Indigenous Ministries

Indigenous Ministries

Beyond the Map

JOIN IM’s Egypt Prayer Walk in September

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JOIN IM’s Egypt Prayer Walk in September

  • Visit ancient sites in Egypt and engage in vital and effective prayer for Egypt and the Middle East
  • Engage in prayer during our women’s and pastors’ conferences
  • You’ll visit points of current ministry with our national teams
  • A highlight will be meeting the children in our sponsorship program
  • Travel arrangements made through our office; bring your praying shoes
  • Cost: $3850; call our office for dates and more information

Updates on Egypt Ministry

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John meeting with Egyptian young people hungry for truth and hope for their future. Believers in Egypt continue to grow and mature in local churches.

Recently, CEO John Cook held a meeting with our Egyptian national staff to discuss the church plants and map out the next number of years in ministry together. Here are some highlights:

Church building is a GO: The government has given the nod that in six months permission to build will be granted for one of our team’s newest church plants. This is very welcome news, and the Believers can’t wait to see this new church building go up. Later this year, a second church will begin plans to build. Please pray for these projects.

The desire of Indigenous Ministries and IM Egypt team is to see 25 churches planted in the next 15 years to reach this nation for Christ.

We all see that time is short, the Lord Jesus will return soon, and there are many yet to come to salvation. Would you pray with us both in the comfort of your home or office for this direction? Also pray about joining us in September for a very unique Prayer Walk for these church plants and many other areas of ministry and life in Egypt. See page 1 for more on the Prayer Walk.

At the core of Indigenous Ministries is Reaching Nationals Through Nationals with the Gospel, and church planting is in the center of this mission. Your partnership with prayer and financial support is a vital part of church planting through our Global Church Planting Initiative.

Jesus said, “…I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matt. 16:18 ESV

 

SUPPORT A NATIONAL PASTOR

Help plant a national church by supporting a national pastor and his family monthly. Our national pastors are trained, effective and passionate about reaching their OWN people for Christ! The cost to support a national pastor on average is 1/10th that of a Western missionary.

Go to IndigenousMinistries.org and select “Support a Pastor” on the righthand side.

Furnishing the GBC Library, India

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We’re so thankful for the $2,790 donated towards the library furniture for the Grace Bible College library.

URGENT – We’re asking the Lord for the remaining $12,210 very soon…the urgency is that the school year begins July 1, and the staff needs to assemble the library now.

Please consider a generous gift for this very worthwhile project. For more information, visit our website’s April 17 blog, “FURNISHING THE GBC LIBRARY, INDIA.”

Donate online. Thank you on behalf of the students and faculty!

Updates on Iraq Ministry

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Highlights: Last month was a busy month in Iraq with the ministry. First, we’re excited to announce that the Indigenous Ministries office in Kurdistan is complete. John and our team found just the right amount of new and used furniture along with office supplies for use. Next, additional staff was hired for administrative and video work and intensive training went on for days. A special joy was a large food distribution at one of the refugee camps, and John and Dee met with refugee families under our sponsorship. There were four women’s meetings held. The men of the church had a BBQ fellowship where John spoke. There were meetings with ministry teams reviewing past projects, working on current projects and planning future direction together. There were times in prayer together, times around the Word as John preached, and of course we ate good Iraqi food together celebrating the Lord’s goodness.

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Refugees return to a war zone: It was, however, visiting the areas where refugees are going back home, that was one of the toughest sights to see. Street conditions range from half decent to horrible dirt roads with holes. Post-war debris of burned out cars, tanks, building rubble, pipes and other miscellaneous junk lay piled up outside of town, and the schools and buildings that are operational look bleak. Out of every 10 homes, 4-6 are either totally destroyed, greatly damaged or deserted. For those with resources, the reconstruction is going well; there are big piles of sand, rock and building supplies in the driveway and street. But for the majority, it’s not going so well. Many people will never return; they simply don’t have the heart or desire to. Others don’t have jobs or resources to rebuild. But, there are some who are doing both.

How long until normal is restored? Life in these neighborhoods is slowly coming back online with the sounds of backpack ladened children chattering together walking home from school. Dogs bark and women hang up clothes, and neighbors chat in the streets. The outside farmer’s markets, once massive and a supply channel for the large city of Mosul, struggle to supply locals with what they need now. This is farm country, and we met with one of the residents who had joined our church plant after fleeing ISIS with his family in 2014, living in refugee camp in Erbil. Recently he and his family moved back to their home town. He took us five miles outside of town to his verdant green farm plot. Straddling overgrown rows, he picked armloads of sizeable onions, peas, carrots and cabbages, which soon filled our vehicle with their just-picked aroma. God has His hand on this country for blessing, not for war or disaster, but it will take a lot more than vegetables to bring back “normal.” Other seeds must be sown.

Ministry future: Pray with us as plans are developed and prayed over with national ministry colleagues for integrating fellowships in these post-war areas. More to come on that later.

Number of Refugee Children in Program Hits 126!

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We now have 126 Syrian and Iraqi refugee children in our program in Iraq. Of those children, 91 are sponsored! Thank you, Sponsors!! This month, several churches in California and Colorado launched our Refugee Child Sponsorship Campaign to share the need of these refugee children. This Campaign includes four videos for four Sundays, bulletin inserts, posters, social media bursts and other materials.

Call our office and get your church involved! Ask about short term projects for VBS and Youth Groups.

Your support helps with vital food packets, school uniform, backpack and help with school progress. Your help also brings the children together once a month for Bible lessons, games and songs as they hear the Gospel! Start your sponsorship today online at IndigenousMinistries.org, or call Sarah Rieger at our office at 719-302-3028. God bless you.

 

$ 39/month – sponsor 1 child

$ 78/month – sponsor 2 children

$117/month – sponsor 3 children

Aleppo, Syria – Food & Aid for the Children

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On September 27, 2016, the New York Times featured a disturbing yet eye-catching article, “Why so Many Children are Being Killed in Aleppo.” Started in 2011 during the “Arab Spring,” the Syrian Civil War churns on, and estimates are that as many as 465,000 have died as a result of the carnage, and over 4,000 schools have been destroyed. As in any conflict, innocent children are caught in the middle. Several of our US IM family called the office to ask if we could do anything to help these precious children. Yes! We answered and as a result of generous donations, $6500 was sent in 2017 to a partnering church in Aleppo to help the children, some of whom are pictured on the right. We’re grateful for their ministry in this difficult area. The funds were used for nutritious (especially milk!) food packets, clothing and small gifts for these very grateful kids. Thank you for your love, gifts and prayers for these children. The Syrian pastor noted in his report that the children of Aleppo are military experts of sorts and discuss the sounds each missile, bomb and rocket make. They also talk a lot about their friends and relatives who have been hurt or killed by weapons and how they have had to leave.

As the chaos continues in Syria, you may ask, what can we do?! First, don’t give in to feelings of being helpless and frustrated – because there is so much we can do. Set reminders to pray often for these families, especially the women and children. Pray for peace, pray for their health and safety, pray for them to be drawn by the Love of Christ. Pray they may be able to attend school. Pray for the national pastors and the churches in Syria and throughout the Middle East; pray for the lay leadership and Christians in business to prosper. Pray for jobs. Pray against the spiritual strongholds. Next, pray about sponsoring a child through Indigenous Ministries. Our national teams are helping Syrian and Iraqi refugees in Kurdistan right now. Follow our Facebook and watch for our website blogs and videos so you will be “in the know.” You can still donate to help the Aleppo children on our website in the “Donate” tab. Thank you.

Furnishing the GBC Library, India

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The need for a high quality Christian library on the Grace Bible College campus has never been more evident. With a growing student body, this Bible college is now reaching students coming from all over India, and now Myanmar, as churches are sending young men for pastoral training. Additional resources are mandatory for quality training. The men’s dorms have been built. The dining hall is used daily. The Chapel is beautiful and used many times weekly. The question was – what is most important to build next? Staff housing or the library and more classrooms? To the staff it was not even a question; they put their own needs behind the need for a library as the next step in developing this campus in 2016.

But this library had to be big. It had to be excellent in all ways – especially with the quality of volumes we made available to the young scholars. God has heard these prayers and the excitement has been building for what’s coming this summer: A ready-to-use library!

With the finish line in sight, it’s time to move the books in to the library. We need to furnish the library with library shelves, desks, tables, chairs, computers and other furniture to enable the students and staff to access these precious resources and engage with them as they study. The cost: $15,000.

There is an urgent need to source this furniture to prepare the library for the students to use the library beginning in July 2018 when the new school year begins.
We are seeking generous financial gifts to see GBC’s library completely furnished. We are so grateful to the friends of GBC and Indigenous Ministries who have already given so generously to this project with prayers, books and finances, and for those who have volunteered many hours to prepare the books.

Join us with raising $15,000 the Grace Bible College library furnishings. Donate online or use the form below and mail your gift to our office. Let’s get it ready for the students! Contact our office to receive a project folder for promotion.

Grace Bible College Graduation

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On March 3, Grace Bible College held its commencement ceremony culminating the 2017-2018 school year. Despite receiving anonymous security threats, the evening went on without difficulties, and 350 guests enjoyed the ceremony which was followed by a chicken biryani dinner buffet. God has answered so many prayers, bringing us once again to a successful culmination of a year of lectures, chapels, exams, meals and teas. Nights out under the stars as the students gathered each evening for praise and worship will be remembered fondly by all.

In April, the students will be engaged in practical ministry in villages, and we ask for your continued prayers for them as well as the faculty and staff. We praise God for those students who have worked diligently to complete their studies and ask that God guide and protect each one. Your faithful prayers and support the Lord has chosen to bless, and we are deeply grateful to our Indigenous Ministries’ Family.

 

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