Emerging Mission Movements

Armando asked for help in freeing his car from mud. The team men got their own vehicle stuck in helping him. They returned for a tractor, which also got stuck! Eventually they returned to the base with all the vehicles in tow. Armando stayed for the discipleship programme and was touched by God, confessing his sins and expressing a desire to know more about God.

A congregation in Windhoek, Namibia brought 500 Portuguese Bibles to the OM base; in a week’s time 80 were sold! Bible study materials are being translated into the Kangela language. In Swaziland, one worker relates, “I found myself on a bus with 800 New Testaments but no plan how to distribute them. People from Mbekelweni walked some kilometres to ask for a copy. In one school, at least 500 students wanted a New Testament. No plan was needed to distribute them.; God brought the people to us and we were encouraged to see the happiness on their faces.”

The Silk Road Summer Challenge involved 100 participants from Central Asian countries taking the Gospel to 20 different destinations. The trainers were all national ‘graduates’ of previous programmes. During outreach to four countries, almost 800 people heard the gospel. Many pieces of literature and CDs were distributed; over 100 people made professions of faith. There were visits to isolated believers and a good number of ex-church members were reconnected. A fortune teller came to faith, followed by her entire family. In one house, a young girl was the first to believe; when the team prayed for her deaf mother in Jesus’ name, the woman cried out, “Daughter, I can hear you!”

A team of 16 headed to Las Tablas, a poor community of 950 families within San Jose. Daily life is a fight to survive against drugs, prostitution, domestic violence, abuse and poverty. Working with a local church, the team held a recreational day for children, teenagers and adults, while others did door-to-door evangelism, picked up trash in the plaza, and repaired the roof of the communal classroom. 250 people received a message of the love of God. Please pray as OM continues outreach to more people in Las Tablas, especially with children, women’s groups, and teenagers to help prevent HIV/AIDS and drug abuse.

Yamilett was sexually and physically abused, turning to
alcohol at age six. Her family often told her she was worthless, and her older siblings tried to suffocate her. Yamilett found the Lord when the brother who tried
to kill her became a Christian and shared God’s love for her. Slowly she changed her
physical appearance; her brother affirmed her, telling her how
beautiful she was. At 31, Yamilett is actively involved with OM. She has
completed counselling and shares how Christ transformed
her life, “My life has been a training school; now I
can reach out to prostitutes, lesbians, and addicts on a personal level.” OM hopes to eventually support her as a
full-time worker. Her dedication to the ministry is
undeniable: she picks coffee beans to earn enough to participate.

Amelia Goh, an outreach worker, shares: “I visited a female inmate, 23, sentenced to 8
years, who had a son, a mother and a sister. The mother had refused any visitation harshly. With the inmate’s permission, I phoned the mother to give greetings; she cried and was willing to talk. I
felt it was the right time to introduce her to Jesus, so I visited her with other workers. The door of the Gospel is opening, and I am grasping every opportunity to pray with her. I have 
given her Christian magazines, and look forward to giving her a Bible through which she will come to
know the Lord!” Pray that her and her
family’s life will be transformed by the Gospel.

Two years ago, a woman in need met with Susanna. Other than meeting her physical need, Susanna shared that she should look at the person of Jesus for help. Interested, she began to read her Holy Book about Jesus. Then she asked for a Bible. She found peace reading the story of Jesus. After meeting four or five times, her eyes began to open. When asked who Jesus is, without thinking she replied “Jesus is God”. That was the beginning of an exciting journey. She has been witnessing about Jesus to friends in her village, and today there is a small group of 30 to 40 meeting weekly. Every week Susanna shares a story which the woman will take back to her village. In a country where persecution is real, she remains strong, steadfast, bold and courageous in sharing the good news among her own people, where very few are believers.

The poorest nation in the
world in the early ‘90s, 12 percent of Mozambicans now suffer from AIDS. Since ’99, churches have sent their most
promising members to OM’s two-year mission training school, one of the
only such programmes available. Many believers and
evangelical churches can be mobilized to
evangelise neighbours in the Makua and Yao tribes. Bible teaching and practical missions
training is practiced by teaching in churches and
visiting isolated areas to share the Gospel with unreached people. Graduates not only evangelise and plant churches among
unreached groups, but some become head pastors in their own
local denominations.

The three-month Winter Outreach Programme saw 120 Nepali students going to towns and villages to work out in practice what they had been taught. Six weeks later, , they reported that 355 villages received literature; nine people came to faith; approximately 6000 to 7000 pieces of literature were distributed; and many people were healed and released from demonic possession. The team challenged local churches to get involved in outreach, and were role models by going house to house visiting, performing open airs in the marketplace, and in personal outreach. They also worked with street children, and taught about HIV/AIDS awareness in schools.

One team leader teaches in four different locations: two churches, an academy with 20 students, and one class in a Bible Institute. Approximately 70 young men and women attend the discipleship programme. The team takes services each week, preaching, teaching and challenging people to be involved with the majority faith people, making friends and sharing their lives. One man in particular needs to allow his heart to soften and become receptive. His extensive knowledge of the Word is quite amazing, yet he himself admits, “I am still blind and deaf.”

Twenty-one Guatemalans and Salvadorans worked with five churches in different places. They reached out to over 1,000 Peruvians; almost 400 made decisions to receive Christ. When a group of men asked to borrow the team’s colourful evangelistic soccer ball they agreed, but said they first wanted to explain the ball’s colours. At the end of the talk, they challenged the men to receive Jesus, and all 20 agreed! The team gave training to 125 church leaders and members in creative evangelism, leadership, youth issues and marriage.

Mpumi was asked to preach during an inner city outreach. At first reluctant—having never done so before—God gave him a message for forty homeless people. Afterward, 15 men wanted to receive Christ!
 Mpumi recalled, “Years ago, people had told me that I might be an evangelist or a pastor; but it never made sense. It was awesome when God touched those 15 men. Most of all, he touched me!”

Anthony focuses on the village of Tongwa, which means ‘hidden’ or ‘isolated’. For many years the people have been isolated from the Gospel and rife with prostitution, polygamy, early childhood marriages, hatred, drunkenness, witchcraft, and idolatry. Two years ago Lewis and Muhandu preached the Gospel in Tongwa, and God has been transforming lives and building His church, which is growing spiritually and numerically.