Ministry Newsletter

Dear Friends:

Below you can see the third class of graduates from our sewing school in Goma, Congo. We are so grateful for the hard work of Pastor Udjasiri Wakahasha (below, far right) and his wife, Josephine. In one of the poorest countries in Africa, women are being lifted from poverty. Pastor Wakahasha says the women recently paid all their children’s school fees with money they made from making clothes! Our next project is to build a school in Goma so working women can have a good alternative for their children’s education.

When I was in Congo last year, I met a young man named Mwema Bertin. He came to all my meetings and listened to my teaching on women and why they suffer from gender-based violence. Now, Mwema is working with a growing group of women in his city, providing discipleship, food assistance and other training. We are going to help Mwema to launch a partner project to help more women. Right now we urgently need $900 to buy 60 Bibles so that Mwema can disciple these women in his classes. Please pray with us for this need.

When I wrote you last month, I had just arrived in Singapore, and I was speaking in several churches there. After a few days I traveled to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to conduct a “church camp” for a large Singaporean congregation, Grace Assembly. They call it a “camp,” but it was held in a nice hotel in the city for five days. I preached 10 times to a crowd of 1,300 people, so it would be correct to say they squeezed everything out of me! Yet it was a glorious time and the people were so responsive. People were filled with the Spirit, healed of emotional wounds, set free from bondages, and challenged to make disciples. And I made many new friends who I have been communicating with since that week, including some young leaders of the church.

When I went back to Singapore after the Malaysia meetings, I spoke in several more churches including the Indian congregation below. As you can in this photo, almost the entire congregation is made of men. This is because the church targets Indian laborers who come to Singapore to work in the shipyards. Many of these guys found Jesus recently and are being discipled by Pastor Nelson David and his wife. In our meetings some guys were filled with the Holy Spirit and they were trained in relational discipleship.

Recently I was thrilled to take my oldest grandson, Grady, on another ministry trip. In June he traveled with me to Maryland, where I conducted a men’s retreat for Overflow City Church. The guys came to a camp in West Virginia, near the Washington, D.C. area, and we had three glorious days of fellowship and ministry. This church is pastored by Paul Hanfere, a young Ethiopian guy who I have mentored for several years.

Below you can see all the guys who came on the Overflow retreat. Paul’s church began with mostly Ethiopians, but today there are men from various ethnic backgrounds. It is a church that looks like heaven! I taught on healing from father wounds, sexual purity, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and preparing for marriage. It was so wonderful to have so many guys in their 20s who are hungry for more of God.

The best part of the weekend was seeing the Overflow guys spending time with Grady. As you can see below, he enjoyed all the attention. As soon as the retreat was over, Grady asked me, “Granddaddy, can I come back to this retreat next year?” He memorized many of the guys’ names. And it was so special for the Ethiopian guys to connect with him, because Grady was adopted from Ethiopia.

Below you can see the eight men who were baptized in the Holy Spirit on the Friday night of the retreat. Their lives were dramatically marked forever in that meeting. One of the guys, A.J. (below in the front row, center), is from the island of Bermuda. He told me that his wife noticed a difference in him the moment he walked in the door after the retreat. She has a changed husband! And A.J. is now hungry for God’s Word and eager to grow in his calling.

In June I also traveled to Querétaro, Mexico, to preach in a church called Unidad Cristiana. I did a men’s conference, preached on Sunday morning and taught on women in ministry at the church’s ministry school. I’ve known the pastor of the church, Cristina Escoto, since 2003 when she invited me to El Salvador to speak at a women’s conference. I had no idea one day she would be leading this Mexican church, which I have spoken at twice before. Below you can see me with Cristina. I was able to encourage so many of her leaders. Also many people were healed of father wounds when I taught on the Prodigal Son that Sunday.