However, believers in India are persevering in their Christian witness. And Global Disciples helps encourage these believers in ministry.

Global Disciples trains and equips indigenous Christian leaders (known as directors) around the world who then train local church planters to fulfill the Great Commission. These directors may occasionally go into church planting themselves, but they are primarily trainers for church planting, small business development, and leadership.

In India, Global Disciples recently had an Annual Equipping Event (AEE) to encourage and support the directors. Jon* with Global Disciples says these men and women have witnessed the increasing persecution in India. “Many of them know churches that have been closed down or pastors that have been imprisoned…. It’s something they live with on a daily basis and face the reality that they could be the next…church that’s closed down or pastor that’s imprisoned.”

(Photo and header photo courtesy of Global Disciples)

However, he reports, “I would say they encourage us! The conversations that I had with people there said, ‘Yes, persecution is increasing,’ and their response is sort of, ‘Bring it on. It will strengthen the Church. It will help us be more united as leaders. It will help us to focus more clearly on the mission of the Church and it will purify the Church.’

“So it is astounding to me. I would shrink from persecution or run backward. They seem to be presenting…a message they have for the Church in the West, and that is not to fear persecution. If God allows persecution, embrace it and know that God’s Kingdom will continue on in spite of man’s attempt to stop it.”

As Christian leaders who are then training and supporting Indian church planters in the face of increasing persecution, these indigenous directors need spiritual encouragement. That’s where Global Disciples’ AEE comes in.

Jon explains, “Our Annual Equipping Event is a time that we bring the persons that we are working with in different locations together for three days [for] a time of sharing with them, re-envisioning the work God has called us to do, building relationships — it’s an exciting time. I describe these as a cross between a family reunion and a conference because it’s really a time of coming together as friends, as brothers.”

Many of the training directors Global Disciples work with live in remote regions of India. The AEE may be the only chance they get to meet face-to-face and hear about the advance of the Gospel to the least-reached in their country.

“Again and again, directors tell us, ‘I was just about to give up. I was discouraged and tired, and I came here and I’m re-energized. I’m ready to go again and I’m ready to keep preaching the Gospel,’” shares Jon.

(Photo courtesy of Global Disciples)

“Several of the people that I talked with in India said, ‘Global Disciples gave our church a vision for the unreached. Before we were connected with Global Disciples, we were pretty much doing our own thing — you know, painting the church building and making a nice choir — but now we have a vision for reaching the least-reached.’”

Besides refueling a vision for the Great Commission in India, the AEE is also a time for directors to grow in their connection with God.

“One of the things we do in our AEEs is just give them personal time with God. Every morning after our devotional session, we send them out for 30 minutes just to be alone and listen to God. Then they come back and share what God has spoken to them and very often those words are confirmation to an individual of either God’s love for them, God’s care for their family, God’s call to them in mission, and they are encouraged and strengthened to carry on.”

Ultimately, Global Disciples values an ongoing relationship with the directors they train. And over the next several years that relationship is continued and deepened at AEEs.

“They go back then to their local churches and continue training and sending out workers or church planters. The leadership training that’s being done also through Global and the small business training all fuel the planting of churches in least-reached areas.”

Please be in prayer for these directors to continue throughout the rest of the year in the Holy Spirit’s encouragement and strength. Pray that the church planters they train will be effective witnesses for the Gospel to the least-reached in India.

Click here to learn more about Global Disciples’ ministry.

*Full name not given for security purposes.

Government officials estimate by the end of April, the city of Cape Town will run out of water — a day they are referring to as Day Zero.

Day Zero

The three-year drought is considered the worst South Africa has seen in over a century. If the water is depleted, Cape Town will be one of the few major cities in the modern world to run dry.

(Photo courtesy of Jouni Rajala via Unsplash)

Starting this month, Cape Town residents face hiked fines if they exceed their daily water rations, which dropped from 87 liters per person, per day to just 50 liters. But that daily limit would be slashed in half again after Day Zero. Officials are in a race against time to increase groundwater production and desalination plants.

Danie du Preez with Trans World Radio Africa (TWR) says, “If Day Zero comes, I think [we] will be praying for the people of Cape Town to really know how to handle the situation. People in Cape Town are not used to fetching water. There will be 200 water points in Cape Town for people to collect the minimum water per person, which will be 25 liters. So they will need to [carry] 25-liter cans, and they need to wait in queues to get water, go back home, and do that on a daily basis.”

The Most Vulnerable

State officials assure that if the city reaches Day Zero, schools, hospitals, and other critical businesses will still get piped water, but the amount will be severely scaled down.

A big concern is for those most vulnerable in the Cape Town metropole community — families living in rural areas, the elderly, and young kids.

“Many parents are concerned for the children. I know they are speaking of maybe sending children up to the north…where at least they will be there for a period of time until the situation gets better,” shares du Preez.

“I think the other big concern is where it could be possible that riots could break out for people not able to handle the pressure and the situation.”

Christians Gathering for Prayer

Christians in Cape Town have gathered throughout the past several months to pray for their community and for the Lord to send rain. The next large-scale prayer gathering called “It’s Time” will be on March 24th.

Du Preez explains, “The Body of Christ will gather and pray specifically for issues within Cape Town, but specifically for the weather situation and for the water crisis. All South African Christians are really trusting…for the Lord to come through. But I think the biggest concern is what will happen after Day Zero. And we trust the Lord Day Zero will never come, that he will intervene.”

“It’s Time” is organized by farmer evangelist Angus Buchan and promoted by other ministries. The location for the massive prayer gathering is yet to be determined. If you would like to stay up-to-date on the event, click here to go to the event’s page.

(Photo courtesy of TWR Africa via Facebook)

Meanwhile, TWR is taking this opportunity on their broadcasts in South Africa to interject hope into a distressing situation. Their ministry continues to share the truth of the Gospel and the eternal joy found in Christ, no matter the circumstances. Du Preez says TWR is also collaborating with other ministries in Cape Town to encourage the local Church in prayer and outreach as they approach Day Zero — and pray that it never comes.

“We work with our partners on the ground like Tygerberg 104 FM, the biggest community radio station in the Cape Metropole. They have got about 250,000-300,000 listeners. They are actually taking responsibility within Cape Town to [help] organize this event on the 24th of March. You can ask your listeners to pray specifically on March 24th, that’s a Saturday in the afternoon.”

Please pray with TWR and believers in Cape Town for God to open up the clouds and send rain pouring over the city. Pray for the dams to fill up and for the water reservoirs to be restored.

And, du Preez asks, “If the Body of Christ worldwide can start praying maybe for patience, for endurance, perseverance in this situation, and that the Lord will really help the people to be mature in their behavior, I think that will be crucial.”

Click here to learn more about TWR Africa’s radio broadcast ministry.

(Header photo: Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa [Photo courtesy of Kevin Healy via Unsplash])

Ron Hutchcraft of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries understands the struggle. “You know the people we love the most are the hardest people to talk to about Jesus, aren’t they? Our own family, our closest people. And who do we want in heaven with us more than we want them there?”

Over at the ministry’s website, there is a free downloadable e-book called “A Lifetime’s Not Enough” talking about how you can be forever with the people you love the most. It provides real-life stories and Scripture paired with seven ways to help open the heart of a loved one to the Gospel this Christmas.

So how do you share with family members – people who may even be very familiar with the Bible and the Christmas story — and their hearts are hardened?

“We know that it is hard to share it with the people who are most familiar with us. And a lot depends on how much they do know and I think chances are that these days they know less about Jesus than we even realize. But we shouldn’t assume what they know about him.”

Hutchcraft has four tips on how you can effectively be a witness for the Gospel to a loved one this Christmas.

Write your hope story

His first tip is to know and write out your hope story. “Your hope story is about the difference he makes in your life. So what you want to do when you write out your hope story is talk about what’s different about your lonely times because you have Jesus. What’s different about your stressful times, about your ‘when the world is spinning out of control’ times, about when you get bad news from the doctor? What difference does Jesus make at the funeral? What difference does Jesus make for a husband or for a wife?

“You are living proof that Jesus can change what no one else could change. Think about it. Maybe you are living proof that a temper can change because of Jesus. Maybe you are living proof that a mom or a dad or a husband or wife or son or daughter can change because of Jesus. Maybe you are living proof that when the news from the doctor is deadly or frightening and it sounds like a death sentence almost, and maybe it is, that Jesus makes a difference. Maybe you are living proof that somebody who is worried and been consumed with anxiety and stress their whole life can change. Maybe you are living proof of someone who has been addicted to something that they could never change — maybe you’re living proof that that can change.”

As you write your hope story, it’s all about sharing how God’s story and the story of Christ impacts your story.

And, as Hutchcraft points out, writing out your hope story is important for two reasons. “Number one, it helps you think it through so you know what story you have to tell. And you ought to be able to do it in two or three minutes.”

Share your hope story

The second reason why writing out your hope story is useful takes us to Hutchcraft’s next point: “It’s something you can hand to people that you love and to say, ‘Have I ever really told you my story?’ And most people are interested in the story of a family member to go, ‘I don’t think you know my whole story. And if you’d be interested, I would love to give it to you and let you read it over and I’d love to have your comments on it.’ So your hope story always is your most important door opener.”

This part can be easier said than done. Often, it means waiting for a conversational opening. Hutchcraft advises praying for that sharing opportunity.

“Jesus is very skillful at opening for you a natural opportunity. They will say something that will give you an opportunity to tell about how your life has been changed by Jesus Christ. It may be something that they say is going on in their life. It might be something going on in your life. Or it could be something going on in a very scary world that we live in these days.”

But ultimately, he says, when you share, remember it’s not up to you to open the heart of your loved one to Jesus. It’s in God’s hands.

“Let go of the pressure. Realize that it is not up to you to convince somebody to come to Jesus. If you think it is, you’ll push too hard. And when you push on someone, they’ll move farther away from you. I hope you can relax in the fact that Jesus said the Holy Spirit is the persuader of people to come to Jesus. You just have to be available to share his story and your story.”

Watch your approach

In 1 Peter 3:15 it says, “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect….”

That aspect of gentleness and respect is key in having complex conversations related to faith. “Realize that you need to see things through their eyes,” advises Hutchcraft. “Try to find whatever common ground you have with their starting point.”

Keep the conversation on Jesus

Then, he encourages, “Keep it all about Jesus. Don’t get into religion. So often they’re going to want to talk about religion. When Jesus talks to the woman at the well, when he started to get close to her soul, she wanted to talk about the difference between her religion and his religion and he wouldn’t go there.

“The issue is always going to be about our personal spirit and truth relationship with God. They need to know this is not about religion. You have no religion to offer them. You’re not interested in discussing religion because Jesus didn’t come to start a religion. This is a personal love relationship with Jesus Christ, and if you can focus it on what he did on the cross and that he walked out of his grave under his own power and make it all about Jesus, you have a lot better chance of breaking through.”

Ultimately, the salvation of your family member or loved one doesn’t come down to the eloquence of your hope story or the clarity of your rhetoric. It comes down to them falling in love with Jesus.

“Jesus said, ‘Follow me.’ When people say, ‘Yes, but what about the hypocrites and what about those Christians and the way Christians do–’ Well, hold on. Jesus didn’t say follow my followers. He didn’t say follow my religion. He didn’t say follow my leaders. He didn’t say follow my rules. He said, ‘Follow me.’”

Click here to learn more about Ron Hutchcraft Ministries at their website.

Jason Suhr with Deaf Bible shares, “We wanted to create an event where young people are able to come together and see this and say, ‘Hey, I’m like you. I have a similar understanding — not with an older generation, and not with a younger generation.’ We were purposefully targeting this group [to] have this interaction — you know, what challenges they’re currently facing, what life questions they may have.”

(Image capture courtesy of Deaf Bible Society)

Together was a uniquely Deaf-centric conference. Everything was organized around the Deaf Christian experience and community.

“In our ministries, we have videos that use American Sign Language, or ASL, with verses. That’s one thing that we do. We are able to hear God’s Word, if you will, through our heart and our native language. And through our heart language, that is what we’re looking at in making a Deaf-centric approach.”

For example, although some Christian conferences are Deaf accessible, that doesn’t always translate well in moments that are tailored towards a hearing audience.

“With a lot of hearing audiences, you’ve got famous singers that are producing great lyrics and beautiful songs. The problem is when you’re copying that song word-for-word from English to American Sign Language, it’s almost robotic in some sense. You’re just throwing out these words and it’s missing the bigger piece. You’re signing these words. But where is that spirit? Where is that excitement? Where is that opportunity for us to open ourselves up and express how we want to worship God?”

The time of worship at Together was held in American Sign Language and encouraged Deaf young men and women to really engage with praising God in their heart language.

(Photo courtesy of Bert Heymans under Creative Commons via Flickr: https://goo.gl/M8qmhU)

“So that ASL song base where we’re signing allows room for our people to look at each other and say, ‘Oh, you know what? Wow, you’re signing this a little differently than me. I’m expressing this, my facial expressions are different than yours, my inflection is different. I can actually worship the Lord with my ASL.’”

Suhr also adds, “The other thing we’re doing is the idea of poetry. This is actually related and correlated back with the result of inspiring our generation. We’re developing several different pieces that match that and help Deaf people understand and say, ‘Wow, that was really clever. That was a really good way to express and make a connection using our language.’”

In addition to ASL worship and poetry, Together also featured sessions and break-out groups where attendees could gather and ask questions.

“They were very deep level questions — you know, spiritual questions, God-related questions, community questions, how it applies to them. There was a lot of communication that was occurring and that caused me to look back and see, wow, they are really hungry. This group is hungry for that connection, for the understanding and a deeper level of understanding of what the Scriptures mean and [ask] where is God in our community? Where can I find God in our language? In our identities?”

Suhr says the idea for a conference like this all started when Deaf Bible Society noticed a need to engage the Deaf millennial generation. “We’ve been doing quite a bit of demographics and research and surveys and questionnaires and asking the community at large, ‘What is lacking?’ What we’re seeing here with the millennial generation, it’s causing us to really look at this and say, ‘How do we bring those specific people together for the Kingdom?’”

(Photo by Anna Vander Stel on Unsplash)

These questions birthed the idea of a conference — a conference just for young Deaf believers to gather together in fellowship and worship.

In the aftermath of Together, Deaf Bible has received very positive feedback. “We had a survey that was a post-survey that was done. We had a lot of information, a lot of concrete constructive criticism, how we could improve — of course, we can see and we agree with how we could improve. But mostly, all these comments were a thankful comment. They were thanking us for hosting something like this for this demographic and age group.”

After the event, people were asking if there would be another conference and what else they could do to get involved. “That was really touching to my heart, this passion, this motivation to do something,” As for another conference in the future, Suhr says, “Yes, we want to. We’re planning on expanding actually, but we’re not sure exactly how exactly we’re going to expand to more of a national level. We’re trying to take this one step at a time.”

As Deaf Bible looks into possibly hosting another conference, Suhr asks for “continued prayers in seeing what the responses are to really help and guide us [to] have a better insight on how we can better serve this group in the future.”

Pray for the spiritual growth of young Deaf believers, and that God would use their lives and faithful witness to inspire others to seek him.

Click here to learn more about Deaf Bible Society!

It sounds like it could be a new religion law in Central Asia. It could be a story from the former Soviet Union. But this story comes from Egypt.

Voice of the Martyrs USA spokesman Todd Nettleton explains the new ban. “They’re basically saying, ‘If you want to have a protest, if you want to have a gathering, you need to come to a government office three days before that, and somebody in the government needs to sign off of you having that gathering.” The law imposes hefty fines and prison terms for violators.

Like the religion laws in Central Asia, the purpose behind the law was to restore order. In this case, it was to put a lid on the violent protests plaguing Egypt. Nettleton observes, “I don’t think the purpose is to close down churches, but if you go to a particular area of Egypt where the local officials are opposed to the church, they can now use this law and come against the church.”

The trouble is that one of the points of the law targets gatherings at places of worship. Again, it’s understandable when you come at it from the perspective of a government trying to quell the uprisings of the last two years, notes Nettleton. “A lot of the protests that have happened over the last few months have started at a mosque, and then they’ve gone out from the mosque. So I think that is why it specifically says that in the law. But, obviously, a church is a place of worship, too, so we don’t know what that’s going to mean for churches in Egypt.”

Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak also tried to ban gatherings, but in the wake of his ouster in 2011, it was pushed aside. The new ban is considered more restrictive, and rights groups are denouncing it already.

The law requires three-day prior notice for protests. Officials have the right to bar any protest or gathering considered a threat to public safety and order. Nettleton goes on to say that nobody knows what this means for churches preparing for the Advent and Christmas season. “Are they going to say if a church is established, if a church has officially documentation of their existence, then they’re exempt from the law? Are they going to have to come one time and say, ‘We gather for worship every week,’ and the government signs off on it, or are they going to have to come every single week?”

Nettleton adds that throughout this three-year period of stress on the Church, new people are still turning to Christ. As the Church figures out its response to the new edict, he urges you to “pray for justice in the country, for the Christians there. We can pray for wisdom for them, and again we can pray for protection for our Christian brothers and sisters living in Muslim countries.”

It sounds like it could be a new
religion law in Central Asia. It could
be a story from the former Soviet Union. But this story comes from Egypt. 

Voice of the Martyrs
USA spokesman Todd Nettleton explains the new ban. "They're
basically saying, 'If you want to have a protest, if you want to have a
gathering, you need to come to a government office three days before that, and
somebody in the government needs to sign off of you having that gathering." The
law imposes hefty fines and prison terms for violators.

Like the religion laws in Central Asia, the purpose behind
the law was to restore order. In this
case, it was to put a lid on the violent protests plaguing Egypt. Nettleton observes, "I don't think the
purpose is to close down churches, but if you go to a particular area of Egypt
where the local officials are opposed to the church, they can now use this law
and come against the church."

The trouble is that one of the points of the law targets gatherings
at places of worship. Again, it's understandable when you come at it from the
perspective of a government trying to quell the uprisings of the last two years,
notes Nettleton. "A lot of the protests that have happened over
the last few months have started at a mosque, and then they've gone out from the
mosque. So I think that is why it specifically says that in the law. But,
obviously, a church is a place of worship, too, so we don't know what that's
going to mean for churches in Egypt."

Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak also tried to ban
gatherings, but in the wake of his ouster in 2011, it was pushed aside.  The new ban is considered more restrictive, and rights groups are denouncing it already.  
 
The law requires three-day prior notice for protests. Officials have the right
to bar any protest or gathering considered a threat to public safety and order. Nettleton goes on to say that nobody knows
what this means for churches preparing for the Advent and Christmas
season. "Are they going to say if a
church is established, if a church has officially documentation of their
existence, then they're exempt from the law? Are they going to have to come one
time and say, 'We gather for worship every week,' and the government signs off on
it, or are they going to have to come every single week?"

Nettleton adds that throughout this three-year period of stress on
the Church, new people are still turning to Christ. As the Church figures out its response to the
new edict, he urges you to "pray for justice in the country, for the Christians
there. We can pray for wisdom for them, and again we can pray for protection for
our Christian brothers and sisters living in Muslim countries."

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Almost 800 people celebrated in traditional West African style, with speeches, testimonies and singing.  Grace Birnie, the missionary translation leader, was in attendance at the Northern Benin town of Pede, along with UEEB church representatives, SIM International , local government and village
leaders. 

There have been 2,000 copies printed in the country thanks to the collaboration with a local SIM International related church member, Pierre.  It was just the second time such a printing has been done in Benin.  This test run will be good for future translations that come to completion in the future.  Birnie and Lillian Cairnes, typesetter, were very pleased with the opportunity to print "in country."

The Monkole` king told those gathered that he believes this New Testament will enable his language to endure because it is in writing.