Reaching the nations through the nations

Via Brand

At Via, our mission is to come alongside the global church to reach the nations for Christ. Via Churches, Via Families, Via Students, and Via Generosity are the avenues through which we engage, disciple, and support the advancement of the Gospel to the unreached.

80% of the world’s evangelical Christians live in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Over the last 50 years, God’s church has grown exponentially in these areas.

These regions have tremendous mission sending potential to help bring the gospel to unreached peoples, but they currently send only 20% of the world’s cross-cultural missionaries!

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We are always on the lookout for ambitious and talented people to come and join Via. If you are passionate about the bringing God's glory to the nations and want to help mobilize the global church then we would love to hear from you.

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Total Number of Evangelicals

Cultural Bridges to UPGs

Regional Access to UPGs

Religious Freedom

Prosperity

Current Sending Abroad

Mobilization Potential

Custom Mobilization Potential

Number of Evangelicals

Cultural Bridges

Strategic Access

Religious Freedoms

Current Sending

This infographic provides a visual score for seven data points ranked on a 0 to 100 scale. Faded icons show scores for other countries on the mobilization index. See below for actual scores and country-specific insights.

ADDITION

FINANCIAL DEPENDENCY

INACCESSIBLE

LIMITED MISSION FORCE

DISTANT AND FOREIGN MISSION FIELD

THE WORLD IS THE MISSION FIELD

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Willing to die, Terrified to ask for support

In a crowded room in India, 32 indigenous missionaries gathered for a Via support-raising boot camp. Each person had experienced the cost of following Jesus&mdash;every single person had friends or family who had been beaten or even killed for their faith. They were willing to go anywhere for the gospel, even if it meant risking their lives. But when it came to raising financial support, many of them were paralyzed by fear. They weren&rsquo;t afraid to die for their faith. They were terrified to ask for support. For years, many Indian missionaries have depended on Western donors to fund their work. But as government hostility and cultural resistance toward Christianity increase, foreign funding is becoming harder to access. That&rsquo;s why Via&rsquo;s training is so important. It equips local missionaries not only to go&mdash;but to be fully equipped and funded for the work God is calling them to.

God&rsquo;s Provision in Unexpected Places

James, a missionary from Mumbai, was one of the first to attend one of Via&rsquo;s generosity trainings in India. He had the calling and the passion&mdash;but lacked the funding he needed and the confidence to ask for it. He had read <a href="https://www.vianations.org/generosity/resources/the-god-ask" rel="follow">The God Ask</a> several times but needed more support. After the training, something shifted. Encouraged by what he learned, James stepped out in faith. He started conversations with Christians in his city&mdash;many of whom live in the slums. The idea of raising support in such an impoverished community seemed impossible. But James believed what Via had taught him: that fundraising isn&rsquo;t about asking for money&mdash;it&rsquo;s about inviting others to be part of God&rsquo;s mission. A year later, James had raised more than half of his needed support from some of the poorest members of his community. At the next generosity training, when new participants insisted it was impossible to be fully funded without help from the West, James stood up. He shared what God had done through the support of poor believers in the slums of Mumbai. His story stunned the room into silence. At that moment, something changed in the room. The idea that fundraising only works &ldquo;somewhere else&rdquo; was replaced with something powerful: faith. Faith that God can provide anywhere. Faith that local believers, no matter how poor, can be generous partners in the gospel. And faith that, with the right support and training, anyone can be equipped to go.

Today, James is not only fully supported&mdash;he&rsquo;s helping others do the same. He&rsquo;s preparing to facilitate generosity trainings in multiple Indian languages and is actively mobilizing more missionaries to the unreached. In one of the most gospel-resistant nations on earth, he is helping to send others out&mdash;equipped, confident, and fully funded. The message is clear: fundraising is not just possible&mdash;it&rsquo;s happening. Not in the West, but in slums and small villages. Not because of wealth, but because of faith. With the right tools and a willingness to trust God, support can be raised anywhere and the gospel can be carried to the unreached by anyone. And the mission continues.

<ul>
<li>
Pray for James as he prepares to lead new generosity trainings in multiple Indian languages.
</li>
<li>
Pray for boldness and faith among new missionaries learning to raise local support.
</li>
<li>
Pray for Indian believers giving sacrificially from limited means, that God would bless and multiply their generosity.
</li>
<li>Pray for protection and provision for all missionaries serving in hostile regions.</li>
</ul>

Help equip more missionaries like James to raise support locally and go to the unreached. <a href="http://www.vianations.org/giving" rel="follow">Give</a> today and designate your gift to &ldquo;Generosity Training&rdquo; or note &ldquo;India Training&rdquo; in the comments.

Faith to Ask: How One Missionary Proved God can provide from Anywhere

Via Catalyzes Church Planting Partnerships in Myanmar

How God Is Reaching the Unreached in a Country Closed to the World

In the heart of Myanmar, God is working.
Among the Dawnu, a Buddhist tribe of 115,000 people who had never heard the gospel, a story of revival is continuing. Just one year ago, fewer than 50 individuals from this tribe had any relationship with Jesus. But today, over 60 have come to faith, and the number is growing. This is the power of the gospel carried by local missionaries, fueled by prayer, and made possible by a church that said &ldquo;yes&rdquo; when the door seemed closed.

A Nation in Crisis. A People Still Waiting.

Myanmar is home to over 150 ethnic people groups, but more than 50 remain unreached with the gospel. Three years ago, access became even more limited. When the military took control of the government in 2021, it sparked widespread violence. Foreign missionaries were forced to flee. The country was closed off, and the unreached were seemingly cut off from hearing the name of Jesus. But God's mission never stopped.

One Church&rsquo;s Obedience. One Tribe&rsquo;s Awakening.

Faith Bible Church (FBC) in Edmond, Oklahoma, began praying and fasting for an unreached people group to adopt. They didn&rsquo;t know where, or how&mdash;but they were ready. In 2022, during their children&rsquo;s Vacation Bible School, the kids raised $20,000 for Bible translation, setting the stage for what was to come. Tonya, FBC&rsquo;s missions director, began searching for ways to serve in Myanmar. But few were working there. Through a series of divine connections, she met Paul Elliot, who introduced her to Pastor T, a bold Burmese leader with a vision for training missionaries in-country. Together, they launched a Missions Conference and trained five local missionaries to go to the Dawnu people. Bible translation began. Churches began forming. And lives began changing.

These five missionaries have spent the past year visiting Dawnu villages&mdash;sitting in homes, telling stories from Scripture, and praying over families. Today, 60 Dawnu men and women have chosen to follow Christ. They meet in simple house churches. They worship in their own language. They are being discipled by people from their own region. This isn&rsquo;t just a mission&mdash;it&rsquo;s multiplication.

What&rsquo;s happening in Myanmar is nothing short of miraculous. In a country closed to most outsiders, God is raising up a mission movement from within. He is transforming unreached tribes into mission-training hubs, sending out workers to reach the next tribe, and the next.
 From a $20,000 VBS offering to a roomful of believers praying in a remote village, God orchestrated each step. This is His project, and He invites us to be part of it.

You Can Join the Story

<ul>
<li>PRAY for the Dawnu people and the missionaries serving them.</li>
</ul>

<ul>
<li>GIVE to accelerate Bible translation and church-planting efforts.</li>
</ul>

<ul>
<li>GO by supporting national missionaries through your church or small group.</li>
</ul>
 &ldquo;Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.&rdquo; &ndash; Matthew 9:38
 Let&rsquo;s reach the nations&mdash;through the nations. &nbsp;➡️ Learn more: <a href="https://www.vianations.org" rel="follow">vianations.org/myanmar</a> &nbsp;➡️ Watch the story: <a href="https://youtu.be/KqyjbHK6NqM?feature=shared" rel="follow">YouTube &ndash; Myanmar Mission Update</a> &nbsp;➡️ Give: <a href="https://www.vianations.org/give" rel="follow">vianations.org/give</a>

Via Catalyzes Church Planting Partnerships in Myanmar

From Ashes to Beauty:&nbsp;

Debris from an abandoned church in Egypt

Replanting Churches Destroyed by the Muslim Brotherhood

The startling photo above shows debris inside a shuttered church that has been abandoned for over a decade. It was destroyed, along with many others, when the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-23727404" rel="follow">Muslim Brotherhood ruled Egypt</a>. But today, Christian churches in Egypt are teaming up with Via to reopen, revitalize, and replant them in the Delta region (where the Nile meets the Mediterranean Sea).

For generations, the concept of a missionary was shaped by an image rooted in Western tradition. A Jordanian partner with Via once said the image of a missionary looked like tall, blue-eyed men with long-skirted wives and well-behaved children. This perception reflected a larger issue: a longstanding dependence on the West for mission work. In the 19th and 20th centuries, foreign missionaries laid the foundations for churches in the Arab world. Still, their primary focus was maintaining Christian communities rather than reaching the majority population. Even as priorities shifted, one crucial element remained missing&mdash;equipping the Arab Church to take ownership of the Great Commission.
Without intentional discipleship and mobilization, many local congregations remained unprepared to raise and send their own missionaries. Today, that reality is changing in Egypt. The face of missions is no longer foreign but local, with Egyptian Christians stepping forward to reach their neighbors. However, many churches are hesitant to engage in missions, unsure of how to step beyond their walls to bring the gospel to the unreached, especially within a country hostile to Christianity.

One of the most spiritually neglected regions in <a href="https://www.vianations.org/mobilization-index/profiles/egypt" rel="follow">Egypt</a> is the Delta. Historically known as the Land of Goshen, it is home to nearly half the country&rsquo;s population. Yet, it remains one of the poorest and most spiritually desolate areas, with radicalized ideologies taking root where the Church once thrived. Many churches in the Delta region are small, struggling, or <a href="https://www.vianations.org/articles/from-ruins-to-revival" rel="follow">entirely abandoned</a>. Some were locked for years, their doors closed due to a lack of believers. Despite this, only a small fraction of mission efforts and Christian resources are directed toward it. Jesus says in John 4, &ldquo;The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.&rdquo; Through the Delta Project, local churches are reclaiming their biblical role as multiplying communities of faith. By equipping leaders with practical training and mission-focused discipleship, Via is helping churches go beyond maintaining congregations, we are igniting church-planting movements that can transform entire regions.

Hope Church: A Community on Mission

Via Nations: Equipping the Church for the Task

Via's commitment is to mobilize and equip indigenous leaders to take the gospel to the unreached. The mission is clear: identify and train church planters, strategically place them where they are needed most, and provide ongoing coaching and support to help them flourish. One of the most effective tools in this effort has been the Explore study. Since 2019, this initiative has reshaped the way the Arab Church understands missions. Through this program, 1,720 believers have been mobilized for missions, and 30 Explore Trainings have been conducted across 13 locations in Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. As churches and individuals step into their calling, the Arab Church is beginning to rise&mdash;not just as a recipient of mission work but as a sender of missionaries.

There are many ways to engage with Via&rsquo;s calling to equip indigenous church planters and missionaries in the Delta region:

For the ongoing efforts of the various mobilization ministries in Egypt.&nbsp;
 For believers to find their most strategic role in seeing Christ proclaimed among the nations.
 For gospel renewal among the Coptic church in Egypt. As one of the oldest churches in the world, it has great importance, but many in the church are nominal. &nbsp;

<a href="https://www.vianations.org/give/egypt-delta-region-project" rel="follow">Give</a> to support church planters pioneering in unreached areas.&nbsp;
 Go step out in faith and join the mission.
&nbsp; Visit the <a href="https://www.vianations.org/give/egypt-delta-region-project" rel="follow">Delta Project</a> page to learn how to get involved.

From Ashes to Beauty

Meet Shen, a godly young woman from Nias, Indonesia. Shen had always been involved in student ministry, but she never imagined she would one day start a mission movement. When a friend invited her to Arise Asia, a conference focused on empowering young Christians for the Great Commission, she wasn&rsquo;t sure if she wanted to go. Shen spent time praying about it, and eventually her curiosity won.
Shen arrived in Bali for the Arise Asia conference, which was full of like-minded young believers. During Via&rsquo;s workshop, she encountered <a href="https://www.vianations.org/resources/explore-the-world-christian-lifestyle" rel="follow">Explore the World Christian Lifestyle</a>, a resource Via designed to help young believers understand God&rsquo;s heart for the world. Lesson 1 focuses on God&rsquo;s global mission, and it resonated deeply with her. After reading Psalm 67 during the workshop, she was moved to tears, realizing that she had been blessed to be a blessing. But what did that mean for her?&nbsp;

After the conference, Shen and her friend continued studying Explore, and she realized that her people in Nias and beyond needed to be mobilized for the Great Commission. The more she prayed, the clearer her calling became: to send out young people from Nias to reach the unreached.
Rather than waiting for the perfect time, Shen was motivated to act immediately. She started gathering friends, sharing what she had learned, and discipling them with the Explore study - a study that can be used over and over again. Within a few months, she and her friend launched AMP, a youth-led movement focused on mission discipleship. Their vision is to train and send young leaders to cross-cultural mission fields.
Shen&rsquo;s dream isn&rsquo;t just to see her own life transformed. She wants to see her hometown of Nias become a mission-sending hub. She envisions young people mobilized, trained, and deployed to places where the gospel has never been heard.

Arise Asia and EDM&rsquo;25 are equipping a new generation of young believers to take the gospel to the nations. Both gatherings inspire and train students to step into missions whether by discipling others, sending, or going themselves. Through dynamic workshops, practical tools, and mission-focused teaching, these events provide clear next steps for lasting impact with students passionately pursuing the call. Via plays a key role in both, equipping attendees with resources like Explore the World Christian Lifestyle and mobilizing leaders long after the conferences end. While Arise Asia focuses on students across Asia, EDM&rsquo;25 expands the vision to include leaders from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and beyond, strengthening a global movement for the Great Commission.

Will you be part of a future student&rsquo;s story?

Shen&rsquo;s story is only possible because people like you are praying for the next generation of missionaries, just as Jesus asked his disciples to pray (Matthew 9:37-38). You can help Shen and others like her take their next step of faith.
Pray for Shen, her ministry, and the young leaders they are discipling. Give to <a href="https://www.vianations.org/give/translations" rel="follow">translation efforts</a> and distribution of the Explore study to equip future missionaries. Go to an event or mission training. Visit Via&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.vianations.org/short-term-opportunities" rel="follow">short-term opportunity page.</a>

From One Step of Faith to a Movement: Shen’s Story

A Spiritual Crossroads in Central Africa

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is witnessing a critical spiritual shift. Since the late 20th century, Central Africa has become a focal point for Islamic outreach, with economic hardship and unemployment making vulnerable populations susceptible to conversion. In Kinshasa alone, the number of mosques has surged from 6 in 1995 to nearly 500 today. Muslims often use strategies like small-scale commerce, intermarriage, and financial assistance to engage young Christians, many of whom face profound poverty.

Equipping Leaders for Gospel Impact

To counter this trend, the New Life Training Center, under the leadership of Pastor Roger Ibengi, hosted a vital training session from November 28&ndash;29. Supported by <a href="http://www.vianations.org" rel="follow">Via</a>, the <a href="https://encounteringmuslims.org/pages/vision-5-9?_pos=1&amp;_psq=vision&amp;_ss=e&amp;_v=1.0" rel="follow">Vision 5:9 Network</a>, and <a href="https://encounteringmuslims.org" rel="follow">Encountering Muslims</a>, the event brought together 56 church leaders to equip them for effective gospel outreach among Muslims. Participants were introduced to tools like the&nbsp;<a href="/resources/gods-heart-for-muslims" rel="follow">God&rsquo;s Heart for Muslims</a> study, which highlights commonalities between the Bible and the Quran, helping to foster relational and Christ-centered dialogue.
&ldquo;This training is a call to action,&rdquo; Roger Ibengi shared. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not just about understanding; it&rsquo;s about empowering leaders to become ambassadors for Christ in their communities. We are equipping them with tools and confidence to transform lives with the gospel.&rdquo;
Church leaders left the training inspired and equipped to engage with their Muslim neighbors. As Roger Ibengi emphasized, &ldquo;The gospel is our most powerful tool. Through Christ&rsquo;s love, we can bridge divides and bring hope to those who need it most.&rdquo;

A poignant example of the power of this ministry is the testimony of &ldquo;Innocent Balibi,&rdquo; (not real name). Born into a Muslim family in Bandundu Province, Innocent Balibi was groomed to become an Islamic leader. His father, a prominent Muslim representative, arranged for him to study at the Islamic University of Sudan. However, during a Christian evangelistic campaign in 2017, Innocent Balibi encountered the message of John 3:16 and surrendered his life to Christ. Facing threats from his father, Innocent Balibi fled to Kinshasa, where he was baptized in 2018 at the New Life Church. Today, he is enrolled at New Life University, preparing to bring the gospel to his former Muslim peers.

The rapid growth of mosques in Kinshasa reflects broader Islamic outreach efforts. Many mosques serve as centers for Koranic schools, outreach campaigns, and financial aid programs, often offering financial incentives to new converts. Radical elements within these activities sometimes breed hostility toward Christianity. In areas like Nsele, Koranic schools focus exclusively on Islamic doctrines, producing fervent followers with limited general education. Scholarships funded by Wahhabi organizations in Saudi Arabia and Qatar create a growing radicalized Muslim elite. All of these things emphasize the need for gospel-centered engagement.

Collaborative Efforts for Kingdom Growth

Amid these challenges, the collaborative efforts of <a href="http://www.vianations.org" rel="follow">Via</a>, <a href="https://encounteringmuslims.org/pages/vision-5-9?_pos=1&amp;_psq=vision&amp;_ss=e&amp;_v=1.0" rel="follow">Vision 5:9</a>, and <a href="https://encounteringmuslims.org" rel="follow">Encountering Muslims</a> have been instrumental in providing Biblical tools to help motivate local Christians to action. Their support enables leaders like Roger Ibengi and his team to mobilize the church for effective outreach. By building relationships with young converts and promoting dialogue rooted in Christ&rsquo;s love, these efforts aim to transform communities and counteract radical influences.
Your prayers and support are vital as this ministry expands across the DRC. Stories like Innocence Balibi&rsquo;s remind us of God&rsquo;s faithfulness and the transformative power of his Word. Together, we press on to see lives changed and his kingdom grow.

Mobilizing for the Gospel in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Dear Partners,
As we reflect on the past year, I want to thank you for your part in reaching the nations through the nations. Your support has driven incredible progress in reaching new unreached people with the gospel, and this update highlights what we&rsquo;ve achieved together through God&rsquo;s grace.&nbsp;
Via is in many ways a catalyst, sparking church-planting initiatives where they may not otherwise begin by providing key trainings, on-site coaching, partnerships, and strategic insights. Our role is to create an environment for missions partnerships to flourish, giving ongoing support for church-planting initiatives. For great examples of this, click on the following stories:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.vianations.org/articles/from-ruins-to-revival" rel="follow">From Ruins to Revival</a>: The Delta Project is Replanting Abandoned Churches in Egypt&rsquo;s Heartland&nbsp;</li>
<li><a href="https://www.vianations.org/articles/a-new-generation-rising" rel="follow">A New Generation Rising</a>:&nbsp;Young Asian Believers Are Stepping up to Lead the Next Wave of Missions</li>
<li><a href="https://www.vianations.org/articles/to-be-born-digo-is-to-be-muslim-but-not-today" rel="follow">To Be Born Digo Is to Be Muslim&hellip;But Not Today</a>:&nbsp;God Sends Kenyans to Bring the Gospel to an Unreached People Group in Kenya and Tanzania</li>
<li><a href="https://www.vianations.org/articles/from-desperation-to-determination" rel="follow">From Desperation to Determination</a>: How God is using Pastor Ricardo and the Yagua people to reach the unreached in Peru</li>
</ul>
We&rsquo;re seeing new churches grow in unreached areas led by local believers and capable of multiplying in ways we couldn&rsquo;t do alone. This past year you helped deploy over 4,400 missionaries! We&rsquo;re incredibly grateful for your prayers, support, and partnership, and look forward to the impact we can make together in the year ahead.&nbsp;
With gratitude,&nbsp;
Dave Rofkahr,&nbsp; Executive Director&nbsp;

P.S. Here's the link to the <a href="https://issuu.com/centerformissionmobilization/docs/global_vision_update_2024_secured?fr=xKAE9_zU1NQ" rel="follow">digital version of the Global Vision Update 2024</a>

Global Vision Update 2024

Egypt&rsquo;s Nile Delta region is a land of abandoned church buildings. For centuries, the church in the Delta has faced severe persecution from radical Islam, and in the early 2000s, many had to flee their homes and cities. The region is home to half the country&rsquo;s population&mdash;including 55 million Muslims&mdash;yet there are few remaining evangelical churches.&nbsp;

A Renewed Church in a Muslim Community&nbsp;

But where many see ruins claimed by fear and spiritual drought, Pastor Ayman sees potential. In fact, he is determined to reclaim one of these abandoned properties and plant a new church within its densely populated Muslim community. What&rsquo;s more, Ayman is not alone; he&rsquo;s part of a coalition of pastors and church planters who have a vision to plant 100 churches within the Delta region by 2029.

Delta Project&mdash;a Model of Catalytic Church-Planting Partnerships

However, planting 100 churches in staunchly Muslim communities requires seed funding and significant dedication. To make this possible, Via is connecting Delta Project church planters with American and Egyptian churches. The goal is for Western and Egyptian churches to each cover half the needed funding for five years to support and empower these pastors revitalizing the church in the Delta.
As this is being written, Via staff, along with pastors from Minnesota, Michigan, and Cairo, are visiting the ruins pictured to the left with new Egyptian church planters. Please pray for the Delta Project partnerships and church-planting efforts. If your church would like to <a href="https://www.vianations.org/give/egypt-delta-region-project" rel="follow">join in on the partnership, let us know</a>!

For our first Egyptian church planters as they advance the gospel within Muslim strongholds.
*Names changed for security purposes

You can <a href="https://www.vianations.org/give/egypt-delta-region-project" rel="follow">fund a Delta Project church planter </a>for $300/mo!

Gather a group from your church to <a href="https://www.vianations.org/give/egypt-delta-region-project" rel="follow">encourage or train our Egyptian partners</a>.

From Ruins to Revival

A wave of young Asian missionaries is stepping up to bring the gospel to the unreached. Recently, in the Buddhist-majority country of Myanmar, 128 Burmese young adults committed their lives to cross-cultural missions. Similar movements of youth are happening in Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Nepal, and beyond.&nbsp;

Arise Conferences Spreading Across Asia&nbsp;

Over 5,000 young believers have gathered at Arise conferences, and the numbers keep growing as God raises up new leaders to fulfill the Great Commission. These young believers are determined to bring the message of Jesus to those who have never heard it.&nbsp;

Equipping Future Missionaries With Via&rsquo;s Explore Study&nbsp;

Via partnered with Arise Asia to provide follow-up initiatives and practical tools, like our Explore study, to equip these young believers to leverage their lives for the Great Commission long after the events. This partnership has sparked new translations of our materials and strengthened our ties within the missions community in Southeast Asia.
The impact has been profound. One woman attending an Explore study was moved to tears when she realized through Genesis 12 that &ldquo;God blessed her to be a blessing.&rdquo; Another participant shared, &ldquo;I never understood how central God&rsquo;s heart for the unreached is.&rdquo;
Through Arise Asia and our teams in the region, Via is empowering the next generation of missionaries to spread the hope of the gospel to the ends of the earth.&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.vianations.org/give/arise-asia-project" rel="follow">Help fund an Explore translation for an Arise Asia conference.&nbsp;</a>

<a href="https://www.vianations.org/give/arise-asia-project" rel="follow">Join our Via teams in Asia at an upcoming conference or training.</a>

A New Generation Rising

Pastor James&rsquo; church resides in the Muslim-dominated city of Mombasa, Kenya. But he had a problem: his church was hesitant to reach out to Muslims, fearing they didn&rsquo;t know how to find common ground or defend their faith. He needed a way to train his people in evangelism and discipleship. And he needed a clear vision around which to rally them.

Rallying the Kenyan Church to Reach A 99.9% Muslim and Animist People Group

On a sunny day in March of this year, James was one of sixty pastors who attended Via's Explore the World Christian Lifestyle conference. James was shocked to learn that there are 23 people groups who haven&rsquo;t heard the gospel in Kenya. One of them lives a mere two and a half hours south of his city. The Digo people live on the border of Tanzania and overwhelmingly believe in Islam, blended with traditional animist religion. Only 0.1% of the half million people are believers.
What if James&rsquo; church could be a part of bringing the gospel to the Digo people? What if this was their role to play in completing the Great Commission? This was a vision around which he could rally his church!&nbsp;

Collaboration and Prayer Leads to Two New Churches Being Planted&nbsp;

James formed a coalition of pastors at the Explore conference to try to reach the Digo people. Three months later, they sent a group from their churches to begin the work of sharing the gospel. Via helped train them in evangelism to Muslims through a God&rsquo;s Heart for Muslims study and provided encouragement along the way. Over the next four months, the churches from Mombasa grew a team to live and work full-time among the Digo people and have now planted two small churches!&nbsp; We rejoice that God has brought the good news to these people who&rsquo;ve never had the chance to hear it before and moreover, we thank God that he chose to use James&rsquo; church to do so! Who better to be the messengers than the Digo&rsquo;s neighbors?
*Names changed for security purposes.&nbsp;

For the flourishing of these two new churches!

<a href="https://www.vianations.org/give/africa-training" rel="follow">Invest in localized resources and pastor trainings.</a>

<a href="https://www.vianations.org/give/africa-training" rel="follow">Send a team from your church</a> to join with us in encouraging and equipping the Kenyan church.

To Be Born Digo Is to Be Muslim…But Not Today

A Desperate Prayer, A Miraculous Answer

Ricardo&rsquo;s journey to faith began eight years ago when his son fell gravely ill.
Nothing was working, and in a moment of clear desperation, Ricardo remembered the words of a missionary who had once passed through his village and had spoken of a God who hears prayers. With a breaking heart, he cried out for healing.
Not long after, his prayer was miraculously answered. Through his son&rsquo;s recovery, Ricardo came to know the healing power of God and praised him. That very day, he surrendered his life to Christ.
Moved by his transformation and longing for his village to know the God of healing, Ricardo gradually stepped into the role of pastor.

The Power of Equipping: A New Vision for Missions

However, Ricardo lacked theological and pastoral training.
His hunger for deeper understanding led him to Ronald Chunga, a team member with Via in Lima, Peru, who was on an exploratory trip to the city of Iquitos, Peru, near Ricardo&rsquo;s village.
When Ronald introduced him to Via&rsquo;s holistic training, including the <a href="https://www.vianations.org/resources/explore-the-world-christian-lifestyle" rel="follow">Explore the World Christian Lifestyle</a> study and <a href="https://www.vianations.org/resources/mobilizing-the-body-of-christ" rel="follow">Mobilizing the Body of Christ</a>, Ricardo became deeply interested in equipping himself and others in his village.
Encouraged by Ricardo&rsquo;s eagerness, Ronald returned months later with translated training materials, bringing together Ricardo and ten other pastors from surrounding communities.
Ricardo immersed himself wholeheartedly into the training, discovering what it meant to live as a Christian and how to strategically mobilize his people for the glory of God.
The impact of this training was immediate.

Breaking Barriers: From an Unreached People to Missionaries

For centuries, the Yagua people had remained isolated, and it remained so after Pastor Ricardo&rsquo;s revival. However, through Via&rsquo;s training, Pastor Ricardo realized that God&rsquo;s mission extended beyond his village. His vision expanded to reach the ten remaining unreached people groups in Peru.
&ldquo;Until recently, we were considered an unreached people group,&rdquo; Ricardo shared. &ldquo;Now, we have the opportunity to be the ones reaching others.&rdquo; His church began fostering relationships with neighboring tribes, breaking barriers that had separated them for generations. The transformation was profound: communities that once remained isolated were now engaging in discipleship and missions together.

Multiplication for the Glory of God

This movement was not just about theological training; it was about shifting an entire mindset.
Churches in the region had not felt the urgency to reach beyond their immediate surroundings. Pastor Ricardo&rsquo;s newfound conviction&mdash;his realization that the gospel was not just about salvation but about spreading God&rsquo;s glory&mdash;changed everything.
Pastor Ricardo&rsquo;s leadership and passion have inspired his people to take ownership of the Great Commission. Through ongoing partnerships with Via, Pastor Ricardo is confidently leading his church to understand they are part of the greater, global mission of God.
What began with a single act of desperate prayer has become a movement reaching the nations, one village at a time.

<ul>
<li>Pray for Pastor Ricardo&rsquo;s continued strength and wisdom within his village and beyond</li>
<li>Pray for the Yagua People and surrounding communities to be open to the gospel</li>
<li>Pray for the 10 remaining Unreached People Groups in Peru to receive the gospel before 2050</li>
</ul>

From Desperation to Determination

The GOer Group videos are a free 7-lesson series addressing the major questions and barriers students encounter as they pursue cross-cultural ministry. Each video features insights and advice from experienced people who have either spent time on the mission field or have helped many people to get there.

GOer Groups

More than 80% of the evangelical church today resides outside the West, yet we are seeing little to no mission sending from these regions, such as Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East.
Frontier mobilization is the process of pointing people who know and follow Jesus in these regions with little mission sending toward entire groups of people who don&rsquo;t. By God&rsquo;s grace, we hope to unleash the powerful sending potential of God&rsquo;s global kingdom by working alongside the global body of Christ. Together in unity, we will bring the gospel across every border and to every people group on earth.

The Gap

There are two stories that you can live for &ndash; God&rsquo;s story or your story. Most people will opt to live for their own story. They will give all their time, attention, money, and abilities to simple self absorption. Few trade their story for God&rsquo;s. The question is: what will you do? Will you settle for living merely for your own story or trade it for all that God has for you?
The NVision video series is comprised of 15 engaging and inspiring talks ranging from 5 to 7 minutes in length.
Designed for small and large groups, the NVision video series teaches God&rsquo;s invitation to join in His global purpose. It expounds on the world&rsquo;s situation, looking at the major world religions and the status of world evangelization. It also paves the way forward to help you see how we can all be involved in impacting the nations for Christ.
While the terminology is different, these sections follow the Xplore studies lessons on God&rsquo;s Word, God&rsquo;s world, and God&rsquo;s work.
These videos help you discover how to live missionally, while also giving an example of how you could communicate this message to others.

NVision

In the heart of Myanmar, a miracle was unfolding.&nbsp;An unreached Buddhist tribe of 115,000 people, largely unaware of the God of the Bible, had begun to witness a profound transformation.
Just a year ago, less than 50 people in this tribe had any relationship with Jesus. But today, the light of the gospel is breaking through, thanks to the united efforts of Via, a church in Oklahoma, and dedicated Burmese church leaders.

The Challenge: Bridging the Gap

Faith Bible Church (FBC) in Edmond, Oklahoma, was ignited with a passion to reach the nations. The congregation prayed and fasted, seeking God&rsquo;s direction for their mission. Their hearts were set on adopting an unreached people group, translating the Bible into a new language, and establishing a church in Myanmar.
A mutual friend connected Via&rsquo;s Southeast Asia Team to FBC, sparking a collaboration that would change lives. Via introduced FBC to a long-time partner and pastor in Myanmar. Learning about the unreached tribe, FBC cast a vision before their congregation: to translate the Bible and plant churches among this Buddhist tribe.

Mobilizing Resources and Hearts

Within just two weeks, FBC raised an astounding $565,000 to translate the Bible for the tribe. This incredible outpouring of generosity set the stage for the next steps.
Via's Southeast Asia Team hosted a Mission Mobilization Conference in Myanmar, teaching God's heart for the nations. Attending from FBC were Tonya, the missions director, and Kip, a devoted church member. They joined Burmese attendees in learning about the 7,000 people groups still unreached with the gospel, including 52 within Myanmar.
The conference culminated in a powerful commitment: 10 pastors from local Myanmar churches and FBC pledged to partner in reaching the Buddhist tribe with the gospel.

Commissioning Burmese Missionaries

With funding established and missionary training completed, the mission moved forward. Bible translation was underway, and five new Burmese missionaries were commissioned to bring the gospel to the Buddhist tribe. These dedicated missionaries began sharing the gospel in homes and villages, recounting Bible stories, and sitting among nearly 40 new followers of Christ within the tribe.
This year marks a significant shift for the tribe. They now have advocates&mdash;locally mobilized churches sending missionaries to reach them, a partner church in Oklahoma funding a Bible translation, and the unwavering support of believers worldwide.

Christianity faces strong opposition from Buddhist families and religious leaders in Myanmar. Monks often go to extremes to protect Buddhism, seeing it as a threat to their power and income. Despite many obstacles, including interrogation and expulsion from their homes and villages, the missionaries have persevered.
We ask for your prayers for these new believers and missionaries. Pray for their protection, growth in faith, and for the name of Jesus to be glorified among the unreached tribe. Your prayers and support are crucial in making this transformation possible.

Your prayers and support are making a significant difference. Here&rsquo;s how you can take action:
<ol>
<li>Pray: Lift up the new believers and missionaries in your prayers.
<ul>
<li>Special Prayer Request (06/11/24) - The Burmese military is now enforcing a conscription law in the country requiring men aged 18-30 and women aged 18-25 to report for military duty if their name is called. So far, three of the missionaries have been called up. Pray that these three would be able to return to the mission work without having to join the military, and also pray that no others would be enlisted.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Support: Consider providing financial support to <a href="https://www.vianations.org/give/vision-fund" rel="follow">continue the translation and missionary efforts</a>.</li>
<li>Spread the Word: Share this story with others to raise awareness and inspire more support for the mission.</li>
</ol>

An Unreached Tribe Receives the Gospel in Myanmar

Why Via?

Via means &ldquo;through another&rdquo; or &ldquo;by way of.&rdquo; Via seeks to reach the nations through the nations &mdash; through the church God has established within those nations. By engaging indigenous believers with resources and training, Via equips believers worldwide to lead a new era in mission sending.
&ldquo;Through the nations to the nations &ndash; Via is memorable; it&rsquo;s clear. It fits our humble posture, &rdquo; said Dave Rofkahr, executive director of Via. &ldquo;We work through, with, and by others. We&rsquo;re not the only thing going; we&rsquo;re here to come alongside the global church to reach the nations.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Via&rsquo;s former name, Center for Mission Mobilization, carried some terms that posed challenges as the organization grew globally. The word &ldquo;mission&rdquo; can be a red flag in many countries, and &ldquo;mobilization&rdquo; is often viewed as a military term. Additionally, Via seeks to come alongside the global church with humility and meekness, so there is value in placing less emphasis on words that would position it as the &ldquo;center.&rdquo;
Changing the name also brought more clarity to the mission by eliminating confusion about Via&rsquo;s sub-ministries &mdash; Via Generosity (formerly Support Raising Solutions), Via Families (formerly Weave) and Via Students (formerly Campus Ministry Today). The sub-ministry names transitioned to fit succinctly with Via so that all are connected.

Global Reach

Via launched its new website in April 2023 and continues to roll out new solutions for churches, families, students, and support raisers across the globe. New doors have opened for Via throughout Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Latin America.
According to <a href="https://issuu.com/centerformissionmobilization/docs/global_vision_update_2023_secured_merged?fr=xKAE9_zU1NQ" rel="follow">Via&rsquo;s 2023 Global Vision Update</a>, more than 126,000 people were exposed to God&rsquo;s global mission this past year. Over 61,000 people were further developed through training and discipleship, and over 5,000 new missionaries were deployed by staff and partners of Via.
&ldquo;I've observed many times, in country after country, the nationals in those countries view our staff differently,&rdquo; said Steve Shadrach, founder and global ambassador of Via. &ldquo;They view them with great appreciation and admiration because our staff did not come as prideful Americans, but really as humble servants, not taking charge, but really helping them accomplish what they want to accomplish.&rdquo;

About Via

Via is a leading mission mobilization organization. Churches, agencies and ministries use Via&rsquo;s proven studies, resources, training and events to strategically mobilize students, families, ministry leaders and missionaries to unreached people groups. Via is reaching the nations through the nations.

Center for Mission Mobilization Now Via

Content overview:
<ul>
<li>Reaching the nations through the nations:
<ul>
<li>An intro letter from Dave Rofkahr touching on Hammas's terror attack on Israel and announcing the launch of God's Heart for Muslims</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Reaching the nations through families:
<ul>
<li>Celebrating 10 years of family mobilization</li>
<li>Latin American families celebrate Diwali</li>
<li>New online pastor's training</li>
<li>D6 Conference announcement</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Reaching the nations through students:
<ul>
<li>EDM '23</li>
<li>EvaSu National Missions Summit</li>
<li>The Fuel &amp; The Flame Russian translation in partnership with Cru</li>
<li>Campus Ministry Today Podcast</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Reaching the nations through churches:
<ul>
<li>Missionaries sent to unreached through partnership with Faith Bible Church in Oklahoma, Via, and a local sending church in Myanmar</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Reaching the nations through generosity:
<ul>
<li>SRLC '23</li>
<li>Bootcamp in Egypt</li>
<li>Bootcamp in Korea</li>
<li>Bootcamp in Costa Rica</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>2023 Impact across the nations:
<ul>
<li>Stats from the number of people we have helped discover, develop, and deploy into God's mission</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Back cover: 
<ul>
<li>An ask to all donors to consider a gift to our new Via Vision Fund</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>

Global Vision Update 2023

Asian national staff are mobilized to their own people despite growing governmental persecution

Persecution is indeed ramping up unlike any time in recent history. Hardly a day goes by here in East Asia that we don&rsquo;t hear of another local church, pastor, or foreign missionary running into difficulty with local authorities. Yet at the same time, CMM&rsquo;s mobilization footprint is rapidly expanding in this great nation of 100 million believers. In spite of everything the enemy is using to hinder the spread of the Good News throughout the region, it is the local churches, pastors, and everyday believers who are being mobilized for God&rsquo;s mission and making the most of this momentum like never before. Since CMM&rsquo;s first team in East Asia launched three years ago, resources such as <a href="/via/resources/live-missionally/xplore/">Xplore</a>, <a href="/via/resources/mobilize-others/">Go Mobilize</a>, and <a href="/generosity/resources/thegodask/">The God Ask</a> have already been translated into Mandarin and distributed on a large scale. And with the Mandarin-language rollout of resource ministries such as <a href="/families/">Weave</a> and <a href="/generosity/">SRS</a> just in the past few months, indigenous family mobilization and support-raising movements have been gaining traction. The people here are truly gaining a deeper understanding of God&rsquo;s heart for the unreached surrounding them, which led to an even more exciting development this past year.

Time and time again, the most powerful influencers we have witnessed are our East Asian brothers and sisters who are working alongside us to mobilize their own people. So even after the countless victories we have seen through CMM resources and ministries, one of the most exciting praise reports from this part of the 10/40 window actually concerns two East Asian nationals who decided to become full-time CMM staff mobilizers! When these two women joined staff, our team decided to experiment with a year-long program we called the National Mobilization Training Center (NMTC). Its purpose was to give the national staff members a thorough mobilization training experience as they continued to work in actual local field mobilization. We&rsquo;ve long realized national staff have unique equipping and shepherding needs which are best accomplished by contextualizing our approaches to their language and culture. It&rsquo;s thrilling, too, that the Lord raised up the perfect leader for these women, an American staff woman named Marlene*, who is fluent in Mandarin and well-versed in Asian culture as a result of years of living in this part of the world. Though the NMTC has since merged with our current field team, the impact from these two women has been significant. We have seen such remarkable traction gained through their mobilization efforts not only during the training, but also in the opportunities they now bring in serving on our joint team. Locals often have less barriers to navigate than we as foreigners do, whether it be due to a lack of language barriers, more time (they don't have to study language 15+ hours a week!), previous connections, or simply having more open doors. While being on a team with just the three of them (two locals and one foreigner) was difficult and at times lonely, they were encouraged in their ability to do the work of mobilization here in their culture, and we have been encouraged as foreigners to see the impact they as local mobilizers can bring.

These two women, and prayerfully many more who will follow their lead, powerfully display the cultural, linguistic, and geographic potential of Asians reaching the unreached of Asia as they continuously count the cost, especially in this region, and still say yes to the purposes of Christ. I want to tell you about our newest national staff member, Jordan*. Jordan previously served with another sending agency as a frontier goer in South Asia. After returning from the field and teaching in her hometown for a period of time, Jordan was recruited by our first national staff, Lihua*. Lihua shared the mobilization vision with Jordan and invited her to attend last year&rsquo;s GMC before challenging her to consider joining CMM full-time. Jordan completed both her staff application and references and had a Skype interview with CMM leaders prior to receiving her staff acceptance late last spring. Then in May of 2018, she joined the first-ever SRS Bootcamp in East Asia, where she was trained for the first time in both the biblical basis of missions and the how-to&rsquo;s of personal support raising. Despite having to finish out her teaching commitment in her hometown (and thus only raising support part-time), Jordan saw God provide her full monthly and launch support goals in just two months! Not only that, but 90% of her support comes from fellow East Asian believers given in the local currency. Regarding her support raising experience, she writes:

We&rsquo;re so thankful for these two East Asian national staff as they&rsquo;ve answered the call to mobilize, raised their full support, and taken a huge step of faith to submit their lives for the sake of God&rsquo;s Good News reaching to the ends of the earth. We&rsquo;re asking the Lord that Jordan and Lihua would be the first fruits of many, many more East Asian full-time mobilizers in the future! Who knows, maybe the Lord would continue raising up local mobilizers to join us as national staff such that there will be five, 10, 15 or more new nationals joining Jordan and Lihua&rsquo;s mobilization efforts.

Mission Momentum for the Unreached Builds Amongst East Asians

Lima, Peru has become a city with great mission influence throughout Latin America. We are seeing mission momentum build through partnerships established in Lima that are now multiplying across the continent. God has opened doors for us to mobilize Christians into God&rsquo;s mission in Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Honduras, and Cuba. We recently saw the eyes of many believers opened in Santiago, Chile, through an Xplore study hosted by a CMM partner described below. Xplore has now been translated into Spanish and can be<a href="/via/resources/live-missionally/xplore/"> downloaded for free.</a> Last night we brought to completion a seven-week adventure of exploring God&rsquo;s Word, God&rsquo;s world, and God&rsquo;s work through the Xplore study with a small group of leaders from our local church in Santiago, Chile. We were simply prompted by the fact that we had the material and the time this summer to study through it, and people who were willing and hungry to learn more alongside us. When we asked our dear friends if they were interested in meeting weekly with us to learn more about God&rsquo;s heart for the nations and how they too could participate in the Great Commission in their own context of life and ministry, they said yes! As we dove into this study, we immediately began to be challenged by God in all that we were learning, and we were surprised to see how God was speaking to our friends as well. I recall one of them saying that they did not feel any interest in &ldquo;missions&rdquo; or of becoming a missionary in any way, shape, or form. As the weeks went by, we started to notice a change in not just this young man, but in the others in our group as well.

They began to use texts of the Bible to share God&rsquo;s heart for the nations and also terms like &ldquo;pioneer missions&rdquo; in their everyday conversations. On week seven, we spent time sharing with each other what we felt that God most impressed on each one of us. All of them shared that they had never seen Scripture this way, nor had they ever fully understood God&rsquo;s heart for the nations and how they too could be involved in God&rsquo;s mission before this. They were confronted with the reality that almost half of the world still does not have the Gospel, and that Jesus explicitly commands for all believers to be a part of bringing His Good News to the ends of the earth&hellip; all meaning themselves as well. We concluded that not only were we interested in being involved ourselves in God&rsquo;s mission, but we also wanted to help others also catch the vision for reaching the unreached through praying, sending, welcoming, going, and mobilizing. As we have continued in relationship with one another after the conclusion of the Xplore study, we are seeing firsthand how these believers are persistently seeking the will of God for their lives, with specifically how they might serve overseas in the near future. This group of leaders are currently reaching out to bring the gospel to people in their community through a ministry called Impactando Vidas, and are also planning a trip outside of the country, possibly into the 10/40 window. This amazing change in our friends has encouraged us to continue hosting these small groups with new people as they are doing the same in their homes with their friends as well. We have purchased 50 more books and started our next group in Santiago this past April. Our plans are to also visit the different regions of Chile with our missions department to hold weekend intensives using this material. We strongly believe that this is only the beginning of a great move of God to awaken the passion for missions in Chile, and to see our brothers and sisters get involved in reaching the unreached in the unique ways that God is calling each of them to participate.

Pioneering Mission to the Unreached from Latin America

It was <a href="/via/mobilization/ministries/">Weave</a>&rsquo;s very first BIG Story Training in East Asia. We were escorted into a private building, where participants would stay for four days. If anyone left, it could put the entire group in danger. Despite the circumstances, the room of participants was not full of fear, but rather full of anticipation. Little did we know that in less than a year, God would exceed our expectations. As families and church leaders went through the BIG Story Training and began to see the global purposes that God had for them, a spark was lit within the hearts of several participants. In one case, that spark would fan into a flame of passion and purpose that would impact many. That spark would begin with a couple, Warren* and Emily*, obediently inviting an overwhelmed young mother to a training. And that's when the flame began to grow. Warren and Emily sat in the back corner of the very first BIG Story training. Each day, tears would fill Emily&rsquo;s eyes as she listened. After the training, Emily approached the team and expressed how she and Warren pastored a church in another city, and they had a desire to help their congregation understand God&rsquo;s desire to be known among the nations. She also explained her passion to help families find their role in God&rsquo;s story. She said that she had not known how to do that before, but that the BIG Story Training had given her everything she needed. The spark grew brighter as Warren and Emily took their next step. They invited the trainers to their city, and went on to host the second BIG Story Training in their country. Yet again, the room was filled with anticipation for this second training. A timeline hung on the wall displaying characters of God&rsquo;s big story throughout the Bible. Participants discussed and prayed together as they learned about the 2.7 billion people still unreached with the gospel. They wept and prayed for unreached people to come to know the light of Jesus, and their eyes were opened to the truth that God has blessed each of their families with the purpose of blessing the nations. Amidst all of the excitement and anticipation, the training also came with its own unique set of <a href="/via/articles/the-cycle-continues-persecution-in-china-increases-the-church-grows/">difficulties</a>. In fact, the hosts received a knock at the door from the police mid training, and our trainers had to hide in a closet until the security risk was resolved. Even amidst this challenge, something was happening in the hearts of the attendees. In one participant in particular, Sarah*, God was moving in a way that the team would not know about until many months later.

As Sarah* sat through this training, she knew that God's call on her life to go to the unreached was not something new. She and her husband had heard and answered God&rsquo;s call, and they were already making plans to move to a specific unreached people group in the northwest of their country. Sarah and her husband were parenting two young boys under the age of five, and while her husband was excited about the opportunity to uproot the families&rsquo; lives and move to a totally new culture, Sarah was apprehensive. Sarah felt overwhelmed with taking care of her children, and she did not understand why God would call them to the unreached in this particular season of life. She felt that motherhood had quenched the flame in her heart to go to the unreached. How could she and her husband go when they were busy with the everyday tasks of parenthood? As Sarah sat and contemplated this call, the trainers held up two candles that would change Sarah&rsquo;s perspective &hellip; two candles that would reveal to Sarah exactly why God had called them to the unreached in this particular season of life.

As the trainers held up a short, partially used candle and a tall, unused candle, they asked the audience which one they would buy if the electricity were to go out. Without hesitation, the audience chose the taller candle. They knew that, even though it would cost more, the tall, unused candle would burn longer in the darkness. They then explained that both candles represented people who understood God&rsquo;s mission and can be a light burning in the darkness. Sarah realized that the shorter candle, which represented someone who began to understand his part in God&rsquo;s mission as an adult, was her. She realized that though she still had time to shine God&rsquo;s light to the nations, she did not have as much time as the taller candle. The taller candle represented someone who began to understand his part in God&rsquo;s mission as a child. Sarah realized that her children had their whole lives ahead of them to join God in blessing the nations. They too could be a light to the darkness, and they did not have to wait until they were older to do so. Sarah finally understood that the call to go to the unreached was not just for her and her husband, but that her children had a part to play in God&rsquo;s story as well. The call to share with the nations was also for them. Being a parent did not have to quench the fire that God had placed in her heart for the unreached, but instead, intentional parenting could fan that desire into a flame that fueled the love of God for others in the hearts of her children as well. As Sarah, her husband, and her children shine their light among the unreached, our Weave team is thankful. We are thankful for the way that God lit a spark in Emily and Warren&rsquo;s hearts that would eventually set fire and light Sarah&rsquo;s heart aflame with passion for her family's role in God&rsquo;s story. As our training continues to grow across East Asia, we pray for more families like Sarah&rsquo;s. We pray that many families (including their children) will see that God wants to spark a flame that shines His light in the darkness. *name changed for security reasons

It Only Takes a Spark

Like many mobilizers, Buddy Bartido has a big vision for his country. With a vibrant evangelical community of 10 million Christians, the Philippines has access to 400 million unreached people. Government programs actually facilitate and encourage Filipinos to live and work abroad, in what has become known as the Filipino Diaspora. For Filipino Christians, this has become a popular mechanism to strategically place themselves near the unreached. Buddy sees the vast impact the Filipino church can have throughout Southeast Asia and the rest of the world, and he is committed to seeing more Filipino missionaries sent to the unreached. As the executive director for Pioneers Philippines, a missions service provider in the Philippines, he has all the needed resources to plant churches. He is also a certified facilitator and coordinator for at least half a dozen missions courses, giving him a broad recruiting pool to urge people to join in God&rsquo;s mission. However, Buddy found he needed resources that were acutely focused on mission mobilization. He began looking for tools to help bring awareness of the urgency of the gospel message and infuse a passion for living out God&rsquo;s heart for all nations. When he first discovered the Xplore study through the CMM website, he downloaded it and began using it as a mobilization tool. We connected with him to offer support and encouragement, and found in Buddy a like-minded mobilizer who shares our DNA to see mission to the unreached multiplied. Because of our shared vision and goals, we began a formal partnership with Buddy as a CMM Global Affiliate earlier this year.

Leveraging Xplore as a mobilization tool within his own circles was soon not enough though. Buddy&rsquo;s vision was even bigger, and he began dreaming of a coalition of mobilizers all united around the common purpose of mobilizing the Filipino church to the unreached. This past summer, he founded the &ldquo;Mob Project,&rdquo; a national mobilization network for all Great Commission ministries in the Philippines. He launched this network with a one-day mobilization training, which he invited us to co-lead with him. The training welcomed mobilizers from at least 20 organizations and followed the CMM&rsquo;s flexible mobilization training model, while also incorporating many of Buddy&rsquo;s teaching and coaching techniques. It was filled to capacity and has already begun to multiply to other churches. Buddy sees the Mob Project as a way to bless all the mission agencies in the Philippines, promote unity and collaboration, and help accelerate sending to the unreached. As a partner of the Mob Project, TAP (Translators Association of the Philippines, an affiliate of the Wycliffe Global Alliance) has already offered to translate Xplore and Go Mobilize into the two primary languages of the Philippines. The translation of these resources will make them accessible to tens of thousands more believers. Buddy plans to raise support within the Mob Project to finance the translation and production of these resources. The potential of Filipino Christians to advance the gospel in the unreached regions of the world is truly remarkable. Pray for Buddy as he leads the Mob Project, and that vision for the nations would continue to multiply within the Filipino church.

Helping Multiply Filipino Missionaries to the Unreached

&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never read the Bible like this before!&rdquo; Though my friend Nina had heard the 1 Samuel 17 story of David and Goliath countless times, she was blown away to learn the deeper truths of this particular passage for the first time. We were in the middle of our weekly Xplore study when it all seemed to click in Nina&rsquo;s mind. We read verses 46 and 47 that said, &ldquo;All the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear&hellip; (emphasis added),&rdquo; and from that point on, Nina&rsquo;s eyes were opened to God&rsquo;s overarching purpose of redemption for the whole world. God clearly displayed his desire and purpose for David&rsquo;s defeat of Goliath: so that His name may be worshipped by all the earth. Nina shared that she always had been taught that the importance of the story of David and Goliath, however, was only to teach that God is bigger than the giants you face. She had no idea that the original intent was so that God would receive glory from all peoples, until she read this particular passage herself with a fresh perspective. Nina is a third-generation Christian in China, which is very rare. China has been under communist rule for many decades; therefore, the majority of the population is classified as &ldquo;unreligious.&rdquo; Her grandparents have incredible stories of God displaying his power through healing and miracles, but the idea of God was somewhat mundane to Nina as she was raised in a Christian family. When she began university a few years ago, she had the mindset that many young adults do: she was excited to be on her own and discover things for herself. When she made the move to a new city for school, she was amazed by what she learned about God and his passionate pursuit of her and all the people of the earth. She also became a member of a church in the city that has a burden to reach the unreached people groups within their province. During one of her summer holidays, she joined the church in volunteering with some camps for children from minority people groups in China. Nina, a Han Chinese, had always been taught by society that these minority people were &ldquo;savages&rdquo; and less than Han.

But as Nina spent time with the children and teenagers, God revealed to her the truth of His heart for them... and then, they started to become her dear friends. As her relationships deepened, she realized that they were remarkably similar to her, but also different in an important, but heartbreaking, way: they had no Christians among them. Nina had grown up in a family of believers who had always attended church and had always heard about Christ, but now she was interacting with people from a whole society who have no idea who Jesus is. After the summer camps ended, Nina&rsquo;s interest had been sparked in ministry among minority groups, but she didn&rsquo;t quite know how to pursue it because no one else around her was either. She returned to her university that Fall, knowing that God had a greater purpose for her but not quite sure what exactly that purpose was. A couple of months later, Nina was in my living room. My roommates and I were having a Thanksgiving party and told all of our friends to invite anyone they wanted. I had the chance to briefly get to know Nina, and we planned to get dinner the following week. At dinner, we were sharing about what we feel like God is asking of our lives at the moment. Nina responded, &ldquo;I told God if He wants me to move to Africa to be a missionary, I will! But He hasn&rsquo;t told me to do that yet.&rdquo; I truly admired her willingness and eager spirit to understand more of what God wants for her. I invited her to join me in an <a href="/via/resources/live-missionally/">Xplore study</a> with hopes that spending time in Scripture and practicing World Christian habits would help her to know what God has for her right now in life and how she can already have a part in spreading His Kingdom. As the weeks passed and we continued our study, I was amazed by Nina&rsquo;s faithfulness not only to our study group but also to the Lord&rsquo;s heart in general. She was so excited to be learning about God&rsquo;s Word and how He displays his deepest desire: to be known and worshipped by every tribe, tongue, and nation. We spent time praying for unreached people groups within China and other parts of the world. Nina was consistently amazed that there were so many unreached within China, because believe it or not, she was raised in a Chinese Christian bubble! As Nina gets closer to graduating from university, she is excited to keep learning about God&rsquo;s world and to continue seeking His desires for her life. I pray that she has the boldness to step into the things in which he has called her, whether it is moving to Africa or living in China and inviting other believers to engage with and share the Gospel with the unreached among them. There are many more Christians like Nina not only in China but also around the world. Stories like Nina&rsquo;s are why mobilization is so important. The work of mobilizing is to go to people who already know and love Jesus and point them to people who don&rsquo;t. The Chinese church is the largest in the world (about 100 million Christians). If just .1% of them could be mobilized to pray for the unreached, welcome the minorities in their cities, send workers, or go to unreached places themselves, it would be the largest missions movement in history! Pray with us that Nina and thousands more like her will continue to count the cost and see Jesus as worth saying yes to, even to the ends of the earth.

When the Unreached Are Your Neighbors…and Friends

Last semester, I sat among a group of believers who shared stories of how God had awakened their hearts to His immeasurable love for the nations. Some explained how they had began praying for the nations regularly, and others explained that they began sharing their faith with their Muslim coworkers. Though their stories were different, they all were gathered in the room together because they shared something in common. They all wanted the Arabian Gulf to experience God&rsquo;s love for the nations, and they all ended up in the room together because of one guy named Trevor. Trevor is one of those guys who talks to everyone. He is quick to encourage and pray for his friends, and he is bold in sharing his faith with colleagues from other faith backgrounds. He gives of his finances to send others to the unreached, and he gives his time to mobilize those around him. The impact this one man has had on the church in Dubai is significant, but Trevor was not always like this. In fact, up until three years ago, he was disillusioned and completely separated from the church. In Trevor&rsquo;s words, &ldquo;All of that changed with a cup of coffee.&rdquo; After stepping away from the church for thirty years, Trevor found himself re-entering in 2016. Though he was exposed to church in his childhood, he never truly understood the truth about Jesus. So when Jesus began revealing more of Himself to Trevor in 2016, Trevor&rsquo;s life began to change. Trevor started attending an international church in his city. After six months of coming in and leaving without really knowing anyone, Trevor was convicted that he should take a course that could help him grow in his faith. He told himself that he would enroll for the next course that he heard about. That same day at church, Trevor met the CMM Dubai team leader, Matt. As they stood at the coffee station, Matt began to tell Trevor of an Xplore group that he was starting. Obeying the conviction of his heart to get involved, Trevor immediately signed up. As the course launched, there were 12 <a href="/via//resources/live-missionally/">Xplore books</a> set out around the table in the room where the class would be held. When only Trevor showed up, Matt and Trevor both decided to go for it anyway. Though they both could have taken this opportunity to bail out, neither of them did. Instead, they faithfully met together over the following four months to complete the Xplore study. As they met together, Trevor began to understand God&rsquo;s heart for the nations of the world. Trevor learned about the 10:40 window, and his perspective shifted as he realized that he lived right in the center of the most unreached part of the world. He began to see God&rsquo;s global purpose as the primary reason he ended up in Dubai.

Not only did his understanding of God&rsquo;s purposes grow, but his understanding of Christ and His love also grew. Something had awakened within Trevor, and he began to take every opportunity to grow personally and to serve in the church. It was clear that God was molding Trevor&rsquo;s heart for His greater purposes while also drawing him in to know Christ personally for the first time in his life. During the week of Easter the following year, Trevor showed up at Matt&rsquo;s villa to announce his decision to follow Christ and accept his offer of forgiveness of his sins. He was baptized shortly after that, and he began to intentionally reach out to his colleagues and unbelieving friends through sports ministry in hopes that they would see the light of Christ. Through this, a few of them have been exposed to Christ-like community and prayer, and Trevor is now praying for their salvation. Trevor explained that the Xplore study flipped the way he saw the Bible completely upside down, and he finally understood that the Bible was one interconnected story of God&rsquo;s plan of redemption for the world. Since he wanted everyone to know that story, he convinced Matt to help coordinate the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course in Dubai. Matt agreed -- if Trevor would find the attendees. Trevor did just that. He recruited nearly 15 people to invest rigorous amounts of time to complete the 15-week course! He encouraged them along the way, and even provided the finances and transportation for some of them to attend. Many attendees joked about how Trevor roped them into the course, but at the class graduation, we saw that he did so much more than that. This one man facilitated an opportunity for the attendees to see the Bible in a completely different light. Because of this one man, nine attendees formed a team to continue mobilization in the region through coordinating the Perspectives course and Xplore studies. With Trevor in the lead, the team is continually campaigning and envisioning the next class for multiple churches throughout the city. Trevor dreams of seeing a multiplication movement that mobilizes hundreds of believers from many different nations, and is working and praying toward that goal with a team of other mobilized believers at his side. The obedience of just one man, whose eyes had been opened to the depths of Jesus&rsquo; love not only for himself but also for the whole earth, has now created an avenue for a mobilization movement in the Arabian Peninsula.

The Impact of One

&ldquo;Why am I so adamant to talk to everyone around me for the sake of a scavenger hunt but not for the sake of Jesus?&rdquo; This was a question raised by college student, Ashlee, during a CMM vision trip to our mobilization team in Germany. Ashlee and six other individuals joined our CMM team in Frankfurt for two weeks of experience in frontier missions and mobilization through a &ldquo;boots on the ground&rdquo; approach. There they had front row seats and actively participated in the work our Germany team is involved in day in and day out. In the midst of ministry and mobilization, the students paused to engage in a scavenger hunt to get more familiar with the city of Frankfurt&mdash;but the activity served as a deeper spiritual illustration as well. While searching the city, they had to ask many strangers for directions. Ashlee was electric, asking every person she found. But afterward she was troubled as she thought back to the game and the ministry they had been doing. She was convicted by her boldness in something trivial, and her lack of courage for something that held eternal value. But this was just the beginning. The team went to refugee camps, local churches, participated in street evangelism, and led <a href="/via/resources/live-missionally/xplore/">Xplore</a> trainings. Spending time in the refugee camps and interacting with unreached people who came from war-torn, persecuted places was especially impactful for them. They realized they were stepping into a unique window in history and that Germany currently offers unprecedented access to unreached people who come from places where it is extremely difficult and dangerous to take the gospel. Due to the refugee crisis and influx of immigrants in Europe, 60 percent of Frankfurt residents are not native Germans, and 180 separate nations are represented in this city alone. This makes it an incredible location to be reaching those from many nations. With over 1.5 million refugees in Germany, there is a window of opportunity to share Christ to those who may have never had the chance to hear His name before. With this in mind, Frankfurt, Germany was a strategic place to send a short term team to learn about mobilization among the nations. A few students who came on the vision trip were already interested in working among refugees, and by the end of the trip, several others also expressed interest in moving to the field and taking next steps towards missions. Their hearts changed as they heard the stories and saw the faces of those who lived in the Middle East and came to know Jesus in Germany. One such story is that of 16-year-old Nagma from Iran. She shared with a couple students about her journey to Germany. During the time, she did not know why her parents were making her leave her home. It wasn&rsquo;t until after her arrival in Germany that she learned it was because her mother had come to know Jesus. In Iran, proclaiming faith in Jesus can lead to prison or worse. At first, Nagma felt angry that this was why they left their home and entered so much hardship. But she went on to share that after several months in Germany, while attending an Iranian fellowship with her mother, she softened and accepted Jesus into her heart. The students were amazed to hear stories like this from many refugees and learn of the plight of the countries they come from. Throughout the two weeks, the students on the vision trip grew in faith and experienced God&rsquo;s heart for all people in a new way. Many lives in Frankfurt were touched and the work of the long term team in Germany was propelled from a season of intensive language learning into the beginnings of their ministry. Please join us in prayer for the students who attended this trip. Pray that the Lord would give them direction for their futures and lead them to their most strategic roles in fulfilling the Great Commission! Please also pray for the Germany team as they dive deeper into ministry and connections made through the short term team. Pray for the Lord to bring the Germany team into the right relationships and give them wisdom in how to disciple and mobilize the nations for the glory of our King.

Students Witness the Opportunity of Missions Among Refugees in Germany

&ldquo;Are you sure these people are from Maoxian county? This is my county, but I have never heard of this people group,&rdquo; asked Jordan, postgraduate student at a Chinese university, during an <a href="/via/resources/live-missionally/xplore/">Xplore</a> study with CMM staff and other Chinese believers. Jordan is the only person in her family following Jesus, and one of the first in her area to commit to following Him. Instead of letting this isolate her, Jordan has instead allowed it to grow her passion for sharing the gospel with her family and unreached people groups. Born in southwest China, in a region dominated by Buddhism and animism, Jordan went her whole childhood without hearing the gospel in her mountain city, and probably still would not have heard if tragedy had not struck in her area. In 2008, a devastating earthquake hit Jordan&rsquo;s city, killing thousands, and leaving many wounded and without homes. At this time, many nonprofits and aide organizations entered the region to help rebuild. It was then that Jordan met an aide worker who shared the gospel with her and watched God open her eyes to His heart and His truth. Later at her university, Jordan joined an Xplore study led by members of the CMM&rsquo;s mobilization team in China and was eager to absorb whatever truth God had for her. Jordan gathered with two other Chinese Christians and two CMM mobilizers each week to walk through Xplore and discuss what God was teaching them. At the end of each lesson in Xplore, there is a small excerpt about an unreached people group that represents one of the five major world religions: Tribal/Animism, Hinduism, Unreligious, Muslim, and Buddhist. One week, as we began reading about a group representing the unreligious, the Ming people, there was an air of uncertainty in the room. As they read about how the Ming people are an unreached and unengaged people group in Maoxian county of China, Jordan suddenly stopped the group. She was from Maoxian county and had never heard of these people. She could not believe they existed! They then went to the <a href="https://joshuaproject.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Joshua Project</a>, a website that catalogues remaining unreached people groups, to further research the Ming people. As they read the location, dress, customs, and statistics of the Ming people, Jordan&rsquo;s eyes widened. She had seen these people, but always assumed they were just a part of her own people &ndash; she didn&rsquo;t realize they were a people group all their own. Everyone was shocked to hear the white turbans used to describe the Ming people were white turbans Jordan had seen every day at home. &ldquo;These people are right next door to me, and I never knew,&rdquo; she shared. &ldquo;We are learning about the unreached, but maybe they are not as far away as they seem.&rdquo; She then began to reflect on the countless hours she has prayed for God to make missionaries and other Christians aware of her own people, her county, China; and she was filled with praise and thanksgiving that the Father had heard her prayers and was making her people known through organizations and resources like Joshua Project. Jordan was overwhelmed with the fact that God had heard her cries and had been faithful to her people, that He had not forgotten or forsaken them, but instead was bringing light to each and every people group He formed in His creativity. Everyone left the Xplore study that week with a new understanding of how God was unfolding His plan for this world, and how He wants to use each of us. Jordan&rsquo;s faith increased as she saw God answer her prayers, but her motivation to see all people reached also increased as she realized the proximity of the unreached and the accessibility she specifically has as a member of this county to reach people groups like the Ming. Join us in praying for Jordan and other believers to continue having soft, teachable hearts to receive what the Lord reveals to them about His global purposes&mdash;and for the faith, courage, and boldness for them to follow in obedience wherever He leads!

When the Unreached Live Next Door

&ldquo;I equated sharing with others about our financial situation as the same as asking others for money,&rdquo; shared Josiah, a national Chinese missionary. &ldquo;Asking others to support our financial needs would be seen by most as using man's methods and not God's methods. I saw support raising as unspiritual and thought that I should only pray to God to meet my needs.&rdquo; This perspective has kept Josiah and countless other missionaries over the years from fruitful ministry. Support raising is consistently one of the biggest obstacles keeping laborers from the field, and it&rsquo;s no different for the Chinese church. Because of a fear or misunderstanding of support raising, many would-be missionaries have either not obeyed God&rsquo;s call or resigned themselves to live in poverty. At the same time, God has greatly blessed China over the past decade with unprecedented economic growth. Resources now exist within the Chinese church to send out missionaries to the unreached like never before. But connecting these resources to God&rsquo;s mission will require a cultural shift in perspective within the Chinese church&mdash;in both givers and missionaries. Support Raising Solutions (SRS) is a ministry of the CMM dedicated to equipping ministry workers in personal support raising. In the past 10 years, SRS has equipped 15,000 ministry workers from more than a thousand organizations to raise their own support. In conjunction with our CMM mobilization team in China, SRS recently launched its first support raising training in the country. Fully translated into Chinese, the SRS Bootcamp training covers the biblical basis for support raising, as well as practical, hands-on ways to begin building and cultivating a support team. Josiah was one of 36 participants in the training, most of whom are involved in cross-cultural ministry to the unreached. After five full days of training together, many of them shared how God had used this first-of-its-kind training in China to shift their perspective about support raising. &ldquo;Through this training, I now understand that support raising is a means of how God provides for us, and see that the concepts are biblically based,&rdquo; said Josiah. &ldquo;Now I accept that support raising is how God provides for us, and I've also started to raise support now and to build up our team of ministry supporters. I believe this method will really help us as Chinese missionaries to serve more steadily for the long haul, and I also believe support raising is a blessing to Chinese missionaries.&rdquo; Following the training, the CMM and SRS teams received three more invitations to hold SRS Bootcamp trainings in other cities throughout China. In order for nationally led mission movements to gain traction and be sustainable in China and elsewhere, it&rsquo;s important that the church work together to embrace biblical funding principles that translate across cultures. Pray that God will use the momentum and good favor from the first SRS Bootcamp in China to see a movement of fully funded missionaries to the unreached, sent out by individuals and churches who are committed to financially partnering in God&rsquo;s kingdom work.

Support Raising Training in Asia Equips National Workers & Funds Their Ministry

The first time Levi (pictured above in front) heard about the 10/40 Window and unreached people groups, he was shocked. While he had grown up going to church, he had never known that entire groups of people don&rsquo;t have access to the gospel&mdash;and some of them were living right alongside him in Nairobi, Kenya, or even attending university with him. In church, he was never told that people who do not accept Christ will spend eternity separated from God. No one had ever shown him how he could play a role in taking the gospel to the lost. After hearing all this information for the first time from a mission mobilizer visiting his church, Levi was invited to join an <a href="https://www.mobilization.org/resources/live-missionally/xplore/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Xplore</a> study to learn more. At first, he went simply because his brothers were going, and he felt obligated. He later admitted that during the first couple weeks of Xplore, he was just going through the motions. But God used even this reluctant obedience to soften his heart. It all started during the lesson on prayer. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s how I will get involved,&rdquo; Levi thought to himself. &ldquo;I will pray for more laborers. This takes the least amount of work, and I&rsquo;m still doing something.&rdquo; As Levi began to pray faithfully, God began to change his heart. As he continued going through Xplore with the group, he was introduced to other practical ways to live out God&rsquo;s heart for all nations. In simple obedience, Levi started joining the group on various ministry activities. He went with our team on prayer walks in the Muslim and Hindu areas of Nairobi. He joined the team when they invited him to the mosque. He attended every mission-minded Bible study and prayer gathering. God used Levi&rsquo;s reluctant obedience to lead him to radical obedience. Levi started looking for opportunities to get more involved and even started sharing what he was learning with others. He was trained in church planting methods through a missionary, helped organize a short-term trip to northern Kenya, and even mobilized some of his friends to start supporting missionaries. As Levi has been continually growing in his intimacy with Christ these past couple of years and living in faithful obedience, the Lord has burdened his heart for Muslims. Levi sees Muslims living in the Arab World as people who are zealous for God, but not according to knowledge. For they are blind to the righteousness of God, seeking to establish their own (Rom 10:2-3). They call themselves Muslims (one who is submitted to God), but they do not submit to God&rsquo;s righteousness. Levi desires to spend his life showing Muslims that Jesus is the end of the law for righteousness, to everyone who believes! Now as he faithfully finishes his final year of school, he is planning to move to North Africa as a long-term missionary in the Arab world. As a student, he takes every opportunity to share the gospel with his Muslim classmates. He volunteers at a local language school in the Muslim neighborhood of Nairobi. He is studying Islam and basic Arabic so he can most effectively share the gospel with Muslims. And every day he is taking steps towards his goal of moving to North Africa, while inviting his Christian friends to follow him as he follows Jesus. As Levi reflects on his walk with Christ the last couple of years, it&rsquo;s easy to see how his simple steps of obedience, in faith, were the beginning of his present journey to the Arab world. &ldquo;Xplore completely changed every aspect of my relationship with God,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Going through the Xplore study has led me to great satisfaction in Christ&hellip;Everything in my life is different. God has given me a sense of purpose. I now know why I am here and I know that God can use me for His eternal glory among all peoples. Knowing this brings me great joy and purpose.&rdquo; Levi is a young man who is willing to give up everything in order to see God&rsquo;s kingdom advance to the Arab world. Levi knows there is nothing greater than having a relationship with God, through Jesus Christ, and this is Good News he wants everyone to hear and accept. Levi knows in order for Muslims to accept this Good News, they must first hear it. And in order for them to hear this Good News someone must go and tell them (Rom 10:14-15). Knowing this, Levi&rsquo;s simple response of obedience says, &ldquo;Here I am Lord. Send me.&rdquo;

Meet Levi

Elizabeth lives in southeastern Nigeria. Her passion for educating children led her to start a private preschool and primary school in her city. Elizabeth also has a heart for peoples of the world who have no access to the good news of Jesus. She has always known that God had a role for her to play in reaching the unreached, but did not feel called to be a cross-cultural goer in the conventional sense. How could she get actively involved in reaching those who have not heard of Jesus? When Elizabeth heard that Weave's BIG Story Training would be held in her city, she registered all the teachers in her school. As they learned about discipling children in God&rsquo;s mission, it was obvious to Elizabeth that she had found something she was looking for. What would this look like in her context? The next school term, she added some interesting programs to the school calendar. One of these was &ldquo;Nations Day&rdquo; where all the kids were asked to dress in the attire of other nations. Elizabeth chose to emphasize countries with high concentrations of unreached people groups. During class, the students were taught about these countries and asked to get attire. In the process, their parents were also introduced to these countries. Elizabeth went beyond introducing the students to customs of other cultures. She also explained that some people have committed their lives to telling these nations about Jesus. She then gave the students an assignment. They were asked to write letters to people who work in or among others cultures to tell other kids about Jesus. Of course, many of these letters were written by parents on behalf of their young children. These letters, filled with heartfelt encouragement and prayer, were mailed out to global workers across the world. These intentional steps have led to a very high engagement of both children and their parents with cross-cultural workers. At the school, they now have a special week called &ldquo;Touch The World&rdquo; when students write letters, bring gifts for cross-cultural workers, and donate supplies to be sent to kids living in areas without access to the gospel. Participation is increasing with every opportunity, and more kids and parents are learning about the nations. Elizabeth is expanding her vision even further. Her school is formalizing a partnership with a missionary primary school in a French-speaking unreached village in Chad. This may open up two possibilities: 1) Sending kids from Elizabeth&rsquo;s school to visit villages in Chad through an exchange program and 2) Sending Elizabeth&rsquo;s teachers on a temporary secondment to the missionary school where they can be actively involved in cross-cultural going. Now Elizabeth is praying about multiplication, hoping to pass on her ideas to other schools in her city. Our partnership with Elizabeth and her husband, David, began in 2016 when our Weave team traveled to Nigeria to train pastors, local mobilizers, parents and children&rsquo;s leaders. This Nigerian school teacher does not fit the profile of a conventional goer. She has not even left her city. Yet God is using her to connect teachers, children, and their parents to the nations. Elizabeth&rsquo;s story reflects our team&rsquo;s vision: &ldquo;Weave awakens families to God&rsquo;s global story and empowers them to join with Him in blessing all the nations of the earth.&rdquo;Elizabeth has invited God to use her as His vessel right where she is. She is actively &ldquo;touching the world&rdquo; from her home and classroom in southeastern Nigeria, multiplying the vision in her sphere of influence, and and creating a legacy that will continue for generations to come.

From Nigeria to the Nations: How One Teacher is Touching the World

A new season of building relationships began for the CMM team in Germany as mobilizers, Shana and Brandi, sat in the candle-lit home of a young German woman named Mira. Mira told them stories of refugees whom she was helping out of abusive relationships, sharing the gospel with, and spending hours investing and pouring into. Mira was clearly living a lifestyle that models Christ&rsquo;s mandate to make disciples of all nations. She has tapped into a unique and timely opportunity to bring the gospel to the unreached without leaving her home country. The mass influx of refugees into Europe has yielded unprecedented access to some of the world&rsquo;s most unreached people groups. Individuals and families from Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey, Iran, and other nations have flooded countries like Germany&mdash;the unreached coming to the reached. Before long, a friendship and ministry partnership began between Mira and our Germany team. She served as an open door to several refugee camps in the region and modeled doing ministry among the unreached. One day, Mira invited Shana and Brandi to join her at a refugee camp outside of Frankfurt. Setting aside all agendas and expectations, they went along with her. &ldquo;As we pulled up, Mira informed us that we would be helping host a Kids' Christmas party at the camp,&rdquo; shared Brandi. &ldquo;Nearly 30 children showed up from all ages and backgrounds. Part of the program was to teach the kids about the reason for celebrating Christmas through activities, songs, and games. We were amazed as children from Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan, Iraq, and many more countries stood singing songs about our King. What a beautiful picture!&rdquo; Afterward, Mira took Shana and Brandi to visit an Afghani family that she had established a relationship with over the past two years. This family of six has welcomed Mira, who has brought the awareness of Christ to the family in the way she loves and in the way she speaks of who God is. Before arriving at the family&rsquo;s house, Mira shared that through previous conversations with this family about the gospel, the mother had given her life to Jesus. However, while the husband and father of this family expressed great interest in learning more about hope in Jesus, he had not yet made such a decision. Regardless, the family answered the door to these three women on short notice and invited them in with open hearts. In this small room, lit with a single fluorescent light, two parents and four children shared two beds. There was an additional mattress on the floor which served as seating for guests. Beyond this, the room was sparsely furnished, yet the family never complained. Rather, they generously served chai and invited the women to share a home-cooked Afghani meal with them. For the next four hours, they stayed with this family, listening to how they traveled out of Afghanistan to flee violence, spent five days on a boat without food, and walked across several countries to finally reach Germany, where they were granted asylum. This particular day, Mira asked the father of the family if he had read the Bible which she had given him previously. He said he had indeed been reading the Bible and had some questions. Mira opened the Bible to a passage which provided an answer to one of these questions. Passing it to him, she directed him to read the passage out loud to his family in his mother tongue. It was incredible how she gave the leader of this family ownership over the spiritual growth of his family, even before he was a believer himself. It remains evident that the Lord is using Mira to plant seeds of the gospel into fertile soil. From what the Germany team has witnessed, many refugees, like this Afghani family, seem hungry to learn about the hope found in Jesus and put their trust in Him, despite high threats of persecution. The harvest is ripe and ready. However, more people like Mira are needed&mdash;people who leverage their time, talent, and resources to live out the Great Commission through their ordinary lives. Please join us in praying for the Lord of the harvest to raise up a willing labor force in Germany to bring the gospel to the unreached refugee populations that are flooding into so many European cities.

The Harvest is Ripe and Ready Among Refugees in Germany

"I've never led a Bible study. I've never been on a mission trip. I've never been baptized. I've never been a member of a church, and I've never approached an unreached person with the intent of sharing my faith. I've never talked with a stranger about God; I've never joined a worship team, and I've never joined a Christian organization outside of church&mdash;that is, until now." John, a senior at Texas A&amp;M University, recently shared these compelling words about how God has been shaping his heart for the nations throughout his college years. CMM mobilizer, Chris, had known John for years, and invited him to go through the <a href="/via/resources/live-missionally/">Xplore</a> study. Doing this study together served as the catalyst for a much longer, deeper discipleship relationship. "John is always responsive to challenges,&rdquo; said Chris. &ldquo;I don't have to invite him twice." When Chris challenged John to begin taking small steps to implement what he learned in Xplore, he responded by starting conversations with his international classmates. He also invited a friend to join the Xplore study with him and Chris. As Chris was mobilizing John, John was mobilizing his friend! John began to see that God was positioning people around him in everyday life for a purpose. He regularly played basketball at the rec center with international students, but had never before seen it as a potential ministry. He began to see those games as an opportunity to meet those who had never before heard the gospel. God began positioning John in places where he'd have more open doors to befriend people with whom he normally would not cross paths. John began to volunteer to teach English to internationals in the community weekly. "The God of the universe was pushing me somewhere, and I didn&rsquo;t even realize it," he said. As graduation nears for John, it's evident he's begun to see his college years as more than preparation for a career in engineering. "Thinking about my degree as a means by which to promulgate the Good News has given me a new hope for the future,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;There are ways to leverage the seemingly endless exams, hastily wrapped sandwiches eaten between classes, and long hours of head-slamming for the good of God&rsquo;s Kingdom. We are not wasting our time; our time here is strategic.&rdquo; John says he will leave college with at least five ways to continue engaging in fulfilling the Great Commission: mobilizing, welcoming, praying, giving, and going. &ldquo;Mobilization has become a lifestyle for John, not just a college experience," shares Chris. Join us in praying for more students like John to embrace God&rsquo;s plan to redeem the nations, and His plan to use them to do it!

Making Mobilization a Lifestyle

When we first arrived in Kenya and got settled as a mobilization field team, Thomas Omenta became one of our first friends. When I think of Thomas&rsquo;s story and his missional journey, I am reminded of when Jesus began His ministry and called some of His first disciples. &ldquo;And Jesus said to them, &lsquo;Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.&rsquo; Immediately they left their nets and followed Him&rdquo; (Matthew 4:19-20). Thomas was one of the first people we took through the <a href="/via/resources/live-missionally/">Xplore study</a>, and he even invited some of his friends to go through it with us. Together, we learned about God&rsquo;s heart to redeem all peoples and how He invites all believers to play a role in this global purpose. As we were finishing up the study, it appeared that Thomas was already in his most strategic role. His interest seemed to be in growing the local church where he served, and less in world missions. Thomas was serving God in mighty ways in his church and at his university, and he didn&rsquo;t need our help. Eventually, we began to focus on meeting and discipling other students. But earlier this year, Thomas contacted me. Although it had been nearly two years since we last met, he shared how our relationship through the Xplore study had, in fact, deeply impacted his life. He explained he now reads and teaches the Bible differently, and that God has given him a heart for the unreached. He quit his job as a pastor and is now the East African Assistant Director of a mission organization here in Africa. After Thomas heard the call for missions, he immediately &ldquo;left his net&rdquo; to follow Jesus to the ends of the earth! The organization Thomas currently works with focuses on training believers in local communities to plant churches that will reproduce and plant more churches. As they go out to train local believers in church planting methods, the trainees are required to then go out and teach others the same principles they learned, who will then be required to go and teach others also. It&rsquo;s a multiplication model much like 2 Timothy 2:2: &ldquo;...what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.&rdquo; This ministry model that Thomas is now using has led to incredible results&mdash;results that we, as a field mobilization team, would have never imagined. Thomas now travels all across Africa training pastors and leaders in church planting methods. Through their efforts, the organization has been able to plant more than 2,300 churches in five different countries. Of these churches, 44 are underground churches among the unreached in North Africa. Each of these churches that were planted were accompanied with stories of miraculous healings and powerful demonstrations of the Holy Spirit! As we reflect on these numbers and stories, we are truly humbled and in awe of God&rsquo;s faithfulness and power. God introduced us to a key student who is now giving his life for the advancement of God&rsquo;s kingdom among all nations and multiplying this vision into other believers. Through simple obedience, God allowed our team to be a part of Thomas&rsquo;s mobilization journey, which has led to fruit beyond what we could have asked, imagined, or accomplished by our own efforts. God truly delights in using the global church to accomplish His purpose and spread His name among the nations. Everyone has a role to play, and as we are obedient to His calling, He blesses the work of our hands for the glory of His name!