BANGLADESH BOY THANK YOU FOR YOUR CHRISTMAS PRESENT!
NOVEMBER 2010
CHILD SPONSORSHIP The children of Every Home for Christ can't say it enough ...
"THANKS" It has been the Child Sponsorship .... the gifts, wonderful people like you have given so that a truly life changing opportunity could be given to hundreds of children in India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Child sponsorship has given these children the privilege of going to school, making it possible for them to have a better future than they could have ever hoped for without the child sponsorship gifts given so generously ... they can't say it enough! Thank you. If you are reading this and you are not already a child sponsor and you would like to be a child sponsor see the enclosed Reply Slip.
EVANGELIST/WORKER SPONSORSHIP Thanks too for the prayerful and financial support given for the Every Home for Christ evangelists and workers in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Malawi, Israel, Guam and Western Samoa. Much appreciated monthly support has been given for these workers and evangeists. They have been able to do incredible work, taking the Gospel to thousands of people, and also helping the poor and under privlliged. They can't say it enough! Thank you.
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Christmas is almost here! And I know so many of the Every Home for Christ sponsors will want to send a Christmas gift for their child, evangelist or worker. If you would like to send a gft, then see the enclosed Reply Slip. Yours will probably be the only Christmas gift most of these children, evangelists and workers will receive, and I know they can't say it enough! THANK YOU! In celebrating the birth of Jesus, we give the children in the Every Home for Christ schools, as pictured on the opposite page, a present. This tells them of the greatest Christmas present ever given! God in the person of His only Son being given to us. The teachers also receive a present to express our thanks for the wonderful work they did in 2010. The Christmas present for the evangelists and workers who are sponsored by Every Home for Christ supporters makes it a joyful time of the year for them as they live on very meagre salaries. Please, if you can send a Christmas gift, it will be a great blessing. Please send money! If you send an actual "gift" or a "package", it costs too much to send it to the overseas country and often it's difficult to get it through customs overseas.
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HUMBLE BEGINNINGS 64 Years of Global Evangelism To God Be the Glory! Every Home for Christ started in 1946 as a small radio ministry, hosted by a young Canadian pastor named Jack McAlister who had a heart for missions. Through a radio program called Tract Club of the Air, Jack McAlister challenged believers to help support ministries that were involved in evangelistic projects and programs around the world. But, as the broadcast‘s name suggested, Jack was especially interested in supporting overseas programs that promoted literature evangelism. While literacy rates around the world were increasing, gospel booklets and Biblestudy lessons became powerful tools for evangelism. The chances of there being at least one person in
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every family who could read were increasing worldwide. Putting gospel literature into the hands of people gave them agreater opportunity to study and understand the gospel message and respond. As the radio audience grew, so did the vision. Seven years later, Every Home for Christ
embraced a unique mission of its own.It revolved around the concept of mobilizing, training and equipping believers overseas to systematically distribute gospel literature home to home, village to village, and city to city until every family in a targeted nation was reached with the Gospel.
Every gospel booklet distributed would share God’s plan of salvation, inviting the reader to receive Jesus Christ as Savior. New believers and seekers who wanted to learn more could also receive a free Bible-study course and be linked to a local church for discipleship. The program was designed to help
Christians respond to Christ’s command to share the Gospel as well as promote church growth on a global scale.
mo-mentum year after year, with EHC providing the tools and training needed to reach every home in Japan with the Gospel four times. To date, An Open Door 396,874 people have to Asia responded. The very first Every Believers in India soon Home Campaign was accepted the challenge launched in Japan in to help take the Gospel October 1953. Believers to every home in the began systematically second most populated distributing gospel nation on earth. booklets home to home Although Christians and inviting people to represented less than visit local churches. two percent of the Within six years, every population, they began family in Japan had sharing the Gospel been reached with the among millions of Gospel, generating Hindus, Muslims and more than 32,000 tribal peoples across responses. Local the nation. churches grew and Full-time Christian more believers evangelists called embraced the EHC pioneer missionaries vision. ventured into regions In 1967, enthusiastic where the Gospel had Christians from 461 never been heard, churches helped enduring insults, distribute gospel beatings, and literature to more than persecution that four million families in resembled episodes the greater Tokyo area, from the Book of Acts. in conjunction with a Efforts to reach every Billy Graham Crusade. home with the Gospel Over 19,000 people were so thorough that responded to that EHC workers discovered single, coordinated 126 villages that were effort. not listed in any government records. The campaign Sadly, some who continued to gain
accepted Christ also became targets for persecution. Families were driven from villages and their homes were burned to the ground after they became Christians. Still, local churches grew and new home fellowships called Christ Groups were planted across the country. A woman named Sangeeta echoed the thoughts of thousands who heard the Gospel and accepted Christ when she wrote, “I have read the literature and was blessed through it. It speaks the truth. I have repented of my sins and accepted Jesus as my personal Savior. I want to walk in the truth. Please send me more literature and continue to pray for me.” After 45 years of sustained, systematic outreaches in India, the eached every home two times; more than 8.9 million people have responded to the Gospel. Another amazing story unfolded in Nepal.
Although evangelism was prohibited in 1982, a young Nepalese believer named Solon Karthak began sharing the Gospel in what was then the world’s only Hindu kingdom. Working out of a briefcase, Solon quietly moved from village to village, mobilizing believers to share the Good News. Year after year, thousands of people accepted the Lord and Christ Group fellowships sprung up by the thousands across the nation. Today, EHC has recorded 350,979 responses to the Gospel in Nepal and chronicled the formation of 8,890 Christ Group fellowships. Believers throughout Asia embraced the EHC vision and the challenge to reach every home with the Gospel. The Every Home Campaign in the Philippines has yielded 210,317 re-sponses to the Gospel. Churches in South Korea have grown as 585,737 people re-sponded to the Good News. EHC
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outreaches in Thailand, Taiwan, Mongolia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka have contributed to a harvest of more than 11.9 million responses to the Gospel throughout the region.
Tackling the AsiaPacific Challenge Venturing south and east into the vast reaches of the Pacific, hundreds of inhabited islands posed unique challenges for home-tohome evangelism. Believers in the Marshall Islands, Northern Marianas, Palau, and Pitcairn embraced the EHC vision in 1960, followed by Every Home Campaign launches in Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga, Papua New Guinea and a dozen other nations. More than 1.2 million families have been visited in 22 Pacific island nations. The Every Home Campaign in the Fiji islands has generated 55,773 responses to the Gospel. Determined to reach every village in the
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Solomon Islands, a team of pioneer missionaries visited the primitive Kwaio people on the island of Malaita. There were no Christians living among them. The tribes people threatened the lives of the pioneer missionaries, but the evangelists stood firm and shared the Gospel. Hearts were transformed as more than 5,000 Kwaio accepted Jesus Christ as Saviour.
Good News for the C.I.S. The sudden collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1990 was one of the marvels of modern history. As each of the republics declared independence, a new era of political and church history began. For nearly 70 years Christians in the Soviet Union suffered under a political system that promoted atheism, restricted worship, persecuted church leaders and prohibited evangelism. Overnight, shackles were removed and doors were opened for the
spread of the Gospel. Every Home for Christ joined hands with believers throughout the new Commonwealth of Independent States who were anxious to share the Gos-pel home to home. Christians around the world were in awe as EHC mobilized churches to openly distribute gospel booklets in thousands of small towns and villages, and in capital cities like Moscow, Minsk, Kiev, Kishinev, Tbilisi, and Yerevan. The Gospel spread across the C.I.S., drawing thousands of
people to the light of Christ. A woman in Ukraine named Rimma was overwhelmed by her new faith. “You have opened a new world for me and now I can look at the things around me through new eyes,” she wrote. “The Book of Life is surely shining in the darkness like a guiding star. The Word really warms our damaged souls. I don’t know how to thank you.” Every Home Campaigns across the C.I.S. have yielded a harvest of 698,260 responses to the Gospel.
New Hope for Europe The first Every Home Campaign in Europe was launched in Luxembourg in 1957, followed by a second campaign in Italy in 1958. Soon, Christians across Europe who shared a love for the Lord and the lost began to step beyond the thresholds of their churches and proclaim the Gospel. Millions of people who had turned their backs on centuries of rich Christian heritage were given gospel booklets that served as spiritual roadmaps to help lead them back to Jesus Christ. Every Home Campaigns helped breathe new life into struggling churches. Believers in countries like Germany, Switzerland, Spain, and Norway began knocking on doors, sharing their faith, and leaving gospel messages behind that clearly presented God’s plan of salvation. In Spain, where 58,102 people have responded to the Gospel, EHC Director José Seisdedos shared his passion for evangelism. “The miracle of conversion is what we see in Spain
every day,” he said. “In a post-modern world like the Spanish European society, the test can be to stand firm on Bible truths and the Christian message. It means being ready, like Paul, to preach the Gospel to everyone, not being ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, ‘For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes’” (Romans 1:16). The political landscape of Europe also changed dramatically when the Soviet empire crumbled. Persecuted believers in countries like Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia were suddenly free to worship the Lord and share their faith without fear. The dramatic march to political and religious freedom was especially striking in Albania. Under the brutal reign of Communist dictator Enver Hoxha, Albania was proclaimed the world’s first atheistic state. Hoxha died in 1985, his Marxist utopia collapsed in 1991, and EHC joined hands with Albanian believers in 1992 to help share the Gospel and offer new hope to a crippled nation. More than 7,840
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people have responded to the Every Home Campaign. EHC stood by believers, sharing the Gospel as new nations like the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, and Slovenia emerged during the post-Soviet realignment of Eastern Europe. Even when armed conflicts and threats of civil war raged in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Croatia, believers proclaimed a message of peace and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. Believers in the Czech Republic joined EHC to help take the Gospel to 11,000 families in the capital city of Prague. “We praise God for all the re-sponses coming to the EHC office by mail or e-mail,” said National Director Vladimir Ksikal. “There are people who are searching for God, Jesus and a new life, even in our atheistic country. We are glad that we can help them take the first steps through our Bible
correspondence course and pastoral correspondence.” The EHC outreach in the Czech Republic has generated 30,828 responses to the Gospel. Across Europe, more than 186 million homes have been reached with the Gospel through Every Home Campaigns in 40 nations. The combined efforts have resulted in 956,699 responses to the Gospel.
Reaching Latin America for Christ One of the earliest Every Home Campaigns was launched in Argentina in 1958. Believers embraced the EHC vision with enthusiasm, expanding the scope of the outreach beyond home-to-home distributions to include hospitals, schools, prisons, military bases, and senior centers. EHC outreaches in Argentina have generated 482,514 responses to the Gospel .
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The EHC campaign in Argentina had become a springboard for gospel outreaches throughout the region. Soon believers were seeking out forgotten villages along the Amazon River in Brazil, venturing into the Andes Mountains in Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru, and hacking their way with machetes through overgrown forests in Central American nations like Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama, and El Salvador. As political struggles spread throughout the region in the 1980s, believers dodged Shining Path guerrillas in Peru and drug smugglers in Colombia as they continued their mission to reach every home with the Gospel. Over time, believers in 22 Latin American nations have embraced the EHC vision reaching over 272 million homes with the Gospel.
Hearts Are Transformed in Africa
Believers across Africa have em-barked upon the EHC vision with a passion and began distributing millions of gospel booklets home to home. The first campaign was launched on the tiny island of St. Helena in 1960, followed by gospel outreaches that swept across Swaziland, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and then spread across the continent to include 45 nations. South Africa has yielded a harvest of more than 1.1 million responses to the Gospel; the EHC office in Kenya has processed nearly 1.4 million responses; Uganda has gathered over 1.7 million; and more than 4.1 million people have responded to the Good News in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Across the continent, more than 62 Every Home for Christ
Australia: PO Box 168 Penshurst NSW 2222 New Zealand: PO Box 31-260 Milford North Shore City 0741 www.everyhome.org.au
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million families have been reached with the Gospel, generating over 17 million confessions of faith or requests for Bible-study materials. In addition to gospel booklets, one of the most effective evangelistic tools that is used throughout Africa is a colorfully illustrated story presentation called The Heart of Man. Available in oversized charts for group presentations and in booklet form, The Heart of Man uses colorful illustrations of people and animals involved in a Christ centered struggle for souls. The Heart of Man story was written in France in 1720 but transported to Lesotho and adapted to an African cultural setting by a Swiss missionary named
Joseph Gschwend in 1929. EHC’s pioneer missionaries have used The Heart of Man to help lead thousands to Christ. In response to one outreach to the Tonga people in Zimbabwe, 800 people made professions of faith in Christ. “I discovered that The Heart of Man chart generated interest among the Tonga more than anywhere I have used it in our nation,” said EHC Director Cleopas Chitapa. “For all this, we give God the glory.”
To God Be the Glory!
Bringing glory to God has been the driving force behind Every Home for Christ’s global evangelism efforts.
Telephone: (02) 9570 8211 Facsimile: (02) 9570 4738 Telephone: Free call 0800 900 200 Facsimile: 0061 2 9570 4738 ehc@everyhome.org.au