Ministry Newsletter

Dear Friends of the Mordecai Project:

The girl in the photo below, on the right, is Arina, from Pakistan. The Mordecai Project has been helping her with school fees so she could graduate from high school. Now, she is ready to enter nursing school, and she is thrilled. She is shown here with Esther, who directs our work in Pakistan with her husband, Susheel. This is the heart of our mission—to help disadvantaged women in developing countries who are suffering from gender discrimination, abuse and other forms of oppression. Arina is so grateful for all of you!

Below you can see the women we help each month in our ministry in Pakistan. A growing group of women attend our monthly outreaches, where we provide discipleship training as well as vocational skills training. We also give each woman a large parcel of groceries, along with clothing items for their children. The word is spreading in the village that the Christians are kind and generous!

Also, within the last few weeks we installed the first functioning water well in this Pakistani village, so that the women do not have to walk so far to retrieve water. You can see how happy this local boy is about the well!

Meanwhile in Moi’s Bridge, Kanya, our work with girl students is expanding. You can see below the students we have helped with school fees this past semester. These girls live in the dormitory we built, and they were protected there from the horrific practice of female mutilation. Lives are being saved, literally, because of this dorm and the tuition fees you have provided.

Below you can see my spiritual son, Godfrey Nkomeje, on the left. I met Godfrey a few years ago in Uganda when he attended one of my meetings. Since then I have helped pay his tuition to Bible college in Kenya. And this fall he went to Moi’s Bridge, Kenya, where we operate our ministry, to serve as a ministry intern with our director, Pastor Elijah Wafula. In the photo below Godfrey is shown with a man he had just prayed with to receive Jesus at a gospel crusade. My prayer is that one day Godfrey can work with The Mordecai project full-time!

Years ago the Lord showed me that the only way to stop the abuse of women is to heal the hearts of the men who abuse them. That is the reason much of my ministry involves doing men’s conferences and retreats—so I can teach men how to respect women as equal partners in God’s kingdom. In September and October I did many meetings for men. In the photo below you can see a group of men from Siberia, in the far northern regions of Russia. These men were part of a Zoom discipleship conference I did in September with my friend Natahsha Shedrevaya, a pastor from Moscow.

Later that month I flew to San Jose, California, to speak at a men’s retreat sponsored by Gateway City Church, pastored by my friend David Cannistraci. We had a glorious time there and many men were healed from the effects of father wounds, sexual addictions and the trauma of abuse. Below are some of the young guys who attended. It is so exciting to see the spiritual hunger that is growing in the younger generation today!

Also in September I spoke at a men’s retreat in central North Carolina, and then traveled to the town of Ahoskie, North Carolina, to speak at Mercy Church on a Sunday morning. Below you can see me with Pastor Ray Faircloth (far right) and two of his leaders. No matter where I go, regardless of the country, men are struggling with shame, addiction and deep insecurities. But in each event the Holy Spirit unleashes His power to heal and deliver.

I also traveled to Jacksonville, Florida, in September to teach at the Slavic Missionary Bible School, which was started by a Russian-speaking church there. Today hundreds of Slavic-American students from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and other countries come to this school to be prepared for leadership and ministry. Investing in them is the greatest joy! Below is the class of 2022. I taught them on ministry ethics, relational discipleship, and the biblical foundations for women in ministry. Eighteen of the 26 students were young women!

After Jacksonville I went to Chicago to minister at Christian Worship Center in the suburb of Downer’s Grove. This church started as a Ukrainian congregation, but today Pastor Peter Kucher (next to me in the photo below) has grown this church to become a diverse family with about 30 nationalities. Below you can also see that two other pastors at CWC are Michael Okleme and Franklin Ankomah, who are both from Ghana. We had a glorious weekend.

Probably the biggest event of my year is my men’s Bold Venture retreat, which was held this year in late September in Columbia, South Carolina. Below you can see that we had 174 men, making it the second largest Bold Venture I have hosted since we began in 2010. These events are a lot of work, and sometimes I get discouraged during the preparation process! But as usual, God came through and so many men were transformed. I always end up on my knees in gratitude to God, admitting that I would do it all over again!

Our theme at Bold Venture was “God’s Garage,” and all the speakers wore mechanics shirts because we came to serve the men and to help them grow spiritually. We also decorated the stage of the church with car engines, tires, tools and the front end of a car—to remind the men that the Holy Spirit is ready to realign us, recharge our batteries, change our oil and tune our engines. And God did His work!

I was so grateful that my mentor of more than 45 years, Barry St. Clair, taught the men on Friday morning about discipleship. It was such a joy to “share” Barry with all the men I have had the opportunity to mentor over the years. And Barry always gets so encouraged at these events because he sees how his investment in me (when I was just a teenager) has paid off!

It was also so good to have younger men like Antione Ashley (below) preaching to the guys. Antione is in his 30s but he has grown into a seasoned pastor and leader. He taught the men on how to get free from addictions. Other speakers taught on the baptism of the Holy Spirit, father wounds, getting free from shame, deliverance from lust, and breaking free from anger.

Bold Venture is always a time of deep healing. Barry St. Clair told me recently: “What happens in a Bold Venture needs to happen in every local church,” but that doesn’t always happen. At Bold Venture, men can get away from their local area, find safety with men they trust, and pour their hearts out to each other. Not only do they experience spiritual revival, but they build supportive relationships that last a lifetime.

On Friday night, after my friend Leon Bell preached about the infilling of the Holy Spirit, many men came to the altar to be baptized in the Spirit for the first time. It was glorious to see men both young and old experience this moment. They will never be the same!

I am so grateful for your partnership. Please pray that the Lord will give us favor to raise the funds needed to complete all of our overseas projects. Please also pray for me as I travel to Tegucigalpa, Honduras this week for six days of special meetings. I will also be ministering in Tampa, Florida; and Minneapolis this month.

And please note that on Nov. 3-5 we are hosting our women’s Bold Venture event in my hometown of LaGrange, Georgia! It will be three glorious days. Women are coming from as far away as Ohio, Oklahoma and south Florida to join us. It is not too late to register