDDEN PERSON OF THE HEART WITH THE IMPERISHABLE BEAUTY OF A GENTLE AND QUIET SPIRIT, WHICH IN GOD’S SIGHT IS VERY PRECIOUS.

1 PETER 3:3–4

Dear Ministry Partner, Just about one year ago on November 14, I spent more hours than normal on my makeup and hair, getting my nails done, and putting on a beautiful new dress and sparkly shoes. I got more dressed-up than I had ever been in my life. So why did I go to so much trouble?

I’ll tell you why—it was my wedding day. And I wanted to be adorned—beautiful, ready for my bridegroom. I wanted to bring Robert joy, just as his love brought me joy and made me feel beautiful.

When we are adorned with another’s love, we develop a greater capacity to reflect love and beauty to others. God has placed us here on earth as ambassadors of the gospel of Christ. We are called to make His love and truth believable and beautiful to others.

And that’s exactly what we’re seeking to do through the ministry of Revive Our Hearts.

What a joy it has been to partner with you in another year of shining a spotlight on Christ. We give thanks for every heart that has been touched, every life that has been transformed, every family and relationship that has been restored—all as a result of Christ’s amazing work on the cross and the beauty of the gospel. I trust you will be encouraged by this report as you see how He has been at work through the various outreaches of Revive Our Hearts.

May even more women be inspired to “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior” (Titus 2:10) in the year ahead—as we let the beauty of Christ shine through us . . . together.

Gratefully,

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth

Living Out the Beauty of the Gospel |

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FOR THE LORD TAKES PLEASURE IN HIS PEOPLE; HE WILL BEAUTIFY THE HUMBLE WITH SALVATION.

PSALM 149:4 NKJV

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YI’S STORY hen Yi Zhao first came to the United States nine years ago, she never imagined God would work such a dramatic transformation in her life. In fact, she didn’t believe God existed.

Raised in Communist China by atheist parents, Yi reached adulthood without any knowledge of God. When her husband took a job in Houston, Texas, Yi found herself living in a small apartment with few friends and limited English. She spent the majority of the next four years inside that apartment with her toddler until a friend invited her to a nearby church.

There, for the first time in her life, Yi experienced the love and kindness of the Body of Christ. This warm reception intrigued her, so she returned the following week . . . and the week after.

Soon Yi was making friends at church and within her apartment complex. One particular friend introduced her to Revive Our Hearts where Yi found the transcripts for each day’s program. For three months, Yi read and listened day after day, program after program, improving both her English and her understanding of God. Meanwhile her strained relationship with her husband was worsening. Yi was on the brink of a divorce when this same friend read to her passages in the Bible about marriage and the role of a wife. Reading those verses opened Yi’s eyes to her own faults, and for the first time in her life Yi realized she was a sinner and

Christ was the answer. She was so broken. No longer did she blame all her marriage troubles on her husband but humbly confessed her own failures and asked her husband’s forgiveness.

This sudden and complete change in Yi baffled her husband. Not knowing what to make of it all, he began attending church with her to find out. He now wants to be baptized as well.

In the meantime, Yi continued to grow in her love for God by daily reading His Word. While her English was much improved, she was now looking for motivation to exercise, so once again Revive Our Hearts became the means of fulfilling a practical goal. In November of 2014, Yi bought a treadmill and began walking while listening to the podcast. She hasn’t missed a day since.

Her initial desire to lose weight has morphed into a desire to gain wisdom.

This same hunger for God’s Word is what she prays her family will find. Yi may no longer be a communist atheist in search of community, but her heart longs for her family and friends in China who are. Her prayer is that they will also have the opportunity to come to know and love God and to experience—as she has—the beauty of the gospel lived out among the family of God.

Our super-connected world has opened up unprecedented opportunities to speak to women across the globe. Your support of Revive Our Hearts is helping the ministry take those opportunities. You’re helping women discover the beauty of the gospel for the first time.

Living Out the Beauty of the Gospel |

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“THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD GOD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE THE LORD HAS ANOINTED ME TO PREACH GOOD TIDINGS TO THE POOR . . .

TO GIVE THEM BEAUTY FOR ASHES.”

ISAIAH 61:1,3 NKJV

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JEAN’S STORY rowing up in a devout Jewish family, Jean never tasted a cheeseburger nor God’s grace. After asking her mom about the Jesus kids mentioned at school, her mother answered with a slap across the face, telling her to never speak the name of Jesus in the house again.

In college, Jean did her best to be a good Jew and adhere to the strict dietary laws . . . but she fell in love with BLTs. When she shared with the campus chaplain her fear of being struck dead because of this disobedience, he assured her that as long as she believed God still loved her, she could do whatever she wanted.

So she did. For years she led a promiscuous lifestyle, had two abortions, and became known as one of the on-campus facilitators of back-alley abortions.

“When Roe v. Wade passed,” Jean recounts, “I cheered. I was super active in the women’s lib movement, and that was my life dream I’d been working for.”

After a failed marriage, Jean looked for happiness in her second husband, their thriving business, and her lovely son. Yet with all that, there remained a gnawing emptiness inside.

In an effort to make friends, Jean asked her husband if they could start attending the Methodist church down the corner. Before long, they were in a private Bible study with the pastor, reading the Old and New

Testaments together. Jean marveled at how entirely different Jesus was from what she had heard. She asked Christ to save her, and suddenly the hollow feeling Jean had tried to fill with drugs, relationships, and religion was gone.

Still, for a long time Jean thought her past sins were too much for God to forgive. “I don’t want to even think how many little babies’ deaths I was responsible for,” she admitted.

Then a woman invited Jean to attend a True Woman Conference in 2010, and—in Jean’s words—“my life was changed forever.” Jean learned what it meant to be a biblical woman, and she finally understood how God wanted to use her. Rather than regretting or blaming God for the years wasted, Jean uses Revive Our Hearts resources coupled with her own life experiences to teach women’s Bible studies and to mentor drug and alcohol addicts and women who have had abortions.

Though she finds fulfillment in helping women avoid the same mistakes she made, her ultimate pleasure is in seeing these ladies grasp the loveliness of Christ in living out the gospel.

Women everywhere are living in bondage, guilt, and condemnation. Your support is helping Revive Our Hearts show women like Jean how the beauty of the gospel can lead them to freedom.

Living Out the Beauty of the Gospel |

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HE HAS MADE EVERYTHING BEAUTIFUL IN ITS TIME.

ECCLESIASTES 3:11

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BETH’S STORY hat mother could ever fathom she’d one day visit her own child in federal prison? And yet here Beth was making the weekly four-hour drive with her husband to see their nineteen-year-old son, Greg.

For nine years straight, Beth listened to Revive Our Hearts programs on these long drives. The truth she heard kept her grounded in her faith in God in the midst of those difficult days. On one particularly hard trip, God used a message of Nancy’s from Esther to speak to Beth and comfort her heart.

“I [was] reminded that God is bigger than all this,” Beth recalls. She realized she didn’t have to let her current trials and difficult circumstances consume her.

God was in this, and He had a plan for her, for Greg, and for her whole family.

In God’s perfect timing, the prison bars around Greg’s heart were severed. He not only surrendered himself to the Lord, he then began leading praise and worship within the prison. Even in this new state of joy, Greg confided to his mom that he grieved the thought of never getting married. “Who would want me?” he asked. But just as God used Nancy’s message to encourage Beth, Greg was encouraged by Beth’s reminder to him that God had a plan.

During this time, Beth began mentoring a younger woman named Lauren. Through True Woman 101 and Revive Our Hearts podcasts, Lauren learned about biblical womanhood, marriage, and mothering in a way she had never before seen modeled.

In a story that only God could bring about, the young friend Beth had been mentoring later became Greg’s wife. Today, they have a beautiful marriage and just welcomed into the world their firstborn son, Zakari, whose name means, “God has been gracious.” Truly God has lavished on them His amazing, redeeming grace.

God used Revive Our Hearts to sustain Beth as her family faced a time of great trial and to prepare Lauren to become a passionate, truth-seeking woman, wife, and mother. Now Lauren is leading other women like herself through True Woman 101. “I’m just so blessed,” she says, “to be able to lead other women through this same study, sharing God’s truth with them.”

When women walk through fiery trials, Revive Our Hearts is there to remind them of truth they can hold on to. Your support helps make that possible. You are pointing women to the God who creates beauty from the ashes and broken pieces of our lives.

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LET US REJOICE AND EXULT, AND GIVE HIM THE GLORY, FOR THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB HAS COME, AND HIS BRIDE HAS MADE HERSELF READY; IT WAS GRANTED HER TO CLOTHE HERSELF WITH FINE LINEN, BRIGHT AND PURE.

REVELATION 19:7–8

ONLINE

70% 70%: The number of web users in Latin America who access our sites via mobile devices.

Social media followers have more than doubled in the last two years to more than 326,000.

I heard about the 30-Day Bible Reading Challenge and felt I should take it. I am so glad I did, because it was just what I needed to get catapulted into a regular devotional time.

4,900: The number of emails and blog comments the Revive Our Hearts team personally responded to in 2016.

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| Revive Our Hearts 2016 Ministry Report

The Lies Young Women Believe blog has gotten me through such hard times.

I’m always able to find a topic that I’m struggling with, and it encourages me and points me to Christ. Thank you!

55, 996: Twitter followers (as of September 2016).

60%: Number of web users who access our sites via mobile devices (compared to 17% five years ago).

270, 699: Facebook followers (as of September 2016).

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million 2 million: The number of visits to our Spanish website last year (with the most visits coming from Mexico).

8 million: Number of visits to Revive Our Hearts websites in 2016.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve taken my phone, clicked on the Revive Our Hearts app, and gotten a dose of encouragement and truth while doing things around my house—even while taking my shower in the morning—to focus on who God is instead of my circumstances.

BROA

DCASTING

780 780: The number of audio programs produced each year for release on radio and online (Revive Our Hearts, Seeking Him, Aviva Nuestros Corazones).

I’m thankful I found Revive Our Hearts. This program has strengthened, encouraged, affirmed, and helped me beyond what I can describe.

This ministry has helped me greatly in my walk with the Lord. I cannot express it in words. I’m just so thankful for all the hard work that goes into each broadcast. I’ve listened every day for the last eighteen years or so—most of my life!

Revive Our Hearts just celebrated our fifteenth anniversary—that’s almost 4,000 half-hour English programs aired since 2001!

1,887: The number of times each weekday one of Revive Our Hearts programs is heard via radio.

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| Revive Our Hearts 2016 Ministry Report

1,042: The number of unique radio outlets airing Revive Our Hearts programs.

Nancy, through you, Jesus has taught me what my mother never did about love and marriage. I love you!

I don’t have the words to express how thankful I am for Revive Our Hearts and what a daily blessing it is. I found myself today in a ‘down’ mood and, as usual, Revive Our Hearts was there to snap me out of it.

EVENTS

& W O M E N ’ S M I N I S T R Y L E A D E R I N I T I AT I V E S

2,229: The number of women who receive the bi-weekly Leader Connection email.

Thank you for all you do!

Revive Our Hearts is making a difference for us leaders in the trenches!

I’m a pastor’s wife who came to the conference totally empty and depressed.

Through the conference I have been renewed as a wife, mom, and minister of the gospel. Thank you!

49,000 49,000: The number of women who have attended a True Woman or Revive Leadership Conference since 2008, with tens of thousands more participating via LIVE stream.

Over 200,000: The estimated number of LIVE stream users, from 101 countries, who participated in Cry Out! ’16, a nationwide prayer event for women held September 23, 2016.

Even after we shut down [the simulcast] for the night, the Holy Spirit was still alive and moving in that place.

Eighteen young students asked to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior.

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| Revive Our Hearts 2016 Ministry Report

More than 2,200—The number of women’s ministry leaders personally contacted and prayed for by our Revive Our Hearts Ambassadors in the last year.

Over 7,000 women attended True Woman ’16 in September to hear from Nancy, Mary Kassian, Dr. Russell Moore, and others.

God is getting me back on my knees in prayer in a more meaningful, powerful, focused way, and [I’m] moving forward in brokenness with the ‘roof off and walls down’!

Friday night’s Cry Out! simulcast was the most phenomenal thing I’ve ever experienced in my thirtyeight years as a believer!

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S & RESOURCE K O O S

900k Lies Women Believe has sold over 900,000 copies since its release in 2001.

70,000: The number of True Woman imprint books sold.

Our group of (American) military spouses stationed in Germany just finished the True Woman 101 study, and the women are on fire! I am excited about sharing these valuable, life-changing lessons with my friends and family in my native Colombia.

120: Number of videos produced by our video team last year.

Nancy, you and your ministry have changed my life. My husband often says if he ever gets to meet you, he’s going to give you the biggest hug in the world because of what your teaching has done for our marriage!

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| Revive Our Hearts 2016 Ministry Report

Lies Women Believe is lifechanging. I need to read and re-read it for the rest of my life!

In sixteen years, Nancy has produced eighteen books with over three million copies sold.

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2 new resources released: My Personal Petitions Prayer Journal and The Lord’s Prayer: A 30-Day Devotional.

of Nancy’s book royalties are donated to Revive Our Hearts. ($2.4 million has been invested back into direct ministry since 2000.)

6 titles refreshed for a new generation: Portrait of a Woman Used by God, Biblical Portrait of Womanhood, Becoming a Woman of Discretion, Singled Out for Him, The Power of Words, and The Look.

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evive Our Hearts produces programming, events, and resources focused on heart revival and biblical womanhood, providing fresh content on a daily basis to our increasing number of viewers, listeners, and readers.

God is graciously giving us opportunities to minister to wives, mothers, teenagers, women’s ministry leaders, inmates, and others—women who are spreading the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ all around the world. Just this year, we began to officially operate as a non-profit entity in South Africa.

Providing these ministries requires ongoing investment into people, technology, and support services. We are currently a staff of fifty-eight (fulltime and part-time). Your investments into Revive Our Hearts make it possible for us to provide our audio and digital content worldwide—without charge—to touch the lives of as many as possible. Thank you!

How Revive Our Hearts was funded this past year:

How money was spent at Revive Our Hearts this past year: Operations/ Administration

Conferences

Fundraising/ Ministry Partner Engagement

Resource Sales

7%

7% 11%

82%

84%

Donations

28

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| Revive Our Hearts 2016 Ministry Report

Ministry Outreach (Websites, Radio, Conferences, Resources, International, Ministry Communication, and More)

2017

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Release Adorned: Living Out the Beauty of the Gospel Together in February, a new book on being a Titus 2 woman from Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth.

Host Mujer Verdadera ’17 (True Woman) Conference in Queretaro, Mexico in March. We anticipate a sold-out event with 5,000 women attending from all over Latin America.

Release our first original language work in Spanish in March, a 200-page book on the True Woman Movement written by members of our Aviva Nuestros Corazones staff.

Host Revive ’17 in September, a conference for women’s ministry leaders with the content built around Nancy’s new book, Adorned. We expect 3,000 attendees.

Grow social media followers from 275,000 to 400,000 and increase the number of visits to our websites by 30% or more.

Continue to deliver digital content in a global, mobilefriendly manner. Women access our content from every part of the world, and over 60% of our web visits are via mobile phone (up from just 17% five years ago).

Prepare and record hundreds of new, oneminute Seeking Him audio features, and grow our podcast audience.

Add more Ambassadors worldwide, and increase the number of women’s ministry leaders connecting with us.

Deepen connections and content in Portuguese and Farsi. Expand into other languages as the Lord raises up champions in other cultures.

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As ambassadors of Christ, we are called to make His love and truth believable and beautiful to others.

k n y a o h u T for partnering with Revive Our Hearts as we call women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ. We wouldn’t be able to continue our current outreaches or maximize the opportunities the Lord has brought before us without your prayers and financial support.

May the beauty of the gospel be seen in you today and in the coming year!

Revive Our Hearts P.O. Box 2000 Niles, MI 49120

(800) 569-5959 www.ReviveOurHearts.com | www.TrueWoman.com

Revive Our Hearts is an outreach of Life Action Ministries