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God is so good

We wish you all a Merry Christmas, and hope you and your family are having a joyful holiday season!

As we reflect on the second half of this year, we realize that we could not possibly put all that God did into one newsletter.  However, allow us to share a few highlights.

INDIA

In our last newsletter, we mentioned that William was heading to Northern India. A team from South Africa, along with Dick Teed from the USA, arrived a few days before William to train the first group of facilitators. William joined the group on the second leg of the India journey.

The Indian people are beautiful inside and out, so warm, friendly, and hospitable. While India still remains one of the most unreached parts of the world, God is raising his church there in amazing ways.

During our second meeting, through one of our local partners, we trained over 150 facilitators. A hundred of those facilitators showed us the names of their students who want to receive Live School training. We praised God as we handed out 100 Live School units that day.

It was so refreshing to be among so many believers who have such a sincere hunger for God and a willingness to pay the ultimate price. Live School is an answer to many prayers in India for solid, local missions training. There is a great need to equip saints as church planters and missionaries. At the end of this letter you will find various ways to get involved in what Live School is doing around the world.

KENYA

This past summer, William, Casey, and Hannah (the media team from the USA office) joined Willie, Paul, John, and Alfonso (from Africa) on an epic 18-day journey to document the story of how many unreached and least reached people groups in Kenya were reached with the gospel and able to establish local churches. This took place through the efforts of a group of churches, led by Harvest Church, and World Mission Centre’s Project Focus, now called Live School.

We had the privilege of traveling all over Kenya to visit many ethnic tribes. From nomadic tribes in the northern desert, to the tribes living on coastal islands, to Islamic tribes in the center of the country where persecution (to the point of death at times) is a daily reality for many believers. One thing stood out while interviewing more than 20 people on this trip: God is good. God is good in the small and the big, in little and in much, in the good times and the bad times. There were many times that the film crew had to fight back tears as people shared their testimonies and stories.

One of the missionaries we interviewed started his interview with the following words:

“God be praised, I was beaten and left for dead when I became a believer and kicked out of my family.”

In our Western mindset, it does not even make sense to start that statement with “God be praised.” When the police arrested the man’s perpetrators, he told them he did not want to press charges. He then told his attackers he forgave them and that he loved them. Today this Live School graduate has opened doors in a very militant Muslim community and plans to start a Live School in his village soon.

We hope to share many of these testimonies and stories on the web and social media in the near future.

WMC LEADERS MEETING

The USA Office had the privilege, along with Willie and Lydia Crew (WMC International Team Leaders), to host the bi-annual WMC Leaders Meeting in Columbia in October. It is always such a refreshing and blessed time as each regional leader shares what God has done and is doing in their region.

Live School has grown tremendously in 2018, and has schools in 90+ countries, operating in over 2,000 local churches and has trained more than 20,000 students. Thousands of churches have been planted by active and graduated Live School students. The most exciting part is that most of these new churches are among or very near to unreached people groups.

There are many exciting stories to share of what God is doing in all these different regions, and we would love to tell them to you over a cup of coffee.

INDABA

Our annual report back and fundraising evening was held at Harvest church in October of this year, and it was a great success! What a privilege to share all that God is doing around the world with so many people who are all excited about God’s mission.

LIVE SCHOOL UNIT COMPRESSION

During the summer, we asked you to join us in prayer for the completion of the Live School compression project. We are excited to announce that the Live School video material is now compressed in all 11 languages and available on the updated unit. Two languages are also available on a MicroSD card for closed countries. We want to thank each one of you who prayed. We also want to thank the many young interns who worked tirelessly on this project during their summers.

RUNNING WITH HORSES

We will celebrate the 30th anniversary of World Mission Centre next year! The celebration will take the form of a three-day missions conference called Running With Horses and will be held in Pretoria, South Africa. The dates are July 23-25, 2019.

Shirley and I are planning to take a delegation from the USA to the conference in South Africa.

Please join us! Contact us and we will gladly send you more information and an invitation.

Find out more about the conference at www.runningwithhorses.org

PARTNER WITH US (pray • give • go)

Pray:

  • God blessed us with a few amazing office team members in 2018! We are also praying that God will add a few more skilled video and graphic artists in 2019 as we continue to restructure our USA office to better serve the organization as a whole.
  • Please pray for an increase in the monthly support of the organization and staff members so that we can focus on the task at hand.
  • Pray for the leadership of the organization. For the leaders’ protection, as well as the protection of their families as they travel around the world.
  • Pray for team members to join the teams of our regional leaders.

Give:  

Go: Outreach Opportunities:

  • INDIA: (February 3-12, 2019) If you would like to be a part of what we do, we have a great trip planned to India for February. For more information about this trip contact Dick Teed at richardt@wmcint.org

SOUTH AFRICA – Running With Horses Conference (July 17 – 27, 2019) We are excited to invite you to the Running With Horses mission conference that will be hosted in Pretoria next year. Join speakers and delegates representing many countries around the world for a unique opportunity to hear what God is doing around the world. You will also connect with mission-minded pastors from across South Africa and the rest of the world.

We hope you and your families have a blessed Christmas! We are praying that God will reveal Himself to you in a new way in 2019. May you know beyond a doubt that He is God and that God is good.

With much love and wishing you a Blessed Christmas Season and a Happy New Year!

William & Shirley and the USA Office Team