Happy Valentine's Day...we know we are a day late but being Heart 4 the City we thought it would be great to share the love we have for you, our friends, and the love God has given us for the city and nations of the world with an update.
2023 has been a very full year already and we aren’t even 50 days in!
We wanted to give a couple updates and ask for prayer.
We Are Moving!
We are only moving a few blocks from where we live and will continue in all the same ministries, schools, etc. as before.
Backstory: In March of 2021 we were told we needed to move
from our current home. We were told it would be June 2021, so over the next
months we began packing and preparing for the move. Unfortunately, that date
didn’t work out (long story), but fortunately we were allowed to stay at the
home we had been living at. This happened several more times, and while being
stressed and stretched, we have been on an ‘adventure’ that after nearly 2
years is about to culminate. We know God has His purposes even through
uncomfortable situations.
Our moving day is Friday, February 17 so please pray for a smooth transition.
The new house was truly falling apart and not safe, but thankfully it now looks and is functioning great. It is over 120 years old so will inevitably have its issues, but we are grateful for a new place to call home and a place where new ministry can take place. Unfortunately, we will not have any blinds or our new stove for the first couple weeks…but at least we can begin to set up our new home. We’ve already met some neighbors and are excited about being light for Christ. We are planning on a large gathering at the new house once the dust settles from our move.
If you would like to help in any practical way – gift cards
for meals or for the inevitable trips to The Home Depot and Target as we make
things work for our family in the new space over the next month would be
greatly appreciated.
International Dean School
In January I (Chad) got to be a part of a team from World Impact to train 14 new deans for our Evangel Church Plant School. There were 6 teams representing Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Ethiopia. Unfortunately, many other teams from other countries were unable to get a visa, so we will do another training online for them in the coming months.
God has been doing a great work amongst the hardest to reach
and even among some of the unreached groups through these men and women. Our
goal was to encourage, train and empower them so that they can return and be
more fruitful. Over 5 days we poured hours into prayer and strategic planning
for each team to run their own Church Plant schools, where they will raise up
church planters who will start new churches throughout their countries.
We celebrated what God spoke to them and prayed and
commissioned them. The combined goal for all the groups over the next three
years is to plant thousands of churches.
One group wants to reach people in Nepal and Bhutan too. This team wants to start 100 churches this year, 200 the following and 300 the next…totaling 600 new churches in the next 3 years!
One Pastor shared that God had put it on his heart to help
lead 50,000 people to Jesus. His goal is to train 84 people in the coming year
to help move towards that amazing goal.
The stories of suffering, extreme poverty, and challenges to share their faith openly were challenging and eye opening. It is truly an honor to help teach and facilitate this school for such seasoned leaders.
On the third day of our training, as teams were working on strategies for evangelism and discipleship, Pastor Philip received a call and then informed us that one of the pastors he oversaw had just been killed by a Muslim extremist. Things got real.
Each group shared about how death, imprisonment and other types of persecution are real, yet their commitment and urgency increased rather than diminish.
While we were in the training the power went out in the entire nation of Pakistan. Literally dark. [https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/22/asia/pakistan-power-outage-intl-hnk/index.html] It was estimated some 220 million people had no power. While the nation was in literal darkness, representing the spiritual darkness and broken systems in that country, the couple from Pakistan, Naeem and Ruby, had a breakthrough.
Pakistan is one of the 10 most dangerous countries to be a Christian and one of the least reached and toughest according to this couple. It is illegal or nearly impossible to do evangelism and “do church” like we do in the US, but the Holy Spirit gave them an idea.
One of Pastor N and R’s strategies is to have guest homes in strategic locations and place a couple there to run it as a covert mission where they can share their faith and disciple new believers. One of these strategic locations in on the northern border where the Taliban and many indigenous groups have strongholds. There will be several ministries focused on the capital city of Islamabad, which just as its name suggests, is majority Muslim. They will also place another strategic guest house in the southern border near India where there is more of a Hindu influence.
Twelve years ago, they had 20 house churches and now they have 150. They returned with faith stirred up and strategies and resources to see even greater multiplication in the coming years.
Another person shared, “I’m not the same person that landed here 5 days ago. God is doing a great work. I have a new confidence. I can see things differently.”
Pastor Prodip is from Bangladesh but has ties to New York City. He will be launching a Church Plant School (he has already held 5 schools and one of the teams that came was a result of his labor) soon for the Rohingya people, an unreached people group of over 1,000,000. His training will be focused on reaching the 12,000 Rohingya people in the NYC area with hopes to then spread out throughout the connections worldwide.
One of my highlights was worshipping God in different languages with my brothers and sisters from around the world. Here are two videos (just 16 sec. and 9 sec.) to give you a taste of worship in Bengali.
https://youtu.be/XfCXebVhTQk
https://youtu.be/IHWUc9lLZNs
Another group shared how the Kashi people group had become accustomed to receive foreign missionaries and leaned to expect them to do the work, but now because of increased persecution they are fewer missionaries so they are coming to realize sharing the love of Jesus and leading people to Him isn’t the “job of the missionaries”, but that the Church needs to step up and do what it has been called to do.
Towards the end one of the groups stood up and challenged
those of us leading the school. We were asked, “How are you living out your
faith? And with so much freedom that you have, how are you living out your
freedom?” Great question!
So many powerful things were happening in the short time. This training was book ended by more Trauma Healing Trainings and work encouraging and equipping pastors in the inner city of Los Angeles where the needs are different, but still great and real. What a privilege!
Please lift up all of these teams, their families, their countries and the burden God has placed on their hearts to help 100,000s of people come to the Lord through 1,000s of new churches!
Thank you for lifting up our family with our 1st world problems so we can live in the inner city and minister to those hurting most in the city as well as reach the nations through the contacts we make here in the city.
God bless you!
Chad and Fabiola Wolyn
Rebecca, Angela, Justice and Beniah
