Lifeword Mid-Year Ministry Updates

Lifeword’s global partners meet together on a Zoom call the first Monday of every month to pray together, share praises and give updates on their respective ministries. Lifeword team members who join these calls always come away with more than just updates. It’s a time of praise as they share what God has done in people’s lives through Lifeword’s efforts around the world.

Africa

Renatus Kanunu and Deus Kanunu in Tanzania: BMA Tanzania’s 48 churches are growing with the help of Lifeword. They meet together to do Swahili recordings airing on Radio Uhai, a Christian station run by Deus. There have been 56 new believers since January, 10 of whom are Muslim, and 50 people baptized on Easter Sunday. After Lifeword programs air, people in neighboring countries contact them with questions about Jesus and Christianity. “Who is Jesus to You” videos are on Youtube and receiving good feedback by phone and streaming through the app.

Joseph Eniowo in Nigeria: Five new mission points are conducting discipleship now and planning for three more. The children’s ministry is well attended, so he and his leaders reach out to their families and invite them to services. Smartphones distributed in three mission points help evangelize children and families and then begin discipleship. One of their goals is to establish a BMA church in a temporary structure, then a permanent one.

Eudo Rodrigues in Cape Verde: Recent baptisms are a blessing and give him the hope and strength to continue his ministry and to plant churches on other islands. Lifeword programs help their ministry and bring adults to church. European cultural influences cause people to be skeptical and stray even further from Christianity. He is praying about planting churches on other islands with the help of Lifeword.

Americas

Oscar Gaitan in Nicaragua: Oscar has planted eight churches in eight years in this politically-torn country. He and his wife, Tamy have produced videos for Sunday School teachers on how to teach kids aged 3-11. Their marriage and family videos are continuing to bring good results as well. Transcripts of those videos can then be sent to Cuba for teachers to use there.

Valmori Zelaya in El Salvador: Children’s ministry is thriving and a group of 14 people hungry for God’s Word have recently been meeting despite government restrictions. People have responded well to his 60-90 second evangelistic video demos, so he is getting them ready to produce after some details are fixed.

Yalanda Merrell in the United States: Lifeword’s Director of Audience Engagement says the “Discipleship Portal” is currently in the content phase of this exciting initiative: writing blogs and scripts, and creating videos. The portal will allow engagement with our digital audience and introduce them to who Jesus is and how to follow Him daily.

Asia

Pete Etabag in the Philippines: He recently conducted seminars with Filipino broadcasters and technicians, challenging them to make short videos. For trainees who only have cell phones, he explains how to create videos using them. In Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Indonesia, Lifeword producers and pastors are difficult to contact, but he regularly tries to do so. Three more Filipino languages will be added to the Lifeword language list and broadcast to the tribes that speak them.

Kishan and Sishir in Nepal: They produce daily devotional videos available on different platforms because of problems with the government takeover of radio. There is more and more interest in recordings that share the gospel. Three families have come to faith in Jesus and a Muslim group has asked to meet with Sishir. He travels around the country to check on mission points “to see if they are going strong” and help disciple them.

Europe

Pasha in Ukraine: He lives in southwest Ukraine (eight hours from Kiev) and is trying to meet physical and emotional needs. This region is not wealthy, but church members are sharing houses and food to prevent starvation. He says they want to impact people’s lives with the gospel, but it is difficult to get people’s attention through media. Instead, their current ministry is “preparation of the soil” as they provide physical needs.

Bogdan Bilav in Romania: He and ministry leaders are busy hosting Ukrainian children and adults in homes, then helping them cross the border. So far, more than 300,000 Ukrainians have watched a clear gospel presentation by Pasha via Facebook. Gypsy-language Bible recordings and writing and translating the Gospels is complete and can be heard in cities airing Lifeword programs. The French program will be available on the Internet. His Internet radio station is doing well in Hungarian, French, Gypsy and Romanian.

Marco Gaspar in Portugal: There are several discipleship and Bible study groups in the church for women, children and teenagers, but with few men in the congregation, they are praying about starting a men’s group soon. They continue to translate into Portuguese and record the Lifeword devotionals “Day by Day” and “Got Questions.” He is also translating the Lifeword show “Outdoors with Shaun Merrell” and planning to air it in September.

Middle East

Joe Costa in Lebanon: He and his team are collaborating with Christian organizations that need help with social media and video work. They’re focused on the following topics: our relationship with God and how to seek Him in daily life, superstitions and beliefs and a discussion/debate with a Christian, an atheist and a Muslim answering questions about life, God and culture. The goal is to share the truth of Christ to those who don’t know Him.

Our mission is to make God’s name known among the nations and to share His gospel of hope to a dying world. The tools and technology of media are excellent avenues for us to cross borders and cultures to bring Jesus to people desperate to know Him. Lifeword seeks to share Jesus in the heart languages of those viewing or listening to our message, and there is no place we are not willing to go. Our goal is to take the gospel to every tribe, every tongue, every culture, every race and every nation.

Registration for Lifeword Sunday is now open at www.lifeword.org/lifeword-sunday. Pastors who register their churches for Lifeword Sunday will be entered to win the Lifeword Sunday Giveaway: a MacBook Air!

We would love the opportunity to share with your church what God is doing through Lifeword. If you would like to schedule Donny or another team member to come for a visit, contact Jennifer at jennifer@lifeword.org.