Hi precious equip4good friends,
The reason for delay in updates is a fabulous one... God is doing more than we can think or imagine, and we are playing catchup as we share news of folks coming to Christ, churches being planted and new indigenous gospel workers being raised up and mobilised. As these things are in constant development/ escalation (and there are continual reviews of the moving restriction goalposts re:covid)... our plans remain "flexible" for the future. This is very much part of what it means to humbly sign up for God's mission. We seek to serve this wonderful dynamic and His plans for His glory, to follow his lead not run ahead of his plans for us, and so we look humbly to him one day at a time. With our diary constantly evolving and being reshaped - some may think this unsettling, but on the contrary there is a steady and increasing sense of privilege, purpose and passion as we discover the details of the mission he has called us to share in.
At e4G we are servants, not masters, seeking to build his kingdom not our own. This is HIS MISSION - not ours, He has all the resources and ways forward orchestrated in advance, with every minutiae planned in eternity past and delivered with perfect timing as we step out in faith. At the core of our role is the encouragement of the local church to live in this liberty, to lift eyes and give God glory as we see the BIG PICTURE of his global and cosmic salvation plan in Christ. Our desire is to seek to support those reaching the unreached for Jesus Christ accross Eastern / Greater Europe and Central Asia. In simple terms this (in line with the logo) involves 4 things at present ...
1) Prioritising those who are vulnerable: Those on the streets, in orphanages, in crisis regions without food, homes or warmth. Our desire is to share the love, truth and hope of Jesus Christ relationally and practically. Children, young people, orphans, widows and those who have been through trauma and addiction are high on the priority list of Jesus Christ and are therefore high on ours. We do this especially through building transition houses, short term mission teams and sponsorship.
2) Encourageing those who are reaching the unreached for Jesus Christ. This includes support of pastors, church planters, youth workers, transition houses, schools ministry and gospel workers. We do this through conferences, training, (PLD Pastoral Leadership Development) mentoring, prayer, sponsorship and networking with those who have great experience and good practice. Our desire is to encourage the priority of Christ's mission in the local church, to see disciples make disciples and Churches plant churches which plant churches. For those who pioneer in unreached areas, we offer support, network and longterm committed / sacrifical encouragement.
3) To support Stratgeic Missional Development: There are many villages, towns, cities, regions, countries and regions of the world where people are yet to hear about the love of Christ for the first time or where ther are no gospel churches. We are asking God to equip us to be effective in going where he sends, doing what he prioritises and seeing the Mission of God outworked accross the world in our generation.To this end, our desire is to equip local churches to reach the world for Jesus Christ, and encourage regional networks to work together for this purpose and his glory alone. We work with those networks on the ground already praying for this, seeking to learn from them as they are welcomed to use anything useful we may have - (James 1:17) All things have been given by the genersoity of God for the honour of Christ.
4) To train and provide resources for the church so that it is well equipped for "works of service" (Eph 4:12). As a network we are hugely privileged in the training we have received, the resources we have and the gifted people God has gathered together. Out of this we desire to bless the global church and equip it for good. This can be specific initiatives (EG. Help pastors work together missionally, areas of sepciality (apoloegetics, music ministry, family ministry, training young leaders, mentorship, ministry to disabled, those rehabilitating from addiction, doctrine, biblical and systematic theology). More regularly there are issues facing the global church whereby we can learn from each other (understanding culture, communicating the gospel in easily understood ways, showing love to our communities etc) - We are so grateful for those who are helping us with this.
God has been extraordinarly good to us during this covid time. The Kindgom of God has not stopped growing, He is more powerful than covid. As we slowly come out of our 3rd Uk lockdown, the churches we support are vastly increased in number, strategic development and impact. The Gospel of Jesus is spreading and infectious. Acts (2:47) talks about those who were being added to the church daily. This has been our constant experience in recent days, weeks and months - All Glory to God.
Our Spring update will therefore contain 5 Update parts after this introduction.
1) The NORTHERN HUB - How a base coninues to develop in Northern Ukraine to reach the nations, and what we can do to support it.
2) CHRIST reaching those in CRISIS:
How the church is growing dramatically amidst war, persecution and deep
human sufferring. What we can do to support humanitarian aid from local
churches, help church planting and sustainable development funding of
church plants and pastors through business
3) WHAT ON EARTH HAS GOD BEEN DOING ? During the coronavirus pandemic a dramatic shift in the "gears of mission" and church growth has happened within our network. With new energy and encouragement we stand back and ask "what God has taught us through this season of growth?"... "why have some churches so floursihed / grown so dramaticaly and others struggled so much?" "What has God been teaching us as a network about how we co-mission together and support this homogenically in the future?
4) URBAN and RURAL Church planting - Our role in helping those who go where he sends and do what he commands.
5) CO-MISSION: Church planting in a post covid world. How will this new virtual community and increased network of MISSIONAL CHURCHES be facilitated and continue to increasingly work together when travel becomes less restricted? Has GOD done a wonderful thing in forcing us to communicate and cooperate more online or was it all a big sovereign mistake? In what ways can we better support pastors worldwide with training and resources from the UK?
As a taster in this blog let me share some news which relates to No 1. and the wonderful develoments in Northern Urkaine. This is illustrative of the larger picture.
A YOUNG GENERATION BEING POWERFULLY USED OF GOD:
For the emerging generation, the power of the story superceeds everything. It is one of the things which makes social media so infective. When young people share the news of being authentically and radically transformed by Christ (by the help of His Spirit), the effect is explosive and viral. When tranistion houses are built and well run, when orphanges are helped by local churches, when camps and youthworks reach out to the dissaffected, bored, troubled, unloved, and dissenfranchised young people in the name of Christ, the landmines of gospel change are disharged and the reverberations are heard and seen far and wide. In such a scenario there are growing numbers of people being reached with the stories of truly transformed lives each day, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally in the global village.
In Kremenets it is those who have been helped through; transition houses, orphanage/ schools ministry, youthwork, those who have been transformed by faithful friendships, (church love /good mentors / faithful models of discipelship) who are now the funnel and vortex of missional impact to others for Christ.
This last week for example we hear of another family won for Christ. Pray for them in their early days of new life (for Mum, and Kids who came initially, and Dad (just a few days later) who all came to trust in Jesus as their Saviour and Lord. On Sunday a young girl accepted Christ, a few days ago ... a national Kickboxing Champion... and there are countless other wonderful stories. There is great diversity in those who are coming into new life, yet at the same time a staggeringly beautiful unity, as they gather to praise and live for one name alone.
STREAMING THE LOVE OF CHRIST INTO HOMES AND CHURCHES:
God has orchestrated this church growth, it is supernatural not humanly manufactured. Many would've seen lockdown restrictions as prohibitive to church growth. In Kremenets however, the camera-phone was setup , the aged and tired PA plugged in and an army of faithful young people worked hard to share the love of Christ in faith online, and when permitted on streets and doorsteps with the resources available. This included shoebox presents to the needy, basic provisions, clothes, and emergency help, sometimes just an encouraging word or asking how people really were.
Was it a waste of time?
Over 2000 have been reached / tuned in regularly to the gospel being preached out of Kremenets. Now restrictions are being lifted, the visible evidence of growth and "new birth" is obvious. The church is dramatically fuller - a doubled regular congregation in the building, and a greater need than ever for "follow up discipleship" and mentoring especially with those online. As we will share in subsquent blogs - this is a situation shared in other pockets of gospel explosion.
How can a small local church impact the nations when no-one can travel?
When expats are in lockdown - in an unfamiliar country ...they search the airwaves for their "taste of home" in their indigenous tongue. Many Ukranians did this and praise God came accross the faithful preachers of the gospel at Kremenets. They heard the best... the best of news from the best of men... Viktor, Polikarp, Volodic, Elijah, and Yura who pointed them to the only Saviour, and so precious friends came themselves to find Christ whilst still "a long way off" from Home (Luke 15:20). Or to be exact Christ found them.
Not all churches have streaming facilities. This is the case with many churches in both urban and rural regions of Northern Ukraine. Praise God for Viktor and the team - specifically their role and heart to Pastor Pastors, to encourage other churches and church planters from where they are. The ripple effects are still being understood. We are glad that this week those pastors and leaders recently encouraged online are now able to meet in person at conference in VOLOSHKY (Rivne Region). We praise God for the large group of young men who met in a similar regional way recently and the 100+ young women who have signed up for their event this week.
WHAT CAN WE DO TO HELP ?
- 1) EQUIP with RESOURCES in this day of opportunity:
- During the church anniversary, and when online streaming was beaming to many with the gospel ...the church PA, Laptop and equipment in Kremenets decided to "breathe its last" after an exceptional innings. THIS IS NOW A VITALLY URGENT NEED for this missional hub. The church needs this equipment to share the gospel, encourage the region, its' pastors, church planters and youthworkers.
- WE ARE PRAYERFULLY SETTING UP TODAY A PROPOSED FUND TO RESOLVE THIS ISSUE AT THE EARLEST OPPORTUNITY.
- Please pray with us for this.
- A Provisional Budget is needed of around £2000, to purchase a digital mixer, basic but appropriate camera and laptop for recording and streaming. We are not seeking hyper-professionalism, just doing it well enough so that we don't get in the way of the message of Jesus Christ.
- We want to model this well to other churches with similar challenges. We pray that this ministry over time will grow as a media hub/ internet channel (Sharing testimony, networking mission, encourageing pastors, a tool to help us as we advance missionally into neighbouring regions and countries)
- If you are able to help in any way at all (however small) we would love to hear from you.
- 2) PRAY FOR GOD's EQUIPPING THROUGH CONFERENCES THIS WEEK (and month).
- Our prayer is for missional reverberations and fruit to ripple out from these events for years to come.
Boy's retreat
Youth of Ternopil region get together 
Pray for the 100+ young women signed up for this week's "girls retreat"
- Whilst we are sad not to be at these events (and able to speak as planned), we will continue to pray for them and support them as if we were there.
- Pray for IGOR BANDURA, who will be encourageing the church leaders from GOD's WORD, and sharing the national picture. Pray for Vikor and the team as they encourage things regionally and seek to mobilise a new generation ready to "GO FOR IT" with the gospel.
I will update (this week) more on the northen hub....hopefully with more photos from the conferences...and about what we hope to achieve by God's grace as the year progresses.
Our HIGHEST PRIORITY is to siginificantly and fully rennovate the second Transition House downtown in AUTUMN 2021 with a bumper team from the UK. We will share more on that then.
BIG LOVE to all the E4G team and a very special thank you to those who have remained awesomely faithful in sponsoring these young people through transition houses, Pastors and church planters through lockdown. We have lived one day at a time, but each day new provision has come, and the church has coninued to grow. How awesome and faithful is our God? I hope you can detect how fruitful this has been in God's economy.
"All we have needed - His hand has provided, Great is His faithfulness".
Your faithfulness endures to all generations;
you have established the earth, and it stands fast.
By your appointment they stand this day,
for all things are your servants.
Psalm 119:90-91
All Glory to Jesus Christ our all powerful rescuer, unmatchable treasure, true hope and unfading delight,
BLOGSKI
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