Exclusive stories from the mission field
People who have little chance of ever hearing the gospel learned about Christ when local missionaries spent two weeks in each of five villages. Villagers expressed their thanks for the Jesus Film and other gospel gatherings, balloons for kids and income-generating projects that local missionaries offered, and three people put their faith in Christ.
In a country where officials have closed churches under various pretexts, native missionaries encourage congregations to meet in homes for worship and fellowship where the gospel is taught.
Local missionaries recently planted two churches in spite of opposition to the gospel. At one evangelistic event, more than 75 people put their faith in Christ.
A ministry leader in North Africa arrived at the home of dying woman to say farewell, pray for her and, at her parents’ request, baptize her. Only after he arrived did he realize she had often attended his church, then mysteriously stopped. “She was aware that she had a few days left before she would die and had no hope for healing,” he said.
Amid the pandemic and times of insecurity and fear, a local ministry’s hospital provided a refuge of love, peace and healing. Workers carried out two major medical outreaches, restarted an outpatient clinic and offered dental care one day a week.
A local missionary led a woman and her three children to Christ, and she and her kids began sharing the gospel with relatives and others. One of their neighbors also accepted Christ when one of their family members was healed of a debilitating illness following local missionaries’ prayer.
Heba was rescued before she could end her life, condemning the 32-year-old mother in northern Africa to continue in a misery whose sources she did not fully understand. An affair with a younger man blunted the pain at times but soon compounded it, further toxifying problems with her husband.
An impoverished woman supporting three children as well as her siblings was able to make ends meet with a micro-enterprise loan from a local ministry; it made her fish business more profitable, one of various projects that bring hope in Christ’s name and help break the cycle of poverty.
