Dennis Larkin gathered the new team together in 2019, and he asked them if they had any conflict with each other before entering ministry together. “The six of them were from four different people groups. And then I asked that question, is there a conflict? ‘No, no, no, no, no,’ till we got to the last one sitting next to me. And he said, ‘Yes.’ And everybody looks surprised. ‘Well, what do you mean?’ And he said, ‘Actually, [I have conflict] with all of your people groups.’ He had no animosity, no hatred, no anger, he was just speaking the truth.”

Violence from the past

As they sat there, the man revealed the source of his pain, which went back to the Nigerian Civil War from 1967-1970. Larkin recounts, “He said, ‘My people group was declared enemy of the state. All of your people served in the military. And your people beat, abused, raped, and killed our people, including cutting the babies out of our women.’”

Instead of declaring innocence, the other Nigerians immediately repented on behalf of their people groups. Larkin says, “He looked them right in the eyes and said, ‘I received your apology. And on behalf of my people,’ and he named his people, ‘I forgive you.’”

Larkin also repented on behalf of the history of European brutality in Nigeria. The group embraced and wept together.

Today, this team works powerfully for Christ’s kingdom in Nigeria, training and evangelized hundreds. Meet these Christians by joining an e3 Partners virtual mission trip to Nigeria. Register or learn about other strips here.

The header image shows a scene from the Nigerian Civil War. (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)

The ministry regularly offers trips to Nigeria. Dennis Larkin organizes these trips, working with the e3 Partners team of six Nigerian Christians spread throughout the country. Americans wanting to join a trip will only have to set aside an hour, Larkin says. “When we call in (and participants can be anywhere around the world really) we speak to them, we exhort them, we offer them scripture, we pray over them. They often will give us a report of what’s happened in the field that day or the previous day.

“They’ll be telling us, ‘We went out in the field and I shared the Gospel and this man came to the Lord, or this lady came to the Lord, or these people came to the Lord.’ They’ll share their stories.”

Nigeria can be a dangerous place for Christians, especially in the northern parts of the country. Christians very often come under direct attack from militant Islamic groups. Larkin says, “These believers that I know, they’re passionate to get the Gospel out throughout their people groups. They want to reach those that are unreached. They want to get to the Muslim believers. And so we have a Muslim background believer training that we train them in, so they can go and share the Gospel. There are many Muslims that are very open to the Gospel. Especially when we use a story like the path of the prophets.”

You can apply for a Nigeria trip, or learn more about other virtual mission trips here.

Header photo courtesy of Namnso Ukpanah on Unsplash.

As these teams minister, they connect virtually with a team back in the U.S. e3 Partners calls this system, “One team, two locations.” Read more about the format here.

Recently, the ministry partnered with Christians in Belgium. Jeremy Doorton, Executive Director of e3 Canada, explains how he and Kevin, a ministry worker in Belgium, worked together to plan the trip. “Kevin would give some backstory from some relevant things right in his community, in his mission field. I put it together and sent it out to everybody on the call. Before our next [virtual] mission gathering, they would click on this link and then hit play.”

“They would follow Kevin’s instructions saying, ‘Hey, on the right, you’re gonna see the home where I live.’ And then as we walked on, it navigated us using Google Street View, and actually walks you to the next navigation point.”

The trip brought together people from all over the globe, enabling them to walk and pray together during their ministry. Dooley says, “We might put in two or three navigation points, as many as six stops along the way, and expose the people to live experiences. [Kevin might say] ‘Here’s the town square where the refugees gathered. And some bad things go down in this area. Let’s pray against spiritual strongholds.’ Lots of great things that came from that.”

You can join a virtual mission trip just like this trip to Belgium. See upcoming e3 Partners mission trips here.

Header image by Walkerssk from Pixabay. It shows a scene from Brussels, the capital of Belgium. 

E3 Partners has hosted over 100 virtual trips so far. Now, with some travel available, e3 Partners Church Partnership Specialist Joshua Spinx says the ministry is mixing things up. “We have a short-term team who is actually able to go and participate on the ground in another country. But at the same time, we marry with them a virtual team that’s back here in the States that’s serving as prayer support, serving as an advocate, serving as someone who can just relay the story back to their churches and wherever they’re plugged in.”

e3 Partners calls this approach, “One Team, two locations.”

Visit the e3 Partners website for more information about how to join one of these hybrid trips or one that is fully online. E3 Partners has trips planned to locations like Nigeria, Greece, and Lebanon.

A permanent format

Spinx says e3 Partners created the virtual trip format to get around COVID-19 travel restrictions. But the program has grown well beyond just being a crutch. “This is something that is not going to go away. This marrying a virtual trip with a short-term trip on the ground is something that I think is going to be a part of most of our short-term trips until Jesus comes back.”

Spinx says this format also raises awareness of the trips and enables the ministry to raise resources for the trips and for people in need. Spinx says, “For example, during the short-term Middle Eastern trips that we did, we were able to raise several thousand dollars for the humanitarian aid over there.  This is something that could certainly be a wonderful tool moving forward into the future long past COVID-19.”

Pray e3 Partners will have wisdom as they continue their ministry in new ways during the pandemic.

(Header photo by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay)

People who go on this mission trip will talk to these Christians, pray for the refugees, and raise awareness about what is happening among the refugee populations.

Barnabas* a Christian leader working among the refugees, says, “There were around 8-9000 people who, for about a week, were stuck on the side of the road on this particular island. Praise God, what I’m hearing is there’s no need for food anymore. The government has all the food. The problem is getting the food to the people. They’re having long lines and three hour waits to get their food.”

The fire heightened another risk: COVID-19 outbreaks among refugees. With so many needing food, Barnabas says it’s difficult for them to stay socially distant.

Syrian refugees arriving on the Greek island of Lesvos.
(Photo, caption courtesy of OM)

The refugee church

But after the disaster, Barnabas saw something remarkable. “There’s a church that exists inside this camp. [The fire] kind of brought them together [and they] started working. Refugees were feeding refugees, with the assistance of some of these other brothers and sisters.”

e3 Partners’ virtual mission trips started this year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions, but they hope to continue the program even when the pandemic dies down. These trips typically feature heavy training for sharing the Gospel with others, but this trip will focus more on the needs of the refugees on Lesbos Island.

If you want to participate in this trip, you can still sign up here. Due to its special focus, this trip will be shorter, taking place on two Saturdays, October 3^rd and October 10^th, from 2-3:30 PM Central Time.

Barnabas asks readers to pray for the Church that has sprung up among the refugees. “God has brought this body together. How do we step out of the way, not to just leave them, but to equip them and pass on this responsibility for them to reach their people and to help?”

*name changed for security reasons

The header image shows part of the coastline on Lesbos Island in Greece. (Image by Wi Pa from Pixabay)

e3 Partners’ virtual mission trips connect you or your group with a mission team. Together, you spend several days virtually engaging with missionaries in another country, going on virtual prayer walks, learning the culture, and supporting their needs.

Claudia Adame, e3 Partners’ Executive Vice President of Mission Support, says they are used to long-distance collaboration as an international ministry. But they wanted to be intentional in this time of social distancing and travel restrictions.

Photo from e3 Partners virtual mission trip to Honduras, courtesy of Sam Neugent.

“The vision, mission, and strategy of e3 haven’t changed,” Adame says. “So how do we do this now in a world that’s a little bit more long-distance because we cannot be there physically?”

They launched virtual mission trips around the idea of “self-paced missions engagement.”

Adame explains, “Because we’re going to be in community for one or two weeks, we want to get to know each other. What brought you to this trip? What are the things that compelled you to want to be a part of what’s happening in Greece or Uganda or Peru? So that way, we start building community.

“Immediately also, we set up some kind of group chat — whether it’s text or email or WhatsApp — so that from the very beginning, it’s not only that we [have] self-paced engagement in a lot of this, but we also stay very connected through these groups. We’re texting each other, encouraging one another, praying for one another, and sharing pictures.”

The virtual prayer walks have been another successful hit. Using a virtual map and other programs, mission team members can feel like they are in the community they are serving and can physically see the area and people they are praying for as they trek.

Adame says e3 Partners also tries to have a little fun along the way. “If we’re going to Greece, [we suggest] some sites where you can find some Greek meal recipes so they can do meal preparation with their family. They have a lot of fun engaging the kids and other members of the family. Sometimes, we ask them to do a dance challenge where they’re trying to learn the local dance, local music, local customs, and just live it out in their family for a couple of days.

“What we try to do is engage as many senses as possible so it’s not just one more virtual meeting, but it’s an actual trip experience.”

Photo from e3 Partners virtual mission trip to Honduras, courtesy of Sam Neugent.

But possibly the most meaningful part of the virtual mission trip is the relationships team members build with the local missionaries they are supporting and praying for. Via virtual meeting platforms, e3 Partners coordinates real-time interactions between the team and local missionaries.

If a real-time meeting is not possible, missionaries can record a video for the team and share how God used their prayers that day. The team can watch the video later and see the difference their prayers made.

Now that they have finished their first virtual mission trips, e3 Partners sees that encouragement and relational connections don’t suffer over the long distance between team members and missionaries.

“The one we did to Greece recently, we had a pretty sizable group…. I’ll tell you, this team totally fell in love with our local missionaries there and got to know his family. They are still in communication.”

As for the future of these virtual mission trips, Adame says, “We believe that this is a keeper. God is showing us He took us outside of the norm and that compelling call to continue the vision and the practice of the Great Commission, saying, ‘This is just going to look different right now.’ So we have found that this is a way to engage a lot more people, to engage whole families. Those who give and pray and support missions in other ways, they can actually experience this. So the future is definitely to keep doing these virtual mission trips.”

Ultimately, just like any other missional endeavors, e3 Partners’ virtual mission trips are all about seeing the Gospel spread and God glorified both at home and abroad.

(Photo courtesy of e3 Partners)

“We do want them to learn how to share their story, how to share God’s story, and then how to engage in discipleship…. But also, one of our goals is for them to learn this is something that can be very natural and part of life so that after the virtual trip experience, it can just be part of their rhythm [and] part of what they do with family.”

There are several ways you can get involved! For example, you can get a group together among your friends, family, church, or small group. Or a virtual mission trip could be just the international, Gospel-oriented experience your homeschooling curriculum needs. You can even sign up by yourself and enjoy being part of a new team!

Upcoming virtual mission trip destinations include Nigeria, North India, Honduras, and Greece. Click here for the full list of upcoming virtual mission trips with e3 Partners!

To learn more about virtual mission trips, email e3 Partners at virtualtrips@e3partners.org.

Header image courtesy of e3 Partners.

“God gave us the vision for this in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic,” Jeff Johnston, e3’s marketing communications manager, says. “As we’ve gone about developing it, we’ve come to realize that this isn’t a temporary solution. This is another avenue through which the Gospel can reach the nations.”

These virtual trips provide an opportunity for people to work with the team that is abroad and receive training from the U.S.-based team – all online.

“What’s cool about this is, since you’re connecting and interacting with these people abroad, we’re bringing in these elements of the culture there,” Johnston says. “You’ll get to talk with them, hear stories about how things work in that

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

part of the world.”

Johnston says that to keep things fun, they incorporate theme nights related to that country’s culture. For example, the upcoming Athens trip has “make your own Greek meal” or “dress-up” theme nights.

The goal of these trips is to provide evangelism training to both the U.S. team and the group abroad. “As the team [abroad] is going out and sharing the Gospel with people, the US team is encouraged to go into their own neighborhoods, knock on doors, pray for people, and share the Gospel with people. So you’re kind of getting to mirror each other’s actions and then getting to come together and talk about how God is using these efforts to further His kingdom,” he says.

Apart from the physical aspect, these virtual trips still provide experience and are more affordable. Trips can range in price from $1-225 according to their website.

“These virtual trips are unique, they’re new, but we’ve already seen God do amazing things through them,” Johnston says. “I would just encourage people to check them out, sign up for one, and just see how God can use you and work through you even in the midst of all the craziness going on in our world.”

e3 Partners currently has 18 trips planned in 2020, two of which are in the Philippines and Rwanda within the month. They are looking for people to join an evangelical team. Registration can be found on their website.

Featured image by Judit Herbert from Pixabay