April 2021 Mission Prayer Prompts

The Covid-19 worldwide pandemic has affected the ministry of all the missionaries we support. Limits and restrictions have been implemented that restricts travel, size of gatherings, etc., just as we have experienced here in America. In some cases the restrictions are greater than we experienced here. But is seems from the newsletters, things are beginning to open back up. PTL.

Stephanie Alderman – , Africa. Church planter working with women and children ministries. Here is the Converge link to the work Stephanie is focusing on: https://converge.org/project/africa/6-degree- initiative/togo-church-planting to learn more. You may remember that voodoo is heavily practiced in Togo and has been for over 600 years. One percent of the population is Christian. Our vision for our new kids curriculum, DMD (Disciples Making Disciples) Kids, is in the name; we want them to become disciple makers. So our challenge to them is simple, share what you heard on Sunday with one or more of your friends. As of today, 80 kids have heard the gospel from their friends and three have chosen to follow Christ. Please be in prayer with us as we develop our teaching team, continue helping kids become disciple makers, and pray and work toward our goal of 190,000 disciples. I would say this is the multiplication principal in action!

Bob and Barb Bartz – Working virtually from Florida through online contact. Far Eastern Broadcasting Company loaned Bob to an organization which is developing media resources and services to support their ministry teams working among many of the least reached people groups around the world. Bringing Christ to the nations through media. (Bob asked we not share the name over the internet). The Content in Context workshop that I developed fits right into my new role with this new organization. However, there are significant adjustments to be made. In the past, the workshop has been conducted in specific locations where teams can gather together. The lack of travel and restrictions on gatherings due to the pandemic further illustrates the need for this workshop to be available online. So my first major focus over the past few months has been shifting the concepts and applications of the workshop into a module based format for teams to access virtually and at their own pace. This requires adapting to available platforms and modifying team activities to accommodate this. Because the new organization Bob works for is international and is being formatted to be used online rather in workshop gatherings, it is no longer necessary to be based in Jakarta, . Bob and Barb have just moved back to the United States to base their work from here. They emphasis they are not retiring from work at this time. Since their work is internet based, they are simply changing their home base location to work from. CrossRoads will continue to support them in this new but similar endeavor. For more info: https://www.febc.org/give-to-missionary/bob-and-barbara-bartz/

Asian Missionaries – Converge missionaries sharing the Gospel with Hui Musl*m group living in the same country. We have been asked to not share their names on the internet. This couple has been restricted also by the pandemic. They have been outside of their host country back in the country of their birth waiting for travel restrictions to be lifted, which has not happened yet. “We are now staying with my husband’s Mom. We know this is from the Lord, for us to be able to have extended time with her.” I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in His word I put my hope. Psalm 130:5 We are much encouraged to receive your letter and to learn how CrossRoads Church (plus everyone else involved in working towards expanding our Lord’s Kingdom) are able, with the Lord’s help, to creatively press on despite ongoing COVID-19 restrictions. Indeed, much has changed because of the pandemic. We continue to ask the Lord how we should do ministry differently during and after COVID-19. We seek to know what our Father in heaven is doing, so that we can move in tandem with His spirit and plans.

Prayer topics: For spiritual breakthroughs that some of us are still waiting for, in our personal lives and in our ministry!! We wait for breakthroughs with the target group of Musl*ms. Also, that when these people hear the Gospel, they will understand Abba Father’s love and follow Him. And secondly, that God will display His power over evil amongst these people, and open their eyes to the truth that Jesus is their Savior and Lord. For more info: https://converge.org/missionary/mao-phoenix

Juan and Elena Felipe – Minnesota / Iowa Conference Baptist Missionaries serving in Pelican Rapids and Park Rapids. Juan is a Pastor and an Evangelist to Spanish speakers living in our State. They seek our prayers for full recovery from Covid-19. Many in his two congregations have also experienced sickness from Covid-19.

Pastor Felipe shared his gratitude to the Lord for six new church members who received the Lord Jesus as their Savior this past winter. He urges us to pray for their growth in faith in the Lord. He asks for prayer for Sister Lidia who recently lost her son to violence in Mexico from the drug cartel. It has been very sorrowful for her and the rest of her family who resides in Minnesota. He asks we also “pray for the Church in Pelican Rapids where a very small group of believers is struggling because several of the members have moved to other cities. Pray for those who still are attending the services for their growth and faithfulness to the Lord.” He asks for prayer for a new roof for his house and for the Lord to provide financially. Lastly, he asks for prayer “for his family’s health, especially my wife’s.” Pastor asks “May the Lord open more opportunities for me to share His gospel with those who need Him and prepare their hearts to received His Word.” Pastor Felipe thanks CrossRoads for our financial support of his ministry. For more info: https://converge.org/north-central/giving-campaign/juan-felipe

Todd and Karen Indehar – Converge Missionaries evangelizing and church planting in Thailand. You may recall that the Church plant area in Bangkok is in inner city slums. Recently, Todd led a team to a Northern Province to share the Gospel and more with children of a village. “We hope you had a blessed celebration of the resurrection. Ours was truly joyous; our little church was packed! We currently have two new attenders who seem to be seekers of truth. Please pray for these requests Todd shared:

* Our marriage is a source of strength, rest and deep friendship. But we cannot take that for granted, so please pray for us. We have passed through seasons of trials but by the grace of God we’ve stayed as one. * Our children are great! Our numbers are increasing. Especially pray for the opportunity to reconnect with all and meet our newest grandchild, Juniper, born in Feb 2020. This may happen in 2021 or 2022. We do not wish to allow COVID to rule us, but are constrained by governments which attempt to manage it well. * Relationships with national co-laborers is sensitive and the enemy uses misunderstandings as a tool against our work. Please pray. * Relationships with people in sex trade outreach (Hosea Project) seems to be going well, but we need wisdom. Currently we minister to seven “bar girls” who are out of work due to COVID. One just lost her mom to cancer. Another suffered a bike accident. All but one is saying they will not go back to the bar to work! * Relationships to a UUPG in Northern Thailand are very encouraging as the village mayor seems to be enthusiastic to receive us for a 5-day program. This needs focused prayer. With the current COVID situation, we are not certain we will be allowed to do this. As always, thank you for your prayer and support. For more info: https://converge.org/missionary/todd-karen-indehar

David and Carol J. – Converge Asian Director of Missions. There is a degree of uncertainty with the ministries I participate in throughout Asia. And yet these words spoken by Jesus readily come to mind: “Don’t be afraid; just keep trusting…” [Luke 8:50] As we trust, here is some of what we see coming about: Seeing God’s work around the world. That gives us hope, and joy, and expectation.

From Dave’s newsletter: The organization I work with, Converge, is asking God for a gospel movement among every least-reached people group — in our generation.

“In 2020, 1,769 churches were launched (bold is my emphasis) in cooperation with international partners — all among the world's least-reached peoples. These new churches are discipling 28,304 newly baptized believers. In addition, 20 new Converge global workers passed the assessment process. Converge now has 175 workers around the globe with another 63 preparing to deploy.”

I am diligently searching for partnership in ministry among the least-reached people of Asia. I am discovering local workers and building stronger partnerships in Japan, , , Thailand, Indonesia, and Philippines.

NOTE: this short video Pray for Buddhists (prayercast.com) (https://prayercast.com/buddhism- landing.html for further information) may be of interest to you. For more info: https://converge.org/missionary/david-j

Jim and Lynn Jarman – Converge missionaries working from Sweden with the Nordic Baltic Initative. “We have been asked to expand our roles as church multiplication catalysts. Now instead of working with one church network in Sweden, we have been tasked with overseeing and developing partnerships and projects in the five Nordic nations: Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, and Finland. We will still be based in Stockholm, but will be saying goodbye to our staff position with the New Life Network. God has been gracious to increase our sphere of service for Him throughout the Nordic Baltic region, including Russia.”

Most of our mamas used to say, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." And, of course, they meant for us to make the best of bad situations and turn them around for good. By God's grace, this is exactly what we have been able to do in the middle of a pandemic from our less than ideal circumstances in Sweden. We have been given the opportunity to influence over 100 thousand people from 45 nations on a daily basis. Scores have accepted Christ for the very first time. We are in awe of God's goodness. And, it is your prayers and faithful financial support that have carried us forward. We are so grateful for your kindness and generosity. Thank you for standing with us and caring for us. We trust that new doors of opportunity will open for each of you as well. We can't begin to tell you how much we miss our family. Zoom is wonderful, but it's not a real hug. We have not been back stateside in almost 2 years and it's been over 3 since we've been with most of our family. We appreciate your prayers for them and for us. Please pray for us and rejoice with us!

For more info: https://converge.org/missionary/jim-lynn-jarman

Mike and Samya Johnson – Converge Missionaries to Muls*ms under Call of Love Ministries based from Ohio. Mike is an evangelist traveling to the Middle East to participate in crusades. Mike is a musician playing a string instrument. While Mike normally travels part-time (Covid-19 has limited travel over the last year), Samya focuses on providing evangelistic materials and discipleship materials to those seeking more information about Christianity. Mike works in this Call of Love Ministry too. In their last letter they said, “we are responsible for Call of Love Ministries and Almagd TV”. Almagd TV is satellite TV that can be viewed individually in people’s homes on their cell phones and devices. They produce the programming to reach out with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In spite of all the challenges the pandemic has brought, we praise the Lord for all He has done through our ministry in 2020 to make an impact among 450 million Arabs. Our initiative of Almagd TV continues to introduce Muslims to Christ and help them move from darkness into light. We have served and communicated with over 6,500 viewers so far by phone, WhatsApp, and Viber, and thousands more on social media! Praise the Lord with us! 550,000 Arab viewers visited the Almagd TV website in 2020, 30 percent of them from Saudia Arabia! 10,000 viewers downloaded the Android App which includes the Arabic Bible. (bold is my emphasis) I am sure we can pray for softened hearts to hear the Good News of the Gospel. We can pray for discernment as they expose themselves to answer questions and promote the Truth of the Gospel. We can pray they can raise enough funds to run these two ministries. Almagd TV has 20 employees to make payroll for plus production and air time costs. I am sure there is pressure on the finances. They share very encouraging news in the Call of Love newsletter. For more info: https://converge.org/missionary/mike-samya-j ; Call of Love Ministries

Kryukov Sister Church in the . Pastor Oleg is the Pastor of this church and an evangelist at heart. With the money CrossRoads sends to this church, the Kryukov Church has divided the church into nine evangelistic teams; each team focusing on a group for ministry: 1. Orphans 2. Very Poor 3. Widows 4. Disabled 5. Outreach outside their city 6-8. Three separate church plants 9. Eastern front war zone evangelism and discipleship.

Language difference is an issue between us. He uses a computer program to translate communication between him and myself, and there is another woman who speaks English in the congregation. Pastor Oleg sends photos of ministry presentations made by different teams to me about every two weeks. CrossRoads has been a vehicle of blessing from God to these nine areas of ministry in the Ukraine. I notice Kryukov Church supplying food to each of the groups listed above as a common theme in the photos sent to me. Pastor Oleg has said that Kryukov Church is welcome everywhere they go. Kryukov Church is bold in sharing the Gospel as they meet humanitarian needs within these nine groups. CrossRoads Church members have been faithful in giving toward this faith promise giving to Kryukov church. They have been faithful at reaching out to others with the Gospel and humanitarian help. In February, the Mission Council had our first Zoom meeting with Pastor Oleg and three Deacons. It was so encouraging to talk with them.

Ellie Lundquist – Converge Missionary working with the deaf population in Brazil. Ellie writes: Exciting new adventures! It is so encouraging to see how the video devotionals are being received. Fiel Ministries has released a new devotional video daily since the beginning of 2021 and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. I have had deaf people and interpreters reach out to me and express their gratitude to Fiel for making this type of resource available. They almost all ask for more too! They ask if there are other channels or places where they can access more resources in Brazilian sign language. I have to admit that I was a little nervous to see what kind of response these videos would get, but I am so grateful that they are blessing and encouraging the deaf community. This has been my prayer from the beginning and I am so incredibly encouraged to see this happening!

I have finished recording the videos for the month of March and am currently working on April. I hope to finish recording the devotionals for April this week and work on May next week. I usually spend a 3-4 days preparing for recording and then try to record the month's videos in 2-3 days. I am hoping to discuss other projects with Fiel too and figure out which resources will be next on the list for recording and making available in Brazilian sign language.

Link to Fiel YouTube

Please continue to pray for the deaf group here as well. Pray especially for Thiago, Adenilson and Fabiana. Pray for their emotional and spiritual health. Pray also for Thiago to find a job.

Last but not least, I wanted to thank you for your generosity in supporting my ministry and this special project. I am almost at my target monthly support goal. I only need about $200 in additional monthly support. For the project, I have received almost $3,000 of the $15,000 I need to make this happen. This money is not for me, I am using it to pay for someone to professionally edit and produce the videos. The $15,000 is not only for the devotionals, but also for other video resources we hope to make available soon! Would you please pray about supporting this project?

For more info: https://converge.org/missionary/ellie-lundquist

Nordic Baltic Regional Initiative – Bill Ankerberg – Director. Converge ministry focusing on the Nordic Baltic region. Several years ago we were told the Nordic countries and the Baltic countries were some of the spiritually darkest places in the world. The Nordic countries have just moved on without God. Their hearts seem to have hardened. The Baltic countries were former countries where belief in God was strongly discouraged (forbidden) by the government. People got used to life without God and few have interest in spiritual things today. Bill is the Director over the Jarman’s ministry. The money CrossRoads sends is used to provide training opportunities and retreats for ministry leaders and pastors. Bill is a retired pastor and I don’t believe he draws a salary. In Bill’s most recent letter he shares that Covid-19 restrictions have prevented him from leading a Pastor’s Conference for the Pastor’s in the region. The Conference went on without Bill’s presence at the Conference. Bill is excited about how God is moving. Bill shares there are three “ministry centers” in Estonia being built right now. These will be used for training centers and summer camps. For more info: https://converge.org/missionary/william-ankerberg

Doug Hansen Mission Council, CrossRoads Church