FromBen
As the year comes to an end, I would like to take a moment to look back on everything that has happened. Reflecting on this past year, I am amazed at God’s faithfulness in my life and in the life of our Mission. The year has been filled with both celebration and sorrow, and through it all, God has been continually present as Emmanuel.
I am humbled by our field workers who serve in diverse and challenging locations, faithfully making disciples of unreached people groups (UPGs). On pages 10-11, you will read about Martin and Simone’s ministry in Africa and the challenges they faced with reaching people living in spiritual bondage. Page 16 is another example of the challenges and joys one of our workers experienced while reaching out to refugee families caught up in war. These field workers exemplify a life of surrender and trust in the Lord. One of our member care providers describes them as, "resilient... and among war and persecution, God has been their shield." I honour their commitment and sacrifices as they obey God’s calling on their lives.
Over the past year, we have launched new initiatives to accelerate the spread of the gospel among those who do not yet have access to it. These efforts have resulted in the mobilisation, training, and sending out of new indigenous workers into new regions. While we celebrate this, we long for more people to be equipped and sent
out, as the need of the unreached is still significant.
For the past 92 years, World Outreach has faithfully worked to bring the gospel to those who have not yet received this good news. By God’s grace, we will continue to advance this great cause. Our desire is to see all people, tribes, and tongues represented before the throne of God on that great day.
If I may be so bold, would you prayerfully consider financially partnering with us so that we can continue to bring the good news of Jesus to those who have not yet heard? We cannot do this vital work without faithful partners around the world investing in this kingdom work. The best way to do this is by setting up a recurring giving plan, whether annually, quarterly, or monthly. Please visit our website to set up your donations, or you can give through your local office (you can find that information on the back of this magazine).
Thank you for your partnership in the gospel.
Ben B. International Director
by Jen G, Prayer Coordinator
Being able to maintain a life-giving connection to God is central to one’s ability to thrive both personally and in ministry, especially for field workers living in isolated areas to reach the unreached. We all have been taught to read our Bibles and pray everyday, but what do we do when that feels dry? How can one stimulate their refreshment in the Lord again? In this article, we will focus on four approaches that we promote in World Outreach that can renew one’s strength in the Lord.
Intentionally coming before God with humility is a powerful part of renewal. Admitting where we are before the Lord: whether dry, dull, apathetic or disappointed, gives us a starting place to grow from. Taking an honest look at ourselves births authentic prayers. He knows us already, but sometimes we need to identify and confess latent sins or layers of distance that have built up.
Renewing Yourself in the Lord Vulnerable Humility Fasting for Breakthrough New Methods of Connection Fellowship with Others
James 4:8 says, “Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” God draws near to those who sincerely desire him and who come with a raw sense of authenticity; a contrite brokenness he will never turn away from. “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” Isaiah 57:15.
Both Cain and Abel brought sacrifices to the Lord but only one was accepted. The heart quality of our offering matters to the Lord. We cannot expect to receive refreshing glory from the Lord if we offer him mundane rituals or half-hearted devotion. Successful fasting is not simply to ‘not eat’ but to create more space and time to pursue the Lord and may even involve new actions of external service (Isaiah 58:6-7). Fasting creates both a physical and spiritual hunger, reminding us of where our first love should be. Fasting sharpens our spirits to hear the Lord again. It breaks up our fallow, hard ground and helps it to receive living water. Joel 2:12-13 says, “Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and weeping, and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity."
Sometimes it helps to shake things up… to get out of our spiritual routines and introduce new practices. This can be as simple as reading from different translations of the Bible or searching out new styles of worship music. It can also be looking back at our forefathers in the faith and embracing ancient ways of connecting with the Lord. One example is the Prayer of Examen, which has been prayed by Christians for over 400 years. It is a practice of reflecting on your day to observe the moments our hearts draw nearer to God and the moments we withdraw into ourselves. We observe things to be thankful for, things to confess, and intentionally observe what the Holy Spirit may be teaching us. The Examen has proved fruitful in the lives of many to renew their connection to God personally.
God has designed the body of Christ to need one another. Iron sharpens iron, and whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. If you need renewal, be intentional: join a prayer group, (even online or in a chat group); listen to new podcasts and sermons; ask friends to pray for you; and share in communion with fellow believers. From spirit to spirit, this is how we refresh each other.
If you need renewal, or if you just want to grow deeper in the Lord, consider which of these four things you could implement. Wherever you are in the world, whatever your situation, God promises the same reward for intentionally pursuing renewal in Him: “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13.
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Hope: Expecting the endless love of God
by Danelle Venter, Member Care
In today's world, marked by wars, persecution, economic instability, grief, and loss, it can be easy to lose hope. Many of our World Outreach field workers are directly impacted by these crises daily. How do they, and we, persevere? The Bible promises that when we endure trials, our hope is strengthened, and that hope will not disappoint us.
What is hope if not an expectation of an encounter with the love of God? Love manifests itself in many ways through the different characteristics of God – the good Father, the Shepherd, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, our Bridegroom, our Saviour, and more. Hope is the expectation that God will demonstrate his love by rescuing us in times of need, providing for us, comforting us, and making all things work for the good of those who love God (Romans 8:28).
The question that comes to mind is: how do we endure in a way that leads to proven character and ultimately strengthens our hope? In Psalm 59, written by David when Saul sent men to his house to kill him, David demonstrated three practical approaches. The first is running to God amid trials, the second is imagining God's character, and the third is gaining a sense of control.
In verses 1-5 of Psalm 59, David prays, “Deliver me from my enemies, O God.” David invited God into his fear and looked to God as his source of protection. When we respond to trials in prayer, we begin processing our emotions and thoughts by expressing them in words, taking the abstract and giving it a name. We acknowledge that we are not alone, that God is with us. We turn our minds from ourselves toward God, and finally, we place our expectations (our hope) on God.
What does running to God look like to you?
Practice 1: Running to God. Practice 2: God-imagining
In verses 6-10, David meditates on the power of God. Although he was intimidated by his enemies, God was not. David wrote, "But you laugh at them, Lord" (v. 8). When David meditated on the power of God, his source of comfort came from God's ability to intervene rather than his own ability to rescue himself.
What characteristic of God brings you comfort?
Practice
3: Gaining a sense of control.
In verses 16 and 17, David wrote, “But I will sing of your strength; in the morning I will sing of your love.” When we face trials, we can lose our sense of control, which, according to numerous studies, can have a severe impact on our mental well-being. The opposite is also true: having a sense of control can improve our mental health. David exerted control in his decision to worship, and sometimes that is the only area of control we have.
What will a decision to worship look like in your context?
If you are reading this article from a place of hopelessness, I would like to encourage you that God's love doesn't cease, whether we stand strong or falter. Lamentations 3:22 states, “The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease.” (New Living Translation). May this encourage you to hold fast to God who stands by his word. May it give you confidence in your expectation of encountering the endless love of God.
Recognise, Repent, Renounce, Refill
What do you do when the people God have sent you to minister to are not receiving the gospel?
After ten years of ministry, Martin and Simone discovered that not everything is as it seems…
Originally, Martin and Simone’s ministry in Africa was composed of village visits where chronological Bible stories were taught. The people listened to the stories, but there was no breakthrough for them coming to Jesus. Something was stopping them from receiving God’s love and grace and putting their trust and faith in him.
Although followers of the predominant religion in the region, this people group’s true allegiance is not to it, but to the spirits. Whenever they had a problem, they wouldn’t go to their place of worship for prayer. Instead, they would go to a powerful village witch doctor and seek help from them.
Martin says, “We didn’t see the bondage of the people in the first seven years, where we were giving Bible training but weren’t seeing a breakthrough. Once we became aware that the people are in spiritual bondage, we started this strategy to help set them free and we’ve seen a real change.”
“They need to see the reality that Christ, today, is the same as he used to be 2,000 years ago.”
“They need to see that God, through Christ, is still able to help them in their daily lives. In comparison, when I came to Christ, it was enough for me to know that God is real, Jesus is alive, he is resurrected and sits at the right hand of God. That was enough for me to come to Christ. Not so much for this people group. They need to know, ‘God is here for my daily needs. When I call upon him, he will help me. He will make something happen, and I can cry out to him for my daily challenges.’”
“What brought the breakthrough was when we started to see the real bondage that they have because you cannot see that a person is in demonic bondage. But once they start telling you their story, you understand that animism and belief in the spirits are built so much into the culture. They look for help and protection through various ceremonies to the spirits that open the door for demonic oppression.”
Recognise
“What we do is that when the people come to us and ask for help, first we include them in a Bible story group where they learn about Jesus. They go there for four weeks and learn who Jesus is, what is sin, what is repentance, and who are demons. After that, we do a combined seminar where we invite a group of people who are interested in receiving deliverance.”
“In that five-hour training, we give them a foundation from Creation to Christ, about curses and blessings, the connection to our own sin and the ancestor’s sin, who are demons, etc. Then, we put them on a list and pray for them individually. We bring them into a counselling session.
In the session, we ask them questions to find out where they opened doors to receive demonic oppression. Where was the open door where they invited demons?
This is important for them to understand that it’s a long-term decision. If they want to stay free, they must keep those doors closed. We call this the Recognition Phase.”
Repent & Renounce
“Once we have recognised how the demons came in and what kind of demons are in them, then we go to the next phase, the Repentance Phase where we lead them into repentance. They repent for their own sins, the sins of their ancestors.”
“Then we lead them into the Renounce Phase where they renounce the spirit of witchcraft and the spirit of idolatry. They name the spirit and tell it, ‘You must leave my body. You’re not allowed in me anymore. I quit the covenant that I made with you. I quit it today, I cut it off and I throw you out. You must leave me.’
The person themselves must say that because they are the owner of their bodies and their lives. They are the ones that give the demons the right to stay.”
“Once the person has gone through these phases with us, we pray, and we resist the spirits, and we command the spirits out until we see a physical manifestation happening within the person. We do this until the person has peace, is calm, and the pain is gone.”
Refill
“The last phase is Refill, where we pray for the person to receive the Holy Spirit and to be refilled. We explain that the Holy Spirit is a good spirit who wants to help them to understand more about God’s word and wants to help them not fall into sin. So, the person invites the Holy Spirit into their hearts. Once people come to faith, we have seen boldness and courage from them to receive the training from us so they can pray for others to be delivered themselves. We’re talking about three to six-month-old followers of Jesus!”
Martin and his wife, Simone, have worked amongst an unreached people group in Southern Africa for the last 10 years. Their ministry consists of heart transformation, spiritual rebirth, discipleship and raising local leaders for the indigenous church.
When Jesus Meets Us
In September, World Outreach had an organisation-wide, fourteen days of prayer and fasting, where we prayed and sought the Lord together as a global community.
During that time, someone shared a story illustration, which is a beautiful picture of how Jesus meets us where we are. The story goes like this –
A father asked his daughter, who was around 12 years old, “How is your relationship with Jesus going?”
The daughter said,
Oh, Dad, sometimes it’s like taking the lift. I just push the button and the next thing that happens is the doors open and I’m in the presence of God and it’s just so wonderful. I feel like I’ve just sort of entered heaven.
On other days, it feels like I have to take the stairs and it’s really tough. It’s hard and it takes some work and time. It’s not always easy to approach or come to God.
And there are some days when life is just hard, and I haven’t got the energy to take the stairs. I just sit down on the bottom step and can’t go any further. It’s those days, Dad, that Jesus comes down the stairs to meet me.
We all need this reminder at times when Jesus comes down the stairs and meets us where we are.
John 14:18 says, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
Let’s remember that Jesus was willing to be identified with us for a short time so that we’d be identified with him forever.
This is the gospel, that he came for us to bring us comfort and bring us into him.
May the Lord deepen your faith as you meditate on him.
Preparation –The Nations Course
How does World Outreach prepare our field workers to bring the gospel to unreached people groups in a cross-culturally effective way?
Recently, Harron & Steffi completed The Nations Course in preparation to serve with a World Outreach project in Borneo. Below is an interview the Nations Magazine Team had with them after they completed the 6-week course.
How did The Nations Course prepare you for your future service?
In more ways than one! Being very inexperienced, we were taken through previous mistakes from missionaries to prevent repetition (or mitigate the severity of effects experienced), pitfalls to avoid etc. It provided us with an awareness and expectation of issues that we could potentially face on the field.
What was most impactful?
Seeing the lengths that some of our peers had gone through despite the extreme persecution and troubles faced.
What was the most challenging?
Having not yet gone out to the field, imagining what our family life and ministry would look like (to answer questions hypothetically, rather than out of experience).
Was there an Aha! moment, or unexpected realization you had during the course?
The simplicity in spreading the gospel to the unreached (of a different language and culture) and church planting; we always overthought and overcomplicated it. When it comes down to it, it’s really sharing stories from the Bible in a conversational way that has proven to be the most effective.
What was the most fun?
Spending time with fellow missionaries and getting to know them all better. The classroom interactions were great too!
Is there a memory you keep going back to when you think about the course?
Language study definitely stands out, the banter between us all, meals shared, and the classroom itself (we did spend a lot of time there!)
Would you recommend others to attend The Nations Course for ministry preparation? Absolutely, it is relevant for all of us believers in Christ as missions is not just for a select group of Christians, but for everyone! The Nations Course provides a great platform to learn about missions and glean the wisdom and experience of other missionaries who have many years of on-field experience.
We encourage every Christian, especially those contemplating being involved in crosscultural missions to highly consider enrolling in The Nations Course.
You won’t regret the experience of being equipped for the mission field while having lots of fun!
The Nations Course is run every year, with two weeks of online learning modules and four weeks of an in-person classroom curriculum. Typically held in Thailand, this unique cohort-based course will prepare you for cross-cultural missions in all areas of life in service. From Animism and Mission to World Religions, The Nations Course has been shaped to cover the most important topics for anyone serving in cross-cultural ministry.
Please scan the QR code to learn more and join us for The Nations Course in 2025!
Ministering to Families of Terrorists
Earlier this year, a team of World Outreach field workers started visiting a refugee camp in a war-torn region of the Middle East. As they distributed aid and visited with the people, they realised that the camp was filled with women and children, but there were no men to be found.
When they asked about it, the response was that the men had stayed behind, to fight for a well-known terrorist organisation in their home country. This news was quite shocking to the team. Had God really sent them to minister to the families of terrorists?
One day, after a visit, a woman called the team aside and asked if they would please meet with her husband. With much uncertainty, the team agreed to meet the man and were immediately confronted with a list of questions.
“Are you visiting my wife and children? Are you the ones bringing them food? Are you giving them medicine?”
Fearfully, the team replied that, yes, they are the ones doing all these things...
The man’s face brightened, and he then started thanking them for their help.
He informed the team that the local religious leader had promised the men that the terrorist organisation would send money to their families if they fought in the war, but they never fulfilled this promise.
The practical love of these workers opened the hearts of three of the men who had returned. They met the Lord and decided to stay with their families and not return to the war.
Our Lord is the God of the impossible! Praise his name!
Let us pray these words over the World Outreach workers in the Middle East together:
Psalm 118:6
“The Lord is for me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?”
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CHIEF EDITOR: Andrew Mercer
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT: Jameson Wilent
DESIGN: Ditta Prawiro
ISSN 2624-1536
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International Director: Ben B Field Ministries Director: Ben B Executive Manager: Andrew Mercer
International Board: Laura Kuimba, Wayne Freeman, Choon Ooi, Martin S, Patki K, Sue Fosse, Ben B
International Leadership Team: Kevin Chan, Ben B, Ivan Venter, Ruby Bayasen, Andrew Mercer, Natasja Kelder